Pete Hegseth: “Nobody texted war plans.”

Again, I'd implore my colleagues in the media to stop using euphemisms around "diversity" and "anti -DEI".

And start saying that this these efforts are racial and gender purgings. That these efforts are segregationist.

Segregation was never just separate facilities
It was paying more & getting less in your neighborhood
It was getting the Phd, but still not getting hired
It was needing police for the police
It was building up a newspaper & having it burned (Wells)
It was building a school & having it shot up (JSU)

ok, so basically I would like this post to go viral.

Please don't forget to Sign, Support (from 819 to 850+ donators), even a little amount (*)) and Share everywhere this 👉 www.change.org/SaveTheBee 🆘

(*) The only VITAL #petition, worldwide, in 6 languages (should be at millions of signature).

Europe Hits Back at Trump’s Tariffs With Plan Targeting Red States The European Union has responded with retaliatory tariffs of its own, with a special focus on products from Republican states.

EU tariffs will hit everything from American jeans and motorcycles to soybeans in Louisiana (Mike Johnson’s home state); beef and poultry in Kansas and Nebraska; and produce from Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia.

There were howls of protest and denial from the GOP any time we pointed out that Republicans want to cut Social Security.

Now the most powerful official in the White House goes on TV and calls it "the big one to eliminate."

Trump Follows Project 2025 Blueprint on Environment, Climate Mississippi is already feeling impacts as the Trump administration slashes environmental protection funding and ends efforts to fight climate change.

“We feel like we're abandoning the community that we've built around this," MSU Coastal and Marine Extension Program Director Eric Sparks said after the abrupt cancelation of a USDA grant for coastal restoration work.

The staff of the Department of Education are being told to clear out their offices by 6:00 PM.

The dumbest people alive are cheering for this.

🤦‍♀️

the Trump administration arrested Mahmoud Khalil to make an example out of him because they’re gambling Dems won’t put their jobs and lives on the line to protect a Palestinian.

A cowardly statement.

Musk is now claiming that DOGE has no legal authority to fire federal workers or cancel contracts.

OK, so govt workers are firing THEMSELVES? And govt contracts are rescinding THEMSELVES?

These people use words so carelessly.

Wide-ranging GOP bill would remove gender identity protections from Iowa Civil Rights Act A wide-ranging Republican bill would remove protections against discrimination for transgender people from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

“This bill is pointless, unnecessary and unbelievably cruel. Transgender Iowans are our friends, our neighbors and our coworkers. We deserve the same fundamental rights, dignity and respect as anyone else. This legislation will not improve the life of a single Iowan.”

This is a bigger scandal than people realize.

It really makes it look as though this entire meeting was a setup by Trump that was planned in advance.

If you watch the video it is clear that they are deliberately and almost derangedly blindsiding Zelenskyy. Now we know who the audience was.

Putin.

Maddow: I think it is a bad mistake to let Joy Reid walk out the door. It is also unnerving to see that on a network where we've got two nonwhite hosts in primetime, both of our nonwhite hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend. I do not defend it.

It’s actually just racist because the NYT is co-signing the idea that he got his job because he is Black and there’s no evidence for this

MSNBC Cancels Joy Reid’s Show in Major Shake-Up (Gift Article) Ms. Reid’s 7 p.m. program will be replaced by a panel show co-hosted by Symone Sanders Townsend, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele.

This is a terrible move @msnbc.com. Terrible. The @joy.msnbc.com was a critical part of the evening line-up and @joyannreid.bsky.social brings trenchant political analysis that no one else in the evening line-up has brought. I urge you to reconsider this. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/b...

Well now.

New:

DOGE's spending has been secret.

No longer.

My colleagues have uncovered it.

www.propublica.org/article/doge...

When FAA employees are telling us it’s not safe to fly, we should probably listen.

The hand of a Black person lightly holds on side of a document called “Civil Rights” held on the other side by two white hands. One of the white hands has a bracelet w/a charm. Black people and women sharing civil rights.

With all the talk of “constitutional crisis”focused on separation of powers,there’s been too little focus on Trump’s dedication to dismantling what historian Eric Foner calls “the most impt addition to the Constitution since the Bill of Rights.” The 14th Amendment.
open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

Every ten minutes here is like:
- Trump doubles student debt
- Musk now has keys to your house and is in your bathroom doing plumbing drugs
- Three planes just crashed
- Trump signs EO making women illegal
- Face-melted Nazi from Indiana Jones now in charge of CIA
- Meteor not arriving fast enough

Why aren’t they taking the fired federal workers who are sharing their heartbreaking stories—the ones that Musk says were being paid to do nothing—and making them famous? The cancer researcher on the verge of a breakthrough? The park ranger in Yosemite who won’t be there to conduct rescues and save lives? The air traffic controller who can speak to the connection between understaffing and recent plane crashes? Is it even safe to fly in Trump’s America? The Democrats should be amplifying these folks—writing op-eds about them, refusing to go on camera without sharing their spotlight, pressuring their IG influencers to raise them up—but instead, we learn their stories from Reddit. As Moira Donegan wrote in The Guardian, “Why are the Democrats so spineless?”

I've noted some of the procedural things Democrats could be doing in Congress, but this point from @edgeofsports.bsky.social's great piece in the Nation deserves emphasis.

This is basic politics, and it's baffling that every Democrat isn't doing it every day.

www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Trump Launches Mass Purge of Air Traffic Control Staff The Trump administration has kicked off a firing spree of air traffic controllers, despite four deadly plane crashes on his watch.

“Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency’s mission-critical needs. To do otherwise is dangerous when it comes to public safety. And it is especially unconscionable in the aftermath of three deadly aircraft accidents in the past month.”

Media are missing this if they don't include it.

Yes, Judge Chutkan just denied temporary restraining order in New Mexico v Musk.

But judge signals plaintiffs have the better argument when this reaches the merits: That Elon Musk is exercising power in violation of Appointments Clause.

⬇️Key para⬇️

The point here is Trump does not recognize order, laws, defined terms, accountability. It never mattered to him. And for that reason the Constitution is just a bunch of words to him as well. “I have an Article II that says I can do whatever I want.”

That’s why these suits are so important.

Jack Smith among 900 former prosecutors alarmed by Trump's DOJ They said they've "watched with alarm" as DOJ leadership has tested values they swore to uphold.

900 former Department of Justice prosecutors, including former special counsel Jack Smith, signed an open letter expressing concern about Trump’s Dept Of Justice & its politicization of prosecutions.
www.axios.com/2025/02/18/d...

OHHH FAIR

I know someone who's a federal worker and 1) the "buyout" is just a deal that says "you're allowed to continue working remote until September, when you're guaranteed to be fired" every single major news outlet has grossly misrepresented the offer but I've read it myself.

For those keeping track, @nytimes.com ran the story today on the bottom of page A22.

Trump-Musk Scandal at USAID Takes Unnerving Turn With Vile Leaked Memo Can Trump and his top advisers really just act with total impunity? Or is there, just maybe, a price to be paid for starving poor people and un-indicting a corrupt mayor?

Awful: Internal USAID memo instructs employees to refrain from talking to the media about cuts in assistance to the most vulnerable or they may get fired, WaPo reports.

Trumpworld knows this is a big political problem for them. Keep the focus on it.

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/1915...

I’m not sure the rest of the country fully grasps the panic and anger building in DC, MD, and VA.

The entire economy of this area is about to collapse. Paychecks are stopping. Careers are ruined. Taxes are about to plummet. Yet no one seems able to stop this madness.