Chris Alexander

Will someone please explain to me why the right is all about states' rights and individual freedom until they want to oppress someone?
Oh, wait, it was always about accumulating the power to oppress.

Thought for the day:
When you see someone struggling in the moment, ask yourself whether they need consequences or help.
I'm finding the answer is usually help.

Barry says it, and we ALL know it by now it's a 2 rules system, one for us and one for tRump/them hypocritical GOP MFers

The real answer is respect for institutions and process is part of the shared identity and throwing that away isn't easy when you've always believed in it. Part of being a villain this time is trashing decorum and it's hard to align with that.

We Americans are definitely the bad guys now. That's like a family courts judge telling an abuse victim to come back when she's ready for peace.

Judge Says Trump Administration Ordering Mass Firings Was Unlawful Read more here.

NEW: A federal judge in California has ruled that the Office of Personnel Management's directive to terminate probationary employees was unlawful. This marks one of the first rulings declaring Trump’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce as illegal.

Federal workers sue over Musk's threat to fire if they don't explain accomplishments Attorneys for federal workers say in a lawsuit billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk violated the law with his weekend demand that employees explain their accomplishments or risk being fired

Hey, Elon, you are a bully without real authority. Go back in your hole.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/wir...

My soul and my country are worth more than a $5000 bribe.

How can I, as an individual contributor for my company, operate at a higher standard of ethical behavior than the President of the United States? This is yet another degradation of the rule of law specifically to help him and his cronies.

So what, he's signing us up for imperialist genocide?

I guess we're just going full-on imperialist, huh? Complete with the traditional human rights abuses?

We had to cancel our grand weekend plans for our fifth wedding anniversary due to the Trump administration's actions. What we're doing instead? Attending a protest.

Trump you can sign whatever you want, but we will hold you accountable every step of the way. Law and order matter!

Correction taken, thank you. My phrasing was sloppy in giving DOGE too much status and, yes, these appointments are poisonous to the function of our institutions.

I just contact my senators and U.S. representative expressing my concerns about DOGE. It's a tiny thing, but maybe in aggregate we can do something.

Contact your elected officials. Keep doing it. Tell them to protect our institutions before they are hollowed out and used against us.
Treasury, for example, is the keys to the kingdom. Control over payments and who gets them. Institutions, individuals, bank account information.

That's part of the heartache here. We trust leadership with broad powers on behalf of the people. Trust. When someone violates that, we don't have a lot of ability to stop them. The legislative and judicial branches need to preserve and exercise their power.
But, you know...

Exactly. This needs to be challenged vigorously at every level.
The law doesn't mean anything if we don't enforce it.

A sincere question: How can a new administration just create a new agency from whole cloth and they suddenly have the power to go into other agencies and take over their data and systems without any process at all?

This buyout is another scam. No process has been followed, the money for it has not been authorized by Congress, and existing rules have a $25k cap on buyouts.
Reddit users are pointing out that some of the verbiage is the same as a similar letter to Twitter employees. They didn't get paid either.

Get it, sir! Hold the line!

10/10
What will you tell your children
When they ask what words you chose
When Mother Mercy looked away
And the sky was thick with crows.

(9/10)Today they came for the trans folx and the migrants. We've all read the poem, people. What are you going to do?

Think hard. This is the day.

I'm going to close with some lines borrowed from a Canadian folk singer, Heather Dale.

(8/?) Instead of focusing on core principals of governance, we are getting bigotry by executive fiat. The way people live in their own bodies and hearts is being subject to governmental discrimination. It's loathsome and should be beneath us.

(7/?) There is policy coming out of Washington today that is confusing individual identity and needs for systemic problems. Trans people, queerfolk of all stripes, cis women and girls are all endangered by executive orders. Identities of individuals, their 'flavor of tea' are policy targets.

(6/?) I submit that a lot of things go sideways when people start confusing style and substance. Individual expression versus core structure. Both of these things are important, but they aren't the same. Things break, people get hurt, systems fail when these are in the wrong boxes.

(5/?) A lot of other things in life are like that. Is it your cup of tea? Is it hurting anything? Is it getting the job done and did we effectively define the desired outcome? Can we measure the outcomes and is it reliable enough? The examples can go on indefinitely, but you get it.

(4/?) There are some things that follow the thread of martial truth across styles. Time, line, measure, body alignment, muscle recruitment. All sorts of stuff. But other things are style, a matter of flavor, and it comes down to who does it better.

(3/?) My personal context, I'm a martial artist. I've trained, studied, taught and competed successfully for over thirty years. I've spent a lot time sorting what works from what doesn't and finding the why behind it. I do the same thing in my career as a reliability engineer.