The Conversation -- July 4, 2025
The text of the Declaration of Independence is here. It's a good day to read it and reflect upon how many of the grievances against King George III we have against would-be King Donald. MB: Perhaps you think I'm being extreme. Then do read Charlie Savage's tale of "Donnie, Blondie and TikTok," linked below.
Greg Grandin in a New York Times op-ed: “... what does it mean to be an American if armed, masked men can sweep anybody, citizen or not, off the street, forcing people into unmarked S.U.V.s — to be, if Mr. Trump has his way, disappeared to remote Louisiana or taken to a prison camp in El Salvador? Mr. Trump and operatives like [Stephen] Miller are waging a war not only on migrants but also on the concept of citizenship.... [John Quincy] Adams watched in despair at what he called the 'Anglo-Saxon, slaveholding exterminator of Indians' became a heroic national archetype.... When someone like Mr. Miller says 'America is for Americans,' the malice is palpable.... When the United States broke free of Colonial rule 249 years ago, it helped bring forth, as Adams said on a long-ago Fourth of July, modern principles of equality and justice. But it also conjured a backlash to those principles.... The ideologues at the core of Trumpism continue this tradition, imagining “America” as the heartland of a besieged Anglo-Saxonism. As in the 1840s, their shared fixation is Mexico.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I seldom call this country "America," though if grammatical sense or expediency demands it, I will refer to U.S. citizens as "Americans." (And I cringe when I do it.) My reason for this has been to recognize Canada as part of "America" -- but not as part of the United States. Grandin's lesson is that I should be thinking of "Latin Americans," too, when I decline to call this country "America."
Donald Trump's Buffoonery Ruins Everything He Touches. Cat Zakrzewski, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump is trying to create the carnival-like atmosphere of state and world’s fairs to showcase next year’s celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday. Trump on Thursday returned to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, a place that had little to do with the founding of the nation but one that has played a role in his political biography, to launch a year-long festival that will culminate on July 4, 2026. The centerpiece of that birthday celebration will be 'the Great American State Fair,' which Trump pitched to the crowd as 'an enormous year long nationwide celebration of our heritage.'... The effort, he said, is going to include a UFC fight on the grounds of the White House that will be overseen by Dana White, the chief executive of UFC and a longtime Trump supporter.... Trump also said that he would host nationally televised athletic competitions showcasing high school students from each state in an event he’s calling the 'Patriot Games,' [which RFKJ will oversee].” More on Trump's Iowa speech linked below.
The Absolute Power of King Donald. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “Attorney General Pam Bondi told tech companies that they could lawfully violate a statute barring American companies from supporting TikTok based on a sweeping claim that ... [Donald] Trump has the constitutional power to set aside laws, newly disclosed documents show. In letters to companies like Apple and Google, Ms. Bondi wrote that Mr. Trump had decided that shutting down TikTok would interfere with his 'constitutional duties,' so the law banning the social media app must give way to his 'core presidential national security and foreign affairs powers.' The letters, which became public on Thursday via Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, portrayed Mr. Trump as having nullified the legal effects of a statute that Congress passed by large bipartisan majorities in 2024 and that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld.
“Shortly after being sworn in, Mr. Trump issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to suspend enforcement of the TikTok ban and has since repeatedly extended it.... Some legal experts consider Mr. Trump’s action — and in particular his order’s claim, which Ms. Bondi endorsed in her letters, that he has the power to enable companies to lawfully violate the statute — to be his starkest power grab.... Essentially, legal experts said, Mr. Trump is claiming a constitutional power to immunize private parties to commit otherwise illegal acts with impunity.... [Conservative] Jack Goldsmith ... [of] Harvard Law ... cited an 1838 Supreme Court case, involving a law about payments to government contractors, that says the Constitution does not give presidents the power to dispense with laws — a power that the British king used to have.”
Lydia DePillis of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said early Friday morning that he is set to resume a set of tariffs that he initially imposed in April on dozens of countries, before pausing them for 90 days to negotiate individual deals. Most of those deals have yet to materialize, and businesses in the United States have been left guessing what levies they would be expected to pay on virtually every imported product. Some of them could be even steeper than originally announced, Mr. Trump said in brief remarks to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base upon returning from a rally in Iowa on Thursday. 'So we’re going to start sending letters out to various countries starting tomorrow,' said Mr. Trump.... 'They’ll range in value from maybe 60 or 70 percent tariffs to 10 and 20 percent tariffs.' He said his administration would then send more letters each day until the end of the 90-day pause, on Wednesday, when he expected they would all be covered. Smaller countries would come toward the end, and duties would begin to be collected on Aug. 1.”
Matt Viser & Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump used a term many consider to be an antisemitic slur while referencing unscrupulous bankers during a campaign-style rally in Iowa on Thursday night, held to kick off a year-long celebration leading up to the nation’s 250th birthday. Trump deployed the language while touting the impacts of his signature legislation that had just passed Congress hours earlier. 'No death tax. No estate tax. No going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker — and in some cases, shylocks and bad people,' he said. When asked about his use of the term after he got off Air Force One, he said that he has 'never heard that' the word could be considered antisemitic.” I believe him. He's an embarrassing ignoramus and a New Yorker, and is almost certainly unfamiliar with “The Merchant of Venice.” In 2014, Joe Biden used the same term and apologized for it. The Independent's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Trump Threatens to Use the (Absolute) Powers of the Presidency Against Mamdani. Brett Samuels of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Thursday used remarks in Iowa ahead of Independence Day to take aim at Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City who has become a favorite target of criticism for Republicans. 'This guy is a communist at the highest level, and he wants to destroy New York. I love New York and we’re not going to let him do that,' Trump said at an event in Des Moines. 'Generations of Americans before us did not shed their blood only so that we could surrender our country to Marxist lunatics on the eve of our 250th year,' Trump continued. 'As president of the United States, I’m proclaiming here and now that America is never going to be communist in any way, shape or form, and that includes New York City.'” MB: BTW, this was billed as a non-political presidential* event, and by “billed” here, that means you and I paid for the trip.
Two Meditations on the Same Theme: ~~~
(a) Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic: "... in a single day, Trump took or was revealed to have taken six shocking new assaults on liberal democracy. They would have been shocking, anyway, before he spent a decade bludgeoning our civic nerve endings to the point where these things now register as mere routine politics. [Tuesday] alone: 1. Trump floated the notion of arresting New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.... 2. Trump threatened to prosecute CNN for reporting on the existence of an app that allows users to alert one another to ICE activity.... 3. The president mused about the prospect of financially punishing Elon Musk for criticizing the Republican megabill.... 4... has appointed Jared L. Wise [-- charged with being a January 6 insurrectionist --] to the Justice Department’s Weaponization Working Group.... 5. The administration impounded $7 billion of Education Department funding for after-school and summer programs, English learners, teacher training, and other school functions.... 6. Paramount, the parent company of CBS, settled a groundless nuisance lawsuit Trump had filed against the CBS show 60 Minutes." Thank you to laura h. for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
(b) Charlie Nash of Mediaite: “CNN aired the long list of people and groups that ... Donald Trump had 'targeted in the past 48-72 hours' on Tuesday, including former ally Elon Musk, the nation of Japan, and CNN itself. 'The president’s insult parade is crowded tonight, attacking anyone who dares to speak out against him or his policies. Here’s some of the names that he’s targeted in just the last 48-72 hours,' began anchor Abby Phillip. Phillip then displayed a graphic which showed Musk, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, CNN, Japan, AT&T, Israeli prosecutors, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, Canada, Forbes, Harvard University, 'Alligator Alcatraz' escapees, and former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas beneath the caption, 'People and groups Trump has targeted in past 48-72 hours.'” Thank you to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's clear that Chait gets it. Whether Phillip & others appreciate the breadth of the underlying project is less evident. But all this year, we have had many days as dangerous as the one Chait & Phillip cite. The cumulative effect and the ultimate goal of these steps is not mysterious.
Matthew Walther of the New York Times: “We have been advised to take Mr. Trump, if not literally, then at least seriously. I do not think we should extend him even that courtesy. We should see him not as a Caesarean figure set upon remaking the United States in his own image or an ideologue who has attempted to impose a coherent philosophical vision on our unruly public life, but as a somewhat hapless, distracted character, equally beholden to vast structural forces and to the limitations of his own personality.... Overpromise, underdeliver, change the subject. Mr. Trump is forever setting himself challenges and then becoming bored with them. He does not evolve. He flinches, recants, forgets, redirects. He discovers each time — freshly, dumbly — that this is not how power works.” MB: Walther advises us to laugh at Trump, and that we do. At the same time, we must not forget that in the course of his ignorant flailings, he -- with the help of a phalanx of accomplices -- is doing permanent damage to our quasi-democratic structure and to individuals here and abroad.
Amy MacKinnon & John Sakellariadis of Politico: “A CIA review released Wednesday is critical of how the agency arrived at the assessment that Russia sought to sway the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump — but finds the overall conclusion was sound. The initial assessment, which has been condemned by Trump and his allies, was done too quickly and featured excessive involvement by intelligence agency leaders, according to the review commissioned by CIA Director John Ratcliffe. But the review did not call into question the conclusions of the assessment, finding that it exhibited 'strong adherence to tradecraft standards' and that its 'analytic rigor exceeded that of most IC assessments.'... The review ... did not take issue with [the] assessments that Putin was trying to damage [Hillary] Clinton’s chances.... After the review was released, Ratcliffe posted on X a characterization of the report that appeared to deviate from its findings. 'All the world can now see the truth: Brennan, Clapper and Comey manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump,' he wrote in one post. In a second, he said that the 2016 assessment was produced in a process that was 'atypical & corrupt.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: My theory about why Trump is so confused rests partly on the premise that he lies so much he can't tell the facts from his own fictions. But it also can be attributed to the premise that his allies lie to him to protect themselves. In this case, an investigation Trump's CIA director Ratcliffe commissioned found that Putin really did try to help Trump win the 2016 election. BUT, since Trump would hate that conclusion, Ratcliffe jumps on X to falsely claim the CIA & the FBI leaders were "corrupt" and "manipulated intelligence." Ratcliffe is no doubt confident that Trump will never read a big, long eight-page report, but a couple of tweets, sure.
Douglas MacMillan of the Washington Post: “The tax and spending bill passed by Congress on Thursday will triple federal funding for immigrant detention centers, setting the stage for a rapid expansion of these facilities and adding to concerns about the treatment of the growing numbers of immigrant detainees. Congress allocated $45 billion to spend locking up immigrants over the next four years — more than the government spent on detention during the Obama, Biden and first Trump administrations combined, federal data show. The bill also includes $46.5 billion for building the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and $6 billion for border technology and surveillance, along with other border security and immigration measures.... The detainee population is changing. As of June, about one-third of ICE detainees have never been charged with a criminal offense, and ICE is now arresting people with no criminal charges at a higher rate than people charged with crimes, according to Austin Kocher ... [of] Syracuse University....
“This year, ICE has already awarded new or expanded contracts to at least nine facilities owned by the Geo Group or CoreCivic, the two largest detention contractors, as well as contracts to companies that house immigrants in makeshift tent structures.... Immigrant rights advocates are imploring the government not to award more contracts to Geo and CoreCivic, companies they say have failed to provide safe accommodations and adequate medical care to detainees.... This week, ICE said it was sending some migrants to live in tents at an airstrip in the Everglades.” More on the Florida detention center linked below under "Florida.”
Emmanuel Martinez, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is increasingly targeting unauthorized immigrants with no criminal record as it ramps up arrests, a Washington Post analysis of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data shows. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem often touts that ICE officers are arresting the 'worst of the worst.' But more than half of those removed from the country since Jan. 20 do not have a criminal conviction. What’s more, as arrests increase, the share of detained migrants with a criminal conviction has been dropping. DHS’s statistics office has stopped publishing monthly data on arrests and removals. But the Deportation Data Project, a team of lawyers and academics, worked with the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy to file a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against ICE to obtain the new dataset.” ~~~
~~~ Woman Without a Country. Maria Paul of the Washington Post illustrates: “Ward Sakeik, a stateless woman of Palestinian descent, has lived in the U.S. since she was a child. She married an American earlier this year.... Under normal circumstances, Sakeik — a woman with no criminal record, who is married to a U.S. citizen and has been in the U.S. since she was 8 — would not be a target for deportation, said Ohio State University law professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández.... [But] the Trump administration had twice tried to deport Sakeik,” once after her husband had filed paperwork that should have led to her release, according to Sakeik's attorneys. Oh, and agents picked her up “on her way home from her honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands.” IOW, she had not even left the U.S.
Ha Ha. "You Could Get a Tax Break"! Chris Hayes pointed to a New York Times interactive article designed to help the reader discover if s/he will get a tax break under the Trump Big Dump. Hayes put up a graphic of this series of yes-or-no questions (where "yes" is always the "correct" answer): "(1) Do you earn more than $500,000 a year? (2) Do you own a business? (3) Do you own or are you considering buying a firearm? (4) Are you a whaling captain or a fisher living in Alaska?" (Also linked yesterday.)
From the New York Times liveblog of developments Thursday in the trek to pass the GOP anti-American omnibus bill (also linked below): ~~~
Megan Mineiro: “Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, just broke the record for the longest House floor speech by speaking for 8 hours and 33 minutes. He breaks the record set by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2021. Democrats are standing unified behind Jeffries, while on the Republican side of the chamber a few dozen members have started to filter back into their seats in anticipation of closing remarks by Speaker Mike Johnson before the final vote on the policy bill.”
Annie Karni & Megan Mineiro: “Democrats chant 'Hakeem! Hakeem!' as he finishes his record-breaking speech with the words: 'I yield back.' They are surrounding him on the House floor, cheering and lining up for embraces. He yielded after 8 hours and 45 minutes.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The call-and-response in the wrap-up is classic:
Michael Gold, et al.: “The House on Thursday narrowly passed a sweeping bill to extend tax cuts and slash social safety net programs, capping Republicans’ chaotic monthslong slog to overcome deep rifts within their party and deliver ... [Donald] Trump’s domestic agenda. The final vote, 218 to 214, was mostly along party lines and came after Speaker Mike Johnson spent a frenzied day and night toiling to quell resistance in his own ranks that threatened until the very end to derail the president’s signature measure. With all but two Republicans in favor and Democrats uniformly opposed, the action cleared the bill for Mr. Trump’s signature, meeting the July 4 deadline he had demanded.” Here's Politico's story. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Amy Wang & Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: “Here are five notable things [Hakeem] Jeffries said in his attempt to delay the final vote.” ~~~
~~~ A Big, Bungled Bust of a Bill. Charlie Mahtesian of Politico: Donald Trump “is spending every last cent of his political capital on a bill marked by its lack of ambition and vision. It suggests real limits to the MAGA revolution, either because the coalition is inherently brittle or because of the stiff challenges Trump still faces in transforming the GOP, even as he utterly dominates it.... Much of the bill smacks of a reassertion of decades-old Republican policies and an embrace of party orthodoxy. It is easily caricatured as a giveaway to the wealthy that also slashes health care, a piñata for Democrats to bash and ride back to a House majority.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Republicans Always Chicken Out. Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: “In the days leading up to House passage of Republicans’ sweeping policy bill carrying ... [Donald] Trump’s agenda, members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus were unsparing in their criticism of the measure.... In the end, all of them voted for the bill, after an hourslong revolt that stretched from Wednesday night into early Thursday morning and ground the House floor to a halt. The legislation was unchanged, and while those who switched their positions to embrace it alluded to deals they had cut with Mr. Trump to address their concerns, it was not clear what, if any, commitments had been made or whether any would be fulfilled.... They weren’t the only ones. A bloc of more moderate House Republicans from politically competitive districts, many of whom had warned that the bill’s Medicaid cuts could hurt their constituents and suggested they could not stomach the legislation, ultimately voted 'yes.'” In the Senate, Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) & Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) both trashed the bill, then voted for it. ~~~
~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: Sen. Lisa "Murkowski effectively asked the Republican-led House not to pass the bill she had just voted for. 'My sincere hope is that this is not the final product,' she wrote online. 'This bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the president’s desk. We need to work together to get this right.'... [She also told reporters,] 'We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.' Not only did House Republican leaders ignore Murkowski’s appeals, they never even considered the possibility.... And that, of course, makes Murkowski’s decision look even worse.... Too many GOP lawmakers somehow convinced themselves that the party’s megabill had real merit and would deliver great results. Murkowski, however, knew better — and she chose to advance it anyway. History will not be kind.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: No, it will not. As others have noted, anyone who has paid the slightest attention to the House knows that body was not going to even try to "improve" the bill, not only because the House is a mess but also because any "improvements" made in the House would have had to go back to the Senate for another vote to reconcile the two versions of the bill. Murkowski could have used her considerable leverage in the Senate to make the bill "less bad." Instead, she decided getting a tax break for a few of Alaska's whaling captains was good enough. That's a stupid little bribe, not a concession forced by cannily emplying leverage.
Supremes Approve Torture. Or Worse. Adam Liptak & Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the government to deport eight men who have spent more than a month held under guard on an American military base on Djibouti to South Sudan, granting a request from the Trump administration. An administration official said it would promptly send the men, who hail from countries around the world, to the war-torn nation. Neither the United States nor South Sudan has said what will happen to the men on their arrival.... In a filing by the migrants’ lawyers, an expert on South Sudan said it was likely that the men would by detained by the country’s security forces and then experience 'torture, or conditions that amount to torture,' at their hands....
In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the ruling could have grave consequences. 'What the government wants to do, concretely,' Justice Sotomayor wrote, 'is send the eight noncitizens it illegally removed from the United States from Djibouti to South Sudan, where they will be turned over to the local authorities without regard for the likelihood that they will face torture or death.'... Justice Kagan, who dissented previously [in a directly related case], this time issued a concurring opinion. 'I do not see how a district court can compel compliance with an order that this court has stayed,' she wrote.... The men, who have all been convicted of serious crimes in the United States, have been detained at Camp Lemonnier, a military base.... Before coming to the United States, they hailed from Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan.” ~~~
~~~ Politico's story, by Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney, is here. The order, concurrence & dissent, via Politico, is here. Chris Geidner, the Law Dork, elaborates.
And now for another episode in our continuing series on how things are going for the January 6 "patriots" Trump pardoned. Earlier this week, we learned that one of them had been appointed to an important advisory position in Trump's DOJ: "His selection meant that a man who had urged violence against police officers was now responsible for the department’s official effort to exact revenge against those who had tried to hold the rioters accountable." Now this: ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A Tennessee man pardoned by ... [Donald] Trump for taking part in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to life in prison for hatching a separate plot to assassinate the law enforcement officers who investigated his role in the riot. The life term imposed on the man, Edward Kelley, came during a hearing on Wednesday in Federal District Court in Knoxville, Tenn. Mr. Kelley..., a former Marine..., was convicted at a trial there in November of charges that included conspiracy to murder federal employees and threatening federal agents.... He made a list of nearly 40 people who had been involved in his arrest or who had helped to search his home as part of the Jan. 6 investigation, targeting them for assassination, prosecutors said. Mr. Kelley also planned to attack an F.B.I. office in Knoxville, prosecutors said, using improvised explosive devices attached to vehicles and drones.”
Tom Jackman, et al., of the Washington Post: “Investigators in the fatal shooting of a congressional intern on a D.C. street this week have obtained a video recording that experts are working to enhance, hoping the footage will show enough of the attack to help authorities identify suspects, police said Thursday.... Police have said that several people got out of a car in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest Washington, near the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, and opened fire on another group, wounding a woman and a teenager and killing Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, a 21-year-old intern in the office of Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kansas).... D.C. Police Chief Pamela A. Smith ... said Tarpinian-Jachym and the woman were innocent bystanders and not targets of the attack, while the wounded youth, a 16-year-old boy, 'was kind of engaged as part of the group' that was attacked.”
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Florida. Jennifer Bahney of the Raw Story: "New video showed a 'garden-variety South Florida summer rainstorm' flooding tents and drowning out Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) as he touted the 'Alligator Alcatrez' detention facility he claimed was ready to house deportees, according to The Miami Herald. Rain began shortly after ... Donald Trump finished up his tour of the Everglades facility that the White House claimed needed little security due to pythons and alligators surrounding it, the report said. 'The water seeped into the site — the one that earlier in day the state’s top emergency chief had boasted was ready to withstand the winds of a "high-end" Category 2 hurricane — and streamed all over electrical cables on the floor,' wrote reporters Syra Ortiz Blanes, Ana Ceballos, and Alex Harris." MB: The reason Republicans don't believe in government is that they screw up everything. (Also linked yesterday.)
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Israel/Palestine. Louisa Loveluck, et al., of the Washington Post: “The news that Marwan al-Sultan was killed this week in an Israeli airstrike hit Gaza’s doctors like a thunderbolt. Through 20 months of war, the cardiologist had become one of the conflict’s main narrators, describing to the world again and again the horrific scenes in his wards, even as he battled to keep the lights on at the hospital he managed in the north.... Relatives of Sultan, the director of the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalya, said that the strike on Wednesday had targeted the Gaza City apartment where he was staying, also killing the doctor’s wife, sister, youngest daughter and his son-in-law. In a statement, the Israeli military said that it had struck a key terrorist from the Hamas terrorist organization,' but provided no more information.... Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has devastated the enclave’s health care system, damaging and destroying its clinics and hospitals, killing or detaining hundreds of medical workers and regularly preventing the entry of medicines and other critical supplies.”
Ukraine/Russia. David Stern of the Washington Post: “Heavy smoke choked central Kyiv on Friday after Russia launched its biggest aerial assault in its war against Ukraine, as Russian President Vladimir Putin showed no indication of wanting to end hostilities after a conversation with ... Donald Trump. Russian forces pummeled Ukraine with 539 drones and 11 missiles, with the 'main direction of the strike' targeting Kyiv, Ukraine’s air force said in a statement. That barrage surpassed the previous record, made Sunday.... Trump said that he was 'very disappointed' in his conversation with Putin on Thursday and that he did not think that the Russian leader wanted a ceasefire or an end to the three-year-old conflict.... This week the U.S. announced that it was reviewing its weapons supplies and pausing the delivery of several key weapons systems promised by the previous administration, including air defense.”
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Reader Comments (8)
Here's a comment NiskyGuy wrote this morning:
By NiskyGuy:
Yesterday evening (July 3) I got an email from the Social Security Administration, hailing the new legislation and saying 90% of SS recipients would get a tax cut. The message concluded with this:
"Social Security remains committed to providing timely, accurate information to the public and will continue working closely with federal partners to ensure beneficiaries understand how this legislation may affect them."
I haven't been able to log onto my SSA account since the new administration took over. Phone and remote office service is reduced. But they can spend time being a propaganda arm for the oval office occupier.
I got the same SSA email, praising DiJiT's BBB.
Propaganda. Disgusting.
And, my taxes have never "gone down", so add unbelievable to the descriptors.
A Place for Mom
So Fat Hitler is going to bring gladiatorial games to the White House lawn to celebrate 250 years of being a country. Maybe if I watched more sweaty half naked men beating the crap out of each other I wouldn't be so upset seeing my fellow human beings being terrorized and abused by our police state. A few of the things that FH does well are pacifying much of the public and normalizing the violence.
+74
"Curtis is a small town of 900 people in rural southwest Nebraska. The Curtis Medical Center announced yesterday it is closing, after more than 30 years. It is the only health care provider in the community."
"The Deluge Begins"
Open For Business
"The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will no longer enforce a rule capping the price of prison phone calls, according to an announcement made Monday by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. The move suspends a 2024 FCC decision that capped the price of in-state phone calls at $0.06 per minute for prisons and large jails and $0.07 per minute for medium-sized jails. Before the decision, a 15-minute phone call could cost as much as $11.35 at large jails in some states.
Incarcerated people have said that the high cost forces them to choose between spending money on phone calls or purchasing personal hygiene items, or even shoes. One mother told CBS News in 2020 that she and her husband spent “$14,268 over the past two years” so that their incarcerated son could make phone calls. On top of the exorbitant per-minute rates, incarcerated people are charged additional fees, including as much as $4 to connect the call, which could be charged multiple times if the call drops."
Don't Speak Out At the EPA
"The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday placed 144 employees on administrative leave and opened an investigation into their decision to sign a letter accusing the Trump administration of politicizing the agency. Current and former E.P.A. employees, lawyers and advocates expressed alarm at the development, saying the agency appeared to be ignoring the employees’ First Amendment rights.
The agency said its actions were warranted because the employees had signed the letter using their official titles and because the letter had denigrated the agency’s leadership. “The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” the E.P.A. press secretary, Brigit Hirsch, wrote in an email."
ICE Pinatas