Opinion | Trump’s War on D.E.I. Is Really a War on Civil Rights The genius of the right-wing crusade against D.E.I. is that the term is amorphous enough that it can mean many different things to many different people.

"[For the Right], D.E.I...is the mere presence of a woman or nonwhite person or disabled or transgender person in any high-skilled, high-status position. And their alternative isn’t some heretofore unknown standard of merit; it is the reintroduction of something like segregation."

(gift link)

This Gulf of Mexico thing is not a distraction, it's a *test.* He's saying "the truth is what I say it is" and so far Google and Apple are agreeing that the emperor's clothes look great.

i am going to put a finer point on this: executive orders are not laws. and they certainly are not royal decrees. they are interpretations of existing law for the purposes of enforcement. the fact that so many people are treating them as laws is actually driving me a bit insane.

All of my political science professor friends are starting to post warnings. The Polity Project has determined that the US has experienced an adverse regime change event, is no longer a democracy, and can officially be considered an autocracy.

www.systemicpeace.org/index.html

This is also applicable to political threats. The best thing is our democracy does not fail. Despite the best efforts of Trump in his first term, our nation survived. And those of us who warned of the dangers and, more importantly, fought against them look crazy for accurately stating the danger.

See: reporting that Trump refused access to @apnews.com because they said "gulf of mexico" instead of "gulf of america." On its face, it's petty bullshit. But the implication is "report what I tell you to or suffer the consequences." It's not about a name, it's about the function of the free press.

On every article about everything that this administration is doing, there are incessant comments that "this is just a distraction." Friends, we have been before. It is all intentional chaos, and none of it is mere destraction. It's calculated undermining of the rule of law.

Remember when for weeks no one in the Trump admin knew how to turn on lights at the white house? That, bit like, larger scale.

Folks (and this thing has gone around quickly), it's still unclear *what* has been "deleted"; as many of you have noted DirectFile remains active. Part of the danger of Government-By-Unelected-Nutball is that what's actually *true* is a moving target.

If you RT'd my initial post, RT this as well.

Text on black background - "all of us back in 1999: why does this matter? Who gives a shit about the taxation of trade routes?!" George Lucas in February 2025: 3 different images of George Lucas laughing

pushback works, part infinity +1

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/h...

pushback works, part infinity:

apnews.com/article/immi...

When I was a Hill staffer in 2009, a Dem trifecta was trying to pass universal healthcare. In response, Senate GOP released a memo detailing all of the tactics they in the minority could use to delay the effort as much as possible. I'm recirculating that 2009 GOP memo here. Take inspiration from it.

I like baking because it's precise and if you can follow instructions, you're pretty well assured of a good result. I like cooking because recipes are really kind of suggestions and if you follow your vibes, you're pretty well assured of a good result.

So the most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world clumsily fired a bunch of senior air traffic staff, caused the worst domestic air disaster since 9/11, and then tried to blame black people

i think it is important to say that the open and explicit racism of the president and the vice president isn’t just uncouth or “controversial” but a direct attack on tens of millions of americans and a dereliction of their duty to represent the entire country

Yeah, they've made this crystal clear with talk of birth rates and wanting young people to have babies. This anti-DEI stuff is going to be used to shut down avenues for women in college and careers. College educated women wait to have babies and have fewer of them. This is their "solution" to that.

Aw poor guy :(

I used to work for an elected official as the person who answered their emails. I can tell you from personal experience, if even twenty or thirty people all call an official in a day, they start panicking. This stuff does help.

I really missed my daughter today. Some days being a working mother hits me really hard. She spent the whole drive to her grandparents house saying "mama where are you" and "miss mama." She clung to me when I dropped her off. I cried when I drove away.

So what are you going to do? How, specifically, are you going to fight? Today's funding freeze is flat out unconstitutional and has massively wide reaching ripple effects. Is congress going to roll over and take it? You need to stop any business in the senate until this is revoked.

Dems can:

-oppose all Trump nominees until this EO is withdrawn
-deny unanimous consent to slow senate proceedings
-vote no on all cloture
-force quorum calls at every chance

It’s a constitutional crisis. There is absolutely no reason the Senate should be connecting business as usual.

What Trump has done today is blatantly illegal and unconstitutional. It is simply not within the powers of the president to withhold appropriated funds. So this is the test. This is where we find out. Is congress going to roll over and take it? Is SCOTUS? If so, we're well and truly fucked.

Do not obey in advance. Do not obey unlawful orders.

Spread Information not panic When reporting or signal boosting potential threats: provide as much information as possible! S.A.L.U.T.E. Size/Strength "5 to 6 Armed Agitators" Actions/Activity "Harassing random people on the move" Location & Direction "Manhattan, East of Central Park, E 97th St" Uniform/Clothes "Dark Jackets, ballcaps" Time & Date of Observation "8:32 PM June01" Equipment & Weapons "They have Body Armor and Pepper spray" Not a useful tweet: "proudboys spotted" "Where? When? What are they doing? How Many? What are they carrying?" Use your Judgement!

The threat of ICE has tons of people on high alert, the result is claims of ICE seen without firm or specific info people can actually use — & sometimes, no ICE at all.

It’s never “ICE spotted in Queens,” but “4 SUVs labeled DHS seen parked on 57th & 59th in Maspeth at 2:34pm.”

Be specific!

Wrote this on FB, sharing it here. I stand by this info - healthcare providers are legally and ethically barred from complying with ICE. Don't comply in advance. The law is on our side. Don't acquiesce to powers that they do not yet have.

Current internal battle: Should I be terrified of Trump on main, or should I recognize that pretending like he has powers he does not have helps to grant him those powers.

DID YOU KNOW for 25 years Matthew Shepard had no permanent resting place due to concerns his grave would be vandalized

Reverend Budde learned of this, she invited the Shepards to inter him inside the Washington National Cathedral.

www.matthewshepard.org/matthew-shep...

She was and is a real hero.