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This Trump post is insane. Is this part of Trump's campaign to win the Nobel Peace Prize?

Just another day

New at the Trump Smithsonian

Trump's America

This banner hangs from the US Department of Labor Building in Washington, DC while occupying troops look on

Trump rips off deployed National Guard troops. Not just a fascist, but a cheap fascist

On one thing, Trump has been consistent: He cheats workers

You pass the test

Around and around

Trump and Bobby Kennedy Jr. are destroying global science

A return to the Dark Ages

Elizabeth Finkel, La Trobe University

Eight months into Donald Trump’s second presidency of the United States, truth and science are again under attack – with global consequences. USAID, which tackled HIV, TB, malaria and child malnutrition is gone. Funding has been withdrawn from GAVI, a public–private global alliance that helps buy vaccines for the world’s poorest children. Malnourished children are already dying.

Besides these brutal consequences, the scientific machine that delivered America’s scientific and technological dominance is being ruthlessly dismantled. 

Any research project that mentions diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), climate change or addresses the causes of vaccine hesitancy is a prime target. But even US space science, once the pride of the nation, is facing “an extinction-level event,” according to the US Planetary Society.

Across the spectrum of science, some 4,000 research grants have been cancelled. Unbelievably, bird-flu experts were fired in the middle of an outbreak. That was topped last May by cancelling a US$600M grant to the company Moderna to develop an mRNA vaccine against bird flu.

And on August 5, US$500 million was cancelled for 22 more projects developing mRNA vaccines. Bear in mind that under Operation Warp Speed, the first Trump administration funded the development of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine against COVID. Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech both delivered mRNA vaccines in the record time of less than a year, winning mRNA vaccine technology a Nobel Prize in 2023.

It’s not just American science that’s being dismantled.

Pedopheil

REALLY bad

The Violence Trump responds to is actually the violence in His mind

Darkness Visible

Dr. Bandy X. Lee

Trump at his big, beautiful June 14 birthday
military parade in DC

The nation is now watching it unfold.

We mental health experts have long warned that internal states determine external manifestations, and that the dangerousness evident to us in Donald Trump would result in dire consequences if we did not intervene. His deployment of the National Guard in Washington, DC, and seizing control of its police force is just the kind of manifestation we warned against.

His claim that the nation’s capital is “lawless” and is “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world” of course has no validity in reality. 

Many had hoped that reality would curb him, be it the Covid-19 pandemic or the January 6 insurrection—but when an overwhelming internal reality blinds one to external reality, he will not see what the rest of us see.

It does not matter that violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low, just as there has been no rhyme or reason to his sending out more than 4000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Southern California to quell imaginary “lawlessness” in June.

Here is the real reason: he said Los Angeles would be “the first, perhaps, of many,” as immigration raids erupt all over the country under his authorization. “You know, we didn’t attack this one very strongly. You’ll have them all over the country.” Now, he is fulfilling his promise, and it will only grow worse over time.

Indeed, his psychopathology almost guarantees that violence will be unleashed, primarily against those who represent what he never had—which is why caregiver-child bonds were among the first he targeted at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Original manuscript of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ is a highlight of Brown’s literary archives

Never has a book been so relevant to the times we live in

Brown University.  Photos by Nick Dentamaro/Brown University

Millions have read the opening line of George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984”: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

But far fewer readers are aware that the author initially wrote it as: “It was a cold blowy day in early April, and a million radios were striking thirteen.”

That revision and many others are handwritten on Orwell’s original manuscript of the 1949 novel, housed in the Brown University Library’s special collections at the John Hay Library. Students and scholars alike can glean insights into the author’s writing process by studying the artifact, which is thought to be Orwell’s only surviving manuscript, according to Head of Special Collections Instruction Heather Cole. 

“In a sea of amazing treasures, this is one of the library’s most beloved, and it’s something we are proud to have,” said Cole, who is also the curator for literary and popular culture at the Hay Library. “When I take it out to show students, I say, ‘This is a one-of-a-kind thing that you can only see at Brown.’”

Confederate troops capture Washington DC, achieving goal they couldn't met during the Civil War

Heil

Trump's federalized crime-fighting in DC posts biggest accomplishment

Rounding Up Food Delivery Bikes in DC

Sarah Rumpf

A photo posted by an editor at Reason that appeared to show officers with multiple federal agencies loading mopeds into a truck sparked backlash Monday as a waste of tax dollars and distraction from higher priority issues in Washington, D.C.

Natalię Dowzicky, Reason’s managing editor of video and podcasts, shared a photo Monday afternoon that she identified as happening “in Dupont Circle, right outside of the @reason office.”

In the photo, several law enforcement officers can be seen, including one with a D.C. Metropolitan Police uniform and several with “HSI,” or Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 

In the back of a truck that appeared to have a government logo on the door, multiple mopeds or motorized bikes could be seen.

Dowzicky posted several follow-up tweets noting that the timing of the bike roundup was “even more ridiculous given the security that should be at the White House for world leaders,” happening “[l]iterally while European leaders were 6 blocks away and probably needed security of some sort,” referring to Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Several others, including some of Dowzicky’s colleagues at Reason, posted reactions to the photo, with someincluding  additional criticism of Trump deploying federal agents in D.C. 

Mediaite is pleased to make its original content available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License for non-commercial reproduction with credit to the source site.

If Democrats got off their asses, here’s what they’d be doing now

Nine critical steps NOW

Robert Reich

We have endured more than six months of the most despotic regime in American history.

Republican members of Congress have disgraced themselves and the nation by enabling it. They are traitors to the Constitution, the rule of law, and American democracy.

What of the Democrats? Individually, some have shown real heroism. But as a party they are disunited, ineffective, seemingly afraid of their shadows. “Epsteingate” offers a chance for Dems to derail Trump for a time, but it is not a strategy.

What would that strategy look like if the Democrats were bold and united? Here are nine critical steps (adding to those from someone named Pru Lee):

1. Don’t let Trump get away with his lies.

Have a truth squad that responds immediately with the facts and cites sources.

When Trump claims that Washington, D.C., is rife with crime, for example, get the truth out: that its crime rate is actually the lowest it’s been in 30 years. That Republicans have literally defunded the police in D.C. by stealing more than a billion dollars from the city. That Trump is dismantling the FBI and putting corrupt, unqualified jerks at the top of our federal law enforcement.

Point out that red states have higher murder rates than blue ones.

Make sure the truth gets out by repeating it over and over. If it’s not reported in the media, find out why.

2. Plan and announce ways to catch up with what we’ve lost on the environment, human rights, voting rights, labor rights, and safety nets.

Even when the orange Caligula on the Potomac is history and his lackeys are out of power, America will have a huge amount to repair, rebuild, and catch up on.

Tell the nation how you’d make up for the time and momentum we’ve lost. What sacrifices will be entailed. Explain what we must do to get back on track toward a just society, a strong democracy, and an environment that isn’t collapsing around us.

Tell us how you’ll rebuild the government that Trump and his Republican sycophants have decimated. How we’ll get back the talent we’ve lost — in science, health, the environment, worker safety, the foreign service. How we’ll build back morale.

3. Lay out a vision for the future.

Don’t stop there. Give us a vision of the future. Tell us where we could and should be, and how we can get there.

Medicare for all. Affordable child care and elder care. Affordable homes. Universal Basic Income. Paid for by higher taxes on the wealthy (including wealth tax), a tax on polluters, and a smaller military.

Also: All fossil fuels replaced by wind, solar, nuclear, conservation. Profit-sharing with employees. Living wage. Strict regulation of Wall Street including crypto, so we never again have to suffer a financial crisis and bail out the Street.

Challenge us. Tell us the truth. Demand much from us.

4. Tell us what you’d do to prevent this catastrophe from ever happening again.

Publicly lay out the laws and amendments you’ll pass to ensure this never happens again, the systems you’ll tear down, the safeguards you’ll enshrine, the plan to hold perpetrators of human atrocities accountable, the urgent commitment to immediately bring home those “disappeared” into prisons in El Salvador and other countries.

Set out the electoral reforms you’ll fight for to prevent a dictatorship from ever again forming under our very noses. Voting rights. Civil rights. Tell us how you’ll get big money out of our politics, even if it takes a constitutional amendment.

5. Mount an independent investigation.

Hold public hearings based on an independent, civilian-powered investigative coalition. Build a real-time archive of corruption, overreach, and executive abuse. Use experts, veterans, whistleblowers, journalists, watchdog organizations.

When the people now hurling us into fascist hell are held accountable, we’ll need every name, every signature, every illegal order, every act of silence — documented.

You’re not just preserving truth. You’re preparing evidence for prosecution. The more they disappear people and weaponize data, the more we need truth in the sunlight.

Investigate every author of Project 2025, every aide who defies court orders, every communications director repeating lies, every policy writer enabling cruelty.

6. Join the International Criminal Court.

You cannot control what the other side does, but you can control your own integrity. So call their bluff. Prove that the Democratic Party is still grounded in law, human rights, and ethical leadership. Join the International Criminal Court. If you’ve got nothing to hide — join.

Show the world who’s hiding bodies, bribes, and buried bank accounts. Force the GOP to explain why they’d rather protect a war criminal than sign a treaty, why they’re setting up detention facilities in an alligator-infested swamp.

And while you’re at it, publicly invite ICC observers into the United States. Make this administration explain — on camera — why they’re terrified of international law and oversight.

7. Create a digital safe haven for whistleblowers and defectors.

Not everyone inside this regime is a traitor to America. Some are scared. Some want out. Build channels for them to defect — encrypted, anonymous, and protected. Make it easy for the cracks in the system to become gaping holes.

Stop ostracizing MAGA defectors. Don’t push them back into the crowd. We don’t need purity. We need numbers. We need people willing to burn their red hats and testify against the machine they helped build.

8. Aim at the real culprits.

Don’t let Trump Republicans blame stagnant incomes and insecure jobs on immigrants, the “deep state,” transgender people, socialists, or communists.

Tell Americans the real reason why they’re working harder and getting nowhere: because big corporations are monopolizing the economy and they, and the super-rich, have amassed enough political power to rig the game for their own benefit.

Your corporate, Wall Street, and fat-cat donors won’t like you saying this, but you know something? You’ll do far better in elections by telling Americans the truth and stressing the importance of getting big money out of politics. You’ll get more small-donor support, too. And you’ll help stop Trump Republican fear-mongering and scapegoating.

9. Take back Congress in 2026.

Don’t just talk about it. Have a plan, a strategy. Mobilize us to focus our attention and resources on districts and states we have a chance of taking back. Set out measurable goals. Give us progress reports.

Stop Trump and his Republican stooge governors from super-gerrymandering their states to squeeze out even more Republican votes: have Democratic governors credibly counter-balance whatever they do — matching seat for seat, as California is attempting to do.

Recruit people to run who aren’t corporate Democrats or Wall Street Democrats but who know the economic stresses most Americans are facing, who respect working people, who speak their language, who know how to connect with voters. Tell us who you’re considering and why. Ask us for names.

Stop AIPAC and the crypto crowd from spending money on Democratic primaries. They have no business there. Put resources where they’re most needed.

Then win!

**

Unless Democrats begin to take steps like these now, the nation’s peril will only deepen.

Fighting sandwich crime

Contrast and comparison

 

Is Trump taking us back to "kids in cages?"

Immigrant Kids Detained in ‘Unsafe and Unsanitary’ Sites as Trump Team Seeks To End Protections

Sandy West

A child developed a rash after he was prevented from changing his underwear for four days. A little boy, bored and overcome with despair, began hitting himself in the head. A child with autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was forced to go without his medication, despite his mother’s pleas.

“I heard one officer say about us ‘they smell like shit,’” one detained person recounted in a federal court filing. “And another officer responded, ‘They are shit.’”