The Imperial Presidency

[Labster]

I haven't posted much in this thread since starting it, or maybe it doesn't seem like I've been updating it much.  But I've read a lot of stories and bookmarked them for sharing later.  For those people not living in the United States, I just want to share a little bit of the psychic weight of living in America these days.  Every single day, a story like this will come out in the papers, and we just have to keep living, watching goodness being destroyed.  America is being remade wholesale -- by the time of the next election, it will be unrecognizable.

Upending norms, the Senate votes to undo California's electric vehicle rules -- conservatives love ICE!

Ernst draws groans at Iowa town hall after retort on Medicaid cuts, saying ‘we all are going to die’

Then someone in the crowd yelled that people will die without coverage.

“People are not ... well, we all are going to die,” Ernst said, drawing groans. “So, for heaven’s sakes. For heaven’s sakes, folks.”

Trump pulls Isaacman nomination for space. Source: “NASA is f***ed.” -- Trump managed to do one thing that I agreed with, nominating Isaacman, which is why I should have known it would be taken away from me, destroyed, just like everything else good and holy in this accursed land.

Britain’s biggest companies are preparing for a third world war -- meanwhile, in the rest of the world, this

Pentagon to redraw command map to more closely align Greenland with the US -- Greenland moved out of the European Command, moved to the Northern Command (the same group that sent soldiers to L.A. streets)

Trump Wants to Cut Tribal College Funding by Nearly 90%, Putting Them at Risk of Closing -- getting back to what America does best, taking from Indians

A US territory’s colonial history emerges in state disputes over voting and citizenship -- a ring of immigrants from American Samoa are being prosecuted for registering to vote in America.  Let's hope they send these U.S. nationals back to where they come from.

ICE arrested a California union leader. Does Trump understand what that means? -- Leading a large statewide union is a major political qualification -- it was exactly that that qualified Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor.

'I would': Trump says he'd arrest California Gov. Gavin Newsom -- or he could just arrest the governor too for disagreeing, sure, why not?  (he didn't though, TACO)

Trump is acting like an authoritarian; California’s crisis now rests on what he does next -- basically he made it worse, though things pretty much culminated nationwide on Trump's birthday

Dr. Phil was embedded with ICE during controversial Los Angeles immigration raids -- because where would we be without celebrities?

The protests were a bright spot.  Here in Ventura, it was the largest protest I had ever seen, larger than the ones I helped to organize in early 2017, with the Women's March.  Easily a couple thousand people lining a major intersection, outside of the County Government Center.  Not a police car to be seen, they just stayed away.

And God, was it loud.  Dozens of cars honking pretty much constantly in support.  I only got my hearing back a half-hour after I left.  One woman drove by with megaphone, pronouncing, "We have no need of kings in America.  If you want a king, go to England.  ¡Viva la raza! ¡Chinga tu MAGA!"

It was probably the one day I haven't been depressed this year.  Prof. Timothy Snyder wrote about how much happier Ukrainians seem than Americans, because at least they feel like they have agency to fight.  Here, I'm not so sure about the agency.  I talked to a neighbor about the protest -- he told me he wouldn't risk attending, because he had become a citizen fifty years ago, and he's worried they might send him back.  I'm thinking that we're mostly fine with living in constant fear.

Trump’s Military Parade Was a Pathetic Event for a Pathetic President

MIKEY SMITH: I went to Donald Trump's birthday tank parade and he already thinks he's a king -- a British reporter noticed something that went underreported here: Trump went onstage while the band played "God Save the King".

Why a professor of fascism left the US: ‘The lesson of 1933 is – you get out’ -- I mentioned Dr. Snyder above, but his wife, Professor Marci Shore echoes a lot of my own feelings.  They are now safely in Canada.  I wish I could leave, too.

Imperial President at Home, Emperor Abroad: American Foreign Policy in an Age of Unrestrained Executive Power -- just a reminder that in our current system, Congress has essentially zero input in American foreign policy, because it's decided to give up its powers.

‘Abducted by Ice’: the haunting missing-person posters plastered across LA

Donald Trump mocked for bizarre claim about the Civil War-- “I wonder if the Civil War -- it always seemed to me it always could’ve been solved without losing 600,000-plus people,” Trump said.  In prior times, he said maybe Lincoln was a better President than he, but now he seems to have lost even the semblance of humility.

Fired, rehired and fired again, some NOAA employees get letters demanding money -- the money is for health insurance premiums for coverage they never received, just to remind you that this is in America.

Defense Department will stop providing crucial satellite weather data -- looks like sea surface temperature is highly classified information now

Will I get deported for sharing this meme of JD Vance?

“I knew that one day we might have to watch as capitalism and greed and bigotry led to a world where powerful men, deserving or not, would burn it all down,” Rebecca Shaw said in a Guardian piece earlier this year. “What I didn’t expect, and don’t think I could have foreseen, is how incredibly cringe it would all be.”

I mean, at least the Nazis were snazzy dressers.  The red hats are just fucking ugly.

DOJ announces plans to prioritize cases to revoke citizenship -- I'm not honestly sure if the one guy is being deported for the crime or deported for their pronouns.

The Grand Opening of an American Concentration Camp -- welcoming immigrants to "Alligator Alcatraz"

RFK Jr.’s health department calls Nature “junk science,” cancels subscriptions -- talk about impact factor!

US tries to deport stateless Palestinian woman again despite judge’s order -- she was trying to sneak back in after a honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and will be sent to Gaza, where nothing can possibly go wrong

After Trump Warns Elon Musk To 'Close Up Shop,' China Rallies Behind World's Richest Man: 'There's No Need To Keep Putting Up With It' -- social media rallies behind Yilong Ma -- but on Weibo, not X.

A pregnant U.S. citizen went to the hospital after immigration agents detained her

Army bringing in big tech executives as lieutenant colonels -- you've heard of 90 Day Wonders as lieutenants, but meet 45 day bros as colonels!

National Park signage encourages the public to help erase negative stories at its sites -- am looking forward to hearing about our great American victory at the Little Bighorn

EPA will revisit Biden-era ban on asbestos in US.  I really need to take a deep breath but am afraid to do so.

Purple Heart Army veteran self-deports after nearly 50 years in the U.S.

Judge: You can’t ban DEI grants without bothering to define DEI -- of course by the time this case has been decided, the Supreme Court has ruled that court rulings like this only apply to small parts of America, and everyone has to file their own suits now

Military leaders aghast as Meta founder Zuckerberg crashes classified Oval Office meeting on fighter jets.  Only newsworthy in that Zuck actually managed to find a new place to spy on people.

Trump says he is about to raise tariffs as high as 70% on some countries, sorry Canada

Court allows Trump administration to move forward in sending group of immigrants to South Sudan.  Remember the Tory Party's Rwanda Refoulement Relocation scheme?  Well, hold our beer, we can do you one better across The Pond: sending random non-Sudanese folks to a country in an active civil war.

So that was one month in America.  Can't wait to see what July will bring.

EDIT: Oh forgot these two, which are "fun":
* The US State Department just wrote that USAID existed to push Colour Revolution on behalf of a global elite.
* LA school district demands inquiry after ICE officers filmed urinating outdoors on campus -- beware the yellow ICE