I've been hanging on to this draft post since a few days after the November election, when "Trump's plan for Day 1" was still only a plan. This draft post seemed to have been a catch-all for things I didn't put in other posts. ::shrug:: We have less time now than we did in November, so I'll publish this collection of notes for whatever it may be worth to someone else.
"Donald Trump has said he wouldn’t be a dictator — “except for Day 1.” According to his own statements, he’s got a lot to do on that first day in the White House.
His list includes starting up the mass deportation of migrants, rolling back Biden administration policies on education, reshaping the federal government by firing potentially thousands of federal employees he believes are secretly working against him, and pardoning people who were arrested for their role in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill,” he said of his Day 1 plans."
— Colleen Long and Dan Merica, Trump on Day 1: Begin deportation push, pardon Jan. 6 rioters and make his criminal cases vanish, AP News, November 12, 2024
Donald Trump confirmed this morning that he plans to declare a national emergency and use military assets for a mass deportation program.
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— Matthew Gertz (@mattgertz.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 8:52 AM
For a while, Matt Gaetz was going to be a thing. He was supposed to become Attorney General. Yeah, no, he had to withdraw himself from consideration.
"...don’t believe that these unfit nominees for Trump’s cabinet represent some lofty idea of making America great again. Despite all his effusive language about the supposed statesmanship of Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard, these picks are meant to do two things: show his iron-grip control over the Senate; and sow chaos and despair in the non-MAGA members of the American public."
— As Trump's plans become clearer, reject these four dangerous ideas: Debunking and, I hope, clarifying some of the spin and lies. Margaret Sullivan. American Crisis, Nov 17, 2024
"Matt Gaetz isn’t just a degenerate backbench MAGA loyalist, he’s credibly accused of child-sex trafficking, and may soon carry out vendettas against his accusers and others as the nation’s top law-enforcement officer. Tulsi Gabbard isn’t just a wild-eyed reactionary who makes bonkers claims on foreign propaganda networks, she’s in line to lead the United States’s intelligence community. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. isn’t just a brain-wormed sex pest, he wants to mainstream an anti-vaccine culture that has left a trail of dead children in its wake."
— Brian Beutler, No, Trump's Cabinet Is Not A "Distraction": They're cabinet secretaries, ffs! Off Message, Nov 18, 2024
"Matt Gaetz, an arrested-development adolescent with the swagger of a sequined guitarist in a low-rent casino, will not be confirmed. His grotesqueness, however, makes three other nominees seem what they are not: acceptable. Considering only competence — leaving aside character blemishes — nothing in their resumes qualifies Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the policy and administrative challenges of running the Defense Department, the intelligence community and the Department of Health and Human Services, respectively."
— George F. Will. The Senate's Madisonian opportunity on those nominations: A good thing about Trump's ghastly nominees: They could jolt the Senate into reclaiming its independence. Washington Post, November 17, 2024.
1) The term “Judeo-Christian” first appeared in the 19th century, in the context of trying to convert Jews to Christianity.
2) It’s Islamaphobic
3) most Jewish advances (Talmud, law, etc) developed under not-Christian rule, that’s usually sucked for us
4) the Crusaders mass-murdered Jews. 1/x
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— Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg (@theradr.bsky.social) November 15, 2024 at 9:06 AM
i keep saying these people hate the american system of government because it is true. “sovereign over the executive branch?” get the fuck outta here. he is a servant of the constitution and those “rogue judges” are doing their jobs!
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— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) January 29, 2025 at 9:17 AM
'A 5 Alarm F-ing Fire': Trump's Federal Funding Freeze Is Jolting Some Dems Into Fight Mode: "The Senate must not be business as usual," warned Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as nearly two dozen Democrats cast a protest vote on a Trump nominee. Jennifer Bendery, HuffPost, Jan 28, 2025
It's all just Calvinball.
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— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 1:59 PM
The Trump White House Wants A Court Challenge Over Frozen Funds: An internal OMB document shows that it is official administration policy to block funding to provoke a constitutional challenge. Paul Blumenthal, HuffPost, Jan 29, 2025
Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, operating senior living facilities across the state. Republicans are shutting it down
Perhaps more concerning is Mike Flynn, known foreign asset, having access to this data?
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— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog.lol) February 2, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Exclusive: Musk aides lock workers out of OPM computer systems, Tim Reid, Reuters, February 2, 2025
Judge Who Blocked Trump's Funding Freeze Is Concerned He Isn't Following The Order: The federal judge noted that organizations had informed the court as recently as last night that they still could not reach their funds., Brandi Buchman, HuffPost, Feb 3, 2025
NEW: DOGE has requested and is being granted “access to all SBA systems,” per an email sent to Small Business Admin employees today. Edward Coristine, a DOGE official, held a call with SBA staff detailing level of access they wanted, including HR, contract and payment systems
— Laura Barrón-López (@lbarronlopez.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Employees were told this access was cleared, but weren’t told by whom, and that access needed to granted in a very short time frame to Coristine and Donald Park, who appears to be an adviser to DOGE
— Laura Barrón-López (@lbarronlopez.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 2:48 PM
This is a crucial program that helps women and racial minorities build up businesses, and helps create the infrastructure of our communities, from your pet sitters to your book store.
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— Amanda Marcotte (@amandamarcotte.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 4:00 PM
As of February 2025, it's apparent that DOGE is making up numbers.
Larry Diamond has studied "over the last half-century...how democracies rise and fall," and over the "last two decades...tracking and unpacking the global democratic recession." He argues: "First, the crisis of American democracy is now squarely upon us. ... Second, it is going to get a lot worse. ... Third, democratic backsliding is moving quickly now in part because of the lack of resistance. ...the longer and further Trump and his acolytes proceed with their authoritarian ambitions, the harder it will be to resist, and the greater will be the risk not just to our democratic process but to our basic liberties. The key is to unite in defense of our democratic checks and balances, rather than to argue that every one of Trump’s policy initiatives is illegitimate." Though any "open defiance of federal court orders by the Trump administration...would be an obvious impeachable offense," we must remember "that in his first term, Trump committed other impeachable offenses for which he was not held accountable."
— Larry Diamond, Trump's America Is in a Free Fall—Not a Slippery Slope—to Tyranny: He is instilling fear not just among lawmakers but every sector of society that dares to criticize him or hold him accountable.
The UnPopulist, Feb 20, 2025
Various court rulings about what he's trying to do: CNN, Feb 22, 2025
In fact, this is money appropriated by Congress & Republican lawmakers have pushed government subsidies & grants to religious organizations for years. Lutheran Social Services is one of the largest employers in South Dakota, where it operates senior living facilities. Musk wants to fuck it all up.
— Jimi’s Plectrum (@jw1958.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 2:46 AM
The GOP admin has been using the bully pulpit to extort, menace, and otherwise obstruct justice against anyone his admin perceives to be an enemy. One firm the GOP admin targeted, Paul Weiss, folded to protect their bottom line. Now, EVERY lawyer has a target on their back.
Niemöller weeps.
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— Hypatia L.A. Seneschale ↙️↙️↙️ (she/her) 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (@femiyahtzee.bsky.social) March 23, 2025 at 7:42 AM
“I just think that the law firms have to behave themselves, and we’ve proven that – we have others that want to make a settlement, also having to do with the election and other things. They behaved very badly, very wrongly, and I appreciate the one — you know, these are the biggest firms, and they all came back realizing that they did wrong. That’s why they’re doing this. So, I just think they have to behave.” — Donald Trump (CNN, March 24, 2025)
The next step is to strip the nonprofit status of the ACLU and any other civil rights orgs that challenge the Trump administration. There won't be any lawyers left to bring the kinds of litigation necessary to stop the attack on the rule of law.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
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— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) March 25, 2025 at 12:07 PM
There are law school legal clinics working on these cases as well. I fully expect the Trump administration to threaten federal funding to any law school that has clinics bringing challenges to the administration's lawless actions.
We are well and truly into fascism.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) March 25, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Trump Is Building a Global Gulag for Immigrants Captured by ICE: The U.S. is in talks with 19 nations, including Libya, Kosovo, Rwanda, and Moldova, to accept deportees from other countries. Nick Turse, Jonah Valdez, The Intercept, May 15 2025
“The plain message that they are conveying is: If you even think about, talk about or claim to be in favor of diversity, of equity, of inclusion, of accessibility, you will be targeted,” said Maya Wiley, the president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
“They’re conveying that white men are the most discriminated against people in American society,” she added, “and therefore entitled to affirmative action.”
* * *
Catherine E. Lhamon, who previously served as the head of the Office for Civil Rights at the Education Department, said the investigations showed a pattern of “performative misapplication of federal civil rights law.”
“The Trump administration’s transparently vendetta-driven investigations categorically do not focus on fulfilling Congress’s guarantee that federal nondiscrimination protections apply equally,” Ms. Lhamon said. “Civil rights, properly understood, do not pit one group against another but protect all of us.”
— Erica L. Green, For Trump, Civil Rights Protections Should Help White Men:
Administration officials pick and choose which civil rights protections they want to enforce, and for whom. New York Times, May 25, 2025
“The reason they’re doing [this] is to try to create an environment of fear, to try to get people like myself... to shut the fuck up,” Piker said on a stream recounting the details of the incident.
www.usermag.co/p/hasan-pike...
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— On the Media (@onthemedia.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 2:47 PM
"At 10:19 last night, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on social media: “Stand with ICE. Pass the B[ig] B[eautiful] B[ill].”
And there it is. The Republicans’ “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is the MAGA regime’s attempt to replace the American government we’ve had since the 1930s with one that reflects the antidemocratic values of Project 2025."
* * *
"Maanvi Singh of The Guardian put the right lens on events in Los Angeles today, noting “Trump’s dramatic escalation” and his vow “to crush opposition to his immigration raids.” Singh identified the administration’s escalation as the trigger for “a roaring backlash.”
Singh noted federal agents carried out arrests in L.A. without judicial warrants and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been holding families in the basements of federal buildings, refusing them access to lawyers and family members. Agents in riot gear attacked protesters with tear gas and flash-bang grenades, turning peaceful protests into clashes."
— Heather Cox Richardson, June 9, 2025, Letters from an American, Jun 10, 2025
Minnesota assassinations
June 14, 2025: assassination reported. The local newspaper, the Star Tribune, removed its paywall for this coverage: Live: Rep. Melissa Hortman assassinated, others shot in ‘targeted’ attack
Here's that HuffPost coverage.
when we scream and shout about doing things, this is what we mean. got popped and still went back again? hell yeah brother
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— Joshua Erlich (@joshuaerlich.bsky.social) June 20, 2025 at 4:50 PM
we don't want statements and we don't want resolutions. we want to see your ass on the news standing up for what you say you believe in.
— Joshua Erlich (@joshuaerlich.bsky.social) June 20, 2025 at 4:51 PM
THEY F*CKING TOOK THE ICE CREAM MAN! The photo says it all.
Masked ICE goons grabbed Enrique Lozano in front of a Culver City, CA church. A Community Coalition helped the family identify the abandoned cart, locate his belongings. For 20 years, loved in the community. "Hardened criminals" - my ass.
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— The Shallow State (@ourshallowstate.bsky.social) June 24, 2025 at 5:15 PM
‘We are not safe in America today:’ These American citizens say they were detained by ICE, Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN, June 27, 2025
He was born to a US citizen soldier on an army base in Germany. Now he’s been deported to Jamaica, a country he’d never been to. Zoe Sottile, CNN, July 8, 2025
ICE Is Making an Example of California: The repeated targeting of California workers is a deliberate spectacle, meant to show the rest of the country what to expect if we don’t fall in line. Melissa Gira Grant, July 17, 2025
ICE Is Getting Unprecedented Access to Medicaid Data: A new agreement viewed by WIRED gives ICE direct access to a federal database containing sensitive medical data on tens of millions of Americans, with the goal of locating immigrants. WIRED. Jul 17, 2025
“I thought people were going to die”: Anti-ICE protesters say they were attacked by police: Supporters of detained chaplain Ayman Soliman say cops assaulted them at a recent protest, but they're not deterred, Tatyana Tandanpolie, Salon, August 6, 2025
"The premise of Trumpism was always the facade, the lie. From Obama’s birth certificate to migrant caravans to invading Greenland, the MAGA movement has always been a parade of mediocre storytelling meant to scare masses saturated with fear and hatred. It’s always been a bad puppet show with big shadows that distract and alarm and offer absolutely nothing of substance. But it turns out people need substance. We need sustenance. Even the true believers, the real Trump acolytes, are now hungry for answers when it comes to Epstein’s Island, when it comes to the cost of a home, when it comes to their jobs being replaced by AI. People need substance. But instead the Trump regime says JD Vance will be looking into alien life, a nuclear reactor will be built on the moon, zero migrants have crossed the border this year. These are all real claims being made, and they’re all equally dishonest and deluded, because that’s all they have left.
Reality has caught up. Fascism is one great lie that attacking the oppressed will somehow help the rest of us. The Trumpist iteration of fascism says that handing the rich money and handing one egomaniac unlimited power while scapegoating the vulnerable is somehow good for the 99% of us. It never made logical sense; it was always premised on emotional appeal and lies. And, as we know, the truth doesn’t always magically break through — truth does not inherently emerge victorious. Rather, as we’re seeing now, the lie of fascism emerges specifically to paper over the truth that capitalism fails us. It emerges to cover up the rot, the stench of capitalist excess. It rises at times when the masses of people grow angry at the ruling class, and waves flags in an effort to get the bull to charge at the immigrants rather than the billionaire. And, for a time, it works.
But now we find ourselves at a different stage."
J. P. Hill, The facade of unreality is crumbling:
Cooking the books, endless distraction, and truth breaking through, New Means, Aug 05, 2025
