Remember when Naomi Wolf came out as a right-wing kook, and people kept confusing Naomi Klein for Wolf, giving the Good Naomi misdirected grief online? I still recall this rhyme when I see one of their names:
If your Naomi be Klein
You’re doing just fine
If your Naomi be Wolf
Oh buddy, big oof
It was sort of like what happened to a left-learning journalist named Matt with a surname similar to Gaetz on Twitter. Anyway, on Bluesky, Naomi KLEIN shared a theory on why the kleptocrats are attacking science:
This is, in large part, pandemic revenge.
As far as these oligarchs are concerned, all science does is tell them stuff they cannot do.
They can’t keep spewing carbon.
They can’t keep businesses open as usual when millions are dying.
They have concluded that research is the enemy of profit.
— Naomi Klein (@naomiaklein.bsky.social) April 1, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Here’s the content in the embedded images in case you don’t want to/can’t leave the boat: (Source)
MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN: The mass culling of the labor force of the Department of Health and Human Services began on Tuesday morning. And early indications are that it’s a bloodbath.
Multiple officials who work in the department told The Bulwark that entire offices were being eliminated. Much of the focus appeared to be on the administrative side of things. But not all of it. We were sent an email, for instance, that Vence Bonham, the acting deputy director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, told colleagues this morning that he had been “unexpectedly” placed on administrative leave. He had a 20-year career as a researcher and leader at NIH. Within a few moments, it was gone.
To get a fuller sense of the despair, head over to the NIH’s Reddit forum; or the HHS forum. It’s bleak. That’s what happens, we suppose, when a weeks-old administration decides that it will eliminate 10,000 full-time employees from one of its most critical departments.
Elsewhere in HHS, another email we were sent shows that people put on leave were told they would no longer have access to their buildings starting today. That today happened to be April Fools was treated as a nice little sadistic touch. Was this a ruse?
Of course not. In fact, quite the opposite. Colleagues said they were spending their mornings fielding distraught emails and calls from friends whose lives had been upended, while simultaneously checking their own inbox to see if the ax would drop on them.
“These were dream jobs,” one told The Bulwark. “And these jobs are tough to get. I hate what will happen to science and health care and education . . . for all of it for the coming decades.”
—Sam Stein
Rings true as at least part of the explanation. Like many here and elsewhere have said, the pandemic changed society in ways we haven’t yet processed. I didn’t expect U.S. scientific leadership and innovation to be among the pandemic’s casualties, but I probably should have.
Open thread.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
My wife started her day telling me the nightmare news from HHS. She is a specialist in medical communication and worked for a while in HHS doing communication. She told me this morning that as of today there are no medical communication staff at HHS. The entire specialty is gone.
I keep thinking about WW2. Europe eventually rebuilt but it took decades. I do believe this nightmare will end, but we will be dealing with the organizational equivalent of bombed-out craters in our government for decades. I don’t in fact expect to live to see all the damage repaired.
But maybe, just maybe, the Confederacy will finally die in those same bombed-out craters. And in the long run, that’s a positive. The slave states have been a cancer on our culture and our country since colonial days.
Trollhattan
Institutional memory is people and booting all these people removes the very beating heart of their organizations.
I know federal employees who hung on by their fingernails four long years of Trump 1.0. This time they’re chopping those fingers right off. We’ll all emerge poorer, dumber, sicker.
The Unmitigated Gaul
“These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.”
ExPatExDem
There is going to be a big brain drain from the US over the next 4 years, and we’ll feel the effects of it for a decade or more.
Steve LaBonne
Brainworm really will reduce chronic illness! As life expectancy plummets due to the virtual abolition of public health services and research and to our food and medicines becoming increasingly unsafe, fewer people will live long enough to suffer from chronic diseases.
Tom Levenson
@ExPatExDem: if it’s only a decade we’ll have gotten off way more lightly than I expect.
Steve LaBonne
@Trollhattan: And completely friendless in the world.
Steve LaBonne
@ExPatExDem: Much longer than that.
Steve LaBonne
By the way Cheryl Rofer has a good post on the HHS massacre over on LGM.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
Longer than a decade or more?
What’s longer than more?
ExPatExDem
@Tom Levenson: I’m being optimistic.
Honestly, I think prospective students/researchers/skilled workers are going to be very slow to trust the U.S. again, if ever.
Belafon
@ExPatExDem: There are smart people here. If we can recover properly, we can find people to continue the work.
If the roof gets torn off of a building, but we’re not allowed to rebuild it, then it is unusable. If the building gets destroyed, but we have the ability to clear the rubble and rebuild, the new building can used fairly quickly to restart what was going on before.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: I mean that a single decade is way too short to be a realistic lower bound.
Steve LaBonne
@Belafon: What first rate people will ever again take those jobs and do the heavy labor of rebuilding agencies that took many years to build, knowing they could be back in the shit in four short years? As long as the Republican Party remains both ultra-right and electorally viable, we will never even begin to recover.
ExPatExDem
@Belafon: I agree in part. But part of what has kept the US a superpower has been our ability to attract the best minds from around the world to study, work, and live here.
We’re watching that get strangled. And once it’s gone, there’s no guarantee that it will ever come back.
Baud
According to my news feed, the NYT has the story of a black progressive who is now a conservative star after watching Prager U videos.
Belafon
I do wonder if this will lead to even more distributed research, so that no individual location going down costs more than a small disruption. Yes, it’s harder to replace the Einstein, the Katherine Johnson, or Katalin Karikó, but it’s also not great when entire sections of research disappear.
Steve LaBonne
@Belafon: Most of modern science simply can’t be done that way.
noncarborundum
@Baud:
Much more.
thruppence
I intend to be at the protest on Saturday, but one of this administration’s bedrock principles is revenge. I don’t think it’s paranoid to assume they are filming these protests and using facial recognition software to target people. Wear a mask! Probably not a bad idea at any rate in a huge crowd.
Jerry
From the Tech Dirt blog:
Jon Stewart And Ezra Klein Help GOP Paint Infrastructure Bill Broadband Grants As A Useless Boondoggle
Belafon
@Steve LaBonne: That’s partially what factors into my rebuilding idea. It’s not really rebuilding if all the next Democrats are able to do is reopen the agency. It’s going to require shutting down the ability to do what DOGE is getting away with.
You are correct. My point was that it doesn’t have to be decades, but, to borrow my analogy, I think we’re more likely to recover if people see it all destroyed than if it’s only partially affected. We’ve gone too long with Democrats only having the ability to make small fixes before Republicans are allowed to destroy more.
Scout211
I’m also concerned that corporate America is waiting in the wings to snap up all the brilliant medical researchers and providers to pad their for-profit medical and pharmaceutical industry in order to boost their corporate profits and pad their investors’ portfolios. All, of course, on the government dime, grants being awarded to the highest bidder.
They (the fired health workers and medical researchers) are all vulnerable right now and most probably can’t just leave the country. The jobs will be there but they will be corporate.
I hope this does not happen.
Belafon
@Steve LaBonne: No, we can’t distribute a fusion reactor. So part of the damage is going to be the pace of discoveries.
Doug R
@thruppence:
We never stopped wearing masks indoors and NOW there’s measles.
Belafon
@Scout211: There are so many sci-fi novels based on that outcome.
thruppence
Measles and weasels.
Old Man Shadow
“How dare scientists and doctors try and make us care about other people’s well-being!”
Fuck me…
But let’s never forget, people, we’re a pro-life, Christian nation!
The aristocrats!
Steve LaBonne
@Belafon: You also can’t put Katalin Kariko in a lab by herself and expect any results. She was part of a large multinational effort and she required the resources and collaborators only available at a major academic medical center.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of weasels, Politico says Mitch McConnell is the 4th Republican who intends to support Senator Kaine’s bill to undo Trump’s tariffs on Canada. The other three are Murkowski, Collins and Paul. [Source]
Buckethead
The good Naomi wrote a pretty good book, Doppelganger, about the confusion between her and bad Naomi.
Belafon
@Betty Cracker: Would this be a law that Trump could veto assuming it got through the House or is this the Senate doing its job?
Baud
@Belafon:
Yes.
Danielx
OT: may have been noted already, but RIP Val Kilmer.
I’m your huckleberry…
Princess
I have no great love for Naomi Klein but it’s true, Naomi Wolf is of a different order.
Anyway, my personal view is that Klein’s analysis is off here. I don’t think big corporations are the engine behind the destruction of the US’s financial and research infrastructure. I think Musk, Thiel, RFK etc want to kill a lot of people. I think they want a much much more lower population world, that they run. There’s no room for big companies that make cars or iPhones or sell actual medicine in that world. The big corps maybe see this benefiting them in the short term but they haven’t thought the consequences through yet.
The one thing that nobody mentions is that, um, the States is not the only country that does medical research. Beyond your borders, the rest of us will still believe in germ theory and controlled drug testing. This is not the end of medicine; only the end of medicine in the US.
Gloria DryGarden
@Betty Cracker: vamos a ver, entonces.
Steve LaBonne
@Belafon: The previous mechanism to disapprove the tariffs without needing Trump’s signature was killed by a little noticed provision slipped into the continuing resolution.
Eolirin
@Scout211: NIH grants to universities for basic research did a lot to drive private sector pharma research. Gutting all of that effectively kills a massive subsidy to that industry, and it won’t be made up for by putting more highly qualified people into the labor market driving down labor prices.
It might be made up for by getting rid of FDA approvals processes, but then we won’t be able to trust that new medicines won’t kill us, and over the long term the industry will die here, as no one will want to take any newer medications.
lou
The newest outrage: It looks like the African American History Museum is going to be destroyed. The curator is on “indefinite leave” since March 14.
They’re claiming it isn’t related to Trump’s orders about the Smithsonian. Yeah, right.
Chief Oshkosh
@Scout211: Eh…some of that will happen if only because there is a lot of movement back and forth between academia and industry already, something that has grown since the early oughts. However, there’s very little appetite in industry to conduct basic research, and even most translational research (focusing here on biomedical research). Industry can schlepp along for a while on basic findings that haven’t been exploited yet, but I’m guessing within 5 years the pickings will be slim to none.
Lobo
@thruppence:
Great theme about the current environment.
Steve LaBonne
@Chief Oshkosh: Which is why I really don’t understand why the CEOs of these companies aren’t shouting from the rooftops.
WaterGirl
I used to have trouble with Joe RogAn and Seth RogEn. Then someone suggested the A is for Asshole and the E is for entertainer. Helped a lot!
Betty Cracker
@Belafon: Good question. From what I’ve read, I think shitgibbon could veto it (assuming the resolution makes it through the House). But it’s probably worth doing anyway because it questions Trump’s bogus use of emergency powers to place tariffs against Canada, and Trump is throwing a tantrum about the four Repub senators, and any strife within the shitshow party is good.
TONYG
@Steve LaBonne: That’s a good point. In the 19th century (the era that our plutocratic masters are intent on restoring) most people didn’t have the “luxury” of dying in their sixties from heart disease or cancer. Instead many of them died by age 35 or 40 from contagious diseases or workplace accidents. That is the world that they want us to go back to.
Gretchen
You couldn’t have predicted it because it doesn’t make any sense. This doesn’t benefit anyone who doesn’t want America destroyed.
A lot of the fired are older, late-career people. If someone loses their job in their 50s, chances are that they will never again get a comparable job.
thruppence
Measles and self righteously rabid weasels. Make Rabies Great Again!
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I wonder if Booker may have inspired some Senators to stand up.
A girl can dream, anyway. And hope.
WaterGirl
@Steve LaBonne:
That’s too many negatives for me. Was a good provision or bad provision slipped into the CR?
Gretchen
I don’t understand how they can get away with just clawing back money that’s already been appropriated and contracts signed. In what world does “I’ve decided not to give you the money I promised” work?
WaterGirl
@Gretchen: Trump’s world, for his entire life.
Doug R
So apparently that Trump announcement is delayed from 3pm EDT to 4pm, right after the stock market closes…
Betty Cracker
@Princess: If your theory is correct, Musk and other tech-bro Yarvinites who publicly obsess about falling birthrates have been pulling off a deep con for many years. You may be onto something with RFK Jr., who totally has a serial killer vibe.
Also, just want to note that I said “U.S. scientific leadership and innovation” are on the verge of collapse because of the kleptocrats’ vandalism, not medicine everywhere in the world. I am aware that science and medicine occur in other countries.
WTFGhost
Always remember: Trump could have given up his rallies, given a few orders, and sat back, and been a complete fucking hero for just being President during the pandemic, but he chose to kill people, and his fellow Republicans went along with him.
I know it’s a deadly sin to “criminalize policy” but when the policy is directly harming and killing your citizenry, then the policy is criminal. I don’t know why everyone sees this as crazy. What – are they saying Nuremberg-style trials are the only hope for justice when crimes are committed under the color of law?
Yes, this is pandemic revenge, but every single fucking Republican in Congress *owns* this, singularly, by name, by refusing to step up and say “this is a vile act of revenge against an organization that saved human lives that Trump wanted to discard.”
Don’t be cynical and say “of course they won’t denounce it,” because that gives every one of them an excuse to stand behind the cowardice of the many. Say each and every one is a taint-licking coward, they got their nose so far up Trump’s ass.
laura
@Betty Cracker: weasels got the Big Bourbon, Big Fish/Tourism memo.
This Shite-bag administration is obliterating the Biden agenda, the cancer moonshot is especially gutting, and stripping away and suing every entity under the sun to immediately desegregate and return to jim crow. Also, women will be protected whether they like it or not. Cui bono?
Trollhattan
@Buckethead:
+1. Great read, and useful insight into the Bannon World of “questioning everything” that de facto embraces every whacko conspiracy theory with zeal.
I do not know how her brain did not turn into mush after listening to him so much.
Elizabelle
We are living through tragedy disguised as farce.
Steve LaBonne
@Gretchen: The basic principle of Constitutional law known as “who’s going to stop us”? The courts are playing the role of a fire department that arrives after the building has burned to the ground.
Gloria DryGarden
@Betty Cracker: vamos a ver
Steve LaBonne
@WaterGirl: The law that gives the president authority to impose tariffs had a provision that allowed Congress to unilaterally roll them back within a certain time window. Mike Johnson stuck a provision repealing that power into the CR.
Baud
I hope I’m known as the Good Baud.
Professor Bigfoot
@Jerry: Mrs. B has learned to mute the TV when yet another fucking Daily Show ad comes on.
The seething hate I have for that guy– the core of the Sun ain’t got nothin’ on it.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: Good mnemonic!
@Doug R: There’s definitely a shitshow going on behind the scenes there. The blustery moron press secretary whose name I haven’t bothered to memorize (Levy? Leavitt?) released a schedule of the day’s events that included a meeting TODAY to finalize the tariffs.
WTFGhost
@Gretchen: There are processes within the government that allow findings of fraud or misappropriation. It’s assumed that those processes will be run in good faith. However, if run in bad faith, one could cancel contracts en masse with a few strokes of the autopen.
Sometimes, there are mechanisms for correction. For example: every probie in government was told their performance was the reason for their firing. Well, that should become a class action suit, because obviously, poor performance can’t be a cause for dismissal for every single one of them, regardless of ratings, etc.. There, if a judge finds the government acted in bad faith, I don’t think they’re actually allowed to rain down sulfur, but I’ve heard it said that you could mistake the two reactions, sulfur, and what the judge actually did.
But while Republicans act in bad faith, refusing to perform oversight of a lawless President, only people with standing to sue can ask the courts to intrude. “Standing” means that you were harmed, directly, already, by the administration, so, if you were party to a cancelled contract, you could sue, but, you’d need a pro bono lawyer, because the contract probably isn’t worth the legal fees needed to fight the cancellation.
That’s another Trump game – “if they sue, it costs them money! Soon, they’ll take a settlement for pennies on the dollar!” Except, if you’re a battered women’s shelter, you can’t even sue, just hiring the lawyer is probably more than the grant. If you were going to plant trees in urban heat islands, you don’t even call the lawyer who does some pro bono work, you already know the grant money just bought trees, not the labor and effort to get them planted.
Trump likes to hurt people. And Republicans are letting him.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: AFAIK, you’re the Only Baud.
laura
@Betty Cracker: RFK Jr., who totally has a serial killer vibe.
He Is a serial killer. 2019, American Samoa, measles outbreak infecting 5,800 individuals, 83 deaths, 71 among children 15 and younger. His cousin Caroline informed America of his life long history of depravity and cruelty and implored voters to reject the Republican ticket because of the certainty that he would continue to be a depraved and cruel individual, but with a bigger budget and unchecked restraint on his power. This monster is indeed on Main street
In my comment at 55 I erred or was auto corrected, should have read Resegregated, not de. Mea culpa.
Gretchen
@Betty Cracker: They’re worried about the falling birth rate among rich white people. Musk has 14 kids, Kennedy has 6. Rich white people will always have access to the best medical care, even if they have to go to Europe to get it. They just don’t want to spend anything on medical care for the rest of us, the useless eaters.
Aren’t they already trying to establish some sort of rich people towns that are immune to outside labor laws and such, so they can just live there and keep serfs?
Princess
@Betty Cracker: It seems pretty clear to me from Musk’s recent comments about the US’s birth rate crashing which it isn’t., that he’s only concerned with the white birth rate. He doesn’t want to be outnumbered. I think he’d be thrilled with s strong hardy thinned-out by disease survival of the fittest white population that is very small.
Professor Bigfoot
“Fixt.”
rikyrah
MULTIPLE SECURITY BREACHES
National security adviser Mike Waltz’s team regularly set up chats on Signal to coordinate official work on issues including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe, according to four people who have been personally added to Signal chats.
Two of the people said they were in or have direct knowledge of at least 20 such chats. All four said they saw instances of sensitive information being discussed.
It’s a more extensive use of the app than previously reported and sheds new light on how commonly the Trump administration’s national security team relies on Signal.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/02/waltzs-team-set-up-at-least-20-signal-group-chats-for-crises-across-the-world-00266845
Hungry Joe
Fuck RFK Jr. and the worm he rode in on.
rikyrah
Former Costa Rica President Says U.S. Revoked His Visa
April 2, 2025
Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias, a former president of Costa Rica, says the Trump administration has revoked his visa after his public comments critical of President Trump.
Arias, a Nobel laureate, said he was informed of the decision weeks after he had publicly criticised Donald Trump, comparing the behaviour of the US president to that of a Roman emperor.
The 84-year-old, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in brokering an end to conflicts in Central America, said US authorities had given no explanation.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/costa-rican-former-president-oscar-arias-says-us-revoked-his-visa-2025-04-01/
p.a.
One particular court bought the gasoline, rags, and matches. Left them beside the barn and sauntered off saying “sure would be a shame if that got used…”
Trollhattan
@Gretchen:
They’re scary as hell.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ypdy05jl9o
In addition to the above deep dive, BBC did a half-hour interview with a couple enthusiastically plowing forth, with mom being the happy brood mare. Almost literally committed to birthing babies up to death. Love Musk, love Vance, love all the multi-childed people working in the administration.
I was trying to fall asleep listening, and it woke me right the hell up.
rikyrah
Democracy Docket
@DemocracyDocket
NEW: A Maryland federal judge issues a block on the Trump administration, preventing it from firing federal probationary workers en masse in D.C. and 19 states as litigation continues. States not involved in the lawsuit are excluded in this relief. Order:https://hubs.ly/Q03fz68Y0
Trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Beginning to think this Waltz dude might not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier.
rikyrah
Fly Sistah 🪷
@Fly_Sistah
The DNC, Chuck Schumer, & Hakeem Jeffries have filed a lawsuit against Trump for requiring voters to prove they are US citizens, preventing states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day, & threatening to take federal funding away from states that don’t comply.
https://x.com/Fly_Sistah/status/1907436672439976335
rikyrah
Max Tani
@maxwelltani
New: WHCA is considering how it would respond to the White House taking over the press seating chart in the briefing room. One idea: a “sit-in” style protest.
The okayest poster there is
@ok_post_guy
You guys are all fucking pathetic
A sit-in over a seating chart, but not over lawless rendition of green card holders, or mass layoffs, or illegally impounding federal funding and programs
No, a fucking seating chart, and only because it means you’ll be on tv less
https://x.com/ok_post_guy/status/1907433430503330044
rikyrah
Kevin W.
@Brink_Thinker
Seven-yr-old, Ellison, has down syndrome and struggles with sensory overload.
His parents used to dread haircuts until they met Vernon Jackson, a local barber.
Best 30 sec. you’ll see all day.
https://x.com/Brink_Thinker/status/1907130860450549952
rikyrah
Jael Rucker
@RuckerJael
How Come Nobody Ever Apologizes to Michael Jackson: The Sony Feud
The short story is…Michael called out the elites, stood on business, and two decades later, much of what he spoke out against has proven to be true
https://medium.com/@ruckerjael/how-come-nobody-ever-apologizes-to-michael-jackson-the-sony-feud-49d004835eb1
Jael Rucker
@RuckerJael
“The minute I started to break the all time records…I broke Elvis’ records, I broke The Beatles’ records…Overnight they called me a freak, they called me a child molester”
Michael Jackson
https://x.com/RuckerJael/status/1906740627666067929
Trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Talk about horse I’d never ride.
p.a.
Repeating myself from previously, the aim seems to be to turn us into N Korea or Hoxha’s Albania, keeping/scaring foreigners out, as well as (Ming?) China & Tokugawa Japan, which sealed themselves in for among other reasons, feeling “we have nothing to learn from others” to some extent, and “if there is something to learn it threatens the power structure” for others in those societies.
Next step: “real” (white) educated Americans (with no history of political opposition) leaving for meetings, research, symposia etc hassled about going or hassled trying to return. Those with records of opposition… get what the minority & Arab/Iranian/Chinese (social &) science communities are getting now.
Trending towards Aryan physics and socialist genetics, and what successes THEY were.
Trollhattan
2nd most repellant Republican in the land has a thing to say about being repellant.
Martin
@rikyrah: The issue here isn’t that the voters aren’t US citizens. The issue is the proof the federal government is demanding will not be received in good faith.
See: gun permit in TX is valid proof, but public university photo ID where citizenship and residency is scrupulously determined is not valid. Note: US universities are one of THE key enforcement points for the US immigration system. It is wildly inconsistent for the federal government to tell and empower US universities to be the security check to prevent another 9/11, but we don’t trust you guys to identify who can and cannot vote. As if any entity out there is better at it.
WaterGirl
@Steve LaBonne: All I’ve got in response to that (besides thanks for the explanation) is fuck him.
RevRick
@Trollhattan: @The Unmitigated Gaul: @ExPatExDem:
Back in 1995, Umberto Eco wrote an essay, Ur Fascism, having lived under Mussolini’s regime as a boy. He noted that fascism is not a coherent ideology, but it has some common practices and attitudes. Among those he enumerated was an animosity towards education. Since fascist parties favor action above all else, they see debate, reflection, and discussion as enemies of their project. Criticism and demands for accountability are seen as akin to treason.
Consequently, they favor a simpler, more degraded speech. Nuance is beyond their ability or desire, as it gets in the way of action.
There is another reason for their contempt for science and education. Fascisms tend toward hypermasculinity. Education is often seen through this lens as effeminate, not the least because the teaching profession is often dominated by women.
Lastly, as the philosopher Karl Popper pointed out, a key element of the scientific method is falsifiability. By that he meant if a claim is made that cannot be proven false by evidence, then that claim is invalid. Since fascisms are based on all sorts of claims of racial/ethnic superiority and are rife with conspiracy theories, everything about them fails Popper’s test.
Fascism only tolerates science insofar as it serves the purpose of the fascist regime.
schrodingers_cat
Naomi Klein is a left wing crank and makes many assertions based on shaky assumptions and even shakier math. Her writing reminds me of Matt Taibbi’s writing on the 2008 crash when he was a hero of the leftwing blogverse including this blog.
Deputinize America
I’m convinced that our near future is going to be defined massive wealth disparity, penury for the working class, casual racism, brutal (yet forgiven) police and security excesses, diplomatic isolation, all punctuated by military misadventures, waves of communicable disease, multiple financial crises and preventable environmental damage.
In this easily surveillable digital environment, people will have to organize like the Viet Cong, by word of mouth and by paper notes. “Grab them by the belt”, get up close, be invisible.
NotMax
Hey all, I don’t go through every thread so asking whether anyone has seen JAFD commenting of late?
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … ABCNews.go.com:
Interesting.
It’s good that the judge isn’t going along with the Sword of Damocles stuff that 47 wanted. It’s important that the legal system tries to minimize the damage that the monsters are trying to cause…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@NotMax:
Google says not within the last month.
Trollhattan
@schrodingers_cat:
Wrong Naomi. Check your notes.
Belafon
@Trollhattan: It was a choice by everyone to get around things being documented.
Jay
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-officials-object-european-push-buy-weapons-locally-2025-04-02/
FAFO
Baud
schrodingers_cat
@Trollhattan: Nope, I am talking of the Canadian Naomi who writes about disaster capitalism.
jonas
And billions in US aid in the form of the Marshall Plan. When this is all over, the rest of the world will be entirely justified in telling us to go fuck ourselves and never speak to us again. We’ll be picking up the pieces all by ourselves.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: There is good in the world.
WTFGhost
@Betty Cracker: Thank God I’m on broadband, then.
What? One “baud” means one state change per second, when even on cruddy phone lines, they were able to make 33.6kb/s, so on broadband….
Oh. You meant only one Baud. Never mind.
Baud
@NotMax:
Last comment I can find.
https://balloon-juice.com/2024/11/10/sunday-night-open-thread-85/#comment-9427154
Comrade Scott knows him. Maybe he knows where JAFD is.
WaterGirl
@Trollhattan: They create their own reality. This is true of anyone who still considers themselves Republican. They stretch any facts they want, and fabricate others. It’s repugnant.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: I have not. That’s a bit distressing.
Baud
More info in the comments.
WaterGirl
@Jay: Relatedly…
“I beat up my girlfriend. She has no right to date anyone else! Who the hell does she think she is?”
Jay
@WaterGirl:
I think State got the message from the MIC, but didn’t understand the “stop shitposting about some of our best customers” part.
Rubio’s NATO meeting is going to be a shitshow.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: I think you are a crank on the topic of left/progressive perfidy, though you’re reasonable enough on the (increasingly rare) occasions you jump off that tired hobbyhorse. I guess crankdom is in the eye of the beholder. Shruggies.
gvg
@Steve LaBonne: The only thing I can think of is that even the CEO’s don’t know how things really work, which I guess is possible. Or maybe they have been shouting and not been listened to.
It is really hard for rational educated people to believe or guess what these radical Trump crazies will do and what they will only say he will do. He has a history if saying he will do stuff and then not doing it of backing down. If you know anything, you know these actions make America weaker, our power less, costs go up. Before he does them, it seems unlikely. And the threats to Canada and Greenland? Bizarre. He should have been unelectable for even making those comments as a joke, but I can sort of understand people not really believing him about those things. Now a threat to Mexico, yes, he’s always hated them, and frankly so have a lot of Americans (wrongly).
Maybe the CEO’s are scared of him already. Beyond yelling which is likely to be ineffective, there is not a lot they can do yet. Until the real results happen and sink in to enough Voters (which means really bad times happen and don’t get headed off) I am not sure anything can be done. Once the complete bad things are really here, no fooling, then speaking out might suddenly work. Companies that start refusing to give to any Republican who voted for this nonsense and even for some democrats that went along to easily could make an impact. And by companies, I don’t mean just the official giving in the companies name but the really big bucks from all the high earning management and board members, down all the way to average workers….including former workers and stockholders.
As an economic policy Trumps mumbo jumbo is hurting everyone at every level.
I’d like to see some historical cartoons featured in current papers making the points that we have already made these mistakes and been burned. Stuff about anti monopolies and breaking up trusts, and corruptions and tarrifs and the trade wars plus the great depression…..About the know nothings etc.
Lily
Hoping some of the newly unemployed research scientists and gov’t experts, if charismatic and inclined, might consider teaching for awhile in public schools or community colleges that have shortages. Teachers who love their subject shape future opinions.
WTFGhost
@WaterGirl: Sure there is. Every act of service, of kindness, of “love,” or compassion, that’s good in the world.
I hear people say to cultivate “gratitude”. I don’t have a lot I’m thankful for, that I’m grateful for. But that doesn’t mean I can’t cultivate love, or compassion.
My black kitty needs lots of scritches because she has allergies. Forcing myself to give her a long, gentle set of scritches, that’s “good in this world.” The world is a little bit better, because of a choice that I made, to fight back against despair, and try to make the world just a bit better for my being here. It takes real effort to be patient, and kind, with her, because she’s so demanding – but again, that’s what makes it an act of kindness, of real compassion.
I’m used to drowning in horrors, and feeling like everything is going to hell, and there’s no hope in the world. And what I can tell you is, each time you’re kind, or compassionate, or loving, savor that – remember that there is good in the world, and you’re part of it.
It won’t be “enough,” okay? Savoring the good you can do in the world, be it saving a life, or scritching an itchy kitty, that doesn’t remove the horror. It just reminds you there’s something else, that’s not horror, which can ground you – i.e. keep you from flying off into despair too often.
Jay
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/stop-looking-for-methods-in-the-madness
And of course, Krugman posted a screen shot of DJTdiot’s late night Untruth Unsocial post where the Moron claimed there would be tariffs on all those billions of tons of fentanyl being smuggled across the US/Canadian border.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Gloria DryGarden:
From an earlier thread, yes, the lead pipe replacement program the City of Denver did during the Plague Times was the result of one of Biden’s two bills.
Not that anyone knew. Yeah, you could dig into the City’s web site to find a reference to it but that was it.
WaterGirl
@Jay: I assume State is the State Department? Or is that Florida? What is the MIC?
MobiusKlein
@Steve LaBonne:
The CEOs are too busy announcing AI assistants in company all hands that are getting installed on your machines, and when you wake up, make sure to focus on providing value to our customers rather than dwelling on all the confusing news in the headlines.
/not-sarcasm-but-today-for-real
Jay
@WaterGirl:
State Department, Military Industrial Complex.
Lot’s of talk, (and some actual action) in the rest of NATO, SEATO and other US Allies about dumping US Systems, buying from actual Allies and building domestically.
Phylllis
@rikyrah: I’m not cryi…, fuck it, I’m bawling.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jay: Geez. What did they think would happen?
Trollhattan
Big Bear Big Birb nest cam has Floofy Big Birb Chicks this year!
https://www.youtube.com/live/B4-L2nfGcuE?si=iFVNHgKgbT15WU7n
Exciting, since the last couple years they only had eggs.
gvg
@Jay: Oof, you can’t tax smuggling. What a doofus.
I mean sure there isn’t any, but if there was, it doesn’t work that way.
Jay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
There is that word “think” again.
Belafon
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
There you go, using that word again.
gvg
@WaterGirl: Military industrial complex. Old acronym.
Gloria DryGarden
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: pretty happy to had that done. Hope the program can continue…I think it was going to take years to complete
Martin
@Steve LaBonne: Won’t impact the current quarter. They’re not planning on sticking around until the pain hits.
coin operated
@Jay: Boeing and Lockheed are scared shitless.
Barry
@Baud: “According to my news feed, the NYT has the story of a black progressive who is now a conservative star after watching Prager U videos.”
Step 1in the rebuilding plan: find volcano, insert NYT.
Jay
@Lily:
Given the choice between a vow of perpetual poverty, (teaching in the US), a similar position at a Drug Company, a similar position at a Foreign University or Research Org, pretty sure which direction most will choose.
Belafon
@Jay: If they’re given those options.
Jay
@coin operated:
Not scared enough to tell Rubio, Vance, the WhiskeyGate crew to sit down and shut up, and that Rubio, when he is at NATO, he has to ask them nicely to keep buying US gear.
It is going to be an utter shitshow.
rikyrah
@Martin:
I understand all of this. You speak the truth
Jay
@Belafon:
BC’s Ministry of Health is hiring 25 HR people to sort through the roughly 2500 applications from US Doctors and Researchers that have arrived in the last month. Ontario’s Ministry of Health is hiring 120. Looks like Project 2025/DOGEshit may have single handedly solved Canada’s 30 year long healthcare drought.
WaterGirl
The folks destroying the country are most definitely evil. The question is, are they smart enough to draw a dotted line between action and consequence.
You know, like If I’m going to the beach I should probably take sunscreen because I’ll be out in the sun all day and I’ll get sunburn if I don’t.
Like, if my company is coming for dinner to be served at 6:30, I should start the grill at x time.
I am not certain that most of these guys are that smart.
They are looting everything they can without concern for consequences. They think FFOTUS will cover for anything they do.
It’s like the old Ma Bell motto before the breakup.
rikyrah
@Jay:
No.
Go Europe.
Don’t buy another frigging American made weapon.
Belafon
@WaterGirl: I don’t think most conservatives these days can think beyond the first consequence of their actions, even if they get it right.
coin operated
@Jay: I’m willing to bet they did, but Rubio is too stupid to keep his mouth shut. Agree…his meeting with NATO is going to be popcorn-worthy
rikyrah
Yahoo News
@YahooNews
The White House said Wednesday that tech billionaire Elon Musk will stay on to complete his mission to slash government spending and downsize the federal workforce, dismissing media reports that he will leave the role soon.
https://x.com/YahooNews/status/1907528990794867173
me
https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-liberation-day-2a031b3c16120a5672a6ddd01da09933
10% on everyone, 25% on cars, “34% tax on imports from China, a 20% tax on imports from the European Union, 25% on South Korea, 24% on Japan and 32% on Taiwan.”
It’s gonna be a disaster.
frosty
@me: OK but how much is the fentanyl tariff that the smugglers are going to pay?
Trollhattan
@me:
Christ on a cracker. “Why does Trump hate America?”
frosty
@Trollhattan: Because his father humiliated him.
Jay
@frosty:
The smugglers don’t pay, the customers do.
Melancholy Jaques
The American people need to be told that this is what they voted for. They will give the same old grief & excuses, but they need to be told: this is what you voted for.
We need to stop worrying about their feelings getting hurt. They need to hear the truth & somehow have it sink in that they made a serious error when they voted because they don’t like women, or the price of eggs, or because they were uncomfortable with the idea that trans people are human beings entitled to the same things they are.
Obviously some maybe even a majority of Trump voters will say they like whatever happens because they say that no matter what. But there are people who are going to complain & they need to be told straight out: this is because you voted for Trump.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: So, since we’re having to resort to an Americanized version of Kremlinology to parse this administration’s statements and actions…might that mean Elon is actually on his way out?
frosty
@Jay: That’s not what Trump told us yesterday! I’m not gonna try to look it up.
Jay
@me:
Rough numbers are coming in, it’s a $6T tax hike in 2025 alone.
Melancholy Jaques
China is not taking advantage of Americans when they export things here. Americans are taking advantage of Chinese workers who are not paid very well.
Jay
@Miss Bianca:
Nope, the rule is Special Advisors can only serve for 130 days.
When has the Dolt47 Admin ever followed a rule?
rikyrah
Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) posted at 2:53 PM on Wed, Apr 02, 2025:
Georgia House Democrats walk out of the chamber en masse in protest of a Republican-backed bill to block taxpayer funds from being used to pay for gender-affirming care for state prison inmates. #gapol https://t.co/UJsfX9Jm1G
(https://x.com/bluestein/status/1907521761174032779?t=b1fCvFgyXq5bULLcOef3YQ&s=03)
rikyrah
Aaron Fritschner (@Fritschner) posted at 4:02 PM on Wed, Apr 02, 2025:
Russia is not subjected to a tariff by Trump, per this now complete list (threaded below) of countries.
Ukraine’s tariff is 10%.
It’s possible Russia is the only country in the world that Trump didn’t slap tariffs on.
Trump put tariffs on all of America’s allies.
(https://x.com/Fritschner/status/1907539183557828966?t=j4Ja89iHYFFpxB6kgUsgNQ&s=03)
rikyrah
Neil Stone (@DrNeilStone) posted at 2:16 PM on Wed, Apr 02, 2025:
RFK Jr has cut Alzheimers research.
Alzheimers.
One of the most devastating, urgent and increasing health problems we face today.
He’s not interested.
He’s a nasty piece of work.
(https://x.com/DrNeilStone/status/1907512579909628256?t=Rf5w-0_HGxfCnVGDNmR7cg&s=03)
rikyrah
David Frum (@davidfrum) posted at 4:06 PM on Wed, Apr 02, 2025:
Trump is driving the world to a global depression -and destruction of all US influence – using powers delegated to him by Congress. Congress could recall those powers and save everyone from the disaster Trump is determined to inflict
(https://x.com/davidfrum/status/1907540233379279011?t=RogkRz-tjT4sXY-HyBWROA&s=03)
rikyrah
The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) posted at 4:07 PM on Wed, Apr 02, 2025:
The program which helps 9/11 first responders and survivors faces a bleak future after the Trump administration laid off hundreds of staff that oversee it.
https://t.co/DbJiOrJPPe
(https://x.com/thedailybeast/status/1907540340921254164?t=780NzeySo7B8WlsPgdgZuQ&s=03)
rikyrah
Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) posted at 4:02 PM on Wed, Apr 02, 2025:
Trump says these tariffs will raise roughly $6 trillion.
Assuming that’s over a 10-year window, that’s $600 billion per year.
There are 134 million households, so this is about $5,000 per household per year.
And it’s like a sales tax, so it’s a flat tax. A huge hit to the budgets of working- and middle-class Americans.
(https://x.com/JustinWolfers/status/1907539127924335092?s=03)
Chief Oshkosh
@me: No, that’s a 10% BASELINE on everyone. It’s much, much higher for most countries.
It is beyond crazy – it not only completely untethered from reality, it’s even crazy stupid and stupidly crazy in MAGAworld. Krugman got it right: there is no “there” there. There is no hidden evil plan. There is just a crazy old man being allowed to run free. With the nuclear codes in one hand and a tariff-writing pen in the other.
rikyrah
unaffiliated followers of the new democrats (@reesetheone1) posted at 4:02 PM on Wed, Apr 02, 2025:
I worked in factories before I became a operating engineer.
I know folks want the days of working at a factory and making a career out of that that can support a middle class life.
It can happen in Spots…….. but not how it used to be.
A trade war won’t help things.
(https://x.com/reesetheone1/status/1907539258400755992?s=03)
Sister Golden Bear
@Trollhattan: Jackie and Shadow are in the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles. They’re beloved local celebrities since their nest has been live-streamed since 2018.
Local elementary students just picked the names Sunny and Gizmo for this year’s chicks, after a public naming suggestion contest that had 54,000 entries.
rikyrah
check that 401k
Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) posted at 3:57 PM on Wed, Apr 02, 2025:
CNBC anchor: “The market reaction after hours, I’ve never seen anything like, this is worse that the worst case scenario in terms of what the market expected”
(https://x.com/MattZeitlin/status/1907537978664374544?t=Yn_Z8_Wngm7KvoP3BrpBvw&s=03)
Jeffro
It was good! A little longish and meander-y in places, but really good.
I have a guest post about it first-drafted if any mods are interested?
Jeffro
exactly right – CALL CONGRESS! “Do. Your. Job.”
Doc Sardonic
Fuck ‘em they are getting what they voted for. To be a little kinder and gentler, lifting from an old Toyota jingle. They asked for it, they got it.
Jay
https://nitter.poast.org/Fritschner/status/1907547891134042327#
ETA, Belarus is also tariff free.
David Collier-Brown
@rikyrah: Canada is already thinking of switching to the Gripen. My reading is the only reason we chose the F-35 is compatibility with the US.
me
From reddit “According to CNBC correspondent Eamon Javers, Press Secretary Leavitt has confirmed that the 34% China tariff is on top of the previous 20% tariff, meaning it will be a 54% rate on China once implimented.”
Jay
@David Collier-Brown:
We have already signed agreements with the EU for co-production of various weapons systems. Europe’s rearming will pay for a significant portion of Canada’s rearming. Our new fleet of Destroyers have been finalized, made in Canada British hulls, French sensors and weapons.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Lily: Full professors at 4 yr universities make decent money, unlike the folks teaching community college. They’ll take whichever job allows them to pay for their student loans and mortgages. Honestly, some may take overseas offers in order to escape from the burden of those loans.
Jay
@me:
So a new MAGgot hat goes from $25 to almost $40.
Might boost the “I regret DJTdiot” used merch market.
Jay
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
You kinda forgot what is happening to US Universities. They are being gutted too.
Jay
https://nitter.poast.org/ChrisO_wiki/status/1907538280133910930#m
Trollhattan
@Jay:
Guano?
If so, I know where to ship it.
Baud
I’m just glad we were spared from Kamala’s price gouging law.
Baud
@Jay:
Someone used AI to generate a list of world places.
Matt McIrvin
@Princess: Musk has railed about the Great Replacement before–he believes it’s a plot by Democrats to replace white people with guaranteed Democratic votes, from new citizens who he doesn’t regard as legitimate.
Never mind that 2024 is proof that these people aren’t even solidly guaranteed Democratic votes–they’re citizens with free will who need to be courted like any other voters. Republicans will even do that, make the effort to get their votes, and then turn around and sow fear of them to their palest constituents.
West of the Rockies
I hope super smart people are actively figuring out how to make Republicans suffer for this, for the loss to science, public health, the stress and misery they are causing good people, the damage to the economy and our standing in the world.
Make. Them. Pay.
Doc Sardonic
You don’t know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump….Fran Liebowitz
Baud
Apparently, some union people were with Trump today giving him cover, so don’t expect too much immediate opposition lest we get accused of hating working class people.
Baud
Tim Walz says it clear.
prostratedragon
@rikyrah: So someone is doing this deliberately. Or else if you’d thought they’re dumb, incompetent and inept but not astoundingly so, prepare to be astounded.
Geminid
@Jay: The UK has been negotiating a treaty that would transfer sovereignity over Diego Garcia to Mauritius, with the British retaining a 99 year lease on its bases there. This tariff exemption may relate to that in some fishy way.
As you probably know, Diego Garcia has been in the news recently because the US has flown 6 or so B-2 bombers there as part of a force buildup directed at Iran.
Martin
@Jay: Diego García is being returned to Mauritius. The British public are upset because the UK is going to have to pay Mauritius to lease the base, apparently with the US not paying anything. So the British Indian Ocean Territory might stop existing in a matter of months.
Jay
@Geminid:
The only things ever exported from Diego Garcia in the past 50 years were US bombs on Brown People.
different-church-lady
Hey, remember that time when we elected a guy who promised to make us all sick and broke?
Baud
@different-church-lady:
He just put a 25% tariff on owning libs.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Jay:
What a double standard! No tariffs on South Georgia or the South Sandwich Islands!
//
different-church-lady
@Baud: Yeah, but that shit is free.
Geminid
@Doc Sardonic: My Atlanta friend is fairly obsessed with Trump and for a long time he believed as Leibowitz said, that Trump is a stupid man. But recently my friend spent some time watching clips of Trump from the 80s and 90s, and he revised his opinion. He thinks Trump is actually a fairly cunning person.
Intelligence can manifest in different ways, and Trump may have a particular kind: that of the succesful con man and/or demagogue. He may be an incurious and basically ignorant guy, but he is an effective manipulator.
At least, Trump has been up until recently. Now his ignorance and incuriosity may be catching up with him, along with another defect: he’s lazy.
Steve in the ATL
@me:
Good thing General Tso’s chicken is actually American!
Baud
@Geminid:
The results speak for themselves. He knows how to reach people who we would regard as broken. And there are a lot of them.
Geminid
@Jay: Yeah, but there might be some scammy way to attach the tariff exemption to goods that are only nominally of Diego Garcia origin.
Eolirin
Well. I hope we can all weather the upcoming recession and financial panic, especially given the savaging of the safety net.
laura
@rikyrah: Operating Engineers was my last, and absolute best Union. I’m so very proud to have been a Member in good standing and Business Representative and enjoy a pension that I paid into.
Steve in the ATL
@laura: IUOE? I’ve generally had good relations with them. Pretty reasonable.
Liminal Owl
@Gretchen: The world of health insurance, at least when psychotherapists are the providers.
laura
@Steve in the ATL: Yep! As you probably know they are international and have two Crafts, hoist and portable and stationary. The one I worked for and belong to is stationary and you may he familiar with the BOMA contract- a thing of beauty. I worked on the public sector side, not the private sector. Members I represent were blue collar and damn, I never worked so hard and wished there were more hours in the day to sing their praises.
Lily
@Jay: Lots of individual differences. My niece, a research virologist (pathogens incl HIV then Covid; university then corporate, now laid off as fed contracts cancelled) describes a different picture than you.
cain
@Jay:
What is there to warn about? They are already doing tariffs? Fuck em.
Doc Sardonic
@Geminid: Never said he didn’t possess the cunning and talents of a street hustler…..but beyond his area of expertise and experience is a profoundly stupid individual. If he wasn’t stupid he would not have nearly lost Trump National Doral to a mom and pop paint store.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Name calling doesn’t change the facts on the ground.
UncleEbeneezer
I thought this post was gonna be about the amazing Black/Asian-American tennis player Naomi Osaka. She was one of the first sports stars to speak up and refuse to play in the Summer of George Floyd.
Liminal Owl
@rikyrah: That was delightful. Thank you for a lovely start to the morning.
Liminal Owl
@RevRick: Thank you, as usual. Wish I could save this for reference and re-posting.