JD Foster

Happy belated #NationalBestFriendsDay to my bestie.

On this day of redemption and rejuvenation, let us celebrate the innate dignity of every human being - regardless of the color of their skin, their gender, where they were born, how much money they make, what house they worship in, or who they happen to love.

A cathartic tactic isn’t inherently an effective tactic.

The CFPB Has Been Gutted The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau terminated the positions of 1,406 employees at the congressionally mandated agency.

This is getting fewer headlines than it should. After coming to power promising to help working people, the president is revealing his real priorities by actively making it easier for banks to rip people off.

If Dems frame their opposition to Trump in ways that center a defense of one or more of those institutions - they are playing right into this hands. Those voters want - and have wanted for a very long time - an articulation of how to change "the system" so it works for them "again."

And "the system" equals both the state and the institutions that uphold and defend the system - elite universities and big corporations, the media and bureaucracy, and the immigrants that Trump constantly alleges are part of the plan to continue a system that hurts the white, working class.

So many college-educated folks don't seem to understand the Trump majority includes a substantial number of people that don't feel western liberal-democratic capitalism is working for them and their families. Those voters don't tease out capitalism from democracy, the whole thing is "the system."

YouTube, Amazon and Meta sign up to sponsor White House Easter Egg Roll | CNN Politics The White House has set up high-dollar partnerships with YouTube, Meta and Amazon, among others, for Monday’s Easter Egg Roll, underscoring the close relationships the leaders of those tech companies ...

Nothing says Christian more than commodifying Easter...
www.cnn.com/2025/04/18/p...

Figured I’d hop on here today for the 15th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.

With everything going on right now, it’s easy to feel like regular folks can’t make a difference – but the ACA is a reminder that change is possible when we fight for progress.

The term #Woke, as it was used by Black southerners in the early and mid-1920s, simply meant keeping your eyes open for any injustice being perpetrated.

So, when someone is against #wokeness, they want you to ignore what they are about to do to you or others you care about.

Social Security to require millions to make claims in person rather than by phone The change is expected to create new hardships as Trump and Musk push massive cuts to the agency that serves elderly and disabled Americans.

HEY GRANDMA, YOU'RE A FRAUD.

This same tactic has been used on #Medicaid and ALWAYS leads to the same result: people who fully qualify for their earned benefits don't get them.

They will call it something else, but this is a cut to #SocialSecurity.

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Anger is not a strategy

A set of tactics is not a strategy.

Pass it on.

From my point of view, it’s less about states and more about the DC based groups. They’re pushing messaging that centers Musk and DOGE - a fundraising strategy that appeals to their base - but almost ignoring Medicaid, which is visceral to a far greater number of people. It’s a losing strategy.

I don’t agree. The budget fight is THE fight. They are not separate fights. Elon needs his cuts to be codified and if we fight his terms by arguing in favor of general government spending he’ll win.

I completely disagree. When you have no legislative power, all you have is the force of public opinion. Spending time “educating” people about what you think they should care about instead of working together on the things you already agree on is a losing strategy.

That's my point. Why waste time educating people about DOGE/Elon when enough people ALREADY agree with you about the healthcare cuts? It's all one big fight and the professional advocates/party people are focusing on the most difficult to win aspect of it - and will lose everything in the process.

My point is not that regular working people don't relate to Medicaid - most people on Medicaid are working people - it's that most progressional progressives and professional Democrats can't wrap their heads around Medicaid and how important it is because they've rarely if ever known people on it.

Americans say Trump is changing how government works, but divide over Musk, workforce cuts — CBS News poll Ukraine also brings divisions; Trump's immigration efforts rate well, but many look for more inflation focus.

Here's just the latest example of non-partisan polling indicating that the public is split on the cuts to the federal government: www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-e...

I completely agree that what DOGE is doing is catastrophic, but non-partisan polling shows that it is not overwhelmingly opposed the way that the cuts to the ACA and Medicaid are. As a matter of strategy - why focus on the issue with the least support?

The Medicaid - not Medicare - cuts have been a goal of the GOP elite long before DOGE was ever conceived. Of course the DOGE cuts are visceral to the employees directly impacted, but far more people will be directly impacted by Medicaid cuts. Professional progressives just don’t identify with them.

Is the reason that the Democratic Party and professional progressives are focusing so much on DOGE - in which public opinion is split - and not on the cuts to Medicaid and other health care programs - which are incredibly unpopular - that they can not identify with the working families on Medicaid?

They can no longer pretend that they care about working people.

It’s early. Stay tuned.

I’ve been sober for eleven years and one day. It keeps getting better.

Park Service deletes trans references on Stonewall Inn monument page “LGB” reference made to comply with Trump executive order on gender, National Park Service says.

Repeat after me:

#Stonewall is TRANS history. We cannot and will not comply with the erasure of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera or any other of our trans brothers and sisters from our past, present and future.

Take Action Now: Medicaid Matters to Our State AFSCME members won’t sit on the sidelines as Congress is crafting a tax and budget package that cuts federal funding for Medicaid. We won’t be silent as anti-worker lawmakers target people with disabi...

Medicaid ensures life-saving health care for millions of Americans and protects vital public services.

Join us and tell Congress: Say NO to cuts to Medicaid. Use this form and we’ll connect you directly to your representative! 👉

Trayvon Martin would have turned 30 today.

Every life has seasons and it’s ok to transition into the next one.

“But my people have worn green glasses on their eyes so long that most of them think it really is an Emerald City” - The Wizard of Oz.