Monday, March 31, 2025
Paving the way for Trump Tower Gaza
Because they are evil and they have the backing of the US.Hours after Hamas announced it had accepted a ceasefire plan, drafted by negotiation mediators from Egypt and Qatar, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out his plans on Sunday for what he called the “final stage” of his genocidal campaign in Gaza. “Hamas will lay down its weapons. Its leaders will be allowed to leave. We will see to the general security in the Gaza Strip and will allow the realization of the Trump plan for voluntary migration,” Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday, referring to President Donald Trump’s threat to seize Gaza and remove Palestinians from their land. “This is the plan. We are not hiding this and are ready to discuss it at any time.” Netanyahu also boasted, “We have an alliance with the greatest superpower in the world.” He later said the Israeli cabinet had voted in favor of intensifying the military assault on Gaza.
Hamas’s chief negotiator, Dr. Khalil al-Hayya, announced that Hamas had accepted a deal on Saturday put forward by Qatar and Egypt, the two main regional mediators. “We do not want anything new. We want to respect what was signed, what the guarantors guaranteed, and what the international community approved,” al-Hayya said.
[...]
Regarding the “Trump plan” for displacing Palestinians from Gaza, al-Hayya said, “It is impossible for us to accept humiliation and disgrace for our people. There will be no displacement or deportation.”
Israel said Saturday that it submitted a counter-proposal to the plan, saying in a statement from Netanyahu’s office that it did so “in full coordination with the US.”
[...]
On Monday morning, Israel issued forced displacement orders to almost the entire governorate of Rafah on Gaza’s border with Egypt—the only gateway Palestinians in the Strip have to a world beyond Israeli control. “The IDF is returning to fight with great force to eliminate the capabilities of terrorist organizations in these areas,” Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesman, wrote on the social media site X. He included an image of a map directing thousands of Palestinians to immediately flee to Al Mawasi, an overcrowded makeshift displacement camp built on sand dunes and lacking basic necessities such as water and electricity.
Throughout the weekend, as Palestinians in Gaza observed the Eid al-Fitr holiday that ends the holy month of Ramadan, Israeli forces pummeled areas across the Gaza Strip in what local journalists described as some of the heaviest bombing of the past seventeen months.
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At least fifty-three Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday alone. An Israeli airstrike on displaced people in Khan Younis killed sixteen people, including nine children and three women, according to local medical officials. “They died in their Eid outfits,” a female relative of the victims told Al Jazeera Arabic. “Why did they do this to us?”
Drop Site
And if you protest this in the US, you will very likely be snatched from the streets and rendered to an El Salvador torture prison.As Israel continues its terror bombings of Gaza, evidence continues to mount that Israeli forces recently summarily executed more than a dozen aid workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) and local civil defense crews in Rafah on March 23. Israel initially stated that its forces fired on “suspicious vehicles” in the area, but later acknowledged its forces shot at an ambulance and other rescue vehicles.
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The head of OCHA’s local office, Jonathan Whittall, said in a post on X that the missing workers were dispatched to rescue injured people when “all five ambulances and one fire-truck were struck, along with a UN vehicle that arrived later.” For five days after the incident, he said, Israel denied the UN the right to retrieve or aid the rescue workers. In one attempt to reach the site, Israeli forces opened fire on more civilians in the area, shooting one Palestinian woman in the head along with a man who tried to rescue her. [...] “On the first day of Eid, we returned and recovered the buried bodies of 8 PRCS, 6 Civil Defense and 1 UN staff. They were killed in their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives. This should never have happened.” In all, fifteen bodies were recovered from the scene.
[...]
From the moment a “ceasefire” deal with Hamas was signed on January 17, Israel has systematically violated the agreement by continuing to kill Palestinians. While the delivery of food and medical supplies increased during the first 42-day phase of the deal, Israel largely blocked the delivery of tents, mobile homes, and construction equipment to the Strip and refused to negotiate the implementation of the second 42-day step of the deal. The second phase would have seen the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of all remaining Israeli captives. Instead, Israel announced a full-spectrum blockade of Gaza, barring any aid or food deliveries. Israel shut off the Strip’s remaining electrical supplies and then resumed the full scale war on March 18 with a series of massive strikes across Gaza that killed nearly 200 children in a matter of hours.
[...]
Netanyahu has maintained that Israel will only negotiate while continuing its military assault on Gaza and that no lasting deal will be achieved that does not ultimately result in the disarmament of Hamas and the expulsion of its leaders from the Strip. Neither of these demands were part of the ceasefire deal signed in January.
Musk money in Wisconsin
If Democrats ever get power again - and that's looking increasingly unlikely - the first thing they need to do is work on ways to reverse Citizens United.
SCOTUS on the horns of a dilemma
Nobody said they were smart.Roberts and his extremist compatriots on the Court face one serious problem: Trump also wants the justices to endorse his campaign against the authority and independence of the judiciary, potentially rendering the Court into a shameless stooge. As a result, the cost of the Supreme Court continuing to do Trump’s bidding may be to undermine the judicial power and authority that Republicans devoted so much effort to obtain.
Public Notice
We laughed and laughed.While much has been made of the delays in prosecuting Trump under Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland, the players that actually ensured Trump would not be held accountable for his assault on the nation’s democracy were the rightwing jurists on the nation’s highest court who effectively crippled Jack Smith’s prosecution through a combination of calculated delay and a ruling that undermined the rule of law.
First, the Court delayed its immunity ruling for months, and thereby held the Trump prosecution in abeyance. Trump’s initial assertion of immunity in October 2023 was rejected by the trial court in December of that year; but proceedings in the case remained entirely stayed until Trump’s immunity claim was heard and decided by higher courts, a process the Supreme Court chose to drag out, despite a plea from the prosecutor for expedited review.
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Second, when the ruling belatedly arrived, it was an early Christmas gift for The Donald. Authored by Roberts, the decision not only made it a practical impossibility for Trump to be tried before the election, but also granted him a far broader ambit of immunity than his lawyers had initially even thought of asking for.
Roberts declared that a president enjoys “absolute” or “qualified” immunity from criminal prosecution for any action taken in his “official” capacity.
[...]
Roberts’s immunity ruling not only gutted much of Smith’s case against Trump, it also sent a clear message: If Trump won the election, he could freely engage in even more egregious crimes, secure in the assurance that he would never face criminal accountability.
[...]
Trump has followed the model of dictators and ruled by decree, issuing barrages of “executive orders” in which he has asserted the right to run roughshod not only over fundamental rights, but also to violate to separation of powers. With help from Elon Musk’s DOGE team, Trump is crippling institutions and programs whose existence is legally mandated and funded by Congress. [...] Trump is also using extortionate threats to force private persons, institutions (including universities and law firms), and states and localities to bend to his will.
[...]
As soon as judges began issuing rulings limiting Trump’s assaults on the Constitution, he and his cronies began threatening to impeach judges for ruling against Trump.
In response, Roberts released a statement solemnly declaring that "for more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision."
This was not the first time Roberts responded to Trump’s dismissals of judicial authority and legitimacy. In 2019, Roberts rebuked Trump’s attack on an “Obama judge” for enforcing the nation’s asylum laws by stating, “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”
Their own corruption is very much a factor.Roberts’s 2025 statement has already proven to be as ineffective as his 2019 one was. Rather than signaling any intention to back down, Trump shot back by declaring, "If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!"
[...]
As Trumpers have racked up losses in the lower courts, they’ve begun demanding that Roberts and company immediately step in to give Trump license to continue forward with his power grab.
For example, the Court is now considering an “emergency” Trump challenge to a ruling staying his illegal effort to cancel millions of education grants because they are purportedly infected with “DEI” (that is, civil rights). Trump has also sought immediate Supreme Court review of whether trial judges properly issued nationwide injunctions against his patently illegal effort to erase birthright citizenship from the Constitution. And he just asked the Court to allow him to continue to send Venezuelans to a notorious Salvadoran prison without due process, on the dubious pretext they are wartime enemies.
While it’s unclear what the Court will do in those cases, Trump has good reason to believe a majority of justices will be sympathetic to his dictatorial cause.
You had me until that last paragraph. They can always expect a future Democratic president (which may never happen again due to Republican cheating and corruption) to accept legal rulings. Dems do that.[A] majority of the Court may end up ruling that Trump is not only free to fire members of the National Labor Relations Board and Federal Trade Commission (as he has already done), but he could also take over direct control of the Federal Reserve Board and personally set interest rates.
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[T]he Court’s own hard-fought seizure of power from the elected branches of government could well be out the window if Roberts and his colleagues accede to Trump’s current demands and give up any pretense of judicial adherence to the rule of law.
After all, how can the rightwing justices who control the Supreme Court expect a future president — particularly a Democratic one — to accept rulings limiting the exercise of their power from a Court that served as the judicial stooge of an aspiring dictator?
Pete Hegseth is safe for now
For Christ's sake, he has zero qualifications for the job he has as it is. Concern about his judgment? Where was that when they confirmed his appointment? His reputation was pretty shit back then. Did they think he'd magically grow some better judgment? He promised not to drink on the job. That was the only thing standing in his way?Because Trump clearly likes and has publicly exonerated Hegseth, “you’re not going to hear a huge public outcry [over the Signal chat scandal],” said a senior GOP official on Capitol Hill who is close to the White House. “But, privately, there is a lot of concern about his judgment, more than with Waltz.”
Politico
You tell me, dumbass.Officials agree national security adviser Mike Waltz, who accidentally invited a journalist to a group chat with senior leaders, could more easily take the fall for a scandal that has embarrassed the administration — which may end up sparing Hegseth his job.
But Republican hawks, Pentagon officials and even some inside the White House now believe Hegseth also messed up by sending likely classified details from his phone.
[...]
Even for a Pentagon chief who has copied Trump’s pugilistic style — down to his Sharpie signature and campaign-style videos — Hegseth’s growing pile of mistakes are getting noticed, according to four officials and two people in touch with the administration.
“The problem is this is another example of inexperience,” said a person close to the White House, who like others, was granted anonymity to discuss a politically sensitive issue. “What happens when Hegseth needs to manage a real crisis?”
Really? How many countries are targeted in these daily war plans?Hegseth addressed the issue briefly Wednesday during a weeklong Asia trip. The information in the messages, “doesn’t look like war plans,” he said. “You know who sees war plans? I see them. Every single day.”
And how will you know unless someone accidentally invites a journalist to listen in again?Senate Armed Services Committee leaders have launched a bipartisan probe into the episode.
“Intentionally putting classified info on an unclassified application is the real crime,” Rep. Dan Bacon, a Nebraska Republican and retired Air Force brigadier general, wrote in an X post.
But most top GOP lawmakers continue to publicly defend the Pentagon chief.
“No one needs to lose their job over this, but we do need to get to the bottom of it and just be assured it’s not going to happen anymore,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a Trump ally.
Trump allies worry about another long battle in the Senate to replace [Hegseth]. And the Pentagon leader has largely followed the president’s own playbook, issuing angry attacks on the journalist to a pool of reporters that mostly included friendly conservative media and foreign outlets.
[...]
Democrats are skeptical that Trump will punish anyone.
“It’s part of the Trump administration ethos,” said Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. “There are no rules, there are no standards, there is no truth, there is no accountability."
Transgender Day of Visibility
As the Trump administration rolls back protections and civil rights for transgender Americans and threatens access to gender-affirming care, military careers, federal recognition, sports and more, the holiday and its mission is "more important this year than ever," said Rachel Crandall-Crocker, the day's founder.
[...]
Trans Up Front, an Illinois-base advocacy organization whose mission is to amplify and center trans voices, honored TDOV on Sunday with 5,000-plus people marching through downtown Chicago, organizers estimated.
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In Atlanta, Game Changing Men — a group that focuses on erasing stigmas and barriers for trans men, particularly Black trans men — capped off a week of TDOV programming with its annual cookout Saturday.
[...]
But visibility can be "a double-edged sword," said Shane Diamond, GLAAD's director of communications and advocacy.
"As we are more visible, and out and open ... we tend to see increased backlash and anti-LGBTQ+ policies, anti-transgender policies being introduced," he said.
[...]
The American Civil Liberties Union was tracking 527 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the U.S. as of March 14, including legislation redefining sex, blocking trans youth from using facilities corresponding with their gender identity and rolling back DEI initiatives.
Trump's return to the White House has also emboldened GOP lawmakers to further restrict trans rights.
Axios
Trump 2.0 - Control
The "White House" will control everything from now on.
They've already decided the AP isn't even allowed in the room because they won't report the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
Sunday, March 30, 2025
Not even Wisconsin cares about political bribes
I know the Supremes don't care. They said if it's after the fact, it's called a gratuity, and that's perfectly legal.
MAGA.
UPDATE 03/31/2025: Laws for thee, but not for me.
Trump 2.0 - The arc of a national security blunder/scandal
First, it didn't happen. Then, the journalist illegally snuck into the chat. Then, it was a mistake.
Now, it was no big deal. Normal.
MAGA regret
It's just amazing that people keep being punked by the Orange God King.
The onslaught of attacks on the media shows that executives' attempts to pacify Trump have backfired spectacularly. Their dreams of deregulation and a business boom have quickly faded dinto the reality that Trump remains who he has always been - driven by a desire for retribution and control. [...] [T]heir actions have only emboldened Trump's quest for greater power over those he perceives as his enemies.
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Media executives thought they were getting a deal with Donald Trump.
After years of oversight from Joe Biden, they hoped Trump would usher in a warm new era of deregulation.
[...]
Over the course of [a few pre-election] weeks, Bob Iger's Disney agreed to make a $15 million donation to a future Trump presidential library to end a lawsuit against ABC News, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta paid Trump $25 million after suspending his accounts over the Jan. 6, attack, and Larry Ellison went to the White House to back Trump's "Stargate" project ostensibly in hopes of winning support for his son's Paramount takeover.
But just two months into the new administration, the business friendly environment they dreamed of has turned into a nightmare. Trump's government, stocked with loyalists, has launched a burst of investigations and challenges to the nation's biggest media and technology companies, dealmakers have put their long hoped-for plans on hold, advertisers are pulling back as Trump's economic policies rattle the markets, and foreign tourists are rethinking travel to the U.S., potentially impacting theme parks owned by Disney and NBCUniversal.
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And while media executives have turned down the volume on Trump in hopes of appeasing him, he has continued to assail their outlets with vitriol.
[...]
While Zuckerberg publicly bowed to Trump's wishes by putting an end to "biased" fact checking on his platforms and appointing Trump ally and UFC boss Dana White to his board, Trump's Federal Trade Commission chair Andrew Ferguson said that the agency is "gearing up" for trial next month to break up the social media giant.
[...]
Ferguson also announced the agency was opening a new inquiry into whether online platforms - including Zuckerberg's - "censor" users, embracing the long held (and false) claim by Republicans and right-wing media personalities that Big Tech is silencing their voices, in a possible precursor to a formal investigation.
[...]
[Brendan Carr, Trump's head of the FCC,] launched investigations into Verizon and Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, over their supposed D.E.I. programs. And he revived a news distortion investigation into CBS over its "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris.
[...]
Then on Friday, the FCC chair took aim at [Disney], sending a letter to Iger announcing the agency was opening an investigation into its ["invidious forms of DEI"] practices.
[...]
As Noah Shachtman, the former Rolling Stone editor in chief, wrote of Carr's Disney probe: "It's almost like giving bullies your lunch money encourages them to shake you down tomorrow."
Status News
Jennifer Piggot and thousands like her who were summarily fired as "probationary" federal employees are shocked.
Why? How?Speaking to CNN Live in a broadcast shown Thursday, [Jennifer] Pigott said she cried after she was axed. “I was a MAGA junkie, a MAGA junkie who thought her government job would be safe with Donald Trump in office. I cried. It’s scary, you know, it’s a really scary thing, and I was embarrassed,” she said.
[...]
Her woes have not stopped. Pigott, who has spoken to the national press about the issue before, has been targeted by vandals and has even received death threats since speaking out.
[...]
She added that she now “regrets” voting for Trump. “To cut the knees out of the working-class Americans just doesn’t make sense to me. I expected more from President Donald Trump,” she said.
The Daily Beast
mRNA vaccines may fight cancer
Only if they stop gutting research and scientific agencies.
The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official has been pushed out, according to people familiar with the matter.
Dr. Peter Marks, who played a key role in the first Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed to develop Covid-19 vaccines, stepped down Friday. He submitted his resignation after a Health and Human Services official earlier in the day gave him the choice to resign or be fired, people familiar with the matter said.
“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Marks wrote in a resignation letter referring to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
[...]
During the pandemic, he was a member of the team that streamlined regulations and pooled government funding to speed development of Covid-19 vaccines.
He had wanted to stay in his position, though his support of immunizations conflicted with Kennedy’s skepticism, people familiar said.
[...]
“My hope is that during the coming years, the unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health in our nation comes to an end,” he wrote in the letter.
Marks will leave the FDA as Kennedy has begun to reshape the Health and Human Services Department, including by making plans to lay off 10,000 employees and close offices.
Wall Street Journal
UPDATE 09:17 am:The entire staff of the federal government's Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy is expected to be laid off, multiple federal health officials told CBS News Friday. The moves are part of a broader restructuring plan ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that involves cutting 20,000 HHS positions.
[...]
However, multiple officials said that written notices of layoffs had not yet been received by HHS employees.
CBS
UPDATE 03/31/2025:
Moderna Inc. shares plunged after the resignation of Peter Marks, a top regulator at the US Food and Drug Administration who had long overseen approvals of vaccines and other biological drugs.
Moderna shares fell 13% in trading before US markets opened Monday, while the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF lost 2.3%. Other makers of vaccines and gene therapies also dropped, including Novavax Inc., BioNTech SE and Sarepta Therapeutics Inc.
Bloomberg
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Dismantling the military
Throwing out transgenders and cracking down on "DEI" seems like a sure way to reduce enlistment, while at the same time the administration is throwing its weight around across the globe, threatening military action. So how will they be able to press military action with a reduced force? I think we better get ready to see the draft reinstated.
Botoxed buffoon
Oh, I can't wait to see you try that.
UPDATE 03/30/2025: And, speaking of buffoons...
There is no justice in America
It's been shaky since the revolution, but it's ready for burial now. At least in the federal realm.
Trump world meritocracy
Merit does not involve earning in Trump world. It's about genetics and owning the libs.
Trump 2.0 - Revoke security clearance for Dems
And yet, she can be on a group chat discussing national security issues with a journalist who was mistakenly added.
Somebody needs to revoke HER security clearance and that of everyone on that chat.
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