To recap some of the morning headlines …
- The market is discovering that Trump might be crazy.
- Where is the Tuft’s student who was unlawfully grabbed off the streets of Massachusetts by masked strangers and flown to Louisiana where she has been held ever since.
- The financial world is emerging as a powerful and perhaps unexpected player in our opposition movement.
- The Dow is headed for the worst April since 1932.
- Stopping Trump’s Sabotage
- $3 billion yanked from schools to help pay for Trump’s tax cuts
A breath of fresh air …
My favorite line in the clip: I haven’t seen anybody with a rap sheet that looks like the President’s.
I’m glad SCOTUS stepped in & stopped that plane from taking off.
Deporting folks with no record & no due process isn’t justice—it’s cruelty.
Meanwhile, the Republicans follow a convicted felon like he’s the Second Coming.
You can’t scream “law & order” while breaking the law at every turn.
— Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (@repjasmine.bsky.social) April 19, 2025 at 11:50 AM
What can we do?
- Call your elected officials every damn day
- Take care of ourselves and others
- Fight for our future
Something you can do right now!
Read the details in yesterday’s post, and – if you can afford it – donate to this effort to help do for the PA Supreme Court what we did for the WI Supreme Court just last month.
Exciting New Effort, With An Eye Toward the PA Supreme Court Retention Election In November
We have an external match from The Civics Center and an Angel match from frosty!
frosty will match up to $50 per person, up to a total of $1,000. To be matched, tell us about your donation in the comments or by email.
The Match Starts Now!
.
WaterGirl
We have an external match from The Civics Center and an Angel match from frosty!
frosty will match up to $50 per person, up to a total of $1,000. To be matched, tell us about your donation in the comments or by email.
Your donation + frosty’s Angel match + external match = 4x your donation
Example: Your donation ($50) + frosty’s Angel match ($50) + external match ($100) = $200
The Match Starts Now!
WaterGirl
Heading out to pick up my little Henry, but I’ll be back in 20 minutes or so.
neldob
donated 50 bucks.
Wapiti
In for $50. Thanks, WG and Frosty!
Ceci7
Donated $25. Thank you, organizers!
Bupalos
Increase your investment and participation in the things you care most about, which bring you joy and make you you. The authoritarians push fear and spectacle and seek to convince you that things are already ruined. It’s designed to pry you away from your real life and the sources of your strength as an individual.
ExPatExDem
If approached by ICE agents: Do not exit your home or vehicle. Ask to see a warrant. If they have none, tell them you have nothing to say, close the door to your home, or drive your vehicle away from them.
If they attempt pursuit, drive to your local police station and tell them that ICE agents are attempting to detain/arrest you a without warrant, legal process, or probable cause, in violation of your state’s laws against false imprisonment and kidnapping.
Then let them explain themselves to the local PD.
cmorenc
When you have lost the Wall Street Journal and the confidence of the business community in Trump’s alleged abilities as a “business” person to manage the economy
When you are losing confidence of the majority of citizens outside the hard-core MAGA cult that Trump is fairly targeting people who illegally crossed the border for expulsion rather than foreign nationals legally resident here due to speech or race or xenophobia
When a solid majority of citizens have come to the realization that Trump’s policies, especially tariffs are making things across the board substantially more, not less expensive even though reducing inflation aka “eggs” was his major selling point other than controlling the border
When a majority of people have lost faith in the security of their retirement, whether via 401ks or Social Security, and that was supposedly one of Trump’s selling points
A bit speculative, but a reasonable speculation: to what extent is Trump losing support within the Armed Services outside the Enlisted MAGA-leaning demographic. At what point do the numbers of young men ambitious to become SEALS drop off because of reluctance to undergo hardship and lethal risk in service to a leader who is incompetent and insane?
jlowe
What can we do? Stop reading (or at least finding an archival app and stop paying to read) the idea-policing New York Times. For example, their Earth Day, “What’s the Best Thing I can Do for the Planet” article with a bunch of “individual responsibility” ideas such as buying a f*&king heat pump and eating less meat. Nothing at all about voting all Republicans out of office, reforming the electoral process, taxing billionaires into penury and prosecuting Administration officials and corporate executives for crimes against humanity and nature. Thanks NYT!
The other Bob
Is the language around “Due Process” too obscure? I wonder if we should be saying: “The constitution requires accusations to be proven in court.” or “Everyone has the right to their day in court.”
the pollyanna from hell
Bad taste has been my salvation. The local pastor implied that lamentations for victims of USAID destruction would be in bad taste. I started having dreams of ugly jokes against the evangelical movement, and though I still woke up sad and weeping, at least I woke up early and energized.
jonas
Not sure that’s great advice in a lot of places. In my neck of the woods, the local cops would be more than happy to hand you over to ICE if they read you as a non-citizen.
The other Bob
At which point the local PD will arrest you and turn you over to ICE.
Jackie
@ExPatExDem: And hope local police aren’t MAGA supporters.
H.E.Wolf
Called the local offices of my US Rep and my 2 US Senators.
Requested addresses for the current GOTV postcard campaign in FL. (In honor of our FL jackals, of whom there are many!)
Went out and enjoyed the signs of spring in the garden and in the neighborhood.
We can do the work AND take joy in the world around us.
ExPatExDem
@The other Bob: It’s a gamble, but a better option than hoping ICE acts reasonably and doesn’t disappear you
If you have a lawyer on speed dial who can meet you there, better still.
jonas
All the tax cuts and deregulation in the world can’t make up for a bunch of economic chaos and unpredictability. These jackasses blew up the world economy in 2008 with their greed and myopia and they did it again now by willingly going along with the delusion that Trump would be good for the economy. I’m remembering back to that great photo of an Occupy Wall Street protest back during the mortgage crisis where someone was waving a sign up at some corporate tower reading “Jump, You Fuckers!” That’s about where I’m at now, too.
ExPatExDem
That’s where I’ve been for the whole of my adult life. One long series of crashes and recessions.
Geminid
Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts graduate student, is still in a Louisiana prison. On Friday a federal judge in Vermont ordered that Ozturk be returned to Vermont by May 1. I think that’s the date he set for the next hearing on her request for bail.
VFX Lurker
In for $50. Thank you, WaterGirl and frosty.
Professor Bigfoot
@ExPatExDem: The local PD ain’t your friend, friend.
They’re all part of the “thin blue line” and will happily let ICE carry you away. And pat themselves on the back for their patriotic actions.
Wolvesvalley
Here’s another $50. :-)
Juju
@the pollyanna from hell: The local evangelicals, for a group that professes to be prolife, seem pretty content to let people die of starvation and diseases that have life saving treatments.
Juju
@ExPatExDem: Have you seen the videos of ICE agents breaking car windows to get into vehicles?
scav
@Juju: Breed ’em, birth ’em and Kill ’em young and fast in order to maximize angel thruput. This life don’t count.
Bupalos
@jlowe: it’s a personal responsibility question and a personal responsibility answer. You prefer to read about things that you can’t personally do, which focuses on the part of the equation dealing with external blame. Which is how we tend to be.
Taking personal action like fucking heat pumps changes the infrastructure around democratic change. One of the reasons we can’t elect Democrats is because of our fossil fuel addiction. Megan Thee Horseylady summed up the incoherence forced on the Democratic Party by our individual ongoing choices to structure our individual lives within fossil fuel infrastructure: “Kamala gettin ready to lower these gas prices.” That got the biggest cheer.
Get a fucking heat pump and a fucking EV and stop eating fucking red meat. That is more effective action both individually and in terms of democratic infrastructure than making consumerist choices on opinion consumption.
jonas
@Juju: When a lot of evangelicals read the story of the Good Samaritan, it seems they think it’s the priest and Levite who did the right thing, not the bleeding heart wussy lib Samaritan.
They Call Me Noni
@The other Bob: And remind them that even before we had a constitution John Adams set the example for due process.
Baud
Hasn’t it always been burning since the world’s been turning?
Westyny
In for $50.
WaterGirl
@Wapiti: @Ceci7: @neldob: @VFX Lurker: @Wolvesvalley:
Big thanks for the donations. Together you totaled $225, which means $1,000 for The Civics Center!
WaterGirl
@Baud: Not like this, it hasn’t!
WaterGirl
@Westyny: Thank you!
Citizen Alan
@Juju: The thing you have to understand about fundie opposition to abortion is that it has NOTHING to do with being “pro-life.” Outside of the narrow arena of abortion law, nowhere will you see a fundie arguing for or against any policy on the basis that it will preserve life, not even with regard to policies that might reduce maternal mortality, infant mortality, and miscarriage rates.
They don’t like to admit it because they’re embarrassed by what it says about them and their religion, but the entirety of the religious argument against abortion really comes down to one thing: Eve ate the apple. And in response, God became angry and declared that women shall bring forth children in pain. That’s it. That’s the core of fundie anti-abortion thinking. That God created pregnancy for the express purpose of punishing and torturing women for Eve’s sin.
And consequently, anything which lessens the punishment and torture of women via pregnancy — abortion, birth control, the morning after pill, basic sex education, or even easy access to divorce laws so a wife can get away from an abusive husband before there are any kids in the picture to complicate things — is contrary to God’s will and must be opposed. Hell, some of them argue against epidurals!
WaterGirl
Did anyone watch the short Jasmine Crockett clip? Inspirational.
Citizen Alan
@jonas: In my experience, they read the story of the Good Samaritan and interpret it to mean that they should not be bigoted against people just for being from Samaria. Any other kind of bigotry is still acceptable.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Good morning (or afternoon in the East) all. In for $100.
Baud
@Citizen Alan:
Ugh. People from Samaria are the worst.
Leto
@cmorenc:
Trump Says Egg Prices ‘Getting Too Low’ Ahead of Easter Surge
He’s Just so fucking stupid.
WaterGirl
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Thank you!
WaterGirl
@Leto: Would it be wrong for me to make this a rotating tag?
Bupalos
I guess I now better do a disclaimer like “in a lot of ways he is” or something before I do one of my takes like what follows, because they generally seen to offend consensus…
But Trump isn’t just being “stupid” when he says this kind of thing with the eggs being cited. This has echos of “we don’t want high bread prices and we don’t want low bread prices, we want national socialist bread prices.” I mean I understand that it’s outside an assumed political dynamic that we seem to insist is eternal and operative despite constantly being shocked…. but consider that Trump may understand the political currents at work in the United States better than we do.
Or I guess if we can’t yet “go there” with the idea that this guy does have more and different things going on in that head of his than the “I say what I think” deal that he portrays… Maybe at least let’s think about how he’s an unconscious lump of dumb that just naturally happens to fit perfectly with his political time.
Memory Pallas
Just donated $100.
Geminid
U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens just announced she’s running for Senate in Michigan, to succeed Gary Peters. At age 41, Rep. Stevens is the oldest of three announced candidates. Abdul El-Sayid, a former Detroit public health director, is 40 years-old and State Senator Malory McMorrow is 38.
JimV
Donated $100.
WendyBinFL
In for $50. Thanks, Watergirl! Thanks Frosty, you’re truly an Angel! Stay Frosty!
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
In for $50.
JWR
Kill the leakers! Kinda funny how the story doesn’t quite follow the headline.
WaterGirl
@Memory Pallas: @JimV: @WendyBinFL: @Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride:
The 4 of you together makes $1k for The Civics Center.
Thank you so much!
Matt McIrvin
@Citizen Alan: They fail even that way (most of the people there now are Palestinian).
They Call Me Noni
@WaterGirl: Yup.
skerry
Just put in $50
WG, thanks for your work in finding these groups and thanks to Frosty too
They Call Me Noni
@WaterGirl: Best thing to come out of Texas since smoked brisket!
sab
@ExPatExDem: My local police department is urban and has no precincts around town. To drive to the police department I would have to park in a downtown parking deck and then cross rhe street and climb many stairs until I enter the 7 story safety building.
Would it work if I drove to a suburban police department? They are more accessible.
sab
@ExPatExDem: I graduated into the Volker Reccesion. Fun times then and now.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: There are still 1500 or so Samaritans living in northeast Israel and just across the Green Line in the West Bank. There was a fairly large poulation of Samaritans going into the Middle Ages, but then they got crosswise with the Ottoman Turks.
Samaritans practice a religion recognizable as Hebraic, with their own version of the Torah and Passover. They are most likely descended from Hebrews who avoided transport by the Assyrians; the so-called “Lost Tribes.”
Someone put out a Samaritan Cookbook a couple years ago. The Times of Israel had a good review. Lots of chick peas and vegetables, not much meat.
WaterGirl
@They Call Me Noni: Agree!
WaterGirl
@ExPatExDem:
Thanks for sharing this. Sounds like people have varying levels of trust for the local police departments, but the rest seems pretty straightforward and I am glad to have read it.
It’s like locks on doors. Someone can break a window to get in, and I guess could bring a saw and saw through the siding or whatever, but if you make it harder for them they may just move on to the next house that’s unlocked.
Not that we want anyone to be picked up illegally like that, but anything to delay and deny is better than nothing.
RevRick
Donated $250
Ann Marie
I just donated $50 to the Civics Center.
WaterGirl
@RevRick: @Ann Marie: Thank you so much!
dnfree
Added $50 and thanks to frosty if the match is still going.
WaterGirl
@dnfree: Yes, the Angel match is still going, so thanks to frosty, your $50 turned into $200!
We are ~ 2/3 of the way toward frosty’s $1k Angel match.
$325 left on the frosty Angel match!
MJN
Donated $50. Thanks, frosty!
WaterGirl
@MJN: Thank you!
Denali5
@Juju: I read that those window-breakers were not ICE agents but vigilantes. I am not sure what to believe anymore.
Gloria DryGarden
That is wild! Each line of it, separately, is worthy of discussion. I lament for the victims of USAID destruction, but I also lament that this is the thinking of local pastors anywhere.
Embra
I put $50 in.
WaterGirl
$225 left on the frosty Angel match!
lowtechcyclist
Just put $50 in the pot.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: Much appreciated!
With the Angel match, that’s $200!
:: cha-ching :: :-)
WaterGirl
$125 left on the frosty Angel match!
WaterGirl
@Embra: ooh, I missed you earlier!
Thank you, that’s $200!
WaterGirl
.
Kayla Rudbek
@Citizen Alan: yes, I finally realized this year that the vast majority of the forced-birthers are eugenicist hypocrites (they are pro-life until and unless the kid can inherit a genetically caused disability). I can count the numbers otherwise that I personally know on the fingers of one hand, and I am an alumna of Catholic grade school, college, and law school.
Temp Decloaked Lurker
$50 contributed.
mvr
Just threw in $50.
WaterGirl
@Temp Decloaked Lurker: @mvr:
Thank you! You both caught the tail end of frosty’s Angel match!
WaterGirl
frosty’s Angel match is complete!
Thank you frosty! And thanks to everyone who donated.