I find that I need animal soothers much more often than I used to. These are tough times. One of the sites that I look at every morning before I look at anything else is We Rate Dogs. I read it on Bluesky but you can find it on the other sites as well. The videos are fun and inspiring and heart warming. I think we all need a little bit more of that. Every day. Maybe twice a day…
Yesterday, Trump pardoned a whole bunch of people who had been prosecuted for violating the FACE act by obstructing people’s access to abortion clinics. Some of them assaulted workers and patients in the process. So it’s not surprising that the anti-abortion zealots are feeling their oats.
We are writing to urge the Department of Justice (DOJ) to enforce the anti-abortion trafficking rules in the so-called “Comstock Act” by (1) rescinding the Office of Legal Counsel’s (OLC) Memorandum Opinion, Application of the Comstock Act to the Mailing of Prescription Drugs That Can Be Used for Abortions (2022) and (2) taking immediate action to enforce the mail-order abortion prohibition within the Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1461‒62. These laws prohibit the distribution of abortifacient matter—including the abortion pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol—through the United States Postal Service, express companies, common carriers, and interactive computer services. The United States Supreme Court has recognized provisions of the Act as proper exercises of Congress’ Postal and Commerce Clause powers. Yet in recent years, there has been an alarming increase in the distribution of abortion pills by mail and online, which raises the risk of intimate partner violence and precludes essential health and safety screening for women seeking these drugs. It is imperative that the DOJ ensure compliance with the Act as a matter of public policy and patient safety
There’s more. It’s all horrible.
Liz Winstead’s Abortion Access Front has been sounding the alarm on this for a long time. It’s real. Project 2025 was all over it.
I got into a conversation with some friend’s about the Dem’s failure to prepare for the nomination hearings. I KNEW that there were multiple weaknesses in them, but I also knew that the Trump team had a strategy to push them through.
I saw lots of complaints about Dem Senators questions at the hearings. It is hard, especially when Team Trump uses these tactics:
1) Withholding evidence
2) No background checks by FBI AND the FBI doesn’t share the info with all committee members
3) Coach candidates to give non-answers and to give technically correct, but misleading answers
“It wasn’t an NDA, It was a “non- disparagement clause in the divorce proceedings” Come on man! GIVE ME A BREAK!
4) Threaten people who have legit questions about their qualifications, or have issues about their character. See what they did to Sen. Joni Ernst.
I learned a lot. There are multiple weakness that could be exploited if someone was in charge of a PR campaign to derail her nomination. I don’t know if anyone is, but I do know the people in charge of pushing nominees are ON THE JOB! They are busy, pre-emptively shutting down lines of attack on Tulsi.
In Howie’s piece he points to an Atlantic article, “Elaine Godfrey managed to do what few reporters have managed to do— a journey to the heart of Gabbardism. She started at just the right place too: the Chris Butler Hare Krishna cult Tulsi built her life around.”
That leader is Chris Butler, the founder of an offshoot of the Hare Krishna movement in Hinduism, called the Science of Identity Foundation. Butler’s followers know him as Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa, and Gabbard, who identifies as Hindu, has called him her “guru-dev,” or spiritual master.
What Everyone Gets Wrong About Tulsi Gabbard Other than raw ambition, only one through line is perceptible in a switchbacking political career The Atlantic, January 21, 2025
Howie talks about meeting her:
When I first came across Tulsi Gabbard, she was two things to me: a right-wing Hare Krishna and a fanatic intent on persecuting the LGBTQ community in Hawaii. From the very beginning I saw her as, first and foremost, an enemy— and then as a brainwashed cultist moron.
Long before her sudden transformation into a Berniecrat— so still a right-wing, faux-Dem— she called me to ask for a Blue America endorsement. She didn’t really try to paint herself as a progressive and she came across as a garden variety careerist Democrat, not especially bad and not especially good. At the end of the interview, I asked her about the process by which she had come to change her position on LGBT equality. She immediately said she’d call back and then hung up abruptly and… never called back.
Howie Klein
Now, it might be interesting if some Dem senators asked her ask questions about her involvement with her Guru Butler. But if they did, she is prepared to take umbrage at it. Hegseth pre-emptively dismissed any concerns about his Christian Nationalism and nobody dug into it because it would require educating the public about its dangers.
The group in question, The Science of Identity Foundation, got ahead of any questions and put out a press release attacking the Media for how they are covered. They also got multiple groups to sign a letter to basically say, “Any attack on Butler & his group is an attack on all Hindus.”
So, if any media WANTS to talk about the group & her connection to them will need experts or groups not on that list who can say, “Look, don’t lump all Hindus together. This is what Butler has said on homosexuality, gay marriage, transgender, and abortions. This is what these 3 main Hindu groups have said on these topics, But Tulsi is her own person, ask her what her views are right now about these topics. What will come out is that she has “evolved” then “devolved” and “revolved.” They could even go back to 1998, when here father Mike Gabbard put out a TV ad featuring a teenage Tulsi and her siblings that likened marrying someone of the same sex to marrying your dog.
(YouTube link, I’ll but a copy of the video below in case it gets removed.)
Now, in my attempt to find those experts, I got this excellent comment, her Hinduism isn’t the issue here; it’s her hate campaign against gay and trans people.
That should be the focus, but it won’t come up during her hearings because it won’t be deemed relevant. But it is, because her position of power would give her the ability to persecute and gather information on groups here in the U.S. who she hates, for whatever reason.
Jim Stewardson and my friends at Mind War suggested that I look up what Tulsi Gabbard had to say on Rumble (funded by Peter Thiel & now a publicly traded company) where she got big bucks for a few videos. I’m sure the Dems can ask her about how much she got when they get her TAX returns (if the FBI will provide it to them.) And seeing that Thiel companies (Palantir Technologies) is one of the big vendors to the intelligence community & Rumble is big in the misinformation & disinformation community, it wouldn’t be like a conflict of interest or anything… especially in the Trump admin.
Marcy Wheeler @emptywheel.bsky.social made a great point about the strategy behind Sen Kaine’s questions to Hegseth on the Nicole Sandler show last week.
Rather than saying, “Did you rape that woman?” he said “Did you cheat on your wife?” The more important question is, “Why didn’t you tell Donald Trump?”
This is, in my opinion, how Democrats should be approaching these hearings, How can I describe the danger you pose to Donald Trump? How can I describe the danger you pose to the Republican project of, for example, really taking on China?
My point is It SHOULD be the job of the Dems who are going to talk to the media before, during and after these confirmation hearings to find weaknesses in these nominees that can be used to protect the American people.
I’m doing the best I can to help in advance. I’ve found a lot of damming videos of her on Rumble but the ones that won’t show up in the Senate hearings will be her anti-trans views because that’s been normalized on the right.
What MIGHT show up are ways that her flip flopping views might come back to hurt Trump, Trump cabinet members, rich gay donors, or Republican money making projects.
It looks like at least one of them (a person you would not expect) is considering it. Josh Marshall reports:
It probably won’t surprise you that RFK Jr., along with Tulsi Gabbard, are among the few Trump nominees who might actually not get confirmed. But I’m told that one senator who Democratic senators and health care advocates have real concerns about is none other than Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). To be clear, Whitehouse isn’t confirmed as voting for Kennedy. But he appears to be actively considering it. (Ed Note: WTF?)
Why? I’m told that there appear to be two reasons: One is that Whitehouse and Kennedy are personal friends. They were law school roommates at UVA and that seems to have been the beginning of a lifelong friendship. There are also specific issues with Rhode Island’s health care system that apparently need regulatory flexibility from HHS. That seems to be a real issue. But it hasn’t been enough of an issue to shift the state’s senior senator, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), who remains firmly opposed to Kennedy’s nomination.
Whitehouse isn’t the only Democratic senator not firmly locked down. There are also concerns about John Fetterman (D-PA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). But observers seem fairly confident that both will oppose Kennedy.
Whitehouse is the question mark.
Jesus H. Christ. I understand personal loyalty (although if one of my close friends decided to sell their soul to the antichrist as RFK has done, our friendship would not survive) but this is too much. Actually, I’m pretty sure that if my college roommate went batshit crazy years ago and was responsible for the deaths of dozens of Samoan children that friendship would have ended long ago.
The problem here is much bigger than one vote though. RFK’s nomination is in trouble. But if any Democrats come over, the GOP will hang together to let him through:
Here’s why Whitehouse’s possible vote to confirm Kennedy would be of more than just symbolic importance. There’s potential Republican opposition to Kennedy both for his advocacy in favor of polio, measles and other childhood diseases but also because, at least until a few weeks ago, he was pro-choice. But the first is the real problem. Dyed-in-the-wool anti-abortion advocates like Josh Hawley (R-MO) have giving Kennedy their blessing. It’s polio and measles, stupid, to paraphrase a younger James Carville.
Vote counters opposing Kennedy’s nomination believe there is a handful of Republicans seriously considering opposing Kennedy. But they’re unlikely to do so if one or more Democrats themselves vote to confirm him.
This is a question of life and death. If Whitehouse is your Senator (or Fetterman and Sanders, for that matter) I would suggest you give their offices a call. This is nothing to play with.
People believe what they want to believe, I guess. And they want to believe that Donald Trump is a colossus who will save them from boredom and a sense of inferiority. Maybe he will. Apparently, all he has to do is say it a few times and they’ll believe it’s true.
California is no longer part of the United States. We are a colony from which Donald Trump’s America extracts money and resources. Our job is to worship Trump or suffer.
REPORTER: You talk about condition being placed on aid to California, voter ID and the like. Are there any conditions you’re gonna put on aid to North Carolina?
REPORTER: You talk about condition being placed on aid to California, voter ID and the like. Are there any conditions you’re gonna put on aid to North Carolina?
TRUMP: We’re gonna do a lot for North Carolina
R: So no conditions?
T: Well, in CA I have a condition. We want them to have voter ID
He is also demanding the Newsom opens “the valve.”
In case you were wondering…
Trump’s solution to water in California: “All they have to do is turn the valve.” 🥴
Here are some facts about California water, and it doesn’t involve just turning on a valve so that water can flow south to Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/kyazLdJf0Y
“I want to see two things in Los Angeles. Voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state. After that, I will be the greatest president that California has ever seen.”
Trump on disaster aid to California: "I want to see two things in Los Angeles. Voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state. After that, I will be the greatest president that… pic.twitter.com/JLsFicyyes
Come on honey. Let me do it to you just this once. Then I promise I’ll buy you something really nice.
Update —
FINALLY! The NY Times has an excellent explainer on the California water situation. Gift link here. Maybe the cable newsers and others will be able to explain it to Americans.
Trump says he won the election because he used the word “groceries” Does he have anything to say about them now?
Trump on his first trip to a grocery store thrilled with the big bags of popcorn
During the presidential campaign last year, President Trump made a series of speeches and appearances at economic clubs around the country. He didn’t give the kind of formal speeches other candidates give to crowds like that which you would expect to be knowledgeable about finance and expecting serious plans a policies to meet the challenges of the current economy. He mostly just gave his usual stream of consciousness “weave” about whatever topic engaged him that day interspersed with some dull rote words on the teleprompter written by a campaign staffer. But during the Q&As he was often stymied by questions for which he was totally unprepared.
Perhaps the most famous instance was at the New York Economic club when a member asked him what he planned to do about the crisis in child care and he gave a meandering answer worthy of a 4th grader giving a book report of a book he hadn’t read. He said “childcare is childcare” and then basically said that his tariffs would somehow fix the problem.
As the campaign wore on and the campaign tightened up after President Biden dropped out, he had to make some “populist” gestures for the rubes. His campaign staff was reportedly frantic for him to talk about inflation so they assembled an event at his exclusive golf resort at Bedminster, New Jersey where he was surrounded by various food props. Unfortunately, he got caught up in his “weaves” and barely addressed the topic. They kept trying. A few weeks later he turned up at a grocery store and walked around it like it was the first time he’d ever been in one, as it may well have been.
He believes that he won the election on the basis of using the word “groceries” which he apparently believes is a unique term that only he had the savvy to deploy in a campaign.
Trump: I won on groceries. Very simple word, groceries. Like almost, you know, who uses the word. I started using the word. The groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time. pic.twitter.com/4hDzdJFrTz
Trump was never able to really say how he intended to bring down costs. Tariffs were his number one go-to answer to every economic question followed by “drill, baby, drill” as the solution to inflation and “growth” as the answer to deficits. That was basically his entire economic plan and in the midst of what was an overwhelming backlash against the post-pandemic inflation of 2022-2023 it seemed to be all that most voters needed to hear, at least the plurality that put him in the White House.
There was a group of enthusiastic backers who knew better, of course. The cyber-barons, CEOs and Wall Street Big Money Boys understood that the only thing he was bringing to the table was the prospect of deregulation and tax cuts, the holy grail of the billionaire class. Like most Americans, supporters and opponents alike, they don’t believe most of what he says anyway, which is one of the great sources of his power. They all figure his tariff threats are empty and even if they aren’t they can probably buy their way out of them. Just sending the message that any legal enforcement that might hurt the bottom line will no longer be pursued is enough to get them rushing to pay tribute to a president who is desperate to be a member of their exclusive club.
Former Trump advisor and podcaster/activist Steve Bannon has been outspoken against the tech-bro oligarchy led by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who now sits at the elbow of Donald Trump, going so far as to call him “evil” and vowing to purge him from the MAGA movement. But Bannon wasn’t invited to the inauguration, Musk was, along with Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook among other billionaires and they sat in pride of place right in the front row while Senators and Cabinet members were seated behind them. Everyone knows who’s got the president’s ear in this term. Let’s just say that none of them are worried about the price of groceries.
As NBC news reported, one of his Executive Orders from the first day rescinded the Biden policy to study how to further “lower prescription drug costs for people on Medicare and Medicaid, on enhancing the Affordable Care Act and increasing protections for Medicaid enrollees.” Whether he will seek to roll back “the $35 monthly cap on insulin, the $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs and Medicare’s negotiating drug pricing” isn’t yet known, but let’s just say it isn’t a good sign that he called the programs “radical” and “deeply unpopular” both of which are lies.
On Thursday Trump spoke before the World Economic Forum and reiterated his tariff threats which everyone with an 8th grade education should know will cause prices to rise. He demanded that the Fed lower interest rates and said later in the day that he “knows interest rates much better than they do.” He once again claimed that “we have a deficit” with Canada and encouraged them to become the 51st state so we won’t have to hit them with tariffs.
All of this is nonsensical gibberish, but if he does follow through, as he seems intent upon doing, the result will almost certainly be much higher gas prices:
Trump is threatening to impose big taxes on the oil we buy from Canada and send our gas prices soaring. It’s very MAGA! https://t.co/4FnL9WImji
The irony is thick. He claims that the inflation of three years ago was caused by high energy costs. And here he is promising to raise the price of gas. If he fulfills his threats to raise tariffs on Mexico, look to see your grocery bills skyrocket as well.
You will certainly remember that the price of eggs was the symbol of Democratic failure and seen by many as the avatar of pain at the grocery store. Well guess what?
The folks obsessively posting about egg prices for the past few years have gone strangely quiet just as egg prices hit an all-time high. pic.twitter.com/K6OOLKYMP0
Right now the US poultry industry is under tremendous threat from H1N1 bird flu and it’s making people sick and causing the price of eggs to skyrocket. That isn’t Trump’s fault but then the price spike in 2023 wasn’t Biden’s fault either. However, Trump freezing the National Institution of Health programs and the muzzling of the public health agencies is also going to lead not just to potentially deadly health outcomes but higher costs as well. Not to mention it’s going to be very difficult for the public to know about the threat. Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into another pandemic.
But don’t despair. Trump did sign an Executive Order requiring all of his agencies to figure out ways to lower costs of everything. They’ll be reporting back to him with their plans in a month so I’m sure it’s all going to be taken care of.
Since the election Trump’s spent most of his time hobnobbing with billionaires and obviously not giving the price of “groceries” a second thought. Perhaps Americans have moved on and don’t care about the price of eggs anymore and are just thrilled that we’re going to invade Greenland and turn Canada into the 51st state. But if not, Trump may see his approval rating take a precipitous slide as he hobnobs with his personal coterie of cyber-barons and makes money for himself hand over fist while the rest of America watches their paychecks shrink for no good reason.
A post a couple of weeks ago suggested Donald Trump’s fascination with Greenland stemmed from his not understanding how maps work. Specifically, the Mercator projection that distorts Greenland to make it look larger than it is. I mocked up the image above while imagining Trump wanting to slap his name on the island in letters large enough to be seen from space.
A post from The Bulwark this morning has me thinking he might want more than a massive logo.
Trump this week signed executive orders renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, and changing Alaska’s Denali back to Mt. McKinley. Noting that other countries are not obliged to follow Trump’s dicta and its own global audience, The Associated Press has updated its widely used style guide (I have one here) to version Trump 2.0:
The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.
As for Denali:
Trump also signed an executive order to revert the name of North America’s tallest peak, Denali in Alaska, to Mount McKinley. Former President Barack Obama changed the official name to Denali in 2015 to reflect the traditions of Alaska Natives as well as the preference of many Alaska residents. Trump said in his executive order that he wanted to “restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley.”
The Associated Press will use the official name change to Mount McKinley. The area lies solely in the United States and as president, Trump has the authority to change federal geographical names within the country.
Trump will undo everything Biden and Obama ever did, if he can. He’s just starting with checklist items he can manage with the stroke of a sharpie.
The Bulwark asks, “If Trump signed an order changing the name of Mt. Rushmore to Mt. Trump, would the AP follow along? It’s important in the Gulf of Mexico example that ‘all audiences’ be able to identify places with their names, but that doesn’t count if the places are ‘within the country’?”
Why would the size-obsessed Fauntleroy stop at Rushmore? Greenland is bigger … much bigger. If Trump somehow managed to “acquire” Greenland, why stop at just slapping a Trump brand on it large enough to be visible from the moon but not from the ground?
Donald Trump comes a-callin’ today in Western North Carolina. “Significant traffic impacts” are expected. It is typical of presidential visits: no details released publicly until the last minute. It’s a security thing:
“I’m going to North Carolina, very importantly, first,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday evening from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, before confirming the rest of his itinerary about heading to the West Coast.
If nothing else, the visit suggests our blue city won’t have its recovery funds slashed just yet. Despite so much attention to candidates and “authenticity,” don’t expect much from any Trumpish attempt to mimic empathy today (pay attention to my bolding):
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein is planning to meet President Donald Trump on the tarmac of Asheville Regional Airport during Trump’s Jan. 24 visit to Western North Carolina, a spokesperson for Stein told the Citizen Times.
Earlier in the week, Stein, a Democrat, said Trump’s planned visit to WNC, which was ravaged by Tropical Storm Helene nearly four months ago, was “very good news” for the region’s residents. The storm killed more than 100 people across the state and caused an estimated $60 billion in damage, according to the latest estimate from the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management. During Stein’s first week in office, he issued five executive orders to aid Helene recovery.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis stepped up to spread some more disinfo for the boss:
“President Trump’s visit on Friday is welcome news for the thousands of families dealing with a state of uncertainty when it comes to securing housing. Under President Biden, FEMA’s failure to act and communicate swiftly put vulnerable families at risk with freezing temperatures outside. Despite our continued pressure, FEMA made little progress in providing direct housing solutions for those most affected by Helene. Things will be changing under President Trump, and his visit shows his Administration is committed to the people of Western North Carolina as he promised during the campaign. I look forward to working with the Trump-Vance Administration to ensure that every available federal resource is deployed and that red tape preventing families from accessing housing is eliminated.”
Except Trump plans to dump disaster relief management on states (the way he made them compete for ventilators and other supplies during Covid?). He told Fox News (New York Times):
Mr. Trump continued, “The FEMA is getting in the way of everything.” Referring to Oklahoma, he said: “If they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it. You don’t need — and then the federal government can help them out with the money.”
Project 2025, the blueprint for a Republican administration that was produced by the Heritage Foundation, calls for flipping the financial burden of response to small disasters so that 75 percent is carried by states and the rest by the federal government.
Define “small.” Of course, Project 2025’s war plan will not last beyond contact with a hurricane washing over Mar-a-Lago.
Shifting the burden for disaster relief to states “would hit Republican-leaning states hardest, federal spending figures suggest,” the Guardian notes. “Since 2015, states that voted for Trump last year have received $31bn in assistance from Fema, with storm-prone Florida, Texas and Louisiana leading the way, compared with just $7bn for states that voted Democratic.”
North Carolina’s 2024 budget was $34 billion. Josh Stein is unlikely to find another $60 billion in the governor’s mansion couch cushions.
I don’t think I’ve posted this here before. You’ve seen Helene flood photos from the river valleys. This is what Helene’s arrival was like for residents higher upslope. Many of those slopes are now as bare as Pacific Palisades hillsides. There will be spring rains and mudslides. Trump will have moved on. FEMA may be dismantled or defunded by then.
A White House official said Musk “very much” got over his skis when the tech tycoon launched a daylong screed against the AI project. One Trump ally said Musk abused his closeness to the president. Another Republican close to the White House went further, saying Trump’s staff is “furious” over Musk using his massive social media platform to pour cold water on the infrastructure deal that Trump called “tremendous” and “monumental” just a day prior.
“It’s clear he has abused the proximity to the president,” said the Trump ally. “The problem is the president doesn’t have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero fucks.”
What’s this all about?
Musk, who owns his own AI startup, was not at Trump’s unveiling of “Stargate,” an effort to supercharge the country’s AI infrastructure featuring the tech giants OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI, has long been critical of its CEO Sam Altman and spent much of Wednesday trolling him online. “They don’t actually have the money,” he said. Softbank, meanwhile, “has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”
But Trump, when asked by reporters about Musk blasting the deal said, “The government’s not putting up anything. They’re putting up money. They’re very rich people, so I hope they do. And, I mean, Elon doesn’t like one of those people.”
Trump said it did not bother him that Musk criticized the deal, saying, “No, it doesn’t. He hates one of the people in the deal.”
Right. The two little geniuses battled it out on Twitter like real men:
Musk seems to favor another AI investor, saying Microsoft’s Satya Nadella “definitely does have the money.” Musk even reposted a joke that suggested Altman and his team smoked crack “to come up with their $500 billion number for Stargate.” Altman shot back at Musk on X: “i realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you’ll mostly put 🇺🇸 first.”
This is exactly how you would assume the president of the United States would run the country. I’m just glad he isn’t old. Oh wait. He is.
This is a ridiculous story and a ridiculous situation. I’m not sure that there’s any reason to even care about at this point. But there is one thing in the article that caught my eye that might just be important. The staffer said, ” the president doesn’t have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero fucks.” What are we to make of this except that Musk has Trump by the cojones?
I expect it has something to do with $$$$, perhaps the Bitcoin scam or the rumors that he plans to buy Truth Social for big bucks. Whatever it is, Elon’s obviously not afraid of Trump and will say and do whatever he wants. He already demonstrated that during the near government shutdown battle before Christmas.
Trump can’t control him and we have no idea what that means for the country.
