Palestinian genocide

Israel’s bombs have stopped, but the genocide is not over. With a destroyed and collapsed healthcare system, we will continue to see more Palestinians die, as they are unable to get the treatment necessary to be able to survive the devastation that Israel (with US bombs and help, of course) meted out against them. Israel’s bombs targeted virtually all hospitals leaving only half of Gaza’s hospitals partially – not fully – functional and with thousands in need of medical care. Gaza is now the site of the most child amputees in the world.

But it isn’t just the collapse of the medical system. Israel has targeted all of the Gaza Strip. No place was safe; no place remains unaffected, and it’s unclear if the extremely fragile, three-phase ceasefire deal will even lead to an end to the 15-month war (many expect it won't).

  Zeteo

Include me.

Israeli leaders made it clear throughout their bombing campaign that they intended to make Gaza unlivable. In voicing his opposition to the ceasefire arrangement, ultranationalist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – never one to miss an opportunity to show how racist and fascist he is – took to social media to assure his supporters that Gaza “is ruined and disintegrated, uninhabitable, and it will remain that way. Don't be impressed by the forced joy of our enemy. This is an animalistic society that sanctifies death. Very soon, we will erase their smile again and replace it with cries of grief and the wails of those who were left with nothing.”

As if you haven't already. And now, Israel is on to bombing the West Bank, and Lebanon, as well.

Thoughts and prayers

No doubt it's a deep state plot to make Trump look bad.

In fact, on the other hand, who would put it past Trump or his lackies to stage a terrible incident to start another spiral of executive "emergency" power grab?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 10:03 pm:

From BBC:

UPDATE 01/30/2025:

Brilliant.  Thanks for making that clear.  We weren't sure.

Of course they did.  Absolutely predictable.

Aso absolutely predictable.

Everybody knows the opportunity to polish off the target is when it's down on the ground and before it can get back up.

Also, look at the chyron.

Opinions trump facts every time.  Or should I say - Trump opinions beat facts every time.

LOL.  Where'd they find that?

God, that man is a dick.

Just plain pathetic.

The Trump library is going to be a house of horrors - but also a joke.

Yes.

I have a feeling we'll never again (at least while MAGA rules) get any investigation of any disaster or event that we can believe.*  (On the other hand, if he can just sign an order blaming Biden for anything, maybe we will.)

Also, yes.

UPDATE 07:19 pm:

UPDATE 01/31/2025:

Sargent: Well, you brought up the fact that the DEI programs persisted through the Trump administration. Trump read from an article basically saying that the FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe disabilities, including intellectual, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website. That’s more or less what he said. What’s he referring to there?

Kayyem: He’s referring to unbelievably generic language that is used in efforts to hire. The FAA needs bodies. We know that in particular after Covid or during Covid it lost a lot of personnel. And once again, they’re hiring for lots of positions. And once again, some of those positions, when you think about say mental disability, might include military members with PTSD who have skills that the FAA may actually want. This is the idea he has: of some elite group of people, all white, all look like Secretary Duffy and Secretary Hegseth, of this toxic masculinity being the smart, brilliant, the best of the best. And that’s his idea of who should be in these types of roles.

  New Republic

That may be what he's "referring to," but I want to know just where he got that wording he uses. It looks like utter made-up bullshit, which is something he resorts to as often as he takes a breath.

*

And, can we all keep in mind that DEI does NOT mean hiring UNQUALIFIED people.  That's the purview of Trump 2.0.

UPDATE 02/09/2025:

[I]t turns out that the program to offer FAA careers to people with disabilities—the program Trump specifically decried yesterday—was a Trump administration initiative from 2019.

  Bulwark

Why Greenland?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Will there be enough lawyers?

God, I hate dealing with lawyers.  I worked for lawyers.  That was awful, too.  But there are a lot of people who need lawyers right now.  

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The shitshow is worse than you think

Read it and weep.

And this...

Last night the Trump administration’s Office of Personnel and Management sent a “buyout” offer to 2 million government employees. The email appears to have been ghost written by either Elon Musk or his young lackeys, who now occupy places of power in the federal government.

This “buy out” offer is not legal. It instructs employees to respond with “resign” in the subject line—as if that is a legally-binding document.

The compensation in the offer is not legal, either. The OPM email offers eight months of pay; the law allows only up to $25,000 for voluntary separation agreements.

There is no funding for this buyout regime. Just do some rough math with me: The government has offered 2 million workers eight months of pay. The average federal employee makes roughly $100k. If everyone took the offer that’s a $132 billion. Where has that money been appropriated from?

  The Bulwark

Don't forget the Elon tweet that said this was going to save the government a hundred billion - a number he pulled out of his ass, no math involved.

The OPM email came a few hours after Trump’s Office of Management and Budget directed the government to cease disbursement of all legally-mandated federal funding. Which is not something the executive branch can do, according to the law.

[...]

The executive is attempting to subjugate the two other branches of government.

The president knows that Congress wants to be subjugated. He hopes the judiciary will consent to subjugation, rather than risking a showdown it might lose.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trump 2.0 - Gitmo concentration camp

Yep.  Not even on American soil.

UPDATE 01/30/2025:

There's enough blame to go around.

In August 2024, the Biden administration granted a private prison company a $163.4 million contract to run the facility.

"For decades, the Guantanamo migrant detention center has been the hallmark of the most inhumane, racist, and brutal U.S. policies against people seeking refuge," said Jesse Franzblau, senior policy analyst with the National Immigrant Justice Center. "The Biden administration could have shut down the facility but tragically renewed and entered into new contracts to keep it up and running."

[...]

“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. This will double our capacity immediately,” Trump said.

But according to Department of Homeland Security and Navy documents from 2021 and 2022 reviewed by Drop Site News, the Trump administration may not be able to detain that high of a number of migrants at the facility — at least not immediately. Documents show the Guantánamo migrant detention center only has the capacity to expand to hold 400 people.

[...]

“The idea that the Trump administration is going to send 30,000 migrants to Guantánamo is one of the dumbest ideas I’ve heard all week. It’s utterly absurd,” said J. Wells Dixon, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents detainees at the Guantánamo military prison and frequently visits the base. “It’s purely performative. President Trump is trying to use the image of Guantánamo to project toughness towards refugees and asylum seekers.”

  DropSite

It works.

Looks like Trump will have to fire Powell

Watch your back, Jer.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Wow, Bobby

Clearly, Samoans are incapable of remembering something for two whole months.  I believe Sheldon Whitehouse said to him, "You scare people."  He meant by the things Bobby espouses, of course, but... keep the sound off and watch this clip.  Scary.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Resistance

Trump 2.0 - All chaos, all the time

.

UPDATE 01:22 pm:  Trump's brilliant press secretary weighs in...

It was the court's injunction that caused the confusion.  Got it.

FFS.  They CANNOT govern.  

I wouldn't bet on it.

UPDATE 01/30/2025:

As I understand it, the order to freeze funds remains in place, while the OMB’s guidance on how to implement the freeze has been rescinded, and now every agency head can just guess at how Trump might want his order to be interpreted.

  Elie Mystal