Kevin Lawrence

I always thought it was great because of the friendly Massachusetts accents

Question for Mike Flood: With $450 million being allocated to Alligator Alcatraz, and ICE burning through $8.4 million a day to illegally detain people—How much does it cost for fascism? How much do the tax payers have to pay for a fascist country?

Life on a Monday in August may seem normal enough. And yet the reality is "We have a consolidating dictatorship in our country." I so appreicate @maddow.msnbc.com describing the simple reality clearly. It does us no good to pretend it's not real. The only question is what we do about it.

We think of the White House as a big mansion, but the point is it's not a palace. It's a house. It's modest, one of the smallest residences for a head of state. The east and west wings are deliberately minimal and unobtrusive. It's not Versailles or Buckingham. It symbolizes civic republicanism.

US government now adopting Trump’s trick of not paying its employees. While paying others billions to do nothing until their resignation kicks in.

I wonder if Trump can fire the computers that compile the stock market numbers

The Human Toll The Human Toll shares the anonymous stories of people impacted by recent social, economic, and policy changes in the US, with the goal of promoting awareness and empathy, providing a sense of connecti...

I'm deeply grateful to those who have shared their stories for The Human Toll project. These stories capture the deep sense of fear, loss, helplessness, disappointment, and anger that people are experiencing in the wake of recent changes in the US. But they also offer reason for hope.

humantoll.org

A not-small percentage of engaged liberals are adherents of what amounts to a secular, civic faith in US government as Constitutionally established.

And unfortunately that government doesn't exist anymore.

*A* government does, but it is not especially rooted in the Constitution at this point.

Looks like death

Yes! This alteration represents not only the desecration of a noble building, but even more importantly, a concrete statement of Trump’s lack of respect for the presidential office he is supposed to hold on behalf of the American people.

Under Biden, Rs called for civility, accused the Justice Dept. of politicizing J6 investigations, constantly claimed the Constitution was being violated.

Rs don’t talk about civility now, they use every governmental office to crush their political enemies & show only contempt for the Constitution.

Firing the BLS Commissioner — the wonk in charge of the statisticians who track economic reality — is an authoritarian four alarm fire.

It will also backfire: You can't bend economic reality, but you can break the trust of markets. And biased data yields worse policy.

The BLS firing is a textbook example of how personalist authoritarianism causes policy nightmares. It's like Trump is trying to prove why liberal democratic guardrails aren't some kind of luxury, but essential for good governance

Reality must be whatever the Leader wants to hear.

We’ve seen this since the lies about crowd size at the first inauguration and the contemptible attempts to manipulate COVID statistics. Now a new level of impunity is made possible by the ongoing destruction of our federal government’s structure.

But which syllable gets the stress??

"WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 1, 2025) – The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today that it will begin an orderly wind-down of its operations"

cpb.org/pressroom/Co...

DOGE Wasted Tens of Billions While Chainsawing the Government in the Name of 'Efficiency': Senate Report | Common Dreams Elon Musk's DOGE wasted more than $21 billion in just six months. Other studies have found that in the longterm it may cost the government more than it saved, while resulting in millions of deaths.

Elon Musk's DOGE wasted more than $21 billion in just six months. Other studies have found that in the long term it may cost the government more than it saved, while resulting in millions of deaths.

www.commondreams.org/news/doge-wa...

I grew up in central Pennsylvania coal country in the 1970s and 80s and I remember how my small town had more than one oxygen supply store because so many of my schoolmates’ grandpas were slowly dying in their living rooms from black lung.

Have these senators never read the Bill of Rights? Do they not know anything about the Constitution they swore to support and defend?

Update: I offered the amendment. Not to refuse acceptance of the Qatari jet; just to prohibit Trump from taking it with him when he leaves office - after the taxpayers spend $1 billion to retrofit it.

Failed 14-15. Every single Republican voted to allow Trump to take the jet.

And this is just what Trump said in the Access Hollywood video.

As president he’s bringing into reality his lifelong understanding of how the world is supposed to work.

Those Canadians could invade any day now

I dunno about that Russian style cross though

Not even to “be nice” but just to look respectable.

Nothing at all nice about any of it, of course…

Why was it I imagined that those in positions of leadership at the most elite US institutions of higher learning would have more savvy about human interaction, and more sound ethical moorings than this?

The end of American democracy and the construction of the fascist state that is hollowing out all of the institutions and systems of state power is accelerating at a speed that is almost impossible to describe.

We are not voting this away.

Rule of law is being reborn as the rule of fascist power.

This confirmation shows us that increasing the power of their party is everything for these Republicans now. There isn’t the slightest pretense that justice, ethics, constitutional order, rule of law are of any value to them.

the republican party is a criminal conspiracy against the american republic

few outcomes, except for 99% of FDA-approved drugs, 174 recipients of 104 Nobel Prizes, training ~30K MDs and ~10K PhDs per year to enter the workforce, and a 34% reduction in age-adjusted cancer deaths since 1990 -- the largest decrease in history

Reform Jewish Movement Statement on Starvation in Gaza July 27, 2025 - The ongoing crisis in Gaza is a devastating reminder of the immense human cost of war. Nearly two years into Israel's war against Hamas, Israelis are still waiting for the return of their loved ones held hostage, and innocent Palestinians are caught in a mounting humanitarian catastrophe. Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to sacrifice the Palestinian people in its pursuit of Israel's destruction, but Israel must not sacrifice its own moral standing in return. Neither escalating military pressure nor restricting humanitarian aid has brought Israel closer to securing a hostage deal or ending the war. While long-delayed and not-yet-certain to be more effective than previous efforts, we are encouraged by Saturday night's announcement that the Israeli military would revive the practice of dropping aid from airplanes and make it easier for aid convoys, including those from the UN's World Food Program, to move through Gaza along "designated humanitarian corridors," and to temporarily cease fighting in Gaza for a humanitarian pause. No one should be unaffected by the pervasive hunger experienced by thousands of Gazans. No one should spend the bulk of their time arguing technical definitions between starvation and pervasive hunger. The situation is dire, and it is deadly. Nor should we accept arguments that because Hamas is the primary reason many Gazans are either starving or on the verge of starving, that the Jewish State is not also culpable in this human disaster. The primary moral response must begin with anguished hearts in the face of such a large-scale human tragedy. Our tradition teaches that all people are created b tzelem Elohim — in the image of God. One consequence of this is the moral priority, which is affirmed throughout the Bible and rabbinic tradition, of feeding the hungry - both for the individual and for the self-governing Jewish community. More than a few members of t…

Despite PM Netanyahu's calls to ignore these full members of his cabinet, their presence in this government has consistently morally compromised Israel's actions. Starving Gazan civilians neither will bring Israel the "total victory" over Hamas it seeks, nor can it be justified by Jewish values or humanitarian law. It's hard to imagine that this tragic approach will bring home the 50 remaining hostages, including the 20 who we pray are still alive. It's imperative that the Government of Israel ensures that the recently announced plans to deliver humanitarian aid succeed as Israel works with international partners to ensure its safe and sustained delivery and do whatever possible to reduce or eliminate the shootings and other injuries sustained at food distribution centers. We applaud Israel's green light for foreign nations to resume providing humanitarian aid to the Gaza population desperate for food and are confident that they will do all they can to ensure that such aid does not fall into the hands of Hamas. As Israel has effective control of 70% of Gaza, with the intent to remain in significant swaths of it, even if only temporarily, it should be directly involved, facilitate and cooperate with the international community, international humanitarian NGOs, and regional friends, to take urgently needed actions, such as these suggested by Israeli Reform rabbi and Member of Knesset Gilad Kariv: • To prevent the alarming number of civilian deaths in and around the food and humanitarian aid distribution sites. • Opening a significant number of food distribution centers at various locations across the Gaza Strip. • Large-scale entry of infant formula (especially liquid formula) and ensuring safe delivery to both functioning medical centers and the few remaining international aid facilities. • Establishing secure methods - potentially through cooperation with regional countries - for delivering food supplies to aid organizations and international agencies. • Resuming su…

Finally, while it is imperative that Israel and the U.S. resume diplomacy to bring home all hostages and end this war, denying basic humanitarian aid crosses a moral line. Blocking food, water, medicine, and power- especially for children- is indefensible. Let us not allow our grief to harden into indifference, nor our love for Israel to blind us to the cries of the vulnerable. Let us rise to the moral challenge of this moment. Union for Reform Judaism Shelley Niceley Groff (she/her) North American Board Chair Rabbi Rick Jacobs (he/him) President Central Conference of American Rabbis Rabbi David A. Lyon (he/him) President Rabbi Hara Person (she/her) Chief Executive Officer American Conference of Cantors Cantor Josh Breitzer (he/him) President Rachel Roth (she/her) Chief Operating Officer

INBOX: Union for Reform Judaism, Central Conference of American Rabbis & American Conference of Cantors issue a lengthy statement declaring:

"Starving Gazan civilians neither will bring Israel the 'total victory' over Hamas it seeks, nor can it be justified by Jewish values or humanitarian law."