America officially becomes a Police State, Trump's cognitive decline in full bloom, CBS's "Trump Bribe" fee, Musk loses again, Ukraine pounded after friendly Trump/Putin call...
TRUMP's North Korea Opens Seaside Resort with Fanfare but No Foreign Tourists
Come elections in November 2025 and November 2026, we will look back on the big ugly bill as part of the springboard that gave rise to a new American consensus. That is when millions of Americans will next sit in judgment of Trump and his MAGA enablers in Congress and at the Roberts Court and the death and destruction that they wrought over the past days.
So, what’s in the bill?
Extends tax cuts that had been scheduled to expire at the end of the year
Eliminates some taxes on tips and overtime pay
Funds more defense and border security
Cut Medicaid funding by nearly $1 trillion
Increases the debt limit by $5 trillion
Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that Trump has the constitutional power to nullify laws. Experts consider it a stark overreach of presidential authority.
The Chimes of Freedom Grow Faint
We’re not teetering on the edge. We’re in the abyss.
The Republican Party isn’t conservative. It’s a white supremacist, Christian nationalist, authoritarian death cult — orbiting a single man’s brittle ego, bottomless greed, and lust for revenge.
Trump and his enablers are not subtle. They are loud, proud, and deadly serious about retribution. They’re purging the civil service, politicizing the military and deploying it against us, neutering Congress, and dismantling checks and balances. Trump isn’t governing. He’s seizing control.
Yes. Trump is seizing control and most people have no idea what to do about it. The Trump idea people have been planning for a long time, and Trump has executed what they want.` A piece I wrote in November called "A 'Plan B' for Catastrophe" discusses ways to think about what is happening now.
How Trump’s China Tariffs Are Jeopardizing America’s Fireworks Extravaganzas
They Planned Parties and Salsa Music for July 4th. ICE Raids Made Them Think Twice.
Some communities in the Los Angeles region canceled events over fears of immigration raids, as Latinos grapple with how, and whether, to celebrate Independence Day.
Russia pummels Kyiv with drones and missiles after Putin-Trump call
Russia strikes Kyiv in largest aerial attack since war in Ukraine began
Russia launched 550 drones and missiles across Ukraine during a seven-hour onslaught, the country's air force said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it "a harsh, sleepless night."
We should remember what drew I.G Farben into Auschwitz: profit. But there are of course precedents for extreme exploitation in American history, including but not limited to the history of chattel slavery. And slavery is not entirely illegal in the United States. The Thirteenth Amendment allows slavery if only as punishment for a crime. The people described as "undocumented" or "denaturalized" (and other categories sure to be invented soon) are portrayed as criminals.
If the Trump regime tries to enslave such people on a large scale, there will be a court case. But waiting for the Supreme Court to do the right thing is, to put it gently, no substitute for action. It would be good if there were explicit legislation banning slave labor in all circumstances. But such a law is unlikely without a movement behind it.
The government is putting before us the temptation to cooperate in fascist dehumanization on a grand scale. But that does not mean we must do so. This is an area where actions by individuals, by civil society, by the professions, and by companies can be decisive. The first action is simple. CEOs should now, this summer, this month, next week, sign a pledge not to use labor from concentration camps. It could be as simple as that: "On behalf of my firm I promise not to use labor from concentration camps nor to cooperate with any firm that does."
I can hear the first objection: "it's too soon." If this is not done now, some Americans companies will start using slave labor from concentration camps, and then others will claim that they must do so as well so as not to lose competitiveness or shareholder value or something. The appropriate euphemisms will be found, and all will soon seem normal. But everything will have changed. We will all be implicated. And we will all be more vulnerable.
The second objection: "it's politics." Yes, it is. The creation of a network of concentration camps is indeed politics. It is a politics, among other things, designed to draw businesses into a fascist order by normalizing dehumanization. It is a politics that creates incentives for ever wider groups of people to be excluded from legal protection, on the logic that this needed for economic growth. If there is no learning from the past, if there is no statement of principle, then cheap labor will corrupt companies and their shareholders, and indeed their consumers.
While the CEOs should act first and with explicit clarity, we are all implicated. Americans who shop, which means most of us, should avoid companies that employ labor from camps. Americans who invest should not invest in companies that use labor from concentration camps. And, like CEOs, they can take public action. They can sign a pledge not to invest in companies that use concentration camp labor.
Like any initiative, this one could go further. There are concentration camps in other countries as well, and we should also not be buying from companies that profit from them. There is forced labor now in existing American prisons, and that is wrong. But right now, we are confronting a major change in how our country will work. If we can respond, we can build on a victory here to create more freedom for more people.
These policies should be named for what they are. And they should be protested for what they are. But aside from the naming and the protesting, we must exercise our awareness of how people and companies are drawn by profit and silence into the normalization of horror.
Just signing a petition might seem like a disproportionately small reaction to huge funding for American concentration camps. But it is the small choices now that open the broad, bright terrain of action later.
Happy Fourth
Nolita The Bastardo's Carborundum
“We love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, we insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
Happy birthday to the country we all love so fiercely that we’re willing to fight for her.
“In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” (posted by MeidasTouch)
TRUMP's North Korea Opens Seaside Resort with Fanfare but No Foreign Tourists
Come elections in November 2025 and November 2026, we will look back on the big ugly bill as part of the springboard that gave rise to a new American consensus. That is when millions of Americans will next sit in judgment of Trump and his MAGA enablers in Congress and at the Roberts Court and the death and destruction that they wrought over the past days.
So, what’s in the bill?
Extends tax cuts that had been scheduled to expire at the end of the year
Eliminates some taxes on tips and overtime pay
Funds more defense and border security
Cut Medicaid funding by nearly $1 trillion
Increases the debt limit by $5 trillion
Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that Trump has the constitutional power to nullify laws. Experts consider it a stark overreach of presidential authority.
The Chimes of Freedom Grow Faint
We’re not teetering on the edge. We’re in the abyss.
The Republican Party isn’t conservative. It’s a white supremacist, Christian nationalist, authoritarian death cult — orbiting a single man’s brittle ego, bottomless greed, and lust for revenge.
Trump and his enablers are not subtle. They are loud, proud, and deadly serious about retribution. They’re purging the civil service, politicizing the military and deploying it against us, neutering Congress, and dismantling checks and balances. Trump isn’t governing. He’s seizing control.
Yes. Trump is seizing control and most people have no idea what to do about it. The Trump idea people have been planning for a long time, and Trump has executed what they want.` A piece I wrote in November called "A 'Plan B' for Catastrophe" discusses ways to think about what is happening now.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/a-plan-b-for-catastrophe?r=f0qfn
very nice!
When do the real global Democracies start calling for Olympic and World Cup boycotts?
Does anyone trust Orange Shitler to change course now?
How many concentration camps are too many?
Wonder why Putin hasn't declared today International Russia Day...he's certainly captured the US... without firing a single shot.
How Trump’s China Tariffs Are Jeopardizing America’s Fireworks Extravaganzas
They Planned Parties and Salsa Music for July 4th. ICE Raids Made Them Think Twice.
Some communities in the Los Angeles region canceled events over fears of immigration raids, as Latinos grapple with how, and whether, to celebrate Independence Day.
Russia pummels Kyiv with drones and missiles after Putin-Trump call
Russia strikes Kyiv in largest aerial attack since war in Ukraine began
Russia launched 550 drones and missiles across Ukraine during a seven-hour onslaught, the country's air force said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it "a harsh, sleepless night."
Tim Snyder.
We should remember what drew I.G Farben into Auschwitz: profit. But there are of course precedents for extreme exploitation in American history, including but not limited to the history of chattel slavery. And slavery is not entirely illegal in the United States. The Thirteenth Amendment allows slavery if only as punishment for a crime. The people described as "undocumented" or "denaturalized" (and other categories sure to be invented soon) are portrayed as criminals.
If the Trump regime tries to enslave such people on a large scale, there will be a court case. But waiting for the Supreme Court to do the right thing is, to put it gently, no substitute for action. It would be good if there were explicit legislation banning slave labor in all circumstances. But such a law is unlikely without a movement behind it.
The government is putting before us the temptation to cooperate in fascist dehumanization on a grand scale. But that does not mean we must do so. This is an area where actions by individuals, by civil society, by the professions, and by companies can be decisive. The first action is simple. CEOs should now, this summer, this month, next week, sign a pledge not to use labor from concentration camps. It could be as simple as that: "On behalf of my firm I promise not to use labor from concentration camps nor to cooperate with any firm that does."
I can hear the first objection: "it's too soon." If this is not done now, some Americans companies will start using slave labor from concentration camps, and then others will claim that they must do so as well so as not to lose competitiveness or shareholder value or something. The appropriate euphemisms will be found, and all will soon seem normal. But everything will have changed. We will all be implicated. And we will all be more vulnerable.
The second objection: "it's politics." Yes, it is. The creation of a network of concentration camps is indeed politics. It is a politics, among other things, designed to draw businesses into a fascist order by normalizing dehumanization. It is a politics that creates incentives for ever wider groups of people to be excluded from legal protection, on the logic that this needed for economic growth. If there is no learning from the past, if there is no statement of principle, then cheap labor will corrupt companies and their shareholders, and indeed their consumers.
While the CEOs should act first and with explicit clarity, we are all implicated. Americans who shop, which means most of us, should avoid companies that employ labor from camps. Americans who invest should not invest in companies that use labor from concentration camps. And, like CEOs, they can take public action. They can sign a pledge not to invest in companies that use concentration camp labor.
Like any initiative, this one could go further. There are concentration camps in other countries as well, and we should also not be buying from companies that profit from them. There is forced labor now in existing American prisons, and that is wrong. But right now, we are confronting a major change in how our country will work. If we can respond, we can build on a victory here to create more freedom for more people.
These policies should be named for what they are. And they should be protested for what they are. But aside from the naming and the protesting, we must exercise our awareness of how people and companies are drawn by profit and silence into the normalization of horror.
Just signing a petition might seem like a disproportionately small reaction to huge funding for American concentration camps. But it is the small choices now that open the broad, bright terrain of action later.
Happy Fourth
Nolita The Bastardo's Carborundum
“We love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, we insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
Happy birthday to the country we all love so fiercely that we’re willing to fight for her.
The Declaration of Independence states:
“In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” (posted by MeidasTouch)