Yesterday, during his unhinged presser (is there any other kind?), Junior NTSB investigator Donald Trump found the culprit: DEIA.
Asked why he was blaming diversity initiatives, Trump said, “because I have common sense, and unfortunately a lot of people don’t.”
Trump said air traffic controllers needed to be brilliant to ensure safety.
“They have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses,” he said. “You can’t have regular people doing their job.”
This is so fucking dumb — all respect to ATC but regular humans can do that job. And, clearly, he means “white geniuses” because that’s the only kind he recognizes.
Meanwhile, President Musk’s young Muskrats, some Project 2025 zealots, and Trump’s new cabinet appointees are dutifully scrubbing DEI from all of the government websites and laying down new (probably illegal) edicts:
Department of Transportation orders all personnel to "identify and eliminate" every order, directive, rule, regulation, policy, notice, guidance document, funding arrangement, or program that even mentions climate change, diversity, or environmental justice
www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.go…
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman.bsky.social) January 31, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Someone asked in the comments yesterday about who and how this is happening and the simple answer is that we don’t know. I haven’t seen clear reporting on how these people were installed, and that’s on purpose. Of course, we know Sean Duffy was another Trump appointee who sailed through the Senate with 22 Democratic votes, so there’s that.
If you’re running a typically racist American police force, you operate on the assumption that most young black men are guilty of some crime or other. So when you see a black man driving with a busted taillight, that’s an opportunity to the pull the driver over, search the car, check for warrants, and subject the driver to intimidation and violence. Sure, the busted taillight is a problem for fellow drivers, but it’s also a pretext you can use to put black men in their place.
As [Duffy memo embedded above] makes clear, DEI can be used more or less the same way. If you want to fire career government employees who aren’t right-wing zealots, or if you want to withhold aid to Democratic-run cities and states, you just say, “Whoops! You’re doing DEI. As of January 20, that’s illegal according to federal law.” After that, your targets either comply with your ideological edict or they lose their jobs or are starved of funds. Either way, it’s a win.
On one hand, I think Steve M has a point. On the other hand, it’s going to become a joke when every answer from the Trumpers is “DEI did that”. It really is a flimsy dog-ate-my-homework excuse. Like everything in Trumpworld, there are things to ridicule and things to take seriously. The anti-DEIA campaign seems to be one where both are appropriate.
(I’m in and out of the house today so this and my other posts are open threads, since I can’t guarantee that there will be other posts from me or other FPers.)
different-church-lady
From now on his name isn’t Trump. From now on his name is Dumbfuck Hitler.
DFH
It’s gratifying to me to guess the writer, just from the headline.
Baud
trollhattan
I’m-a quote a current jerb listing for a department of the State of California:
Little wonder Elmo has left here…like…three or four times now. How many “last straws” can one simple billionaire take?
scav
Guardian has it that
so well-oiled business machine running as usual.
raven
Defense just canceled MLK, Pride, Holocaust and other related events.
trollhattan
@scav: “10s of millions killed?” The fuck you say.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Or April 20th. Or tomorrow. Or yesterday. Or never. We don’t really know. All we really know is it’s going to change a bunch of times because Dumbfuck Hitler’s brain just rattles around in his skull like one of those little plastic toys with a ball bearing and a piece of cardboard. The only thing that’s certain is the ball bearing is going to bounce around and make a lot of noise before it settles into one of the little holes in the cardboard. If it ever does.
bjacques
Deia is a lovely place on Mallorca. The writer Robert Graves (“I, Claudius”) and Kevin Ayers from Curved Air and SKY are buried there.
Dangerman
The dumbfuck couldn’t spell NTSB if you spotted him the N, T, S, and B.
trollhattan
@raven:
Cripes. The Holocaust I get, since it “never happened.” (Has anybody ever asked Stephen Miller?)
Baud
@scav:
Stay riveted.
The Audacity of Krope
All too often I find that “common sense” is actually common nonsense.
different-church-lady
@trollhattan: MILLER: “Wait, we scheduled a Holocaust and we cancelled it?”
dnfree
Anyone else notice the misspelling in the bolded headline of the memo? “Secretatrial”? Maybe “trial” is a Freudian slip?
trollhattan
scav
@trollhattan: I am the mere cutter and paster.
Might explain all the mass graves that totally utterly weren’t due to covid?
The Audacity of Krope
@scav: Just broad-based tariffs on all imports with our biggest trading partners, what can go wrong?
Baud
different-church-lady
@Baud: AMERICAN PEOPLE: “GIVE US MORE OF THIS SHIT!”
@mistermix.bsky.social
@scav: I still think Claudia Sheinbaum’s attitude is the right one: don’t think it will happen, but if it does, we’re ready.
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: Only 12? Sad. Glad to see mine on there, though.
Baud
@trollhattan:
I’m tempted to start referring to Trump as a “she” but I fear that a portion of decent people would take it the wrong way.
dnfree
@The Audacity of Krope: My father used to say “If it’s common, it’s not sensible, and if it’s sensible it’s not common.”
different-church-lady
Oh, gosh, what a tragedy:
dnfree
@Baud: I for one would take it the wrong way.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@DFH:
LOL not my best effort, but a fun one.
scav
@Baud: There’s always it. One can always justify it by saying you’re waiting for clear evidence of humanity. Until then, object it is.
different-church-lady
“Hi, it’s the Dog. Where the fuck are you?”
trollhattan
@different-church-lady:
Will assert that’s 20 years overdue, just to be safe.
What’s next, WaPo Op Ed position?
Baud
@dnfree:
Well, you’re a decent person.
I’m proud to have thought twice for once.
TBone
Rachel Maddow pointed out last night that we have an Acting Director of the FBI right now BY ACCIDENT because someone made a typo in the Whitehouse jobs list and two people switched jobs rather than the correct the typo!!!
Driscoll, nickname is Drizzy but I can’t find a clip.
Matt McIrvin
Those secretatrial officers better be observitating their backs meticulositously!
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: I refuse to call Twitter “X.” That’s not the name it was born with. That’s not who it is. Now because of outside extremists, it’s just changing it’s whole identity.
Jackie
@Baud: Glad to see WA State’s newly elected AG among the signatories.
trollhattan
@different-church-lady:
Wowzers. “Damian” checks out. Lots of friends named their cats Damien, inspired by The Omen and with cats, behavior typically matched the name. Dogs? Less often but sometimes….
Geminid
I saw some clips from that press conference that were reposted by Ankara-based Clash Report. Trump looked really rough, with low morale and low energy. He conducted it from behind a desk. The guy’s less than two weeks into his term and it’s like he’s already exhausted.
And whiney. Once again, Trump reminded me of Fred C. Boggs, the character Humphrey Bogart played in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Belafon
@The Audacity of Krope: Common sense, which my mother was always fond of using, is short for “I don’t have a reason, you just have to accept it.”
Leto
@raven: the military was always going to fall in line. I’ve been saying that for years, to the dismay of many.
For all of our computer/IT peeps:
Government Tech Workers Forced to Defend Projects to Random Elon Musk Bros
A recent high school graduate and former Neuralink intern has joined meetings to review lines of code and other work history of career public servants, sparking chaos at a major government agency.
As I mentioned below, people with zero legal authority coming in and fucking with government operations. Just utter shitshow.
Kay
I’m just so so sick of standards being lowered for these people. Once standards drop, as they have for MAGA, it is just hard as nails to bring them up again.
No one has to be qualified, or decent, or honest. They’re all lining their own pockets and lying constantly. MAGA will damage this country for years with a precipitous drop in QUALITY. Anything goes now – they can be rapists and liars and thieves and felons and just dumb as fucking rocks. It will take decades to bring standards back up to 2016 level.
The Audacity of Krope
I’ve heard that. And it’s about right, but there must be some true examples of common sense.
Washing one’s hands after handling raw chicken
Turning on a light before traversing a dark, cluttered room
That typ’a thing
Like this too. See also, the perennial parental favorite: Because I said so
Stella
@Baud: I understand what you mean, but please don’t. For those that aren’t aware of why, referring to people you don’t like as the wrong pronouns implies that gender recognition is something you do because you like someone, rather than just what decent human beings do. So misgendering should never be used as an insult or a gotcha.
Lily
Sister Golden Bear
@Baud: I’d also take it the wrong way.
Geminid
@The Audacity of Krope: I like what Ragnarok Lobster posted after Musk changed the name of the platform:
I’m told that’s based on a well-known line from a movie.
Peale
Jesus fucking christ. Where does MAGA live. I just can’t. COVID – well that didn’t kill but maybe 20 people, the rest died with COVID, not OF Covid.
We’ve got 12 million violent illegal aliens doing a crime wave in the country.
We’ve got 10s of millions of people dying from fentanyl.
All of that would be disastrous. Absolutely disastrous. Now, our OD problem is bad, but come the fuck on. You’d meet like maybe 1 male in their 20s every few days if that were the case. Do these people actually ever leave their houses?
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
And apparently radio silence from ALL forms of media – including independent YouTubers, etc!
Country of less than 350 million people with “10s of millions killed” from fentanyl. Wow do these assholes think we’re all idiots!
When does the press start asking “Are you dumbass Dump-humping morons ok in the head?”
Belafon
@Lily: This is an overreaction to DEI in the same way that burning down a how is an overreaction to a spider.
Leto
@Kay: from the article I linked:
Just some high school kid. Doesn’t have the proper clearances, doesn’t know shit about the systems, but he’s there to do a review. Standards? This isn’t lowering standards, there’s no fucking standards at all. And it’s all these Silicon Valley flunkies who are here. Per the article, they’re just “swiping people in” (security breach), using Gmail for official communications (buttery-emails!), and Slack for communication. Just utter insanity, but this is our reality now.
The Audacity of Krope
@Geminid: Sounds vaguely familiar but I can’t place it.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: The CO Attorney General, Phil Weiser, plans to run for Governor and his campaign has been sending me emails. I just sent one back asking if he can tell me why he isn’t one of the Democratic AGs signing on here. We’ll see if I get any response.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: It’s not a ball bearing in Orange Shitler’s disgusting skull – it’s a ball of shit.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Chuckles is leaving to spend more time telling Republican lies to his family.
The Audacity of Krope
More massive than a ball bearing, less structural integrity. Less integrity, period.
Geminid
@The Audacity of Krope: It’s from a barbershop scene, I think in an Eddie Murphy movie. Some men are arguing about what to call Muhammad Ali.
bbleh
… it’s going to become a joke when every answer from the Trumpers is “DEI did that”. It really is a flimsy dog-ate-my-homework excuse.
I suppose it’s better to laugh at it than not, but that won’t mitigate its effects one bit. The MAGAts do NOT like being laughed at, but they’re zealots, which means anyone who is not entirely with them is dead-set against them, and laughing at them just confirms them in their single-minded obsession.
What would make a difference is for the Dem leadership — wherever it is — to pound the table continuously and harangue the media at every opportunity, so that public opinion turns against the Fat Orange Guy and the Congressional Republicans and business plutocrats who do his bidding. If they feel the heat, the pressure will travel downward. And of course, pressure from us can in turn encourage the Dem leadership. But without their active involvement, the Crusade of Righteousness will continue.
Peale
@Lily: There’s been some discussion about how we’re going to let white people off the hook for this once the fever break. You know, they way we have to say “well, they were just a product of their times.” I mean, they are very clearly intentionally doing this and its meant to harm people very intentionally. It must be that unconscious bias that DEI training taught us about.
The Audacity of Krope
Yeah, my dad retired the same way. Not a good outcome for people who aren’t self-directed…like Todd.
The Audacity of Krope
@Geminid: Thanks for reminding me about a movie my friends will laugh at me for not having seen if they found out.
Getting it on the queue.
Sister Golden Bear
@Stella: Calling men “women” as an insult is also misogynistic — it’s buying into to the idea that women/femininity is “less than.”
JCJ
@trollhattan: Maybe the person was a Portland TrailBlazers fan and named the dog after Damian Lillard. I knew someone who was a big fan of the Tennessee Volunteers womens basketball team and named her dog Candace after Candace Parker. Maybe in Milwaukee some Bucks fans have named critters “Giannis”
dnfree
@Stella: Furthermore, using female pronouns for a manly masculine guy like Trump is like calling him girly and feminine, and implying it’s an insult to be female.
Raoul Paste
@Leto: reminiscent of a Simpsons episode:
Unstable new police recruit: “ When do I get the freaking gun?!!!”
Chief Wiggum: “ Hey, I’m not giving you a gun until you tell me your name”
tobie
There’s a diary up at DailyKos about Joe Rogan and Harris which claims that Harris tried to get an interview with Rogan but Musk nixed it. The rally she held in Houston while not unimportant, was for her to travel to Texas to do a sit-down interview with Rogan in his studio. This doesn’t suprise me. There’s always more than meets the eye, and Republican mendacity knows no bounds.
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato:
“With tens of millions dead from fentanyl, why has housing remained so stubbornly expensive? All eyes turn toward Biden”
—Opinion by Bret Stephens
HeleninEire
@different-church-lady: I’m crying.
Redshift
I didn’t realize until yesterday how much the DEIA assault is a project of Chris Rufo and his billionaire backers. Of course it has the classic fingerprints — tell people something is banned but don’t define it, then say they’ll be punished if there are “disguised” versions of it so they carry out broader censorship without the goons having to do the dirty work.
The purpose of the project is to destroy civil rights broadly, under the asinine right-wing “talking about race or discrimination is discriminatory, so the only way to solve it is to pretend it doesn’t exist.” Translation: we don’t want to solve it.
Revoking the LBJ executive order prohibiting discrimination in hiring by federal contractors, which has nothing to do with “DEI” and which TCFG did on his first day, is explicitly part of the project.
Unmasking the DEI and Civil Rights Bounty Hunter: Christopher Rufo’s Coordinated Assault
(I try not to suggest other people should do work that I’m not able to do myself, but maybe this is worth a look by a front-pager? Seems important so we understand the scope of what we’re dealing with.)
tobie
@Leto: Words fail. A fucking 19-year-old with no experience with an enterprise as complex as the govt determining hiring practices and qualifications for the federal govt. Just shoot me.
Leto
@Geminid: Coming to America.
Craig
@The Audacity of Krope: well played
Hortense Powdermaker
@Matt McIrvin: Secretatrial? SECRETATRIAL?? – since there’s no such thing perhaps all recipients of this memo can just ignore it.
mrmoshpotato
@Leto:
WTF?
Bugboy
Huh? Under what federal law, specifically? Did I miss some legislation that passed (LOL!) by Congress on January 20? If not, this is most certainly a “The President is not king” moment, and journalists should say so. These fuckers are wrongly asserting that EO’s are the law of the land, when they are only good until the next guy tosses them out. If there IS a next guy? These guys are rapidly screwing their chances to succeed at that. Evil AND stupid.
The Audacity of Krope
@Leto: Oh, that I have seen. It’s been a while, though.
Leto
@Sister Golden Bear: just call them losers. It’s accurate and doesn’t denigrate anyone. Plus it strikes to the heart of the matter, because they are. Fucking losers.
Redshift
@Leto:
It’s the Twitter playbook — people who have no skills but are sure they’re super-smart so how hard could it be? coming in to “review” work.
The goal in both cases is to drive people out so only sycophants are left, not to “improve” anything. We need to remember that and (where we’re able) communicate it to the people suffering under this, so they don’t waste too much mental effort trying to figure out how to make this work.
The Audacity of Krope
@Leto: And fucking weird losers at that…
Leto
@The Audacity of Krope: it’s such a funny scene.
@mrmoshpotato: when you read the article, it’ll help focus that rage even further. Kakistocracy doesn’t even begin to describe it.
way2blue
I remember last Trump term that federal scientists were forbidden from saying ‘polar bear’ at scientific conferences, including when hanging out with colleagues after hours. Fun times…
matt
What’s the current pay scale for geniuses?
Baud
@Leto:
As a loser, I’m offended being lumped in with those people.
Craig
Evan Hurst has a good piece today about Dumbfuck Hitler and his Droogs babbling DEI, DEI! for everything. https://evanhurst.substack.com/p/trump-and-hegseth-scream-dei-to-hide
Hortense Powdermaker
@dnfree: Bruhat Soma is 12 years old, they might want to add the spelling bee champion to the infantry now running the government for President Musk.
mrmoshpotato
@tobie:
Kid can’t even rent a car! Hell, he can’t even legally get shitfaced with the POS Secretary of Drunken Defense!
ETA – how has it been less than 2 weeks of this shitshow?
The Audacity of Krope
Are you a kind genius or an evil genius?
Makes all the difference in the world.
The Audacity of Krope
Like that would stop them.
Leto
@Baud: listen, we told you what your stance on pants was gonna bring… :P
mrmoshpotato
@The Audacity of Krope:
Don’t call them weird – that brings out their inner crybaby!
The Audacity of Krope
@Leto: I thought Baud’s stance was without pants. Not on, over, above, within, or for…
H.E.Wolf
@Baud:
I’m not in favor of tagging stuff we disapprove of as “female”.
Leto
@Redshift: agreed. This is the Silicon Valley model that we’re supposed to revere, the people we’re supposed to listen to. “Run it like a business.” Points to Twitter; “No, not that one!!!”
Looks like I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue…
Peke Daddy
@Leto: Probably planting all sorts of trapdoors and booby traps.
The Audacity of Krope
@mrmoshpotato: Everything makes wingers cry. Fuckem.
George
Complaining that X number of Democrats voted to confirm a nominee when that nominee would have gotten confirmed anyway because he/she got all the Republican votes is stupid.
My god, some people just can’t stop b!tching about Democrats, even if they themselves are Democrats/liberals, can they?
Look, stop complaining about pointless crap. Or better yet, try focusing hatred on the fact that, say, Republican support for crappy nominees was unanimous, rather than complaining that some Democrats voted to confirm when, in fact, if all Democrats had opposed confirmation, the person still would have passed through the Senate.
Focus on the fact that Republicans solely are responsible for the trainwreck because it could have been avoided if only a few had been sensible enough to join the majority of Democrats.
And stop whinging about Democrats not doing enough, or not having an “opposition leader,” or other such pointless complaints that do nothing but raise the level of perceived chaos among liberals. Start creating an overall environment in which FFOTUS and his flying monkeys are the targets of ridicule, not respect, and in which the average American–whom we need in order to rebuild–loathes the administration as much as we do. If we do that, Democratic politicians will fall in line behind us.
Sure Lurkalot
Trump’s D-E-I-A = Deadly Elective Inefficiency and Assholery
Steve LaBonne
@Leto: The problem is that they do have legal authority. These orders have come from people who have actually been installed at OPM and other Executive agencies. Obviously they are doing the bidding of Muskrats who are not government employees, but that doesn’t make any difference.
Kelly
Rogue drone pilot that crashed into Super scooper busted. On top of fines he has to pay at least $65,169 to repair the Super Scooper. I’m hoping the 5 days it was out of service costs him something to.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-31/la-me-drone-pilot-palisades-fire-feds-guilty-plea
Leto
@Steve LaBonne: per the article I linked, they don’t have the clearances necessary to even start working. They don’t have the legal authority to even use the bathroom there. But we can wait for the courts to decide that 10 years hence.
Leto
@George: this might not be the blog for you.
mrmoshpotato
@Kelly: Hope gets that year in federal prison.
stinger
@Belafon: I wish some reporter would press him for actual reasons. Make him say it out loud.
trollhattan
@Kelly:
Cripes. Legit impressed they found the dude, perhaps due to having to register them (over 1/2 pound) with the FAA, but IDK if they have unique electronic signatures or what.
A little startling to note a “Small UAS” can weigh as much as 55 pounds. Given a goose can take down a plane, what can a 55-pound drone do?
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato: Per the article he took a misdemeanor plea, so only 150 hours community service and a big fine to fix the plane (which is from those monsters, Canada).
Kelly
@Leto: I’ve read Musk’s minions are going to do code reviews. I’m a retired mainframe IT guy. Having some rando Tesla/X/SpaceX review government code is dumber than having my dentist critique my brother-in-law’s heart surgery. You have to know something about what the code is supposed to do to figure out if it’s doing it well.
mrmoshpotato
Who’s a good boy – I mean bad boy!
No Nym
@Kay: I think standards have been going down for a long time. I was seeing it in education in the 1990s and since then in customer service everywhere, in civil discourse/politics, in aesthetics. Our milieu is full of rot and a lot of people enjoy the smell of it, apparently.
Kelly
@trollhattan: I think it’s a fine AND fix the plane.
tam1MI
Those two assholes trashed Hillary in their book about 2016, trashed Biden in their book about 2020, and are going to trash Biden again in this new book. I don’t doubt that Rogan did what was alleged, but those motherfuckers can rot in hell before I spend a cent on their newest compendium of lies and mendacity.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
Sounds like he can still be slapped with the slammer. One can hope.
stinger
The Secretatrial Memorandum doesn’t start with “I hereby”, so how can it be legal???
scav
@George: And your bitching and whining about other democrats actions (such as griping, venting, general jackal-headedness etc. here) is somehow enlightened, effective and superior tactics?
Looks like it’s all us mere mortals here.
No Nym
“Per the article, they’re just ‘swiping people in’ (security breach)…”
This could get a person fired where I work. I will be interested to see how the demolition of health equity affects insurance companies. The intersection of private corporations and government in programs like Medicaid and Medicare could be a 100-car pileup by this time next week.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Miss Bianca:
Oooooh, please do.
I’ve got some old-school librul contacts here in Denver who think the world of him (and, like me, can’t stand our thankgodhe’stermlimitedout, glibertarian, techbro governor) but I don’t know enough about him.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@different-church-lady:
Heh heh, I saw that earlier.
The real tragedy is that he was at NBC for any length of time.
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato:
Pending fed beef?
“Who did you vote for in November?”
“Donald J Trump, sir.”
“I’m dropping all charges and awarding you ten-thousand bonus flight miles.”
rikyrah
DON’T BE GIVING UP YOUR GOOD GOVERNMENT JOB
David Pepper (@DavidPepper) posted at 10:24 AM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
🚨 🚨
BREAKING: A Second Outrageous Email
A 🧵
To illustrate just how desperate the Trump Administration is to sweet talk federal public servants into resigning via a vague “delayed resignation,” a second “Fork in the Road” email went out last night.
1/ https://t.co/Rn1xYjdjPo
(https://x.com/DavidPepper/status/1885363514375573778?t=z68To1tWQPUeTDPxYKAmLQ&s=03)
David Pepper (@DavidPepper) posted at 10:24 AM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
One Public Servant’s Response
I asked a federal worker I know, who has received these emails, what the response inside has been among his/her colleagues.
“There are lots of questions.”
12/
(https://x.com/DavidPepper/status/1885363566514966805?t=4XsCMpZ80xxlUfOEP4SUrQ&s=03)
David Pepper (@DavidPepper) posted at 10:24 AM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
People feel: “Demoralized. Angry….A lot of people are feeling insulted by the implications of the email. Insinuating that we’re not productive. That we don’t care about the mission.”
13/
(https://x.com/DavidPepper/status/1885363569673277639?t=9cXrW3-c8BTMKEpazRff4Q&s=03)
Matt McIrvin
@Hortense Powdermaker: I was wondering the same thing.
Sounds like some good OSS saboteur energy vampire tactics.
rikyrah
Magdi Jacobs (@magi_jay) posted at 10:33 AM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
I don’t have a horse in the DNC race, but Hogg simply doesn’t have the experience required to navigate multiple races, as well as multiple demographics, including Black people, Latinos, suburban women, rural voters, etc.
Magdi Jacobs (@magi_jay) posted at 10:36 AM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
Questions I would have for a DNC chair:
-Have you been to a Black church?
-How do we make even more gains w/ white college ed men & women?
-Do you know what Souls to the Polls is?
-How do we offset rural gains w/ better turnout in Philly?
Magdi Jacobs (@magi_jay) posted at 10:38 AM on Fri, Jan 31, 2025:
I mentioned multiple demos above, but seriously, cross-cultural fluency with Black communities is an absolute must. I’m not being critical of David Hogg, but I see him as a cross-culturally fluent person. Maybe he will be in a few years, w/ more experience.
(https://x.com/magi_jay/status/1885367023456174514?t=m31dDr19shwSQdI8jlGXMQ&s=03)
Kelly
@mrmoshpotato: I suspect the jail time will only happen if he fails to pay fines, costs and complete community service.
rikyrah
The entire thing is disturbing..but KEEPING HER PAPERWORK ?
PHUCK OUTTA HERE!
Kelsey Piper
@KelseyTuoc
I think that Republicans are going to find that while “no trans people in women’s sports” was a politically winning issue, “the passport office will seize trans Americans’ documents and refuse to issue them a passport under any gender” is not.
https://x.com/KelseyTuoc/status/1885165915920359659
Jersey Noah (@JerseyNoahx) posted at 1:18 PM on Thu, Jan 30, 2025:
Yesterday, a Los Angeles passport agency refused to issue a passport renewal to a trans woman. The agency kept all of her documents, did not issue her a passport, and threatened to arrest her
Jersey Noah (@JerseyNoahx) posted at 1:19 PM on Thu, Jan 30, 2025:
The agency told her that they could only issue her a “male” passport. All of her documents (federal & state) are updated to “female.” After she agreed to accept the “male” passport, the agency rescinded this option & told her that they will not be issuing her ANY passport
Jersey Noah (@JerseyNoahx) posted at 1:20 PM on Thu, Jan 30, 2025:
She left under threat of arrest. She is now without a passport and all of the documentation she had with her to renew her passport. She is in need of legal experts. Drop your information below if you are a lawyer with expertise in this area.
(https://x.com/JerseyNoahx/status/1885045405819560169?s=03)
matt
@The Audacity of Krope: just saying, if air traffic controllers have to be geniuses that sounds pretty expensive.
George
@scav:
I suggest we focus on addressing who the enemy really is and what needs to be done to win. You seem to suggest endless tail-chasing and circular firing squads. Thanks for proving my point.
trollhattan
This was preordained and yet, deeply shocking to read.
Leto
@rikyrah: This is what I was saying with regard to those shitheels trying to remove people; fucking make them remove you. Don’t just resign, give up in some sort of protest; make those mf’ers remove you. Put up a damn stink, then when they do that crap, take legal action for an illegal firing/movement. Utilize that Federal Union. They/you have protections and rights.
Also that story you related about the trans woman having all of her documents seized, refusal to issue a passport, and then being threatened with arrest… F all those people. Good little Germans, every one of them.
matt
@trollhattan: weird positive spinning about it fulfilling a campaign promise.
scav
@George: No, you’re not in my brain, reading my thoughts. I can just recognize the difference between the halls of congress and a mid-scale unofficial venue where people come for primal screams and photos of puppies. What the jackals do elsewhere is probably of far more consequence. I also don’t believe in any one holy and unique way to deal with this crisis so am rather in favor of everybody grabbing whatever weapon works best for them and not micro-managing others.
Citizen Alan
@different-church-lady: Is he taking a job in the Trump administration? Seems like he’d fit right in.
lowtechcyclist
@trollhattan:
This! There just aren’t enough deaths in the U.S. for tens of millions to have been killed by fentanyl.
(In 2022, 3.28 million Americans died, and – big surprise! – the vast majority of them were old, and dying of old-age-type causes. Glad to see they haven’t totally shut down the CDC website.)
Citizen Alan
That’s actually not a good example because the fact that handling raw chicken can make you sick is something that requires at least a grade school education. The fact that steak or tuna tartare is perfectly safe (if properly prepared) and chicken or pork tartare is wildly unsafe is not something that would be immediately obvious to an ignorant person no matter how much “common sense” they had.
Citizen Alan
@Stella: Can we compromise and refer to Trump and other Republicans as “it.” I mean, it’s not like they’re actually humans.
Craig
@George: ok, who is the enemy? What are we to do?
Sister Golden Bear
@Kelly: As a FAA-license drone pilot I hope they throw his ass in jail and hit him with the max $75,000 fine, in addition to the restitution costs.
FYI, the article mentions they were blaming DJI’s (now discontinued*) geofencing for not stopping him from flying the drone there. That’s neither a legit excuse nor a legal defense. It’s the pilot’s responsibility to check if they’re allowed to fly — and at that point the FAA had issued TFRs (no fly zones) over the area, which I believe included the launch point itself. Plus he flew the drone beyond visual line of sight, which is another major violation of regulations. Not to mention the utter stupidity of flying into an active firefighting area.
*DJI started this years ago, but discontinued it because there’s now several FAA-approved apps you can use to see if it’s permissible to fly in a certain area and to obtain air traffic control approval if needed.
@trollhattan: The wreckage found within the wing was mostly intact, including the part of the fuselage where the serial number is. To fly a DJI drone you need to register it with DJI (so the controller works), so it was only a matter of time before they found him.
Also, if you have a drone pilot license then the drone is required to be registered with the FAA and have the reg number displayed on the drone itself. Although I’m guessing this idiot probably was a non-licensed recreational flier. (If he was licensed, I’m sure it’s not been revoked.)
FWIW, the Mini 3 Pro also comes with the required “remote ID” which squawks the identify of the drone and the location of the remote controller, albeit the range is pretty limited and unlikely to be heard unless someone is listening for it. (This is different than the squawk IDs used by airplanes.) Technically, this only is required if the drone is >249g (e.g. if you added an extended range battery), but I’m guessing that it’s always on.
Sister Golden Bear
@trollhattan:
The FAA has specific rules about drone “operations over people” which get more and more stringent based on weight classes, for good reason.
Personally, I’d love to see the FAA create some different categories of overall drone regulations based on weight, like some other countries do.
That said, it’s only going to be professionals flying 55-pound drones, which are hella expensive, so they’re unlikely to do something stupid where they’d collide with a plane. Drones are also normally limited to flying no more than 400 feet (with a few exceptions) and helicopters/airplanes normally can’t fly less than 500 feet, except for take offs and landings. This separation of traffic by the FAA is very intentional.
Sister Golden Bear
@rikyrah: Yes, that’s a thing. Last week, I heard reports of trans people being told discretely by officials at passport office not to submit their passport applications because they’d been ordered to seize their passports and supporting documentation, e.g. birth certificates, etc.
Kelly
@Sister Golden Bear: You commented last night regarding the DCA collision about how an oncoming airplane can appear motionless if it’s coming straight at you. I had that happen once in my backyard. What appeared to be a star grew rapidly brighter while holding still until it turned and entered the PDX flight pattern. For 10 to 20 seconds I thought I was watching a supernova.
lowtechcyclist
@George:
I’m not asking for a lick of extra effort from them. Because it’s just as easy to vote ‘no’ as to vote ‘yes.’
If Senators can’t even vote ‘no’ on some POS nominee that has no business in the post he’s being nominated for, then why should they expect any resistance from the rest of us? If they can’t set that much of an example, well, fuckem.
They should vote the same way they’d have voted if this was any other nominee for a Cabinet position in any other Administration. It seems pretty clear to me that they’ve thrown standards out the window because there are so few non-shitty nominees.
lowtechcyclist
@Steve LaBonne:
If they do have legal authority, then they still need to demonstrate that in a satisfactory way. When I was a Federal employee, I would have had no idea whether someone from OPM had the right to come in and start asking me questions. I would have needed to hear it from someone in my chain of command.
Or most agencies have an office of the General Counsel, they could have stopped by that office and gotten them to send out an all-staff memo saying that [list of persons] are on the premises and have the right to ask you questions, which you must answer to the best of your ability.
But if they’re bypassing all that, I’d be calling security on them.
lowtechcyclist
@Citizen Alan:
No. Dehumanization is always wrong.
“Sin is treating people as things.” – Terry Pratchett
rikyrah
@scav:
Gonna say this again…
The fentanyl thing is a ruse. A trojan horse. Complete bullshyt.
If we take military action against Mexico, it’s because of the NATIONALIZED LITHIUM DEPOSITS.
700 BILLION DOLLARS WORTH.
TONYG
When they bitch and moan about DEI they’re really complaining about negroes and bitches taking jobs that belong to Good White Men. It’s not difficult to figure that out.
DAstronomer
Point of order (that likely has already been made but this is comment #141 and I can’t be buggered to check): DEI in many cases has the force of statute, whereas EOs are not laws passed by Congress.
Checkmate?
bluefoot
No, it’s not a joke, nor will it become one for the same reason non-white people rightfully fear for their lives every time they encounter law enforcement in any capacity. Or why a POC can have a hard time renting or buying a home or getting a job, or any number of actual, real world experiences.
Real people, whole classes of real people will be harmed and are being legally treated as or made as less than full humans. These are people lives and livelihoods being affected, and infrastructure and laws that protect people so that they can live is being erased. It’s not funny at all.
bluefoot
@Sister Golden Bear: Holy shit. That’s the first step to actually disappearing people a la Argentina back when: no papers, no legal existence, no protection.
bluefoot
@Sister Golden Bear: I will let my nibling know. They are a non-binary, trans, mixed race young person, living in a red-to-purple area. I worry about them constantly now.
bluefoot
@bluefoot:
Miss Bianca
@Sister Golden Bear: fucking ORDERED to seize trans peoples’ paperwork?!
WeimarGerman
CDC used to publish enhanced Census data to make it easier to identify communities that need extra help in natural disasters (Social Vulnerability Index). It’s just economic status of a Census Tract plus minority population ranked across the USA. It was built for FEMA so they would have an idea of how much stuff to stockpile for hurricanes.
Well that’s missing now. They also removed the Environmental Justice Index.
Use the Wayback Machine if you need any Federal data.
Archon
Let’s be honest, alot of white folks will accept all kinds of corruption and incompetence in the name of white supremacy. The idea that black people won’t be able to get a federal or Corporate josb that isn’t cleaning the Capitol building or that anybody who looks latino will be harassed by ICE agents is worth more expensive eggs and America’s standing in the world collapsing.
Kayla Rudbek
@WeimarGerman: we’re going to be relying on the Waffle House index instead of the federal data
George
@lowtechcyclist:
A “no” vote really doesn’t do a damned thing. It is symbolic, but for what? It has no impact unless a nominee is defeated. Let me know the next time a FFOTUS nominee gets confirmed with a Democrat providing the winning margin.
And if you think that a senator who does not cast a “no” vote cedes the right to be supported, well, I can’t help you. Your attitude is one of the problems Americans face as we confront FFOTUS and his monkeys.
Any effort spent complaining that “Democrats aren’t doing enough,” or a variation thereof, is effort that should be focused on shining daylight on the GOP underworld. One hundred percent of the Republicans who vote to confirm the nominees are the problem.