Jaybird is stuck in terminal contradiction mode where he just can't concede a point to anyone critiquing Trump

More in the world of FAFO, Trump is threatening tariffs on Taiwanese chips: https://www.pcmag.com/news/trump-to-tariff-chips-made-in-taiwan-targeting-tsmc

https://www.pcmag.com/news/trump-to-tariff-chips-made-in-taiwan-targeting-tsmc

The massacre continues:

resident Donald Trump’s budget office on Monday ordered all federal agencies to temporarily block disbursement of grants and loans — other than for Social Security, Medicare and other programs providing direct aid to individuals.

The memo says the temporary pause, effective starting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, is intended to ensure agencies are complying with Trump’s executive orders to root out “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies” from programs within their purview.

It’s not immediately clear how wide-ranging the pause will be in practice, due to the Office of Management and Budget’s ability to grant exceptions on a “case-by-case basis,” language exempting direct aid to individuals and a clause that states the pause is subject to what’s “permissible under applicable law.....

Still, as written the pause could affect a big swath of programs that aid lower-income households, including: Medicaid; school breakfast and lunch programs; Section 8 rental assistance; Title I education grants; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; state grants for child care; Head Start; and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Program and EPA grants to states and localities for clean water infrastructure — both of which fund a large chunk of congressional earmarks each year — could also be impacted.

Foreign aid grants are likely to be put on hold as well as clean energy projects, as those are specifically named in earlier executive orders."

Trump fires career DOJ lawyers who had civil service protections: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-administration-fires-doj-officials-worked-criminal-investigation-rcna189512

Trump's Tactics:

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2025-01-27-trumps-gestapo-raids/

At around 8 o’clock Sunday morning, in Mountain View, California, four ICE agents in full battlefield regalia followed a resident into a 19-unit apartment building. They carried M15 assault weapons, and had no warrants.

They were looking for two Venezuelans, who had lived there temporarily in the apartment of a lawyer, who was helping asylum seekers pro bono. The Venezuelans were legal residents with temporary protected status until last week, when Trump changed the rules and they suddenly became illegal.

The Venezuelans were not present at the time. There was another asylum seeker in the building with similar status, whom the agents ignored, apparently because she was not on their hit list. Residents called the Mountain View police, who said they could do nothing.

Despite brave words about sanctuary cities, state and local officials have not cooperated but have not resisted. Citizens who try to shelter targets of these raids are themselves inviting arrest.

This was only one of several ICE raids over the weekend. Others took place in Chicago, Boston, Austin, and L.A. Fox News reporters were invited to embed with the agents in Boston and Chicago, capturing the raids on video.

The agents wore tactical gear and vests with large letters displaying “Police ICE” and “Homeland Security.” According to CNN, at least two agencies told personnel to wear made-for-TV outfits, in case there were video opportunities.

This stunt suggests the performative aspect of these Gestapo-style raids, as red meat for Trump’s base. Trump has directed that ICE increase its raids and summary deportations, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500.

The return of gangster government. Denmark and other nations seek to higher Trump connected lobbyists: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/us/politics/trump-denmark-panama-greenland-lobbyists.html

Columbis-U.S. trade war called off. Trump appears to have backed down but is treating it as a victory

Yeah, they will accept deportees on civilian flights but Trump decided to use military flights because he needs to show his toughness and things are going down. He did this with Mexico and Brazil too.

We become what we pretend to be-Kurt Vonnegut Mother Night.

There is a whole effect/intent angle

Trade Wars have begun. Colombia refused to let a military plane of deportees land and Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on goods from Colombia. Colombia responded with a similar tariff.

Colombia supplies 27 percent of our coffee beans. 80 percent of the flowers sold on Valentine's Day also come from Colombia. The U.S. also buys 19 percent of Colombia's cacao.

Colombia purchases a lot of corn from the U.S.

That's a personality deficiency

Canada is a “country that should be a (US) state,” reiterates President Trump. “They’ll get much better treatment, much better care and much lower taxes, and they’ll be much more secure.”

Ah yes, I will show my resolute and impeccable moral character by reading about Native Americans being detained and harassed by ICE by mocking a statement from a Democrat. That is how I will show my belief in decency and dignity of all people.

Is there anything Trump can do that would get you to respond with something that is not trolling?

Trump calls for the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/637e320209200186ee22a6dc5c3d50476e0a5e39bccd32c038a5763a5b7ffedd.jpg

Members of the Navajo nation fail Trump’s brown paper bag test

https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/01/24/reports-of-navajo-people-being-detained-in-immigration-sweeps-sparks-concern-from-tribal-leaders/

Can you stop trolling on this or are you pathologically incapable of resisting an opportunity to troll?

Trump fires at least 12 Inspector Generals illegally in Friday night purge: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/us/politics/trump-fires-inspectors-general.html

Since Jaybird cares so much about the release of information:

"And on Thursday, the CDC failed to release the agency's weekly publication, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, marking the first time in decades the agency has not published the highly regarded mainstay of public health communication."

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/01/24/g-s1-44613/cdc-nih-hhs-health-data-mmwr

Good on the school for denying entry

Patel, Gabbard, RFK Jr., Oz, Huckabee, Bondi, Brendon Carr, and the WWE lady are al trolling choices.

His choices for Treasury, State, Commerce, U.N., Interior, and Labor are all within normal parameters for a Republican. Labor might even be above average

News from the DEI bans from Josh Marshall:

1. "Another detail out of FDA. The agency has removed pages which provide guidance to medical researchers on conducting medical trials with representative numbers of men and women and ethnic and/or racial minority groups. I think most people know this: but this isn’t a matter of symbolic diversity. Many medications and/or diseases or conditions present differently in men and woman and in people with different genetic backgrounds."

2. "In order to combat the scourge of “DEI,” the DOJ yesterday indefinitely suspended observance of events like Black History Month, Women’s History Month and other long observed (and one would imagine fairly innocuous) commemorations."

Trump suspends disbursements to Program Supplying H.I.V. Treatment Worldwide: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/us/politics/trump-hiv-aids-pepfar.html

Well that was depressing read. There are some good ones out there like AOC, Raskin, Van Hollen, and Murphy but there is a lot of ruderlessness right now

Right-wing Christians think empathy is a sin now: https://www.reddit.com/r/GetNoted/comments/1i8o7gg/the_sin_of_empathy/?rdt=53184

Are we the baddies?

And the trillion dollar question is what does the military do when it receives such an order because I know they might not be liberals but surely they would know that such an order is lunatic. One hopes at least.