Friday, February 14, 2025

We are the rightful masters


Drawn by Bill Mauldin after JFK's assassination. I know Lincoln would feel the same today.


"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." – Abraham Lincoln.

As I start this, it is Abraham Lincoln's birthday, and we are facing a Constitutional crisis. There are men perverting the Constitution today. 

It is important for us all to understand what is going on, so that we can embrace our role of rightful masters in this nation. News Flash: No one is going to save us. It is up to us, The People.


The shock and awe continue. Things are happening so fast, and there's a lot. I am bound to miss something, or as Muskolini would say, "We are moving fast. So we will make mistakes."

Here I go, throwing it all out there. Forgive me for being pretty superficial on most of it.

Please don't be overwhelmed. Just be informed. We'll take this situation one bite at a time.

Tuesday, the non-elected President Musk held court over the press in the Oval Office (if you can stand it – I admit I couldn't – here is the full event). 


Musk's li'l puppet was nearby. Here he is, at the children's table with Φβφn-ʞrs $, Elon's toddler son (note: mocking the name, not the boy. He's a cutie and an innocent).

Admiring the technique

Mrs. Musk was a small, deflated, powerless, impotent person. Mr. Musk was standing tall, the rapt audience at his command. There was no question about who was in charge.

By the way, who brings their unruly little child to a press conference at the freaking Oval Office with the President of the United States? Why? Just why?? Does anybody else get the feeling that he uses his child as a human shield?

Little X Æ A-Xii, who goes by X, had some choice things to say. I'll let this guy tell ya about it:


Not only did he mouth off to his daddy's li'l puppet in the Oval Office, he told reporters to "shut your mouth." He also wiped a booger on the Resolute desk. 

While little X told the truth to his daddy's friend, SCROTUS sat small and silent, Musk stood there, spouting complete lies. One of the lies was this:

When ABC's Rachel Scott asked the Muskrat on the accountability he faces and if he is "policing" himself, he responded that his actions with DOGE are "maximally transparent." He went on to say, "Well, all of our actions are fully public. So, if you see anything you say like, wait a second, hey, you know what that does? That seems like maybe that's, you know, that there's a conflict there. It’s not like people are going to be shy about saying that. They'll say it immediately." 

That night, by the way, even after the Oval Office press conference, the DOGE webpage, in its entirety, was this:


Soon, after it was a little more built out. Here, Resisters, is DOGE's "transparent," "actions-fully-public" website. Go ahead, search the actions. Look for conflicts. Look for transparency. All it is, is links to Twitter posts and data from the Office of Personnel Management. We're lucky to still have that data, because a lot of other federal data will disappear once an agency is dismantled. 

It was soon hacked. More about that below.

The Facts
If you want to know what is going on, do not depend on DOGE to tell you. There is no transparency. There is no oversight. We must depend on the press to get to the truth.

Alt National Park Service, the coalition of federal employees led by our brave National Parks employees, are on the front lines and have been feeding us information early, confirmed by the regular press in a day or two. Follow AltNPS for up-to-the-minute information. 

Here's a fact-check from BBC on Elong's blathering at the Oval Office.

Here are summaries of the nefarious goings-on so far:



From The New York Times (gift article): Where Trump, Musk and DOGE Have Cut Federal Workers So Far (note: I'm sure it's outdated, here a few days later)

The non-elected President, Elon Musk, has taken over about 15 federal agencies. He has infiltrated their computer systems, fired employees, and in some cases, such as USAID, dismantled the entire organization altogether.

He is gleeful in his rampage through our agencies. Regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he tweeted, "CFPB RIP," with an emoji of a gravestone. 

By the way, the government's savings from eliminating CFPB? Negligible, but U.S. consumers have benefitted greatly financially from the agency helping them avoid predatory banks. We will all be worse off, and Musk will be richer, for eliminating the CFPB. 

As for his first target, USAID, well, that cost is also less than .05% of the total budget, but the agency helps immeasurably in sending food, clean water, and humanitarian aid to desperate people all over the world. It also helps sow good will around the world, which is a sort of soft diplomacy. China is ready to fill that void.

What else did USAID do? It helped dismantle apartheid in Musk's native South Africa. Musk has a grudge and he's using his power to act on it.

Here is a fact-check of all the other "waste and abuse" from USAID. 

Muskovite's is also benefitting from the firing of 18 inspectors general -- the people who have actually been tasked with overseeing malfeasance.

They are trying to frame it as an "audit." No, an audit has actual accountants that actually examine data. An audit is not an overnight process. It takes time. This is not an audit. It is a rape of our government. 

Make no mistake, Musk will benefit and profit from all of this. 

Thousands of federal employees are out of work, billions of our dollars have been frozen.

The Courts have stepped in to order emergency stops. The stop on most spending has been reversed, but there is some that is still in limbo.

Here is a summary of the court actions so far:

From Forbes, with the newest, the Inspectors General are suing over their dismissal: Here Are All The Major Lawsuits Against Trump And Musk: 8 Inspectors General Challenge Their Firing In Court

From Huffpost. It's a little bit dated; published a whole week ago: A Look At All The Lawsuits Coming For DOGE

Before a judge stopped the program, Musk was able to induce some federal employees to quit with some sort of financial carrot. Really, who are they fooling? That carrot is the shriveled little one at the back of the crisper drawer. The former employees won't get a dime. And since they took a deal and resigned, there will be no unemployment benefits either.

Remember, Musk did the same thing when he took over Twitter. He used the same verbiage: "Fork in the Road." He enticed people to quit and then didn't follow through with their promised severance packages. IQ47 is also notorious for not paying his debts. You think he'll start now?

Late Wednesday, a judge gave the go-ahead for the "buyout" play. Just as soon as it was given the go-ahead, though, the offer was rescinded. Employees by the thousands are now being fired outright.

This judge ordered all the health-related websites to be restored, and their data, too.

The states are suing, too. Led by New Mexico, 14 states have sued Traitor Tot and Muskolini. They are calling the actions undertaken by DOGE unconstitutional. Side note: two of the states are Republican-led.

Now it's our turn to use the "states' rights" card. Call your state representatives and put pressure on them to push back on President Musk's agenda. I know that Resistbot has an option for contacting them; 5Calls is a little behind on that aspect. 


Our next crossroads in this shitshow: Whether or not 47 defies court orders. If he does, that throws us into a full-fledged Constitutional crisis, by which I mean no more Constitution. Checks and balances will be gone. The Orange Turd will be an authoritarian by every measure of the word. 




Federal Employees out of Work
Acccck! Every time I sit down to write, a new nugget comes flying at us. As of Friday, AltNPS reports 200,000 federal employees have been fired. And no one is happy about it. Let's hope they join the resistance, even those who voted for this mess.

It's a sad day for America when our proud and loyal civil servants have been sent packing. They were doing important work: looking out for land, for people, for arts, for health and safety. 

There are too many stories to mention, of course, but I want to highlight a couple. How about a bunch of people working for Indian agencies? The Indian Health Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Bureau of Indian Education: all gutted. Our tribes don't have much to lose, and now they are losing more. Hundreds of health workers are now unemployed. The people they serve: Shit out of luck. It's makes me so mad and sad. 

How about (former) Ranger Brian? Read his post. Please. 



May I just say, Fuck TRUMP and the horse he rode in on!


The corruption runs rampant 
Here's just one recent example of corruption: The State Department just put an order in for $400 million worth of armored Tesla vehicles. Conflict of interest much?

As soon as the press got wind of the order, they quickly changed the verbiage to "electric vehicles." Uh, yeah, sure they'll put the contract out for bids. ...And I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

More Corruption
The Department of Justice dropped the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who had been facing charges for bribery, campaign finance offenses, allegations of accepting illegal gifts and contributions from foreign nationals, specifically Turkish citizens. 

I knew it! I thought I smelled something stinky when I read that Adams had been cozying up to Twitler after the election. Now he's off scot-free.

Federal prosecutors are livid. At least seven prosecutors in Washington and New York quit in protest.

Putie the Cutie got a gift when TЯUMP called him this week. 

Let Brian Tyler Cohen summarize the Muskovite shitshow for you:



The Farmers: They fucked around; we are all finding out
America's Heartland: red, red, red. Not just the soil, but the electorate. They voted for the orange monster, and they are now reaping what they sowed. 

I thank Sister Resister Martha for pointing me to this trove of information about the farmers getting shafted. As they fall under the combine, we all get dragged in. 

I post it in its entirety because I think it is important to understand this information. Written by Farmer Georgie. Links to the source information are in her article. 

 

Folks, it's taken a few days to trickle down, but I'm seeing post after post after post in the ag community social media channels of massive issues impacting U.S. farmers and the U.S. ag economy from Trump's DOGE efforts, tariff wars and the USAID shutdown.

Here are a few:

Lost Contracts to Canada
Cotton and grain growers are losing contracts to long-time Canadian buyers because, even with the tariff pause, Canadian buyers don't trust the stability of U.S. export commerce with Trump in office. Plus, Canadians are just flat-out pissed and avoiding U.S. made/produced goods, including farm products.

Increasing Input Prices
Chuck Grassley, of all people, is pleading with Trump to exempt potash from any Canadian tariffs because U.S. potash (a major fertilizer in agriculture) mainly comes from Canada. Impending tariffs will shoot farmers' fertilizer prices sky-high.

Cancelled Government Grants 
Corn and soybean farmers are upset because Trump cancelled all of Biden's Climate Smart grants that were supposed to help them offset their adoption of soil health, improving new practices like no-till and cover cropping.

$2 Billion In Annual Commodity Crop Sales Lost
USAID's cancellation cuts $2 billion straight out of U.S. farmer's pockets from the Food for Peace program which purchased rice, wheat, corn and soy from U.S. farmers and distributed them to hungry nations. In some states and for some crops, USAID was their primary buyer.

More Promised Grants and Reimbursements Reneged Upon
USDA NRCS is cancelling conservation contracts and leaving farmers holding the bag. These are things like fence improvements and upgraded water lines that boost farmer efficiency while also conserving the environment. Plus, the way they work is the farmer has to do the work first, then once they are done, the NRCS reimburses them. So now farmers that have spent the money to do the work are being told the NRCS won't honor their contracts.

Precious Irrigation Water Wasted
California farmers are PISSED because his "turn on the taps" PR move did nothing to combat California wildfires and instead wasted 2 BILLION gallons of water being held in reservoirs for summer irrigation.

Jeopardized Export Commodity Crop Purchases
U.S. crop farmers are freaked out over the trade wars since Canada, China and Mexico represent half - let me repeat that again, HALF, of all U.S. agricultural exports!

Organic Farmer Funds Frozen
Per Trump's freeze on financial contracts, the USDA is withholding funds for the Organic Market Development Grant program and the Transition to Organic Partnership Program, which typically go directly to organic farmers or to non-profits supporting organic farmers.

New Ag Innovation Programs Shuttered
The shutdown of USAID has been trickling down through multiple ag-focused agencies, including the Soybean Innovation Labs, which were hosted at land-grant universities across the U.S.. These research labs focused on developing new genetics and growing practices in soybeans critical to U.S. and international growers. They had to close the entire program, laying off 30 scientists and researchers in 19 labs across 17 states.

Sustainable Agriculture Health Research Funds Lost
K State University lost up to $50 million that was pledged through a USAID Program over the next five years to advance research in “sustainable intensification,” an approach focused on increasing crop yields without expanding agricultural land use, expected to directly benefit Kansas (and U.S.) farmers.

Ag Machinery Manufacturers to Lose Export Sales
China's retaliatory tariffs (although not yet on crops, we shall see) are expected to have a major impact on U.S. ag machinery manufacturers, who were already struggling and have had massive lay-offs over the last 12 months. China imported almost $800 million of U.S.-manufactured ag machinery in 2020.

And it goes on and on and on with new, major issues coming to light on a near-hourly basis. My heart hurts for U.S. farmers and U.S. farm communities, large and small, that are needlessly and thoughtlessly being impacted by this.

But hey, on the bright side, Trump banned those infuriating paper straws!

 

The Cracks
The GOP is starting – slowly and quietly – to sour on this administration.

Several GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama, Susan Collins of Maine, and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, have spoken out about the loss of NIH funding as well as the loss of USAID monies in the agriculture arena. 

The Wall Street Journal published a couple articles showing that corporate America is starting to get fed up:


In fact, his tariff orders seem to come and go on whims. I suspect when he sees what his announcements do to the stock market, he changes tack. 

Truthfully, I can't keep my head straight on what the current tariff situation is. I think, tariffs on aluminum and steel from everywhere? Ten percent on everything from China? Canada and Mexico "gave him what he wanted" (which to my understanding was the same or worse than the previous deal) and their tariffs were rescinded? or paused? I'm running out of steam, friends, and can't find my way to look for tariff information. 

In any case, we need corporate America to push back. Those are true masters politically. They will be hurting along with the rest of us. Put pressure on them!

One way to do that is the Economic Blackout on February 28.

There have been calls for this in the past, but this one seems to be getting some traction. So, let's plan on NOT spending money on February 28.
WHAT NOT TO DO:
Do not make any purchases
Do not shop online, or in-store
No Amazon, No Walmart, No Best Buy
Nowhere!

Do not spend money on:
Fast Food
Gas
Major Retailers

Do not use Credit or Debit Cards for non essential spending

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Only buy essentials of absolutely necessary. Use cash if you can. 
(Food, Medicine, Emergency Supplies)
If you must spend, ONLY support small, local businesses.
Use cash if you can for these essential purchases.

Let's get corporate America to crack!


The McConnell Factor
Mitch McConnell is cracking, too. He is 83 years old. His term ends in 2027, when he will be 85. By all appearances, it looks like he will not be running for re-election in 2026.

How do we know? He finally grew a portion of a spine. 

He voted no on Tulsi Gabbard's nomination for Director of National Intelligence, Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, as well as on RFK Jr's nomination for HHS Secretary. He's been speaking out against the tariff talk, too. 

Too little too late, Senator Turtle. 

Weird stuff
IMPOTUS fired the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and installed himself as chairman. 

Yeah, because being president gives a person a lot of free time to sit on boards.

The fallout: staff members and artists are bailing. What once was a shining performing arts center is destined to be just another propaganda pipeline. 



Google and Apple both fell in line to rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America" on their map apps. 

So freaking weird.


From a FB post: The Indigenous People of North America have decided to go back to calling the Gulf of Mexico, “Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl”. It is what the Nahuatl People originally called it as it is the domain of the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, who is associated with water bodies, including the Gulf of Mexico





This is prolly my favorite one










If you wanna do a quick little act of resistance, do this. But if you only have time for one thing, call your MoCs instead!

Apple Maps has a error-reporting place, too.


Incompetent Baby Software Engineers 
In the meantime, Musk's baby coders are idiots. Hackers were easily able to get into Musky's boys' DOGE website and defaced it, mocking all the while. 

I don't know much about coding, but apparently they used open-source stuff and left the database open so that hackers could easily waltz in.


You remember one of the babes was let go (and I think brought back) for racist posts on social media.

One of the teens was fired from an internship because he shared secrets with a competitor. 

Yeah. And they want to run our country's payment systems. 


The Cruelty
  • This:

  • Kim Don Un's short-sighted executive order freezing grants shafted hundreds of low-income Alabamans out of an energy subsidy. They have to come up with $100 to pay the charge that is suddenly appearing on their bill. 
I hate that they voted against their own interests, but I hate more that the poor are getting the worst of these actions. 
  • Alabama will hurt even more by the freezing of grants from the National Institutes of Health grants. University of Alabama at Birmingham is one of the top recipients for the grants. Losing them could be devastating to health care in Alabama, the research at the university, the prestige of the university, as well as jobs. 
  • This:

Not gonna lie...
LSR is panicked-adjacent. It's been a rough couple of weeks. 

I feel disoriented some of the time. I don't know about you, but I've experience brain fog like I never have before. And when I read too many headlines, I get a physical reaction that is hard to explain. It's like becoming disassociated. It's weird and off-putting.

It's important to try to step back from that brink, because it's what they want:


So, more deep breathing, another drink of water. And more resolve.

When I stew in the middle of the night, I have to remind myself, "There's nothing I can do at 4am to save our democracy." 

Come morning, I resist. Every day.
  • I contact my members of Congress.
I told them this week to push back on Musk's takeover and I called for them to demand oversight hearings in Congress. I asked them to oppose RFK's nomination to lead Heath and Human Services, and in fact to oppose all nominations until some oversight has been put in place for Musk's nefarious activities. 
 
Have you contacted your MoCs today? It is not a one-and-done action. Things are moving fast, and you need to remind your members that you are paying attention, that you care, and that you vote. Go to 5calls.org and get dialing! If you can't get through, use resistbot. 
 
  • I find joy and take care of my body and spirit. 
This week I went dancing and I helped a friend in need. 
 
What have you done to live happily and well today? 


 

  • I find a way to resist: a donation, some postcards, developing an idea, volunteer with an organization helping immigrants, writing this blog.
Today I am writing and organizing. I made another donation to ACLU. I gave some Constitutional rights cards to people I care about.
 
What have you done today or this week?

Other strategies
  • The DNC is trying to illustrate how Vladamir Gluten's and MUSK's actions are hurting red states. It's true. All this shit will bring harm to the poorest communities, which are the ones who voted for him.
  • Somebody put out this call for Pete Buttigieg to offer daily crisis briefings. Genius idea! He is one of the smartest, most articulate Americans in the land. 

  • Think about this technique: using Aikido. Aikido is a martial art where instead of fighting, you re-direct your opponent's momentum to take them down.
This doesn't mean you stop resisting, but you do it with precision. Avoid symbolic gestures and outrage. Focus on tactics that have a decent shot at actually changing things. The quieter you can do it the better, if you can be effective. 
For every effort, you must ask, "will this unify them?" If it will unify them, it helps them and hurts you. Judge the gain you will get from any tactic, and how much it will help keep them together. 
This means giving up on hate, difficult as that is. It shouldn't be difficult. Every great liberal and progressive philosopher, be it Gandhi or Jesus or Obama or Martin Luther King, Jr. has preached this message strongly and consistently. Pull back from hate, and do not drive them to hate you. Stop calling them clever names or lecturing them on their immorality and stupidity, as satisfying as that may be. When you preach, ask what your message will do. If it will just make you and your cohort feel superior, skip it. If it will make them hate you, definitely skip it. When they bait you -- and they will bait you, not just Trump but Putin too -- ignore the bait. They want your outrage and your anger. Imagine them as Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars, monologuing that your hate makes you strong, to feel your anger, and be Luke Skywalker. I used to think those scenes were stupid, why is the Emperor reminding Luke that he's trying to trigger him, but it turns out it really works. 
Yup, frustrating as it may be, you have to stop calling them Fascists and Nazis, and idiots and dupes and evil. Frankly, stop thinking it, because they are not that stupid, and they can tell what you think, because it's really obvious. Resist in more subtle ways, and let them start to ignore you. Let them stop thinking of you as the threat, as instead turn towards, and on, their fellow Republicans. (And they will, even though I just explained this to them.) This is not appeasement, or surrender. This is strategic resistance. It's Aikido - using your enemy's strength against themselves when they have all the strength. 
There will be great frustration at not doing all you can think of. I know many will refuse, both because of the frustration, but out of fear of not doing absolutely everything they could. You may have heard that the triumph of evil happens because good people do nothing.
That's not the actual lesson of history. The good people didn't do nothing when the fascists rose, they objected, strenuously. The triumph of evil happens when the average people, neither very good nor very bad, enable the evil. But there is a difference between doing all you can think of and doing all that will work. This strategy is one of those things that can work. If you think the Democrats in Congress are keeping too quiet, maybe it's because they realize that.

How can you use Aikido in your everyday resistance?

We must not let up! We are the ones who are going to save us.


Until we are on firmer footing, we can dream. 

California is the fifth-largest economy in the world, for seven years running. It's no wonder that we are being courted by Denmark and Canada:

A petition for Denmark to purchase California is gaining momentum. I'd be down.

And Canada is making this generous offer:

Would you join a class action lawsuit? This idea came to me during one of my middle-of-the-night worry sessions. Turns out Rep. Jamie Raskin has the same idea.




There's so much coming at us. It's so scattershot, it's overwhelming. That is what they want. To overwhelm us and shut us down. 

I'm going to try to outline some of the other stuff coming. Not to overwhelm, but to inform you. Just keep it in the back of your mind; no need to go down every rabbit hole.

Dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion measures.
This erodes our very fabric as a melting pot. They want you to think that DEI means favored treatment by unqualified people. They want you to think that by someone's very color or gender that they are immediately unqualified, simply because they are not a white man. 

These are words that have been ordered to be removed from government documents and websites:




DEI is this:


Next time you have a person tell you how bad DEI is, use the full words and ask them to name which aspect – diversity, equity, or inclusion? – that they like the least and why. 

I'll let Rep. Jasmine Crockett tell you more. (Can I just say right now, Jasmine for President 2028!)



The really stupid stuff. 
These are distractions. Try to avoid getting into the weeds with the idiocy; keep your eye on the ball. 

  • Ignore the buying Greenland thing.
  • Ignore the Panama Canal thing.
  • Ignore the Gulf of America thing. Go ahead and report the fix to the online map-makers if it makes you feel better, but the name on a map is not a threat to our democracy. 
  • Ignore the ban on exploding paper straws. 
Those are all distractions. Save your energy and your outrage for the biggies: stopping the stripping of rights of anyone other than cis-gendered, heterosexual, white Christian men, halting the dismantling of our government systems, and getting Elon Musk out of power.

Your Moment of Beauty

Just outside my front door on a recent rainy day.



An Important Reminder
We will win. Right always wins. Stay true to your core beliefs. Do not let them corrode that. Keep kindness and love in your heart. It may take time, but we will prevail. Hang in there. 

Four weeks down, 204 to go.

Memeville
















 












We need powerful artists to say powerful things:






From Germany's Carnival parades. They know what's what:




Don't forget!


Finally....

Stand! Take Sly Stone's words and music to heart. (And if you subscribe to Hulu, watch the documentary on Sly's music today!)




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