Category: Uncategorized
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At Will
A government workforce that can be fired for any reason is a government workforce that serves one man. Wednesday, Donald Trump signed an executive order stripping civil service protections from roughly 8,000 career federal workers. He placed them in a new category called Schedule Policy/Career. They are now at-will employees. Their agencies can fire them…
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State Religion
These are the things we will look back on, when we wonder how it is that we established a state religion. On May 20, the Pentagon ordered a cut to its list of recognized religions from 211 down to 31. Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, directed the change, with the accompanying memo cutting roughly…
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Special Guest Extremist
These are the things we will look back on, when we ask how far was too far, and who spoke up? For a time, Gregory Bovino was the public face of Donald Trump’s deportations, with prominent appearances in immigration raids in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis. After federal agents killed American citizens Renee Good and…
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UFC White House Fight
These are the things we will look back on and try to explain — how the country’s treasured spaces were taken, one by one, by a single man to mark his birthday. In two weeks, on June 14th, a UFC match will be held on the South Lawn of the White House. Since 1777, June…
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32,000 Voters
It is the people turning out that will save democracy. Tuesday in South Carolina, voters stopped a gerrymander in the redistricting wars brought on by the Supreme Court’s Callais decision. The state Senate killed a Donald Trump-backed plan to redraw all seven of the state’s congressional districts to favor Republicans, eliminating the seat held by…
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The Slush Fund
This system is being constructed before our eyes. This week, Donald Trump’s Justice Department settled a lawsuit against plaintiff Donald Trump. The price: 1.776 billion taxpayer dollars, a formal apology, and a memo declaring the IRS can never audit his old tax returns. The 1776 million is now a fund the Justice Department is calling…
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Enemies of the State
The government has now named its political opponents as enemies of the state. On May 6 the White House released its 2026 Counterterrorism Strategy. It is the first such document of Trump’s second term. The strategy names three primary threats. Narcoterrorists. Islamist terrorists. And, in the document’s own words, “violent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and…
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ICE Business
Last year’s temporary detention camps are becoming permanent human confinement infrastructure. Amid a reshuffling of the administration’s internal security services, a longtime private prison executive has been named head of ICE. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security named David Venturella acting director of ICE, effective June 1. He spent eleven years at GEO Group,…
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Corruption Pardons
This is what corruption decriminalized looks like. Yesterday NPR reported that since returning to office, Donald Trump has pardoned at least fifteen former elected officials and their co-conspirators who were charged or convicted of public corruption. This on top of the 1,500 January 6 rioters he pardoned on day one of his current term. Among…
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Integrity Army
When someone tells us their plans, we should believe them. Reporting from Copenhagen at the Democracy Summit, where leaders from across the free world are gathered to talk about the state of democracy. On Sunday Donald Trump announced he is deploying an “Election Integrity Army” in every state for the midterms. “Much bigger and stronger”…
Notes To My Future Self 