Loves #dogs, #Dylan, #Melville, #coffee. English prof. Author, with Bruce Miller, of book about Alzheimer's. Finding the Right Words. All views here are my own. #fedi22
NY Times is publicly baffled that Trump's tariffs don't apply to Russia. This would be grimly laughable, but then again it's the Times we're talking about.
NYT headline/deck:
Why Did Trump Spare Russia From New Tariffs?
The Trump administration says sanctions imposed on Moscow mean the U.S. does little trade with Russia, but questions persist about the motivations.
A tweet from "Covie" (@covie_93) that reads:
"Speaker Mike Johnson from the great state of 'Louisnana' wants to get rid of the Department of Education."
Below the tweet is an image of a large blue curtain featuring an emblem with a pelican and the words "SUPREME COURT" and "CONFIDENCE." The word "LOUISNANA" is prominently misspelled instead of "LOUISIANA." The mistake is highlighted with a red circle. In the foreground, three judges in black robes are seated at a table.
They all went to Derek Zoolander's Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good and want us to be forced to go there, too.
The only problem with this analogy is Zoolander is smart and brilliant and these people are utter doofuses (and fascists). I am giving them my best blue steel look.
"We're VERY concerned about (our own bespoke fake version of) antisemitism on college campuses and that's why we have to remove your civil rights and do a war on terror domestically..."
The sledgehammer approach is madness. America is not a company you can strip for parts.
A tweet from Rep. Jason Crow. The tweet includes a photo of Rep. Jason Crow and text that reads: "Americans are going to die because of Trump's cuts to the National Institutes of Health research. There's a way to reform government and improve efficiency - but taking a hammer to life-saving Alzheimers, ALS, and cancer research is not it."
Below the tweet, there is an image of a news broadcast from MSNBC titled "PROBATIONARY PURGE" with the following text: "NOTICE GIVEN AT: Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Education, U.S. Forest Service, Energy Department, Office of Personnel Management, Small Business Administration, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, General Services Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Nuclear Security Administration." The broadcast is part of "TRUMP'S FIRST 100 DAYS" with the headline "FIRINGS OF FEDERAL WORKERS EXPANDS TO MORE AGENCIES."
@georgetakei
I thought there was consensus that #Nazis, & their concentration campus, are bad & they should be forced back into the hole from which they emerged. #Alzheimer's is bad & it requires $$ & research so we don't have to watch those we love disappear. I also thought measles didn't belong in the + column, that banning books was for losers, & the Constitution meant something. We've gone through the looking glass but it's not nearly as fun or interesting as Lewis Carroll said.
The beauty & clarity of righteous resistance: "#Medical journals, including The #BMJ, do not retract published articles on demand. We will not retract published articles on request by an author on the basis that they contain so-called banned words. Retraction occurs in circumstances where clear evidence exists of major errors, data fabrication, or falsification that compromise the reliability of the research findings. It is not a matter of author request."
It's comfortable to believe that facts will prevail.
That one morning, millions of Trump supporters will wake up, rub their eyes, and suddenly see what we see. That the scales will fall away, revealing truth in pristine clarity.
Read the story of "D' and weep. An #EMT who doesn't have health #insurance who nevertheless is so committed to helping others in emergency health situations that he sticks with it. As Nathan Robinson says, "So don’t tell me this is a “good economy.” Don’t tell me this is a functional country. A system that treats D this way is totally dysfunctional."
So, the Vegas Cybertruck guy was a fascist and the media is more or less glossing over that part because...? (Hint: they're fascists too, this is what we do now, we're fully on board with this fascism thing because rich nazis own everything and there was no other logical conclusion to where a society controlled by rich nazis was heading.)
To everyone in a similar scenario: the tactic my dr.'s office has taught me is to ask, in writing, for:
1) the name, board specialty, and license number of the doctor making the determination the treatment was not medically necessary.
2) copies of all amterials they relied on to make their determination;
3) proof the dr. making the determination has maintained registration in your specific state & documentation of their meeting all their continuing education requirements;
4) the aggregate rate @ which similar treatments are denied vs approved by the specific dr being used for peer review.
You are not entitled by law to *all* of these things in most states, but you're entitled to some of them, & you can always ask for them.
This is, she says, a wildly successful tactic, b/c if the insurance co. answers them honestly, it gives you evidence that the "drs" making these determinations are practicing medicine out of scope, w/o proper licensing & qualifications, in areas they are not competent in.
Everyone knows this is true; it's not a secret. . . . It's a tactic that has worked.
When Trump won —against all odds, scandals, lawsuits, collapsing bridges, and the overwhelming weight of his own chaotic existence—you’d think the celebration would’ve lasted longer.
But no, the reaction wasn’t joy. It was this weird, brittle gloating. 🧵
I think it makes you ill (the opposite of nourishing). Looking at photos, especially of RFK, Trump, Don Jr. seems to confirm this. And we won't even mention Stephen MIller.
Trying really hard not to write about politics today, but I meant what I said last night; all of this handwringing and attempted parsing about Trump's ominous statement is bullshit.
Either he meant "no more elections" or he meant "I'm going to fuck shit up so bad you won't be able to vote out the fundie fascist regime I install regardless."
The difference between these two things is extremely cosmetic. Stop trying to find ways to tell people American Hitler isn't serious. This is real yo.
In case you were still wondering where the GOP stands on the right to contraception, look at the Senate. The fact GOP senators collectively blocked a vote on protecting access to contraception should really ring every alarm bell. No matter how much they try to distance themselves from the fallout from the Dobbs decision and downplay the deep fears over attacks on reproductive rights, their blockage of vote on a bill literally called the Right to Contraception Act really gives away the game.
NBC News headline: “Senate Republicans block bill to protect access to contraception”
