Barb

Trump Is Planning the Biggest Heist in History The “strategic crypto reserve” will be a giant rug pull scam

open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

My friend and I (and a bunch of other people) did our part for the movement today. #resistfascism #resisttrump

At Least Now We Know the Truth It’s ugly, but necessary to face.

"The American people need to reckon with the mess Trump and Vance are making of this country’s once-good name—and the services they are performing for dictators and aggressors."
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Winner Take All Why the tech bros want authoritarian government.

A worthwhile read. Why the tech bros want an authoritarian government:

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Ten reasons for modest optimism Friends,

"We will prevail because we are relearning the basic truth — that we are the leaders we’ve been waiting for" open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

Our Government Is Experiencing a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly Musk is moving fast and breaking important things

“when we experience our next wave of … forest fires, when …Americans begin dying from preventable diseases & faulty medical devices, remember: These disasters will be partly the fault of arrogant, ignorant men who decided to smash up a reasonably functional govt.”

open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

What USAID’s Dismantling Looks Like on the Ground in Africa Locals in Malawi and Kenya who worked with the agency face stalled development, cancelled programming, and shortages of lifesaving supplies: ‘I think we will forget America is even there.’

“We agree we cannot continue to be beggars,” John says. “But the people who feel the most pain [from aid cuts] are the innocent.” Certainly a wholesale, overnight cessation does nothing but endanger those who are already vulnerable.

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Those of you with Trumpers in your family, how do you deal with it? My sister-in-law (an MD and PhD) and her husband (an attorney) support Trump. We've banned political conversations at gatherings, but all I want to do is show them facts and demand, "How can you still be behind this ass wipe!?"

The ‘Gulf of America’ Is an Admission of Defeat Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico is not triumphant but pathetic.

"To rename the Gulf of Mexico “the Gulf of America” is to reconceptualize the United States not as a sending point, but as a receiving point; no longer a country that stamps itself upon history, but a country upon which history is stamped."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Elon Musk Is a Deep State Agent, According to Elon Musk Look, we don’t make the rules.

“So in addition to being dead wrong, the people who are accusing everyone of being government-funded, are—using their own preposterous rationale—probably government-funded.”

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Cutting Cancer Research Sometimes, it gets personal.

Cuts would slow “Advancements in virtually all areas of research, including the leading causes of death in the U.S. It would also result in economic losses—NIH grants fund 4,769 jobs in Alabama, with an impact of $909 million.”

open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

Springtime for Scammers Financial predation now has friends in high places

“CFPB was created to protect Americans from financial predation, and has done a very good job of doing so. But now we have government of, by and for financial predators.”
open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

February 8, 2025 Yesterday the National Institutes of Health under the Trump administration announced a new policy that will dramatically change the way the United States funds medical research.

When you defund & dismantle government programs (whether to save taxpayer dollars or remove possible dissenters) and you don’t look deeply at what is being cut, it’s going to have unintended consequences, some of which will cause real pain and damage.

open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

"Low information voters" should not be a thing! Yes, voting is a right. But it comes with a responsibility to know what or who the fuck you are actually voting for.

Proud of my current displays at the library.

Andy Borowitz on Substack If we’re going to have a South African as president why can’t it be Trevor Noah

substack.com/@borowitzrep...

How the Muskrat is messing with your social security, your religion, and everything else He and his goons must be stopped

This is a coup d'état! Musk was not elected.
He has not been confirmed by Congress to serve in any governmental capacity.
Yet he has taken over the Treasury Department's payment system, USAID, the Office of Personnel Management. When is Congress going to stop this?!
open.substack.com/pub/robertre...

February 2, 2025 Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually a...

Think of the federal government as a car. You thought that the election was like getting the car serviced. Instead, the mechanics, who somehow don’t look like mechanics, tell you that they have taken the parts of your car that work and sold them and kept the money.

open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

February 1, 2025 Throughout now-president Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, it was clear that his support was coming from three very different factions whose only shared ideology was a determination to destroy the federal...

This is a nightmare!
“with Musk’s people at the computers that control the nation’s payment system, they can simply stop whatever payments they want to.” That’s just one frightening development among many.
open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

President Blames D.E.I. and Biden for Crash Under Trump’s Watch President Trump’s remarks, suggesting without evidence that diversity in hiring and other Biden administration policies somehow caused the disaster, reflected his instinct to immediately frame major e...

Of for cripes sake! You've got to be frickin kidding me!
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/u...

Using Military Jets for Deportations Is an Ugly, Wasteful Spectacle The intimidation is the point.

The choice of aircraft for deportations signifies other choices the administrations is making—about government efficiency (or in this case, willful inefficiency); about the image it wants to project; and about how it sees and may seek to use the armed forces.

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Departing the New York Times I left to stay true to my byline

“Their response was to point to other writers who often expressed views about policy, economic and otherwise. I tried to explain there’s a difference between having opinions about economics and knowing how to read C.B.O. analyses and recent research papers.”

open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

White House Budget Office Orders Pause in All Federal Loans and Grants The full extent of the order was not immediately clear, but the directive sent to government agencies on Monday threatened to paralyze a vast swath of federal programs.

Vaeth's wording makes clear that the only people this government serves are white men.

White House Budget Office Orders Pause in All Federal Loans and Grants www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/u...

I can't even with this shit!
Anyone know a reputable charity that might step in to bring HIV drugs to these HUMAN BEINGS? I'll donate.

A view inside an AIDS clinic, with large cardboard boxes of medications being tended to by a worker in a red shirt and white hat. Text reads: "Trump Administration Halts HIV Drug Distribution in Poor Countries." Photo credit: Foto24/Gallo Images, via Getty Images

The Trump administration instructed organizations in other countries to stop disbursing HIV medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics.

Read more: nyti.ms/4hvI8s0

January 27, 2025 Yesterday, President Donald Trump began a trade war with Colombia after that country’s president refused to permit two U.S.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced yesterday morning that “[d]eportation flights have begun.” In fact, nothing is “beginning.” In 2024, Colombia accepted on average more than two U.S. flights of migrants a week.”

open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

The Deportation Nightmare Begins Whatever Trump intends, this will spiral out of control

open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

The Price of Speaking Up in Trump’s America A bishop asked the president to show mercy to immigrants and scared children. The response tells us everything about the next four years.

“Remember this moment. Remember that asking for mercy toward scared children and immigrants was enough to trigger a full-scale campaign of intimidation from the highest levels of government and media.”

open.substack.com/pub/newrepub...

You beat me to it!

I, like many Americans of my generation, can sing the preamble to the U.S. constitution without hesitation. Thank you Schoolhouse Rocks.