Hands off Madison, Wisconsin

The #HandsOff rally in Chicago is packed!

Salt Lake City showed up

#HANDSOFF #NYC

Portland OR Hands Off Rally

Oh wow: Portland Oregon is NOT KIDDING
#handsoff

Spectacular view of 100,000 people attending the #HandsOff march in NYC

The United States is no longer the leader of the free world.

Let that sink in.

Word of the Day is ‘ingordigiousness’ (18th century): extreme greed at the expense of principles.

SSA employee to me re: 50% staff reduction: "Can say unequivocally that such deep cuts to SSA, which is already at historically low staffing, will cause significant to extreme degradation of services, very likely including checks missed and individuals dying before their claims can be processed."

Do this. Say this. 👇🏻

How many Tesla’s should we throw in the Boston Harbor?

Sign of the day…

Let’s get something clear. The GOP has the power to keep the government from shutting down in March. They control both chambers of Congress and the White House. If they can’t reach a budget deal within their own ranks, that completely on them.

Dems: Don’t lift a finger to help them. Not one.

This morning at Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HQ in DC as mandatory return to office began, this video played on loop for ~5 mins on screens throughout the building, per agency source.

Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs.

“We’ve Been Essentially Muzzled”: Department of Education Halts Thousands of Civil Rights Investigations Under Trump Since Inauguration Day, the Office for Civil Rights has only opened about 20 investigations focused on Trump’s priorities, placing more than 10,000 student complaints related to disability access and ...

Out of the 12,000 civil rights complaints the Education Department has put on hold since Trump took office:
• 6,000 relate to mistreatment of disabled students
• 1,000 are specific to sexual harassment/violence
• 3,200 pertain to racial discrimination

A document excerpt from Case 1:25-cv-00352-CJN, Document 36-2, Filed 02/17/25, Page 4 of 13. The text details the personal struggles of an individual managing an extraordinary workload while dealing with family responsibilities. The individual's wife, who is 31 weeks pregnant after years of infertility treatments costing $50,000, has been hospitalized multiple times due to a life-threatening condition and stress-related complications. The embassy medical unit recommended urgent medical evacuation due to the high risk of hemorrhage, but the State Department denied the request twice, citing lack of USAID funding for medical evacuations. The staff expressed their distress over the decision, suggesting the individual consider paying for evacuation to a third country for better care.

A document excerpt from Case 1:25-cv-00352-CJN, Document 36-2, Filed 02/17/25, Page 5 of 13. The text continues the story, revealing that there was a verbal directive from State Department Washington leadership to cease all USAID medical evacuations and related services from approximately February 1st to February 7th. The individual frantically sought help, and on February 7th, a US senator intervened to authorize a medical evacuation. However, before the evacuation could occur, the wife began hemorrhaging on February 8th and was hospitalized. As of February 17th, she remains hospitalized and on bedrest until her due date in April. The stress and delay in medical evacuation have contributed to her deteriorating condition, and the individual expresses fear for her and the baby's health due to the rushed shutdown of the agency. The individual laments the situation to their daughter, emphasizing the impact of government decisions on their personal lives.

Read this and try not to fume. Especially as you think of 47 wasting taxpayer money at the Super Bowl, Daytona and while playing golf half his presidency.

Many people are asking why RFK Jr. talked about the sperm count of young boys in his opening address to HHS and I do not have a good answer for that.

Probationary employees are receiving termination notices today at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Notices have already started going out, per agency source.

HUD holds itself to the highest standard in the work the department accomplishes on behalf of the rural, tribal, and urban communities it serves. To continue to deliver the best work in the most efficient and effective manner, the HUD DOGE team welcomes your help and ideas in uncovering fraud, waste, and abuse at HUD. We appreciate the many people who have already sent in ideas on how we can streamline HUD operations and stop wasteful spending. Please send DOGEHUD@hud.gov any examples you have. We are open to any and all suggestions, ranging from commonly known non-effective programs, examples of wasteful grants, and overlap between departments. If something has been bothering you about how American taxpayer money has been spent by HUD, we want to hear it.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sent out this message to employees today from the "HUD DOGE team" looking for suggestions on programs to cut:

If you wanted to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, you would empower the inspectors general.

If you wanted more waste, fraud, and abuse, you would fire them.

History: “Eventually the incompetent fascists invariably lose power and then society recovers in a new and stronger way”

Me: “Oh, cool, so what has to happen for the spell to be broken??”

History: “mmmm…well, that part is less encouraging.”

are the democrats....alive?

New—The Food & Drug Administration (FDA), an agency that falls under RFK Jr.’s purview, just mass fired probationary employees via an email reviewed by me.

They’re citing performance issues as the reason, even for employees who had great performance reviews. Don’t know how many people affected yet.

H5N1 (and 🐈) | Matthew Cortland Get more from Matthew Cortland on Patreon

Guessing some piece of bird flu news broke through because I’m getting questions about H5N1 and cats

Here’s two pieces I wrote a couple of months ago

www.patreon.com/posts/118857...

FYI:

United States Senator Brian Schatz: "You cannot waive away, an agency that you don't like, or that you disagree with, by executive order, or by literally storming into the building, and taking over the servers!"

Raskin: "Elon Musk, you may have illegally seized power over the financial payments systems of the Treasury, but you don't control the money of the American people. The US Congress does that under Article 1 of the Constitution ... we don't have a fourth branch of government called 'Elon Musk'"

These are the good guys supporting DEI. Reward them with your business.

Costco
Meijer
Kroger
Giant Grocery
Ben & Jerry’s
Ulta, Macy’s
Old Navy
Nordstrom’s
TJ Maxx
GoTo Foods ( Moe’s Southwest Grill, Mcalister’s, Auntie Anne’s, Jamba, Cinnabon…)
Dollar Tree
Walgreens
Wegmans