uspol

Beware of Login.gov, which several government systems including Social Security encourage you to transition to using.

Looks like there plans to make it a universal identifier, hooked to all the information the government has about you. It's always been billed as a login-only system that respects privacy, but that could end under the current regime. The linked article from 404 Media has audio of a meeting about doing just that.

https://www.404media.co/things-are-going-to-get-intense-how-a-musk-ally-plans-to-push-ai-on-the-government/

#TechCoup #USPol

American political thought is marred by either-or thinking. This way of thinking has nothing to do with ableist notions of intelligence, that "life of the mind" which elites think will save us, but instead has everything to do with life of the heart. Not everything is a trolley problem. In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, "One arrow can save two birds at the same time—if the arrow strikes the branch, both birds will fly away." How will you shoot your arrow?

#uspol #spirituality #antifa

#uspol #H5N1

The US Democratic party needs to be dismantled and rebuilt. It has failed, continues to fail, and its core ideology has been a failed one for approximately half a century. The leadership needs to go, the constellation of consultants needs to go, the court jesters need to go.

#USPol #Democrats

On Pete Hegseth's tattoos:

"Deus vult is the Latin for 'God wills it.' During the First Crusade, it was raised as a battle cry. This is its univocal origin and context, and Hegseth knows it well: In American Crusade, he refers to it as 'the rallying cry of Christian knights as they marched to Jerusalem,' a summons to 'followers of Christ to take up the sword in defense of their faith, their families, and their freedom.' It provides the last words in American Crusade: 'See you on the battlefield. Together, with God’s help, we will save America. Deus vult!' And have I mentioned that his book is titled American Crusade?"

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/whats-the-deal-with-pete-hegseth-crusader-tattoos

#Hegseth #PeteHegseth #ChristianNationalism #USPOL #Trump

1/5

Photographer Justin Hamel joined Battalion Search and Rescue in their attempt to rescue lost migrants ... or discover the remains of those who hadn't made it through the El Paso desert.

Find his photo essay in our magazine, or on our website: https://www.texasobserver.org/death-in-the-desert/

#SouthTexas #border #immigration #HumanRights #environment #politics #USpol #Mexico #Texas #news

I wonder when the US Congress is going to do something about the "do what you did to Twitter to the Federal government" stuff. Are they still alive in there? What's up? Should we turn Congress off and then on again?

#USPol

😝

#USpol

I don't have any idea how likely this is to make it out, but some fucked up Rs are trying to remove Washington state's amazing voting through mail in ballots. This morning is a great time to do a quick "NO THANK YOU" comment on this bill: https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/bill/1584

#Washington #Seattle #PNW #USPol

"A private citizen with zero Constitutional authority is effectively seizing control of critical government functions. 🚨

The Constitution explicitly requires Senate confirmation for anyone wielding significant federal power — a requirement Musk has simply ignored"

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/31/elons-twitter-destruction-playbook-hits-the-us-government-and-its-even-more-dangerous/

Here’s a thread with links to articles about the #ElonMusk takeover of the US #government.

Is it a #coup? Will anyone stop it?

#Oligarchy #Politics #USPol #Musk #Trump #GOP #News #USA #US #USNews

an unelected billionaire storming into US agencies, installing his unqualified and unapproved lackeys, purging civil servants, seizing access to sensitive data and payments, unilaterally eliminating federal agencies: fine

identifying the lackeys: illegal

#USpolitics #USpol #ElonMusk

Resistance to the coup is the defense of the human against the digital and the democratic against the oligarchic.

From https://snyder.substack.com/p/of-course-its-a-coup

Defense of the human against the digital has been my mission for some time. Resisting the narratives about how #LLMs "reason", "pass the Turing test", "diagnose illnesses", are "better than humans" in various ways are part of it. Resisting the false narrative that we're on the verge of discovering #AGI is part of it. Allowing these false stories to persist and spread means succumbing to very dark anti-human forces. We're seeing some of the consequences now, and we're seeing how far this might go.

#USPol #AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #LLM #AGI

#politics #uspol #trump

Everything that is happening right now is because Musk has kicked into high gear the broligarchy’s plan to destroy our government, so that the US will fall apart and replaced with fiefdoms owned by Musk, Zuck, and the rest of the tech bros.

https://youtu.be/5RpPTRcz1no?si=3bGd3cJwZIH2bBYS

In the US even the bomb-sniffing dogs are suffering austerity.

TSA Says Its Credit Cards for Bomb-Sniffing Dogs Are Cut Off
https://mastodon.social/users/404mediaco/statuses/114166923291735865

#US #USPol #AusterityEconomics #austerity #TSA #dogs

The family group/tribe is built on mutual support, but the modern conservative version is transactional, based on membership and loyalty. Actions that look like kindness are in reality actions to reinforce tribal loyalty. I think this is why so many people in conservative communties, who are trapped in entirely conservative information spaces, have a hard time breaking free. They see examples of community support as affirmations of their community goodness, and this narrative is drummed into them constantly. Conservative leaders have the advantage of labeling any disruptive people or ideas as 'foreign' and a threat, even if from within the community, so that they never even have to engage with new ideas on merit.

Kindness isnt a relevant trait to their tribal functioning, because the ability to be unkind and cruel to people who arent toeing the tribal line is necessary to upholding 'family law'. Kindness in others undermines their attempts to police peoples behavior (this is why its so important that men are in charge). Therefore, not only is kindness devalued, it is actively persecuted as a threat to conservative values. And that is only treatment of your in-group. If you reject kindness internally, imagine how easy it is to subject an out-group to cruel inhumanity. You can literally justify anything. What is horrifying is the degree to which everyday members of conservative communities have become willfully blind to the terrible treatment of others in order to hang on to an image of community goodness. I have witnessed far too much of this in my life.

Its worth stating that the left has its own, different kind of tribalism. They embrace kindness but there is a lot of pressure to prove the right kind of worth. It has a distinctly multicultural, anti-authoritarian tribalism, where the rules of the tribe are under constant negotiation. This makes communicating a platform challenging. Its a lot simpler for conservative platforms whose rules come from demagogues and an old book.

The flaw of designing a system without compassion is that the cruelty eventually becomes impossible to hide from the tribe, and the cruelty comes for everyone. #uspol #politics #disability #sociology #anthropology #kindness #geopol

BREAKING: A bunch of U.S. Digital Service employees (including me) were fired tonight. It's still unclear exactly how many. There is no visibility whatsoever into what determined who was let go. Legacy USDS (i.e., pre-DOGE) leadership was not involved in the decision about whom to let go and was not notified in advance that people were going to be fired.
#politics #USPol #DOGE #coup #USDS
1/2

"Pres Trump just fired:

• 90 physicians
• 350 nurses
• at least 25 nurse practitioners
• nearly 20 dentists
• 85+ pharmacists
• 45 lab techs

Employed by the Indian Health Svc to provide HC. This is going to have dangerous consequences for our Indigenous brothers & sisters."
-Sen Luján

Snr officials: ~5,200 ppl on probat. employment -recent hires -across agencies incl. #NIH #CDC will be fired🚨Fri. CDC: ~1,300 WKRs...

#Racism #Trump #PublicHealth #USPol #HHS
https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/federal-employee-layoffs-at-hhs-cdc-on-first-day-robert-kennedy-health-secretary/

Many nonprofits rely heavily on federal grants and AmeriCorps members. These nonprofits are being told that they need to scrub anything mentioning diversity, equity, and inclusion if they expect any federal funding or assistance moving forward. (Attached are a couple of examples from a literacy nonprofit called Reading Partners). It's possible that many of Trump's executive orders will be defeated in court, but--even if that happens--the legal process can be slow. Funding is being pulled from programs / nonprofits / research that cannot survive long without it. So, if you see an organization complying with these orders, please do not immediately think less of them. Do not assume they are making these changes because they want to. In most cases they are simply trying to weather the storm and survive long enough to continue helping the communities that depend on their services.

#USPol #politics #nonprofits #americorps #dei

#TheGremlinZoo #USPol #Citizenship

From CNN.com: Trump can’t end birthright citizenship, appeals court says, setting up Supreme Court showdown

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/politics/trump-cant-end-birthright-citizenship-appeals-court-says?cid=ios_app

Tonight, on John Oliver's Last Week Tonight, #Mastodon and #PixelFed got a call out for not falling in line with Trump and as an alternative to Meta products.
#USPol #JohnMastodon

Welcome to the March/April 2025 issue of Texas Observer magazine! Editor-in-Chief Gus Bova introduces our latest by examining the "biannual dread” invoked by the Texas legislature and what we can do about it. https://www.texasobserver.org/editors-letter-introducing-our-march-april-2025-issue/

#TXlege #politics #Media #journalism #news #USpol #Texas

The United States currently has an elected president and an unelected billionaire who are flagrantly breaking its laws. As members of Congress wrongly insist they have no leverage to do anything about this, we who care about democracy are pleading for others to help. Is it consistent with democracy to direct these pleas to the federal judiciary—a branch of government staffed by unelected judges?

Yes, of course. With reservations.

Argues that while courts are powerful, there are significant downsides to leaning on them in this instance:

A third downside to relying on the judicial menu is that federal courts helped get us into this mess—and they can make things much worse by ratifying the lawbreaking. Few federal judges believe it is actually their democratic responsibility to enforce the laws passed by Congress; most of them believe they can disregard any law whose constitutionality they disagree with.

#USPol #USCourts #Congress

I REALLLYY like the Send the President a Postcard movement, because:
a) I love postcards
b) I like imagining all the giggles every postal worker, etc will get seeing it
c) Everyone can do it

Please tell me you'll join in and send a postcard, or 2?

I created this graphic tonight to share - it's the idea from @BrianJopek

#resist #ResistEverywhere #uspol #trump #musk #doge

When Biden left the White House, the economy was growing at 3.9%.

Now that Trump is in the White House he’s turned it into a NEGATIVE 2.5% growth rate IN SIX WEEKS.

Republican Presidents destroy the economy.

#Economy #StockMarket #GDP #ArrestTrump #ArrestMusk #DonaldKrasnov #RepublicansOwnThis #GOPKakistocracy #GOPWeirdos #NoRepublicansEverAgain #USPol