Ann's Mega Dub: 2025

Thursday, February 6, 2025

The grifter

Grifter Elon Musk is becoming a known quantity. He's just an ugly White racist. And even some of the GOP is turning against the non-American trying to act as if he had been elected President of the United States. Sarah Fortinsky (The Hill) reports:

The share of Republicans who say they want tech billionaire Elon Musk to have significant influence in the Trump administration has fallen substantially in the months since President Trump was elected.

In The Economist/YouGov poll taken in the days after the November 2024 election, 47 percent of surveyed Republicans said they wanted Musk to have “a lot” of influence in the Trump administration, while 29 percent wanted “a little” and 12 percent wanted him to have “none at all.”

Today, however, the share of Republicans who say they want Musk to have “a lot” of influence has fallen substantially to 26 percent. Meanwhile, 43 percent of Republican respondents say they want Musk to have “a little” influence, and 17 percent say they want him to have “none at all,” according to the latest poll from The Economist/YouGov released Wednesday.

Surveyed Democrats and independents are also showing less desire for Musk to have a prominent influence in the Trump administration. Only 6 percent of each group say they want Musk to have “a lot” of influence. In November, 15 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of independents said they wanted Trump to have “a lot” of influence in the administration.

Elon Musk is not an American citizen. You can't be loyal to three different countries. And he never learned the first thing about American government or democracy.

Joe Sommerlad (Independent) notes:

Former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney has attacked the world’s richest man Elon Musk and drawn attention to the fact that he has not always been a US citizen as part of a social media spat between the pair.

Musk – whose Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is at work scrutinizing the running of the federal government with a view to implementing cost-cutting measures at the behest of new president Donald Trump – began the argument by circulating a post on his X platform drawing attention to Cheney’s early career working for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

[. . .]

Cheney responded to the billionaire’s post about her USAID background by saying: “Damn right, Elon. I’m proud of what America did to win the Cold War, defeat Soviet communism, and defend democracy.

“Our nation stood for freedom. You may be unfamiliar with that part of our history since you weren’t yet an American citizen.”

I applaud Liz Cheney for saying it. We all think it.

This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Thursday, February 6, 2025. Rashida's lousy sister attacks Kamala Harris again and THE WHITE MAJORITY REPORT's Sam and Emma grab their White sheets, hop their horses and head off into the night to burn a cross on the yard of Black America.

Warning, I'm in the pantry tossing out trash -- better keep your eyes open so you don't get hit in the head with a Nabisco box as you watch me get rid of all the Saltines.

The game Donald Chump plays on the left is to lie and lie and then lie again while insisting that what we saw happen didn't really happen.

We fight that from Chump and I'll be damned if we'll take that same gaslighting from our supposed peers on the left.

I try to be supportive. I'm not in the mood anymore. If White Emma and White Ana want to go to town on each other in the future, I think I'll just grab the popcorn. Ana's trash.

She's always been trash. She was a Socialist passing herself off as a Democrat as was Cenk as is Kyle Kulinski. Ana and Cenk are now on board with Chump because that is often the march of Socialism in the US. Can't get what you want (destroying capitalism) as a left warrior? Switch over to the right.

We never praised Ana, we always knew she was trash.

But what's Emma?

Why the hell have I defended her when she won't defend Black women.

She's so unimportant I'm not even going to try to remember her last name. And I certainly won't rush to defend her when she's attacked.

She put on her big girl panties when she and Sam -- putting on his big girl panties -- yesterday on THE MAJORITY REPORT felt the need to take their messaging from Rahsida Tlaib's sister and blame Kamala for this and for that.

Rashida's trashy sister doesn't like Rashida being called out so she lied and then Sam and Emma joined her.

They grabbed their big girl panties and they grabbed their White sheets, hopped their horses and went off to lynch the Black woman..

Because we must never ever blame Rashida.

Don't ever blame Rashida!!!

You know what I say to that? F**k you, Sam Seder.

I'm not one of your damn groupies. I am sorry I let Janeane talk me into giving you a second chance.

Rashida helped put Donald Chump back in the White House.

That's reality.

Here's more reality: I won't be lectured to by the likes of Sam Seder.

For those who don't know, Sam ripped a woman apart. On air.

It was 2004 and she had supported Ralph Nader in 2000.

He ripped her apart. He made her cry. She came on the show -- THE MAJORITY REPORT on AIR AMERICA RADIO -- to discuss music. And Sam viciously attacked her on air.

Now Janeane doesn't like it when I talk about how Sam stabbed Janeane in the back. Like most women, she tries to put it behind her.

But here I'm talking about a singer-songwriter, Ani di Franco. And Sam ripped her apart on air and made her cry.

So excuse the hell out of me, Sam Seder, but you're the last damn person to tell anyone that they shouldn't blame Rashida.

I have never attacked the Nader voters of 2000. I voted for Al Gore.

Yes, I believe Ralph owes the Iraqi people an apology for his vanity run that helped put Bully Boy Bush in the White House. But that's Ralph.

I have repeatedly stated that on election day, you make the best choice you can. You can't predict the future.

So if you voted for Nader, that was who you thought was the best choice and I'm not mad at you and I've never been mad at you. If you are a friend of mind, I have sometimes wanted to scream at you. Not for voting for Ralph but because you want to act ashamed of it now and want me to take away your guilt.

You made the best decision you could. Don't blame yourself.

2024?

It was unlike any other election.

Donald Chump had led an insurrection against this country and our government (he's still doing the latter). We all knew it.

Donald Chump had destroyed ROE V WADE and we all knew it.

Donald Chump was a threat to every minority group in the country and in the world and we all knew it.

We saw the damage of his four years in the White House. We saw his disregard for the law. We heard his hatred. We saw his KKK Madison Square Garden rally.

This was all known.

So, no, Rashida doesn't get a pass.

She's a liar. She's trash. And she's garbage.

Now, yes, I get it. She was the front person. They needed a Palestinian-American. Norman Solomon had already attempted to take Joe Biden down. The Socialist was a joke and his efforts were a joke. No one gave a damn. But if he and DSA could get a front person to hide behind, a Palestinian-American, it might work. That would give some heft to their continued plan to attack and destroy Joe Biden.

She and her sister played the role.

And this is on them.

It's not going away no matter how many whores work on whoring. She is this decade's Ralph Nader. She will be blamed forever more. And she earned it.

As Tabitha notes in the video above, this is what they campaigned for -- this is what Rashida campaigned for. This is what the Gaza Freaks wanted.

If they really cared about Palestinians, they would have listened to what Chump was saying, they would have grasped the need to rally around Kamala. (And many Socialists did grasp that. The further you got from DSA, you would find Socialists stressing the importance of voting for Kamala if only for the dangers of Chump. Bill Ayers, for example, perfectly grasped what was at stake.)

Instead of handing out those hard truths, Sam Seder -- who again decimated, destroyed Ani Di Franco on air in 2004 because she voted for Ralph in 2000 -- wants us to know it's Kamala's fault.

'She had the bad message! So did Joe!'

The bad message for who?

For White American Jews who believe their hatred of the Israeli government makes them deep thinkers?

Or maybe it was a bad message for Palestinian-Americans who didn't want to face the fact that, yes, when you attack a concert, you are a terrorist. A concert and the concert goers are not a government. So Hamas -- which is not all Palestinians -- carried out a terrorist attack.

The corrupt apartheid government of Israel then launched an attack that was a genocide.

And we could -- and I did -- call that out.

Collective punishment is illegal. But some of the excesses of the Gaza Freaks went too far.

And Sam never wanted to tell that hard truth.

In fact, it appears in retrospect -- as various people rush forward to say that Rashida cannot be criticized and must not be criticized! -- that we babied the Gaza Freaks.

Don't give me that Kamala had a bad message.

What she had was a bunch of Socialists sticking their nose into the Democratic Party and making demands that they had no right to make. 'WE MUST HAVE A SPEAKER AT THE CONVENTION!' Are you Democrats? 'NO, WE ARE DSA!!!' Then hit the road.

People like Sam lied over and over and he wasn't the only one. But he's too damn old to pretend he didn't know that a cease-fire wasn't coming November 6th.

And right here is where I was going to explain on Palestine and what we could do and how we could fight but . . .

No.

No, I'm tired of my Black ass trying to rescue everyone -- Emma, Gaza Freaks, go down the list -- when these same people don't do a damn thing for Black people.

Not one damn thing.

They don't even listen to us.

Sam's White Jew Who Hates The Israeli Government is his idea of complex and thoughtful.

He has no idea of the Black experience.

And he doesn't want to know and neither does Emma.

Again, TABITHA SPEAKS.

When did THE MAJORITY REPORT ever cover all the attacks -- by Gaza Freaks -- on Black women that have taken place non-stop the moment Kamala became the nominee?

Oh, that's right they never did.

They bring on a fat Black guy every now. and then They like a fat Black guy, Crackers do. It lets them appear 'hip' to have a token around who kisses their damn ass. And note that's all he does. He just kisses their ass. He doesn't challenge them. He doesn't provide leadership. He's just the Alfonso Ribeiro to their Rick Schroder, there to prop up a mediocre White man.

Where are the Black women on THE (WHITE) MAJORITY (WHITE) REPORT?

They've refused to bring us on. They've refused in the lead up to the election and after to give us a seat at the table.

Why?

Because we're not buying their s**t.

And they know we won't say, "Oh, Massa Sam, you be so smart. Why wees wouldn't know a thing if we didn't have yo mighty, mighty White brain to tell us about our lives."

Kamala was attacked in August, September and October as a DEI hire.

A successful attorney, a US senator and a vice president.

And she's a DEI hire .

We noticed you didn't defend her. We noticed that Amy Goodman twice aired Donald Trump's attack on her Blackness -- only one time bringing on someone to comment. The Goody Whore let Trump attack her twice on air -- in full. Then she brought on the Socialist who we no longer note. And we never will again. He was the Black man brought on to minimize the actual attack. And like a good Bojangles, he danced and shucked with Miss Amy Goodman.

We saw what happened. Black women saw what happened. And we have seen that only Black women have addressed it.

Saltines ignore it. Saltines don't want to own it.

And that's why it's getting very hard for some of us to be around Saltines.

There are times when I have to remind myself that I know many caring and thoughtful White people. They don't have YOUTUBE programs usually but tthey do exist.

I have to do that because what I see on YOUTUBE is a bunch of garbage. A bunch of White people who want to lecture us, not listen to us.

Reparations?

I'm not stupid enough to think that we'll see them in my lifetime.

The country that enslaves us and terrorized us?

The Sam Seders want to act like that's in the past, that's what their ancestors did.

Really?

Because what Black woman saw was a hugely qualified woman be ripped apart by the left over and over and over and over.

So, Saltines, you really need to just shut the f**k up before you tell us again what you think Kamala did wrong.

Those Black women who are on vacation? I support you and encourage you to take care of yourselves. I say that over and over here. And one of the reasons that I say that is because I'm trying to participate and all I keep seeing seems to be one White YOUTUBER after another yet again ignoring, silencing and rendering Black women invisible.

The whole point of the Socialist attack on Kamala was to defeat her.

B-b-b-but if everyone who voted Green and who voted for purple M&Ms had voted Kamala, I don't thing she would have won!!!!

Shut the f**k up. You're either an idiot or a liar.

Elections depend on turnout.

When Amy Goodman was dragging Communist Aunt Jemima and Socialists by the hundreds on her show to slam Kamala for three months in a row -- in the lead up to the election, she knew what she was doing. That's why she doesn't say, "I should note that this guest is not a Democrat. I know my audience is stupid -- I told Danny Schechter years ago that my audience was too stupid for economics -- so I know I should tell you these are not Democrats slamming Kamala."

But if she'd done that, a lot of viewers would have dismissed the criticism. Democrats aren't calling for the overthrow of the current system. We want to improve the system, we want to make it fair for everyone. Socialists and Communists -- unless they state otherwise -- by the very nature of their ideology believe in overthrow -- Communists want it quickly, Socialists think they can move slower (to trick people?) -- and we should go into this more later in the snapshot but that's going to have waot until Friday.

Elections depend on turnout.

Democrats have the numbers. They always do. The issue has always been about turning out the voters. Often, the issue has also been about ensuring that the right to vote was a universal right.

Instead of attempting to rally turnout, Amy and others worked to suppress it.

SHE'S A JOURNALIST! SHE HAS TO BE FAIR AND CAN'T CHOOSE SIDES!

That's what some people believe.

But Amy's spent her career arguing against objectivity, insisting she's a activist journalist.

And I'm not complaining over honest coverage.

I'm complaining over her lying and bringing on guests who -- like Aunt Jemima or any of them -- offering their Socialist critique of a Democrat and being allowed to hide in their political closet.

And hand on heart, I am grieving for our country right now. A lot of Black women are.

But a White American Jew who hates Israel like Sam or Amy know everything, right? So why should they listen to Black women, right? They know everything.

They don't get what Betty's talking about in "They attack Black history and now they attack the end of apartheid" -- that one of the most inspiring wins in global struggles, the Blacks of South African overturning apartheid, is being attacked decades later by Donald Chump. They don't get Marcia's "Chump's erasing Americans in our own country" because they're White and no matter what Chump does, they're still seen and recognized and heard. They don't get that, as Ann points out in "Remember that you matter," across the nation, a conversation is taking place about where we, Black people, fit in this country now.

They act as though what elements of the left did was okay.

As I started pointing out in September, what was taking place -- with Katrina vanden Heuvel and Amy Goodman's attacks on Kamala -- was the reality that a number of White people on the left were unable to see a Black woman as anything other than a maid or a Mammy.

And that's a reality that White YOUTUBERS still won't cop to.

We saw it. Black women saw it. We saw attacks on Kamala -- from the left -- like we had never seen take place before in a presidential election.

COMMON DREAMS attacked Kamala near daily for two months. Whatever she did, it wasn't enough. And what's most interesting there was that they felt right attacking her and telling her what to do. I've never seen that in any election before. We didn't do it to John Kerry. We didn't do it to Hillary Clinton. We didn't do it to Barack Obama. But with a Black woman, we constantly threatened and attacked her.

And we didn't have to be correct.

As a Black woman, I do subscribe to ESSENCE. And when my copy came in with Kamala on the cover, I wrote about it here -- even scanned the cover and posted it in the snapshot -- and noted that this should be big news but probably wouldn't be because ESSENCE was a magazine White America ignores.

That's how you got COMMON DREAMS, TRUTHOUT and others telling you that the problem was Kamala wasn't speaking about the health of Black women.

Even though -- wake up, Saltines -- that was covered in ESSENCE. And it was covered elsewhere as well.

But why let facts stop you when you -- in all your Whiteness -- really just want to try to boss around a Black woman?

Because that' what was about. A Black woman exercising her strength and showing leadership was too much for the segments of the left who reduces every Black woman to a maid or a Mammy.

And that's what Sam and Emma did. They tried to boss around Black women. The disrespect that they showed Kamala is the same disrespect that they show all Black women.

And it gets old. And it hurts.

So I fully understand any Black woman still sitting this out and who plans to sit it out for some time to come.

It really isn't worth the hurt. I get it.

What I will be doing here and offline is working on electing Democrats and highlighting issues.

I'm done with Gaza. The freaks (Gaza Freaks are US citizens -- often with no connection to the region) don't want to listen so they can't be helped. And I don't need Rashida telling us that we all need to pull together after she spent months working to divide the left.

The Gaza Freaks also, as Tabitha notes, repeatedly told us to take their names out of our mouths.

Message received.

I'll work on and cover the attacks on immigrants (and those suspected of being immigrants). I'll work on and cover the attacks on Civil Rights. I'll work on and cover the attacks on LGBTQ+ Americans.

And I'll do that as long as I can stomach the disrespect.

Because it's three months after the election and White YOUTUBERS still don't give a damn about Black women.

Again, TABITHA SPEAKS.

Transcript:

Tabitha holds her finger up indicating pause.

THIS IS HOW IT STARTED.

GAZA FREAK: And let me make one thing very, very clear. We are going to do everything in our power to make sure Kamala Harris doesn't win. 'Vote for -- If you want Donald Trump to win say that' -- Bitch! I will vote for Satan if I have to.

Tabitha holds up her finger indicating pause.

THIS IS HOW IT'S GOING

SAME GAZA FREAK: Remember, no one's free until we are all free. And we can't protect ourselves if we can't protect each other. This is the time for all the minorities, all the movements, all the working class to come together. Really build power and fight against the fascism that's been here but finally popping its head out and being loud and proud about it. And unless we do something, really come together, it's going to get really bad.

And that's what White YOUTUBERS like Sam are doing. They're like the Gaza Freak in the video above, they think they can tell us what to do. Neither the freak nor Sam bothered to listen to us but damned if they don't think, "We know better than those Black women."

See how that works out for you. And if this is the first you're seeing where Gaza Freak verbally attacked us in the lead up to the election, you need to ask why that is.

The White YOUTUBERS can attack Black women and they can and will attack Kamala. But when it comes to the Gaza Freaks, White YOUTUBE just sees bunnies with rainbows shooting out their asses.

Reese Waters isn't buying White YOUTUBERS' nonsense either.

Sam and Emma, if you won't listen to us, kiss our collective Black ass.

Now the plan for today was Elon Musk. We were going to address how he profits from attacking South Africa and various other things. And I'm sure someone's going to whine in an e-mail to the public account that 'So much is going on and you're talking about this!'

You better believe I am. Racism is real and racism is how Chump got back in the White House. Racism is targeting immigrants, racism fuels Chump's attack on our education system, we had to listen to a full week and counting of Chump blaming a plance crash on "DEI." He is fueled by racism and I'm really not seeing White YOUTUBE register that.

So this is an important issue whether you think it is or not. Sam and Emma donned their White sheets and attacked Kamala again fro the crime of being a strong Black woman. Rashida set out to defeat Kamala Harris and yet Sam and Emma want to excuse her.

I'm not in the mood for their racism and I'm not going to take part in revisionary history.

We know what we saw.

It was a lynching carried out by the right and big part of the left here in the US.

So before you feel the need to start trashing Kamala again, White YOUTUBE, you better grasp that we're on to you. And calling out your lies and attacks on a Black woman is something that has always been part of our mission statement here. Coretta Scott King dies and the 'left' NEW YORK TIMES ignores her to make the tragedy of the week the death of a White, minor playwright. Coretta dies and we get a cover story on Coretta. Playwright Wendy dies and is covered on the same day and what do we get? Cover story on the frotn page. Editorial -- from the editoiral board (Gail Collins writing about her friend) and how many columns?

But Coretta was just a blip.

Jackie O dies and it's columns an columns, news stories and feature stories.

Coretta dies and it's one new story. (And weeks later, a paragraph in a column after I have yelled and screamed at an NYT columnist.)

We called that out and we were the only ones doing so online. BLACK AGENDA REPORT didn't. FAIR didn't. Nobody did.

And that's why, when Black women are discriminated, it will always be our duty to call it out -- because we know the bulk of the online world is just going to look the other way and say nothing.

In other words, Sam and Emma, that's mighty white of you. Last century, that was used as a compliment among Whites, "That's mighty White of you." But even back then, we were reclaiming the language, even back then. So when we said, "That's mighty White of you," we weren't saying it as a compliment. We saw through you then and we see through you now.

The following sites updated:

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Amy Goodman and her big lie to hand the election to Chump

Betty and I were on the same page last night ("Donald and his whole racist, trashy family" and "Remember that you matter"). The marriage between Chump and Musk is destroying the country. Mataeo Smith (Mirror) reports:

Angry protesters have descended on Washington D.C. to demonstrate against Elon Musk's involvement in the U.S. government.

US Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut denounced Musk's involvement in crucial federal agencies to an angry crowd of demonstrators Tuesday afternoon. "I'm reaching out to everyone in this country: Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives," he shouted over a mic. "We have days to stop the destruction of our democracy."

"It is the people who rule, not the billionaires. We are taking this country back from Elon Musk." US representatives and a ever-growing crowd rallied in front of the US Treasury Building in DC Tuesday with some government officials demanding to be let inside.

Sometimes, you know what is in the box before you unwrap it. That was certainly the case in 2024. Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) notes:

President Donald Trump shocked the world by proclaiming Gaza as belonging to the U.S., but a longtime adviser tried to make sense of the pronouncement.

World leaders and lawmakers from both parties denounced his stated goal of taking over the war-torn Gaza Strip, displacing its residents and turning the devastated region into a seaside resort, and possibly deploying U.S. troops to collect unexploded bombs, and sources told Axios co-founder Mike Allen the unexpected announcement could have been a negotiating tactic.

I am 100% not surprised.

100%.

Anyone with a brain could have seen this coming. It is one of the many reasons so many of us supported Vice President Kamala Harris.

This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Wednesday, February 5, 2025. Keith Edwards talks the self-coup, protests begin taking place around the country, anger builds towards South African native Elon Musk, can you criticize Glenn and Matty while hiding in a political closet, Socialism, and so much more.

In the video below, Keith Edwards talks the self-coup.

"We can complain about it," whines Senator Pete Welch in a clip in causing Keith to ask, "That is your answer for all of us? Complain about it?"

As Keith notes, we need action.

AP reports:

A movement to oppose the early actions of President Donald Trump’s administration is taking off online, with plans to protest across the U.S. on Wednesday.

The movement has organized under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day. Many of the protests are planned at state capitols, with some in other cities.

The movement has websites and accounts across social media. Flyers circulating online decry Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society, and include messages such as “reject fascism” and “defend our democracy.” In a coffee shop just a block from Michigan’s Capitol, organizers of a planned action there Wednesday pushed together tables, spreading out poster boards to write messages that read “No Deportations Ever!” and “Workers Unite!”

REUTERS has a photo essay of the protest in Los Angles earlier this week -- the protest against the attack on immigrants. Presley Bo Tyler (SHREVEPORT TIES) reports:

On Feb. 5, there will be 50 nationwide protests in all 50 states.

Orchestrated by the 50501 Movement, the protests will occur in all 50 states for just one day.

The protests are in opposition to Donald Trump's presidency and will be carried out in order to "fight fascism."

In Louisiana, residents will take part in the 50501 Movement protests outside the Louisiana State Capitol Building in Baton Rouge on Feb. 5.

The protest movement is against President Trump's actions during his first two weeks back in office. After a plethora of controversial executive orders and pardons for the Jan. 6 rioters, the 50501 Movement has organized to combat President Trump's position in the White House.

Thomas Clouse (SPOKANE's SPOKESMAN REVIEW) reports on yesterday's action in Washington state:

Snowy streets, heavy coats and runny noses accompanied the ringing cries and subsequent honks Tuesday as about 70 people gathered outside the federal courthouse in downtown Spokane to protest the unusual involvement by billionaire Elon Musk in the early workings of the second administration of Donald Trump.

Toting signs that read, “We didn’t vote for this chaos” and “Elon” slashed through by a diagonal line, as well as “Send DOGE to Mars,” protesters came to the Thomas S. Foley U.S. Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon.

“I’m here for my grandchildren and all future generations,” said Kim Harmson of Spokane. “I’m outraged. You can’t normalize this.”

Joanna Ellington, of Valleyford, said she saw an interview Monday night where U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, suggested that anyone who was not comfortable with the actions of Musk, who has been appointed the head of the newly created Department of Governmental Efficiency, to locally organize.

So, Ellington said she started calling those mostly older residents who she knew could immediately respond.

“We believe in the rule of law,” Ellington said. “What has happened is unprecedented and illegal and very concerning to me. I decided to have it now because of the actions in the Treasury Department. I just wanted to make sure that Spokane voices were being heard.”

BLUESKY notes some of this week's protests.

No, people do not like Elon. Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:

Murray: “We should all be deeply concerned about what it could mean to give Elon Musk and his cronies free rein at VA—I am already hearing that DOGE may have barged into VA today. Musk and his associates already have the personal financial information of every veteran receiving disability or education benefits because of their illegal data mining at the Department of Treasury. Will they now look at private health records of veterans? What else will they do that could put the health and safety of our veterans at risk? If Vought and Musk push to cut veterans benefits and limit healthcare eligibility as Project 2025 has outlined—would Doug Collins stand up to them?”

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, released the following statement after voting no on the nomination of Doug Collins to serve as Secretary of Veterans Affairs:

“Right now, the Trump administration is illegally withholding funding from communities across America, and they are ransacking and effectively gutting entire federal agencies—this kind of lawlessness is putting our economy, national security, and future at risk.

“Today I voted NO to confirm Doug Collins as VA Secretary because at this point I have not seen a single cabinet secretary stand up to Trump’s illegal power grab. We should all be deeply concerned about what it could mean to give Elon Musk and his cronies free rein at VA—I am already hearing that DOGE may have barged into VA today. Musk and his associates already have the personal financial information of every veteran receiving disability or education benefits because of their illegal data mining at the Department of Treasury. Will they now look at private health records of veterans? What else will they do that could put the health and safety of our veterans at risk? If Vought and Musk push to cut veterans benefits and limit healthcare eligibility as Project 2025 has outlined—would Doug Collins stand up to them? If this administration continues to press VA doctors, nurses, and support staff to resign—will Collins push back? I cannot confidently say he would.

“I had a productive meeting with Mr. Collins prior to his hearing and we will need to work together on many issues, including getting the Electronic Health Record system fixed, but I cannot vote to confirm him as Trump dismantles government and breaks the law. As I work with Mr. Collins to support our veterans, I will also be pressing him to follow the laws as intended by Congress.”

Senator Murray was the first woman to join the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the first woman to chair the Committee—as the daughter of a World War II veteran, supporting veterans and their families has always been an important priority for her. Senator Murray has fought throughout her career for increased benefits for veterans, housing assistance, better access to veterans’ clinics throughout Washington state, and more accountability from the VA.

Advocating for women veterans in particular has been a longtime focus for Senator Murray, and as Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee in 2010, Senator Murray passed her landmark Women Veterans Health Improvement Act into law. Murray has worked to permanently authorize the VA child care pilot program to increase access to free, quality child care for veterans during their appointments, make much-needed improvements to the women veterans call center, and fix a loophole that left veterans footing the bill for medically-necessary emergency newborn transportation that VA should be covering. Murray introduced and helped pass the Deborah Sampson Act, legislation to address gender disparities at VA that established a dedicated Office of Women’s Health at VA and required every VA health facility to have a dedicated women’s health primary care provider, among other things. Murray also helped to pass the MAMMO Act to expand access to high-quality breast cancer screening and treatment services for veterans. Senator Murray leads the Veteran Families Health Services Act, comprehensive legislation that would expand fertility treatments—including IVF—and family-building services for servicemembers and veterans who are unable to conceive without assistance, and she has sought unanimous consent to pass the legislation on multiple occasions. Last March, Murray applauded VA’s move to expand IVF services to eligible unmarried veterans and eligible veterans in same-sex marriages, and allowing veterans to use donated gametes in IVF services.

Senator Murray has been conducting oversight on the flawed Electronic Health Record system rollout in Washington state since the Trump Administration first negotiated the contract with Cerner (later acquired by Oracle), and at every point in the process since then. Murray has consistently pushed VA on its failed implementation of EHR—conducting oversight, holding the administration accountable, and calling on VA to halt deployment of EHR until they get it right in Washington state. In March 2023, Murray introduced comprehensive legislation that would require VA to implement a series of EHR reforms to better serve veterans, medical personnel, and taxpayers. In the Fiscal Year 2024 funding bills, Senator Murray negotiated and passed as Chair of the Appropriations Committee stronger language to hold VA and Cerner accountable for the rollout of the EHR system, and in May 2024, she sent a letter urging VA to consider feedback on the system from providers and veterans in Spokane and Walla Walla and reiterating that VA must not move forward on the rollout of EHR until the myriad issues that have plagued the system in the locations where it has been launched are fixed.

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And we'll note this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

Video of Remarks (YouTube)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (BHUA), delivered remarks at the Department of the Treasury, responding to Elon Musk’s takeover of government payment systems.

Transcript: Press Conference - We Choose to Fight: Nobody Elected Elon!
February 4, 2025
As Delivered

Senator Elizabeth Warren: In the building behind me, Elon Musk is seizing power away from the American people. We are here to fight back.

A few months ago, Elon Musk spent $280 million to buy an election for Donald Trump. Now Elon Musk is here to collect on his investment. He is here to seize power for himself. We are here to fight back.

Musk has grabbed control of America’s payment system. This is the system that makes sure that your grandpa gets his Social Security check on time. This is the system that makes sure that your mom’s doctor gets paid for her Medicare exam. Elon wants the power to turn that off as Elon Musk decides. Elon Musk wants the power to say that your grandpa, who frankly is a cranky old guy and sometimes disses Elon on X, doesn’t get his Social Security check on time. Elon Musk wants the power to say that your mom’s doctor is not doing it the way I would, so the doctor doesn’t get paid. Elon Musk wants the power to decide whether or not every road repair in America goes forward, whether or not every Head Start Center in America opens, and whether or not every military base, anywhere in the world, operates according to Elon. Elon Musk wants everyone in America to be at the mercy of Elon Musk. We are here to fight back.

Now, no one elected Elon Musk to nothing. Not one Democrat in America voted for Elon Musk. Not one Republican in America voted for Elon Musk. Not one Independent in America voted for Elon Musk. Not one Libertarian voted for Elon Musk. Damn, not one vegetarian in America voted for Elon Musk. And yet, Elon Musk is seizing the power that belongs to the American people. We are here to fight back.

This is no longer business as usual. We will speak out. We will rally. We will power a movement all across this country. Elon Musk wants power and we will fight back.

###

Trump and MAGA have ushered in the age of stupid as Lawence O'Donnell noted last night on MSNBC.

None of this nightmare had to happen. America had the choice between Donald Chump and Kamala Harris. There is and was a huge difference between the two.

But here we are. And we better be doing everything we can think of to avoid 2028's candidate being attacked the way some on the left attacked Kamala Harris.

That means getting ready for nominees. No, I'm not referring to 'fantasy football' garbae like 'We should run Jon Stewart!'

There are real candidates who want to win. There's one, in fact, that's always in the news. Pedro Camacho (LATIN TIMES) reports:

Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed concerns about the Party's messaging and internal dynamics. In the wide-ranging interview, Ocasio-Cortez also described her relationship with the party as "weird" and pointed to a "power struggle" within its ranks.

"I think structurally, overall, the Democratic Party has this confused message," AOC said during a passage of an interview with the Latino USA podcast hosted by Maria Hinojosa. "We're supposed to be a party of the working class, and I think working-class people have not been seeing government work for them, despite a lot of the things that the Biden administration did do."

Ocasio-Cortez went on to argue that what she described as the party's inconsistent messaging contributed to its loss in the 2024 presidential election, adding that while Democrats are a coalition, the party is undergoing an internal battle over its direction:

"I have a weird relationship with the Democratic Party. I don't believe in a two-party system, but I also understand the Democratic Party is a coalition and if we want the party to change, the balance of the coalition has to change. But right now, you open the hood on the Democratic Party, what you have is, I think, a bit of a power struggle over the last couple of years"

I will vote in 2028 for the Democratic Party's presidential nominee no matter who it is. But crap like the above? It means I would not vote for AOC in the primary.

Yes, she does "have a weird relationship with the Democratic Party." That's because she's a Socialist, not a Democrat. Now Socialists of the SEP will immediately object because they don't want her and think she's weak. But she is a Socialist.

And I'm really not in the damn mood to have to do this near weekly. Be a Socialist, be a Democrat, be a Communist, if you're stupid enough then be a swing voter who wrongly self-labels "independent" and you're stupid, cruel and hateful be MAGA.

But don't lie and hide in a political closet.

Betty Friedan hid in a political closet and when she died you could either be honest or be part of the lie. Gloria Steinem is a Socialist. I have no idea why she couldn't admit in her prime -- she lied to me, for example -- but now that she's supposedly moved on to her final chapter, I have no idea why she can't be honest. It's always left to others to clean up the mess that closet cases make.

Gloria, like AOC, is a Democratic Socialist.

From WIKIPEDIA:

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a big tent, democratic socialist political organization in the United States.^[10] After the Socialist Party of America (SPA) was renamed Social Democrats, USA, Michael Harrington formed the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC).^[11] The DSOC later merged with the New American Movement (NAM) to form the DSA.^[12] The organization is headquartered in New York City and has about 80,000 members. It leads organizing and protest campaigns, and has members in the House of Representatives, state legislatures, and other local offices.

Upon the organization's founding, Harrington and the socialist feminist author Barbara Ehrenreich were elected co-chairs. After the merger, the DSA became the largest socialist organization in the United States, with a membership of approximately 5,000 ex-DSOC members and 1,000 ex-NAM members.^[13]

[. . .]

Members of the DSA have been elected to many governmental offices, including to Congress, where they have initiated various pieces of legislation central to the modern progressive movement in the United States, including the Medicare for All Act in 2003 by John Conyers^[37] and the Green New Deal in 2019 by Ocasio-Cortez.^[38] Former longtime members of the United States House of Representatives, including Conyers,^[39] Ron Dellums,^[39] House Whip David Bonior^[40] and Major Owens,^[41] have been affiliated with the DSA. As of January 2025, the only DSA endorsee in Congress is Rashida Tlaib.^[42] Ocasio-Cortez is endorsed by only the New York City chapter.^[43]^[44]

There is the Democratic Party. I am a Democrat. We are not Democratic Socialists. Most on the left in the US are not DSA (Approximately 80,000 people nationwide are DSA -- I spoke with a Green Party official who's a friend and he states that they have a larger number of members and notes that they got over 800,000 votes nationally for president -- those are not all dues paying members but, yes, the Green Party probably does have about ten times the number of members that DSA has.)

I'm not in the mood if AOC's the nominee in 2028 to go around defending our Democratic Party nominee from right-wing charges of "Socialist!" If AOC is our nominee, I'm not in the mood to do teach-ins in the months before the general election on what a Socialist -- Democratic Socialist or other -- is.

These are conversations you have now so that when a general election rolls around you can say that this has already been addressed at length.

She and other DSAers need to stop hiding in political closets and start participating in the public square.

WIKIPEDIA notes, "The dominant position in DSA regards the abolition of capitalism and the realization of socialism as a long-term goal, therefore the organization focuses its immediate political energies on reforms within capitalism that empower working people while decreasing the power of corporations." Abolishing capitalism is not going to fly with the bulk of voters.

And that may be why DSA -- that and it's tiny membership of less than 90,000 people in a country with over 300,000,000 people may be why they don't want to be honest and would rather hide in political closets.

AOC could be a great president.

But part of leadership is leading and leading in the here and now.

In other words, address this. Don't wait until September 2028 when FOX "NEWS" and others are broadcasting every hour on the hour, "AOC wants to abolish capitalism -- that means she wants to take away your property and that means . . ."

Socialism is something you need to be explaining now. And you need to be explaining your brand of Socialism because, again, there's DSA, SEP, PSL, etc.

You already lie to the American people with terms like "Justice Democrats." We can't win with liars. AOC and others need to come out of the closet. Bernie never made it to the finish line. He never moved beyond a candidate in the primaries and that's in part because (a) some people feared socialism and (b) some people didn't know he was a Socialist.

AOC has here problems and issues with other DSAs. That's fine. She may be planning to leave them. That's fine. What's not fine is sticking us, in the fall of 2028, with having to note just get-out-the-vote but also to reassure voters in a panic about what she stands for and supports.

Abolishing capitalism is not a winning plank in 2028.

Most people are not going to support it. Some won't support it arguing what would replace it? Gore Vidal and I often argued over his opinion that we needed to redo the Constitution. I disagreed. I did not believe we would have anything fair replacing it and I argued that the concessions we have as a result of amendments after The Bill of Rights took forever to be added. So I can certainly identify with any panic that the thought of abolishing capital would cause. In addition to people like myself who would want a plan on what would replace capitalism, there are people who would say no. Reasons for the include, the "American dream" which leads so many -- too many? -- to believe that we're all a lotto ticket way from our big pay day. Then there are those who just fear change.

That I have to waste my time explaining this ticks me off. But Kyle Kulinski and Cenk wanted to create "Justice Democrats" -- a group of Socialists -- and try to trick the American people.

No.

Say what you are or stay out of the election. And I'm not in the mood for any closet case candidate that doesn't grasp how their baggage could bury us all.

We have to win in 2028.

We can't afford nonsense.

Again, if AOC wants to come out publicly as a Socialist or explain that she's turned on Socialism, run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. But don't do it hiding in a closet. We can't risk 2028.

Yesterday, I posted a 'Bluie' -- is that what they call it? From BLUESKY. Like a Tweet from Twitter?

It was Ken Silverstein interviewing Eoin Higgins. I made the headline Ken. Here's the Bluie.

It goes to Ken's WASHINGTON BABYLON transcript piece entitled "The Plot to Steal the Media: Send in the Clowns." And I credited it here to Ken in the title of the post.

Because I know Ken.

I have no idea who Eoin is.

He's done, apparently, a good take down of Glenneth Greenwald and Matt Taibbi. Apparently. If I do a take down of them -- and I have many times -- I don't leave myself open to a take down from them.

Note this passage of the interview:

KS: It is.

EH: Where he loses me is that liberals are evil and the right is fine, or at least not as bad. And it's like, no, that's not what's going on here. When it came to Trump, Glenn and Taibbi both thought the Russiagate stuff was insane, and I can relate to that, but it reinforced the idea that liberals are the problem here, they’re the Deep State, or whatever terminology they would use, and that animus towards liberals became the most important thing.

I criticize liberals and the Democratic Party all the time. One reason is that I don't care about Republicans in that way, is that I'm not expecting anything from them. Somewhere along the way, Glenn lost that and he probably justifies a lot of like what he does now by saying, I used to be allied with these people and they betrayed the principles that I believed in, so fuck them, and there’s probably some of that with Taibi as well.

Eoin, you do criticize Democrats and liberals all the time.

And, really, isn't that the actual problem?

No, I'm not saying Dems can be criticized. They should be. I'm not even tone policing. I've always speak in your own voices.

But, if you're a Democrat, you probably read what Eoin said one way.

In the eyes of the far left, "liberal" is a dirty word and it is synonmous with "Democrat."

Eoin wants you to know that he criticizes the right wing including the GOP and that he criticizes Democrats.

And Socialists, Eoin?

Eoin is a Socialist. I wouldn't be promoting a book rightly calling out Glenneth and Matt while I myself hid in a political closet.

Eoin, who often contributes to COMMON DREAMS, does not criticize Socialists -- whether he's passing them off as progressives or whatever.

We need to know that if we're going to be news consumers.

Yes, Socialist Eoin will slam everyone on the right and, on the left, he will slam Democrats.

We saw those people near daily on DEMOCRACY NOW! -- how many times did Amy Goodman bring on members of Uncommitted, for example?

We aw them and we saw them passed off as people who were fair and objective and we were led to believe we were all on the same page and wanting the same thing.

I don't applaud Chump's attempt to destroy our system of government so hold your breath waiting for me to applaud Medea Benjamin's plans to overturn our government.

We are where we are now because, in the fact of the worst assault on our democracy, the left couldn't pull it together. We had Socialists attacking Kamala from their political closets.

I'm not in the damn mood.

You want to call out Glenn and Matt? Do so. I have repeatedly.

But everyone reading this knows where I stand politically. 20 plus years, it's not hard to find that I identify as a feminist first and then as a Democrat.

People in political closets passed themselves off as Democrats and THE NATION and DEMOCRACY NOW! and THE PROGRESSIVE et al went out of their way to ensure that took place. Because a bunch of Socialists slamming Kamala could not create the illusion that "even Democrats are agaisnt her." The lie and the closet were both necessary to topple our nominee.

I'm not standing for that again. I will vote in 2028 for whomever the party's nominee is. If we survive to 2028, I will do that.

And it could be AOC and I could see voting for her. But not if she's hiding who and what she is. It's not our job to try to sell her in October 2028 while also having to explain to the country what a Socialist is. If she wants to run, she needs to be starting that conversation right now.

Otherwise?

The party that welcomed Rashida was never welcomed back by Rashida who stabbed the Democratic Party in the back becoming the 21st century's Zell Miller in the process. And, yes, Rashida, there was a difference -- a huge difference -- between Chump and Kamala. Last night in "Rashida! I must speak to Rashida Tlaib!," Mike noted:

ALJAZEERA reports:

Last week, United States President Donald Trump published a message directed at the student protesters who participated in last year’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

It was a warning. And it was aimed specifically at the immigrants among the protesters.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump was quoted as saying in a White House fact sheet.

“I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

What?

What!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wait, you mean Donald Chump isn't a friend to Palestinians! Or to those who support Palestinians!!!!

Oh, no!!!!!!

D-d-d-does Rashida know?

Where is Rashida?

Where is she!!!!

I need to talk to Rashida Tlaib!!!!

Can someone help me find Rashida!!!!

Socialist Rashida screwed over the Democratic Party. Didn't bother her too much because she's not a Democrat. Maybe that will bother you? The fact that she lied about being a Democrat. The fact that she believes in dismantling our way of life?

I don't know where it ends. But I do know she was dead wrong. And now a lot of Palestinians are going to die because of her.

The following sites updated: