Day: February 17, 2025

This Is How We Erase History

The GOP is trying desperately to rewrite history and they put the best person to do that in the WH….

Remember those pricks on 6 January that tore up the Capital?

It appears that reference to them is being purged…..

Attorneys for a group of news organizations, including NPR, said in a legal filing on Tuesday that evidence used at the sentencing of a rioter charged in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol had “disappeared” from an online government platform.

In response to the press coalition’s legal motion, the chief judge for the District of the District of Columbia, James Boasberg, ordered the government to halt the removal of any video or court records related to Jan. 6 from its platform. Boasberg also ordered the government to identify any other videos removed from the database and provide an explanation for their removal by Feb. 26.

The missing evidence consists of nine video exhibits from the Justice Department’s case against Glen Simon, who pleaded guilty to a charge of “Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds.” Simon said as part of his plea that he pushed against police officers with a metal bike rack, stormed the U.S. Capitol and recorded himself saying “this is what a revolution looks like,” and, “we gotta show these f****** we ain’t f****** around. It’s the only way to get it done. Fear!”

So far, the absence of video files appears to only have affected Simon’s case. It is unclear whether the Department of Justice intentionally removed the files. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which handled all of the Jan. 6 criminal cases, declined to comment citing the ongoing litigation.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/11/nx-s1-5293447/jan-6-evidence-captiol-riot-donald-trump

And do not forgot the purging by NASA of women in leadership rolls.

The step to remove pronouns is the latest by the space agency to comply with the White House’s desire to restrict certain kinds of content within government systems. The outlet 404 media, an independent journalist-founded media website, has reported that NASA employees were required to “drop everything” and remove a list of words from public facing websites including “Indigenous people” and “Anything specifically targeting women (women in leadership, etc.).”

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/06/nx-s1-5289319/nasa-instructs-employees-to-remove-pronouns-from-all-work-communications

And the purge continues…..

References to transgender people were removed Thursday from a National Park Service website for the Stonewall National Monument, a park and visitor center in New York that commemorates a 1969 riot that became a pivotal moment for the LGBTQ+ rights movement. The changes were made in the wake of an executive order President Trump signed on his first day in office calling for the federal government to define sex as only male or female, the AP reports. The National Park Service told the Washington Post it was implementing the order.

Let the purge continue…..what more will be hit by the delete button?

Trying to keep any knowledge of what actually happened and why to a bare minimum.

Please take us back to the 1950s….I so miss those days of ignorance and prejudice.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Tariff Talk

Donald the Orange not satisfied with the tariffs he has already put in place has stated that there may be more to come….

President Trump announced plans for “fair and reciprocal” tariffs on America’s trading partners Thursday, claiming they would raise a “staggering amount” of money. “They charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them the exact same,” Trump told reporters before he signed the “Fair and Reciprocal Plan” executive order in the Oval Office, CNN reports. “It’s fair to all. No other country can complain.” Asked if prices in the US would go up because of the tariffs, Trump said “not necessarily,” reports the New York Times. “Prices could go up somewhat short term,” he said.

Officials say the plan includes countering the value-added taxes common in Europe. Trump has ordered officials to prepare a country-by-country report within 180 days to determine “remedial” action of tariffs. Howard Lutnick, his nominee for commerce secretary nominee, said the investigation should be complete by April 1. Trump that said at a later date, there would be import tariffs “over and above” reciprocal taxes on imports including cars, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors, NBC News reports.

Trade analysts say that the plan is likely to raise costs for Americans as well as being a “bureaucratic nightmare” to administer, the Washington Post reports. “Reciprocity may sound appealing. But remember who pays tariffs: It’s the American importer and the burden eventually falls on the consumer,” said Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy for the Tax Foundation. “It’s like shooting yourselves in the foot because someone else is shooting themselves in the foot.” Trump said countries could make their products in the US to avoid tariffs and predicted that the country would be “flooded with jobs,” the Times reports.

I know I write a lot about these tariffs but that is because most people do not understand what the entail.

Let’s look at history…..Trump’s idol is Pres. McKinley (now you know why he renamed that mountain)….a man that Trump calls the Tariff King…..

William McKinley was a largely forgotten American president from more than a century ago until Donald Trump returned to the White House as his biggest fan because of McKinley’s love affair with tariffs.

Trump, who has renamed North America’s highest peak Mount McKinley in his honor and announced a series of his own tariffs on imports, has frequently praised McKinley since taking office and while on the campaign trail last year. In his inaugural address, he referred to McKinley as a “great president” who “made our country very rich through tariffs.”

Trump has dubbed McKinley the “tariff king.” McKinley referred to himself as “a tariff man, standing on a tariff platform.”

In 1890, six years before McKinley’s election as president, Congress passed his legislation that raised the tariffs on most imported manufactured goods to about 50%.

But Trump misses several points in the historical record about McKinley – including his contention that tariffs created wealth and made America rich in the late 19th century – said Douglas Irwin, a professor of economics at Dartmouth and a leading expert on McKinley and his tax policy.

“This whole late 19th century was a period of expansion,” he said. “Tariffs themselves probably didn’t make a huge amount of difference one way or another.”

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/12/business/trump-william-mckinley-tariffs/index.html

McKinley learned that ‘free trade’ was far more profitable than tariffs but will His Majesty learn the same lesson (Doubtful)….

Are these tariffs constitutional?

The taxing power in the federal government resides in the Congress. The Constitution states that Congress has the power to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts” of the federal government. Indeed, in order to emphasize the location of this power in the Congress, the Constitution also requires that all legislation “for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.”

So, if only Congress can impose taxes, how can the president impose tariffs?

Here is the backstory.

https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2025/02/06/tariffs-and-the-constitution/

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Not My ‘President’s Day’

Today we have a Federal holiday that celebrates the legacy and lives of our many presidents….but in recent years is there really anything to remember or celebrate?

The Dems have said they will fight the Trump agenda but so far the only ones that are in the fight are Progressives and sadly their numbers are not as strong as to be effective but at least they are in the fight for the American people….they have not rolled over and played dead as the Dems do most of the time.

This is their attempts on this day…..

Organizers of nationwide protests planned for Monday, when the U.S. will mark Presidents’ Day, appealed to those who oppose President Donald Trump and billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk’s agenda with a simple message ahead of the actions: “All are welcome. You are not alone. Defend equality. Fight fascism.”

The call for defenders of democracy to gather with like-minded people comes nearly four weeks into the Trump administration’s “flood the zone” strategy, aimed at overwhelming its political opponents with a relentless flow of executive orders, attacks on long-held constitutional rights, and the attempted takeover of agencies across the federal government.

“In unity, we find our power; in protecting one another, we build our movement,” said the 50501 Movement—whose name stands for 50 states, 50 protests, one day—after organizing nationwide rallies against Trump and Musk earlier this month. “Let’s stay vigilant, compassionate, and strong as we work towards a brighter, more just future.”

The second nationwide protest day is titled “Not My Presidents’ Day,” with attendees rejecting Project 2025, the right-wing policy agenda whose proposals have been well-represented by the administration’s actions so far; Musk’s takeover of agencies including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Agency for International Development through the executive order-created Department of Government Efficiency; and Trump’s appointment of Cabinet members with numerous corporate ties and conflicts of interest, despite the president’s campaign last year focusing partly on the high cost of living for working people.

“We the people will not live under a king,” said progressive organizer Kai Newkirk. “We will not allow Trump and Musk’s administrative coup.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/anti-trump-protests

This is a good thing…..at least these Progressives are not joining the defeatists that say ‘it is bad but what can we do’?

The cowardly lion in this sitcom is the mainstream Dems or as I call them the gutless Party…..they do not like being pushed to take on the GOP head to head….

House Democratic lawmakers reportedly used a closed-door meeting earlier this week to vent their frustrations with progressive advocacy groups that have been driving constituent calls and pressuring the party to act like a genuine opposition force in the face of the Trump administration’s authoritarian assault on federal agencies and key programs.

Citing unnamed sources, including a senior House Democrat, Axiosreported Tuesday that the private meeting “included a gripe-fest” directed at “groups like MoveOn and Indivisible,” which have “facilitated thousands of phone calls to members’ offices” and pressured the party to use its considerable power to disrupt business as usual in Congress, including by opposing all unanimous consent requests from the Republican majority.

The unnamed senior House Democrat told Axios that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is “very frustrated” with the progressive organizations, which have urged people across the country to contact their Democratic representatives and pressure them to fight harder against the Trump administration and their Republican allies.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/democrats-progressive-groups

I hate to tell these overpaid dickwads….it is a war and you should be fighting as an opposition party or join the ranks with the conserv twats.

What’s that old saying that we all heard as kids….”can’t never could”.

Now you know why I refuse to be identified as a Democrat….they cowards and lay-abouts.

Kudos Progressives keep up the pressure and the good work.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”