From CNN.com: Getting paid not to work: Federal probationary workers are being reinstated but put on paid leave

From CNN.com: Getting paid not to work: Federal probationary workers are being reinstated but put on paid leave
Family members of Venezuelan migrants who suspect their loved ones were sent to El Salvador as part of a rapid US #deportation operation over the weekend are struggling to get more info as a legal battle plays out.
Advocates have launched a WhatsApp helpline for people searching for family members, while #immigration attorneys have tried to locate their clients after they went dark.
#law #Constitution #DueProcess #CivilRights #USpol #Trump #AbuseOfPower #AlienEnemiesAct
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/relatives-missing-venezuelan-migrants-desperate-answers-after-us-deportations-el-2025-03-17/
Wouldn't it be great if #US District #Judges:
1. Found #DOJ attorneys in #ContemptOfCourt
2. Referred the DOJ attorneys for #disciplinary action
3. Struck the DOJ attorneys from the Court Rolls where they would no longer be authorized to practice law in their court
#Trump and his minions have shown utter contempt for US #Courts and the #RuleOfLaw at every turn.
It's time for the Courts to fight back! #USpol
In my life, I have personally witnessed the equivalent of a country President getting kicked out of office by the people *twice*. And I'm not even that old.
Do not underestimate the power of large and sustained protests.
You have that power.
#FoodSecurity #gardening #inflation #foraging #NativePlants #DOGE #uspol #usda #food
If you need help gardening/foraging, please feel free to reach out. Tag me with any questions.
We are in this together.
“‘Absolute chaos’ at Department of Agriculture could skyrocket rural grocery prices.”
https://www.rawstory.com/usda-layoffs-doge/
"HUGE red flag moment here by DOGE.
US Institute of Peace is a 501c3 - an independent non-profit entity, not a govt agency.
If DOGE can do this to USIP, what's to stop them from breaking into offices of other NGOs that receive US funds?"
-J Konyndyk
"Happening now at the USIP: "DOGE has broken into our building," acc to USIP Acting President & CEO George Moose."
-E Miolene
Heard about one of the kids' friends (brilliant, straight A student, top notch undergrad from MIT) who just learned they were not accepted into *any* PhD programs -- not because of their qualifications, but because none of the programs feel like they can accept students at this time under the current administration. This is after one my kids is back on the job market, having turned down multiple offers to take a Federal research lab position which also has been cut. #Politics #USpol
Okay, so given Trump's move to undo pardons granted by outgoing US President Joe Biden so he can target DoJ officials who prosecuted him for real crimes he actually committed, and the above-mentioned pattern of Trump's aggrieved fascist ranting transmuting into official, state-recognized reality, while serving to justify oppressive action by the regime, what are we to make of Trump declaring that media outlets that report on him critically, including named organizations MSNBC and CNN, are "illegal" during that same speech at the US Department of Justice? Well, I think for starters it's safe to assume that none of this means *anything* good.
Donald Trump Claims MSNBC And CNN Are ‘Illegal’ In DOJ Speech
"The president gave a speech Friday at the Justice Department railing against news outlets he says have unfairly targeted him.
Trump singled out CNN and MSNBC, which he called “MSNDC,” claiming those outlets “literally write 97.6% bad about me” and are “political arms of the Democrat Party.”
He added, “In my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what they do is illegal.”
Trump then argued that media organizations that report negative things about him “are really no different than a highly paid political operative,” insisting, “it has to stop, it has to be illegal” because “it’s influencing judges and it’s really, eh, changing law, and it just cannot be legal.”
He additionally claimed that news outlets cover him negatively “in total coordination with each other.”
Whether they're playing it cool on purpose, or not, this story is once again mostly being reported in corporate media as an extension of Trump's longstanding grievances with anything he perceives as critical media coverage and the outlets that produce it; although boutique "progressive" websites and nonprofit media have been a little quicker to realize why this isn't just "Trump being Trump" anymore and how dangerous it is to assume our new American Mussolini lacks purpose in his actions here.
Frankly, I don't think it's an accident that in the very same speech Trump previewed loyalty investigations into Justice Department officials, and attempted to usurp the power of his Attorney General by declaring himself the country's "chief law enforcement officer," he declared liberal establishment media an active political arm of the opposition party, and accused them of both actively conspiring against him, and engaging in criminal activity. What does it mean when the "chief law enforcement officer" declares media critical of him "corrupt" and "illegal?" And how much more ominous is that meaning when its set against the backdrop of a US president celebrating his election as a victory against (what is now) his own Justice Department, while promising what sure sounds like legal investigations into DoJ lawyers and officials that dared to bring charges against him?
The obviously implication here is that Trump thinks the DoJ should target and prosecute media outlets that are critical of him, he has the right to order the department to do so because he's running the DoJ, and anyone who opposes that activity is likely to find themselves purged from the department at a minimum, and quite possibly prosecuted themselves. What many of the corporate media outlets likely to be targeted by Trump's assault on free speech rights and critical media coverage have passed off as a vengeful old man "playing the hits" is actually a fully formed operation to seize control of the American legal apparatus or at least the prosecution portion of it, redefine what is a crime, manufacture consent to target his enemies with the US Department of Justice, and threaten to punish or dispose of anyone who dares to get in his way over a silly little thing like "the law." Trump may have delivered it like a drunk racist grandpa, but his speech is clearly a calculated attempt by the president to drastically expand his own powers, and prosecute his fascist agenda - whether he's doing it for revenge or not (he is), is ultimately the *least* important factor here.
This then dovetails into the methods by which Trump is actually attempting to accomplish this fascist, anti-free speech bullshit; specifically the larger narrative of unreality the Trump regime is constructing day by day. Trump is working to equate critical media with his political opposition, his political opposition with protestors, and protestors with terrorists, while his larger regime takes actions against that opposition as if what Trump is suggesting here were already indisputable truth. I hate to keep bringing up literally Hitler, the Nazi Party, and the German Enabling Act of 1933, but students of history will gladly tell you that Hitler's playbook for transforming Germany into a autocratic one-party dictatorship looks an awful lot like exactly what Trump is doing here.
#TheGremlinZoo #USPol #DOGE #USIP
From WTOPNews.com: US Institute of Peace says DOGE has broken into its building
https://wtop.com/government/2025/03/us-institute-of-peace-says-doge-has-broken-into-its-building/
#USpol
Here's why I'm not donating to any democrats right now, even though they all keep asking.
Because right now what I, an independent who backed them, need from them is action which is already part of their job and they're already paid for it. Go do that, as loudly as you can.
Not words, the words they can pay to put on TV or billboards or email campaigns. That time is not now, it's come and gone and they fucking lost in a big way despite the money.
It's abundantly clear they cannot draw in more voters simply by me giving them another $5 or even $100. And there's nothing to vote on (except for upcoming vulnerable seats, a different issue). What there is is a coup happening, and TV ads aren't going to stop it.
I need them in Congress, at work, monkey-wrenching the overthrow that's happening. Focused on that and nothing else. Not on campaigning. And the people they pay for that, put them to work on this too.
So no. I will not donate more to you right now. Make some noise, tear shit up, yell if you need to, but not with more funding emails.
Hey, remember the Portland protests at the end of Trump's last term where he sent ICE to attack protestors? You know, because ICE can basically ignore the constitution and can be extended by contactors, like Academi (Blackwater). ICE can detain and deport anyone within 100 miles of the border, which is, incidentally, basically every major US city. Remember this?
https://gizmodo.com/donald-trump-homeland-security-report-antifa-portland-1849718673
Yeah, so Trump's invocation of Alien Enemies Act and deportation of some random folks who they claim are Venezuelan closes the loop on that.
ICE can and will deport whomever they want (including white folks, for those who haven't gotten it yet). They can simply designate anyone a terrorist and remove them to a US black site. If you live within 100 miles of the US border (which includes the coast), you no longer are protected by the constitution.
...and the people who will soon be driving around in unmarked minivans, who will black bag random protestors like they did in Portland, may very well be Erik Prince's private army of could even be Wagner for all anyone knows. Those threats of helicopter rides were never empty or jokes. The dictatorship is here now. Plan accordingly.
US Police records obtained by The Intercept show Dataminr (a social media surveillance firm and “official partner” of X) tracked Gaza-related protests and other constitutionally protected speech.
#US #Police #Surveillance #Spying #protests #fascism #israel #policeState #politics #USpol
@palestine @israel https://theintercept.com/2025/03/17/lapd-surveillance-gaza-palestine-protests-dataminr/
#Trump also seemed to briefly back away from the extraordinary idea he had just posted. He was asked: Would other things #Biden signed as president using an autopen also be considered null & void?
“It’s not my decision,” he said. “That would be up to a court. But I would say that they’re null & void, because I’m sure that Biden didn’t have any idea that it was taking place.”
The use of an autopen is not new; it apparently was first used to sign a bill into law at the direction of a president in 2011, when President Barack Obama was traveling in Europe & wanted to sign a piece of legislation that Congress passed extending the Patriot Act another 4 yrs.
After he made the post, #Trump was asked on Air Force One if he had ever used an autopen. “We may use it, as an example, to send some young person a letter,” he said….
#Trump, who specifically took aim at the #pardons granted to members of the bipartisan House cmte that investigated the #Jan6, 2021, #insurrection, offered no evidence for his claim, & there is no power in the #Constitution or case #law to undo a #pardon. But Trump’s assertion, which embraced a baseless #FarRight #ConspiracyTheory about #Biden, was a new escalation of his antidemocratic rhetoric.
#Trump wrote on social media on Sunday night that he no longer considered valid the #pardons President Joe #Biden granted to people whom Trump sees as political enemies because they were signed using an autopen — a typically uncontroversial method of affixing a presidential signature.
#ConspiracyTheories
#law #USpol #RevengePolitics
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/autopen-pardons-biden-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=0BF6E9D2-8125-45F6-91B0-4ECEA9B8A46D
Update: As of today, the page on #Black #MedalOfHonor recipient #CharlesRogers has been restored with the original URL. The page had been "removed during auto removal process" according to a defense official.
If we get out of this mess we ABSOLUTELY MUST take it as imperative to enshrine REAL equality fo all into the Constitution. Everyone.
And while that may seem like no big deal or 'don't we already have that?' to some,
WE HAVE SAT ON THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT SINCE 1972!!!!
For 52 YEARS!!!
So no. We don't have that. And the ERA isn't enough any more. We need real protections for race, gender identity, sex (seriously, the current push if you haven't noticed is 'everyone but straight white cis males is potentially DEI'), protections that cannot be taken away by executive order.
And maybe we need a clear limit on executive fucking orders to boot.
And while we're at it, codify the separation of church and state so that there is never again any question.
Can we do all this?
Probably not. See Equal Right Amendment above.
But if there's ever a time when it could be possible, it's after people have truly seen how 'it can happen here'.
The Navajo Code Talkers are the latest to be erased from official military history by the Republicans' racist "DEI" purge.
The article give a remarkable list of people tossed in the memory hole: many black veterans and units, even the regiment from "Glory"