The Imperial Presidency

[robkelk]

This one isn't on the bingo card, but it could easily have replaced "tariffs" as the free space. (Something similar happened in Canada the last time we had a right-wing government. History rhymes with itself.)

National Science Foundation FY 2026 budget cut by more than 60%

[robkelk]

NASA boss-to-be gets spaced as proposed budget cuts detailed

[classicdrogn]

trump - n
1. The place between an asshole and a cunt or wrinkly nutbag.
2. Something not technically obscene but embarrassing and often offensive to reveal in public.
3. Something difficult to reach or cleanse.
ex: "After all that shit I really had to stretch to clean up the trump."

[Jinx999]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j76djzgpvo

And Musk has turned on Trump.

If there's one thing the guy is good at, it's burning bridges.

[Labster]

NASA boss-to-be gets spaced as proposed budget cuts detailed

It looks like nearly all of the space missions are getting canceled faster than Kevin Spacey.

[Jinx999]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j76djzgpvo

And Musk has turned on Trump.

If there's one thing the guy is good at, it's burning bridges.

And their online spat has got a bit heated, with personal attacks and outright threats.

[Labster]

Elon Musk, for a day, decided to that he was going to dismantle the crew module for SpaceX, if the federal contracts were gone, which would bring us back to the "stranded astronauts" thing all over again. But he backed off because the whole thing is pretty dumb, of course, just Twitter threats.

Trump's adviser, Steve Bannon (remember the Biosphere guy?), has said that he wants to investigate Elon's application for citizenship. It looks like the play is to strip Elon Musk of citizenship, then because a non-citizen cannot have our secrets of rocketry under law, have the government seize control of SpaceX, all completely* legally. Looks like we'll be sending Elon back to Canada, where he belongs.

Where is that gif of Ami eating popcorn, again?

[robkelk]

Looks like we'll be sending Elon back to Canada, where he belongs.

No refunds, no returns! You took him, you keep him!

Where is that gif of Ami eating popcorn, again?

[robkelk]

Downtown Los Angeles has been declared an "unlawful assembly" zone, and the Oval Office has called out the National Guard against the wishes of the state's Governor.

I hope that our forum members in L.A. are not caught in this use of US armed forces against US citizens on US soil.

[Dartz]

The Local Lego Builders club has the chance to do the funniest things ever.

Or someone carrying two white shopping bags.

---

From what I can read - these are fairly small protests with a few torched Waymos who everyone apparently hates anyway.

In a complete contrast to every evil administration everywhere, which seeks to massively downplay any civil unrest to the wider population, before quietly sending in the tanks anyway. Evil dictators make molehills out of mountains.

Meanwhile, America's doing the opposite. Making a massive show of Sending in the Troops, even when this is something that even the evil dictatorships are sort of embarrassed to do. The thing with going full Send in the Troops at this point is that it paints the administration as being keenly aware of it's own brittle weakness, and is deliberately trying to puff itself up as inflexibly strong.

It's such a bizarre thing.

----

Other than that - there're eight thousand nine hundred and sixty four things that can go wrong with active troops being used to police civil disobedience.

And while that's an extreme, the consequences are well documented in several 'civilised' parts of the world, where troops have opened fired on protestors for shits and giggles.

All it takes is one Soldier F.

[nemonowan]

Maybe this should have went under Political Video, but it just fits too well this topic:

[robkelk]

Democratic lawmakers assassinated in Minnesota

The assassin used a fake police car, and had a list of targets in the car.

[robkelk]

Salt Lake City Police believe man fatally shot at 'No Kings' protest was innocent bystander

[robkelk]

Avoid travel to the USA this summer. Free admission to Canada's National Parks from June 20 to September 2, and discounted admission to Canada's national museums and Via Rail travel during the same period. And, yes, visitors to Canada (including our American visitors) get the same discounts. No registration or physical pass required.

[classicdrogn]

The thing with going full Send in the Troops at this point is that it paints the administration as being keenly aware of it's own brittle weakness, and is deliberately trying to puff itself up as inflexibly strong.

It's such a bizarre thing.

I saw a comment somewhere (might even have been here) to the effect that "Trump is a poor man's idea of a rich man, a stupid man's idea of a smart man, and a weak man's idea of a strong man." Really fits.

[robkelk]

His Orangeness buggers off from the G7 meeting, the day after he arrived.

Considering the reason he gave for leaving early, one wonders why he bothered showing up at all.

[classicdrogn]

[sarcasm]Wow, with all those deadweight immigrants being cut out of Medicare, the local clinic is expecting a drop in revenue that mandates 20% staff layoffs, including the doctor I've personally been seeing as my primary care provider. Thanks, President Trump![/sarcasm/]

[robkelk]

Simon Tisdall, The Guardian: No matter what Trump says, the US has gone to war – and there will be profound and lasting consequences

Two radical longer-term consequences may flow from this watershed moment. One is that Khamenei’s unpopular regime, notorious for corruption, military incompetence and economic mismanagement, and deprived of support from Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza, may crack under the strain of this disaster. So far there has been little sign of an uprising or a change in government. That’s not surprising, given that Tehran and other cities are under bombardment. But regime collapse cannot be ruled out.

The other is that, rather than surrender the cherished right to uranium enrichment and submit to the Trump-Netanyahu ultimatum, Iran’s rulers, whoever they are, will decide to follow North Korea and try to acquire a bomb as quickly as possible, to fend off future humiliations. That could entail withdrawal from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and rejection of the UN inspections regime. After years of trying to play by western rules, Iran could really finally go rogue.

This isn't in the article, but I think it's relevant: Who else remembers why OPEC put the west under an oil embargo in the 1970s, and who else thinks that because of this attack it's likely to happen again?

[MilkmanConspiracy]

"Canadian citizen dies while in ICE detention in Florida, agency says" - Article from the Toronto Star
"A Canadian has died in ICE custody, cause under investigation" - CTV News

[robkelk]

Harvard and University of Toronto make contingency plan for international students

tl;dr: If there's enough interest, international students of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government would take their in-person classes at UofT's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

[robkelk]

Apparently, the USA is the only country allowed to tax international businesses... according to the USA.

What is Canada's digital services tax — and why does Trump dislike it so much?

Do other countries have similar taxes?

Yes. France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom all have tax regimes in place, to name a few.

But apparently its only when Canada does something that His Orangeness gets pissed off... after the fact, I'll point out. He's only noticing now that the bill is due.

[robkelk]

Apparently, the USA is the only country allowed to tax international businesses... according to the USA.

What is Canada's digital services tax — and why does Trump dislike it so much?

Do other countries have similar taxes?

Yes. France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom all have tax regimes in place, to name a few.

But apparently its only when Canada does something that His Orangeness gets pissed off... after the fact, I'll point out. He's only noticing now that the bill is due.

And we caved.

Fuck.

[robkelk]

Paramount settles lawsuit filed by Trump over CBS interview with Kamala Harris

Media advocacy groups said Trump's novel use of such laws against news outlets could be a way of circumventing legal protections for the press, which can only be held liable for defamation against public figures if they say something they knew or should have known was false.

[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