☯️ Hopeful Pessimist ☯️

Two U.S. prosecutors suspended after describing Jan. 6 attack as ‘mob’ The suspensions come in the case of a 2021 Capitol rioter who faces sentencing for unrelated weapons charges.

We should posting unedited video from Jan 6 on a loop as a reminder of what is what.

How Politics Is Changing the Way History Is Taught

How Politics Is Changing the Way History Is Taught www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/u...

This is an official US gov website in 2025 alerting the American people that “the well has run dry” for food assistance for hungry families due to the minority political party’s prioritization of “…illegal aliens and gender mutilation...” A blatant misrepresentation of the truth.

I’ve had an incredible first week sharing my book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual For Keeping A Democracy with friends across the country. Next up, San Francisco. a.co/d/0GGCiHU

I looked it up once. SNAP takes 2% of the US budget and 93% of the money goes to the actual poor people instead of to the bureaucracy. So it's kind of like if you paid $1000 in taxes, you spent $20 on the poor of which they got to keep $18.60, and you spent $166.66 on the military.

Oh?

How You Can Protect Democracy 29 concrete actions you can take right now to protect democracy.

protectdemocracy.org/how-to-prote...

Sunday thought: Working for the Good Friends,

open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

In America, we have no Kings, no Queens, no nobles, no dictators, and no emperors. We have no slaves, no serfs and no subjects.

Just us—‘We the People.’

Screen grab of Fox News interview with Oz saying “for folks right now it’s your patriotic duty to be as healthy [as you can]. Special Report May 08, 2025 • 11:05 • CLIP Top Trump admin health officials share visions for respective agencies U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials Dr. Mehmet Oz, Marty Makary, Jay Bhattacharya and Robert F....

Here’s the receipts, and here are the links. I advise not watching, it may cause chronic illness.

www.foxnews.com/video/637254...

www.foxnews.com/media/top-tr...

In your face: The brutal aesthetics of MAGA Does proximity to power rely on a specific look?

“Over the top, overdone, ridiculous,” —how one New York plastic surgeon described "Mar-a-Lago Face."

Great piece by @inaeoh.bsky.social

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

NCCDPHP Division of Reproductive Health Division of Population Health BCSB EPI branch Prevention Research Translation Branch Office of Smoking and Health NCHHSTP Division of TB elimination -Communication, Education, and Behavioral Studies Branch PBEMB GLOBAL Division of HIV and TB Communications Branch SPIN SPICE PBEMB MCHB HIDMSB EHSRB Scientific Integrity Branch NCEH Division of Environmental Science/Practice Asthma and Air Quality branch NCIRD ISD/Partnerships NIOSH Miner safety Health effects lab division Respiratory health division NCBDDD Office of the Director Disability Health NCIPC Division of Violence Prevention Division of Injury Prevention OD Office of Health Equity OCOO Office of Human Resources

New — Here is a running list of Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) offices that have either been fully eliminated or gutted into non-functionality as a result of today's mass firings (provided to me directly by a CDC staffer):

February 14, 2024 I am at home for a short break, and Buddy and I have spent the day taking it easy, a plan I intend to continue for the next several hours.

Normally, I repost @hcrichardson.bsky.social’s newsletter, using years of marketing experience to grab the perfect “pull quote” as preface.

Today, she felt she couldn’t relax and repost this Valentine’s Day piece - too much US mayhem.

So I will ⬇️:

heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-1...

And here’s the part about your bank information.

t.co/aE3lnpWbyI

February 13, 2025 Four years ago today, on February 13, 2021, Senate Republicans acquitted former president Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial.

February 13, 2025

Yes! @petebuttigieg.bsky.social for sure! And why not D-governors updating their constituents on the daily breaches of ethics/public trust/legal precedent - along with the implications and likely consequences for their lives and the lives of their children and neighbors.

Elon Musk’s Team Decimates Education Department Arm That Tracks National School Performance The Trump administration canceled $900 million in contracts overseen by the Institute of Education Sciences, which partners with scientists and education companies to compile and make public data abou...

DOGE came for the research and statistics arm of the U.S. Department of Education today, declared "fraud" and "waste" and abruptly terminated about $900M in contracts. A lot of what we know about America's schools comes from the data this agency collects. New reporting with @jodiscohen.bsky.social

Trump’s neofascism is here now. Here are 10 things you can do to resist | Robert Reich America has deep problems, which is why we can’t give up. Protect the vulnerable, organize boycotts and keep fighting

Let’s get to work.

Be Like Sisyphus How to embrace hopeful pessimism in a moment of despair

Hopeful Pessimism entails “…simultaneously acknowledging that sense of being cosmically screwed while knowing that finding purpose, and even some kind of hopefulness, is possible in a world that promises nothing.” This is a mood for right now.