Jay Kuo: The Cruelty Is The Point, But What’s The Goal?
The Trump administration isn’t cruel just for cruelty’s sake. There’s a deeper, darker purpose.
- Creating an enemy
Scholars of fascism will tell you that the first pillar of fascism is to create domestic enemies. As the Public Leadership Institute writes,Fascism creates a myth of victimhood, that the majority population is in a humiliating decline from a past greatness because of singled-out minority populations. It’s an us-against-them crisis, the myth goes. The targeted racial, ethnic, religious or gender minorities, and the “liberals” who support them, are thus framed as not just opponents but enemies, demonized so the majority can feel justified in hating and repressing them.
In fact, “Make America Great Again” is the quintessential fascist slogan. It’s a myth that celebrates the good ole days of white supremacy.This is precisely why Trump has targeted migrants and falsely labeled them all as criminals and undesirables who are “poisoning the blood of our country”—a line favored by Adolf Hitler.
- Brandishing the power of the fascist state
- Sowing doubt and creating mass fear
- Making cruelty the new normal
- Pushing the boundaries
Thom Hartmann: The Biggest Political Con of the Last Century Unmasked
Why the destruction of public institutions, the middle class, and government itself may not be a mistake — but the mission…
TNR: “Chilling”: Trump’s Fury at Bruce Springsteen Just Got Much Darker
Boing Boing: Trump’s violent video attacking Springsteen is fair, but seashells are not
Yahoo Finance: What Trump could do if he’s serious about trying to make companies ‘eat’ tariff price hikes
Bloomberg: DOGE Asks US Supreme Court to Block Access to Its Records
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – May 20, 2025
Today was a rough day for administration officials on Capitol Hill as Senate committees held hearings on the 2026 budget requests for the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of State. The Senate Finance Committee also held a hearing for Trump’s nominee to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue, former Missouri representative William “Billy” Long. Democrats came prepared and demanded answers that the department secretaries and nominee were either unable or unwilling to give.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about the Department of Homeland Security’s budget for fiscal year 2026. When Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) asked her to define “habeas corpus,” Noem’s response indicated she has no understanding of the nation’s fundamental law.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Jay Kuo: Clueless, Chaotic and Contemptuous
A crash course in how the Trump administration avoids answers and accountability
NBC: RFK Jr. grilled on health department funding cuts during his 3rd congressional hearing this month
Lawmakers expressed concerns about specific programs and funding that would see cuts if Trump’s proposed 2026 budget passes.
(NBC more…)Astral Codex Ten: The Other COVID Reckoning
Bulwark: The Arsonists Just Outlawed Firehoses
The FDA is getting rid of the Covid booster because . . . it’s concerned about anti-vaxx sentiments. No, really.
NPR: Diseases are spreading. The CDC isn’t warning the public like it was months ago
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Many of the CDC’s newsletters have stopped being distributed, workers at the CDC say. Health alerts about disease outbreaks, previously sent to health professionals subscribed to the CDC’s Health Alert Network, haven’t been dispatched since March. The agency’s main social media channels have come under new ownership of the Department of Health and Human Services, emails reviewed by NPR show, and most have gone more than a month without posting their own new content.YLE: Covid-19 vaccines, what just happened at the FDA, and why it matters
Noah Berlatsky: Trump’s Incompetence Is Incredibly Dangerous
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Liz Dye: DOJ politicization escalates with bogus arrest of congresswoman
On the same day the government agreed to pay $5 million to the family of January 6 rioter Ashli Babbitt, the Justice Department announced it was charging New Jersey Congresswoman LaMonica McIver with assaulting an ICE agent.
…Habba added that she had “persistently made efforts to address these issues without bringing criminal charges and have given Representative McIver every opportunity to come to a resolution, but she has unfortunately declined.” Whatever that means.
Normal prosecutors are not in the business of “addressing issues” through extra-legal remedies. But a normal prosecutor who was serving in an interim capacity and hadn’t even been nominated for Senate confirmation wouldn’t scream out a press release touting herself as “the chief federal law enforcement official in the State of New Jersey,” so YMMV.
Like every other lawyer in Trumpland, Habba is a caricature of incompetence. …
(Liz Dye more…)
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USA Today: I was the US ambassador to Ukraine. I resigned because of Trump’s foreign policy.
How we handle this war will speak volumes to our friends as well as our foes. If we allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to redraw borders by force, he won’t stop with Ukraine.
I just came home to Michigan from three years in the toughest job of my life – serving as the American Ambassador to Ukraine – supporting our democratic ally against brutal, unprovoked aggression by Russia.I have proudly served five presidents – Republicans and Democrats – to make sure the United States is the strongest, greatest country that the world has ever known.
(USA Today more…)
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Reuters: Hacker who breached communications app used by Trump aide stole data from across US government
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Reuters identified more than 60 unique government users of the messaging platform TeleMessage in a cache of leaked data, opens new tab provided by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a U.S. nonprofit whose stated mission is to archive hacked and leaked documents in the public interest. The trove included material from disaster responders, customs officials, several U.S. diplomatic staffers, at least one White House staffer and members of the Secret Service.
(Reuters more…)
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NY Times: Official Pushed to Rewrite Intelligence So It Could Not Be ‘Used Against’ Trump
An assessment contradicted a presidential proclamation. A political appointee demanded a redo, then pushed for changes to the new analysis, too.
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Cato Institute: 50+ Venezuelans Imprisoned in El Salvador Came to US Legally, Never Violated Immigration Law
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Given the total lack of transparency by the federal government, we have compiled what the families of the men themselves are reporting about their entries and what likely triggered their incarceration in El Salvador. Their stories are often corroborated by government entry documents, witness testimony, and the administration’s statements about them.
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LAWdork: Lawyers claim Trump administration is trying to send people to South Sudan
Despite State Department warnings, and in the face of a court order that sufficient process be given, lawyers allege a quick effort to deport people to the country.
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Al Jazeera: What’s South Africa’s land law at the heart of the Trump-Ramaphosa spat?
NY Times: When Trump Was the One Taking Land From Farmers
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EEAGLI: Most $TRUMP holders could be foreign
(EEAGLI more…)
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Minnesota Legislature: underscored = added, new language
Subd. 20. Mental illness. (a) “Mental illness” means Trump Derangement Syndrome or an organic disorder of the brain or a clinically significant disorder of thought, mood, perception, orientation, memory, or behavior that is detailed in a diagnostic codes list published by the commissioner, and that seriously limits a person’s capacity to function in primary aspects of daily living such as personal relations, living arrangements, work, and recreation.
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Wired: 3 Teens Almost Got Away With Murder. Then Police Found Their Google Searches
404 Media: Researchers Scrape 2 Billion Discord Messages and Publish Them Online
Schneier: More AIs Are Taking Polls and Surveys
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Catalist: What happened in 2024
An analysis of the 2024 Presidential Election
This analysis focuses on the 2024 presidential election, which despite its unprecedented nature – from a candidate switch to an assassination attempt to recovery from a global pandemic – demonstrated a continuation of many demographic trends from the past several cycles.Overall, we find that the Democratic Kamala Harris / Tim Walz ticket retained key parts of the Biden 2020 coalition, but at lower levels among a specific, interconnected set of subgroups, including young voters, men, voters of color, less frequent voters, urban voters, and voters living outside the major battleground states. No single demographic characteristic explains all the dynamics of the election; rather we find that the election is best explained as a combination of related factors. Importantly, an overarching connection among these groups is that they are less likely to have cast ballots in previous elections and are generally less engaged in the political process.
While these groups tilted toward Donald Trump and JD Vance, Harris retained support among more consistent voters, particularly in battleground states. Together, these dynamics allowed the Trump / Vance ticket to secure a narrow popular vote plurality and a sweep of the major swing states.
(Catalist more…)Bulwark: Why Harris Lost (The Crosstabs Edition)
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Decoding Fox News: Foreign Bribes, Killer Seashells and a Major Economic Downgrade
A condensed overview of 18 hours of Fox News for the week ending 5/18/25
(Decoding Fox News more…)
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda