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Republicans have introduced legislation… to increase your bank fees.

Just a reminder:
Without freedom of speech, we would not know who the idiots are.

KEEPING SILENT WILL NOT PROTECT YOU
CALL YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

Several decades at the agency, named acting commissioner last month Top Social Security official with several decades at firm, resigns over DOGE data demands.

DeJoy should go to DeJail
USPS head DeJoy is stepping down
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is under investigation by the FBI.

Fuck #LouisDeJoy billions in losses https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/18/usps-postmaster-louis-dejoy-steps-down

Trump’s no different than Ezra Pound.
Ruled mentally unfit to stand trial, Poet Ezra Pound was incarcerated for over 12 years at St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., whose doctors viewed Pound as a narcissist and a psychopath, but otherwise completely sane.

GOP donor Harlan Crow’s brother is accused of financing 100-person sex trafficking ring in bombshell lawsuit where women say they were drugged, abused and forced to perform sex acts.

Mexico threatens #Google over “Gulf of America”, points out U.S. sovereignty only extends 12 nautical miles.

Widespread reports that Musk is apparently blocking most links to Signal private communication app users on X

There’s One Federal Investigative Agency that Neither Trump nor Elon Musk Can Touch: It Just Opened an Investigation into DOGE https://wallstreetonparade.com/2025/02/theres-one-federal-investigative-agency-that-neither-trump-nor-elon-musk-can-touch-it-just-opened-an-investigation-into-doge/
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) turned 100 years old in 2021. For more than a century it has been doing the work that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been pretending to do, that is, competently root out fraud, waste and abuse in federal government programs without leaving a dangerous trail of chaos that threatens national security, personal privacy and the U.S. Constitution.
If Elon Musk is sincerely interested in efficiency and government savings, why is he duplicating the work of the non-partisan GAO – while doing it in a grossly subpar and deeply conflicted manner?

The US was on the verge of major anti-corruption reform. Then Trump took office.
After years of serving as a top destination for the world’s dirty money—stashed in untraceable LLCs, impenetrable trusts, and anonymously owned properties—the United States was on the cusp of turning a corner. Congress had passed bipartisan legislation compelling shell companies to divulge their owners to the Treasury Department, which has also imposed new rules to bring similar transparency to the real estate and private equity sectors, two of the most popular havens for illicit wealth. But President Donald Trump’s return to power has cast doubt on the future of the most monumental anti-kleptocracy reform push in decades.
Increasingly, the United States has become the epicenter of the multitrillion-dollar offshore economy. Much of that was due to the nation’s willingness to provide anonymous shell companies to anyone who wanted one, with states such as Delaware, Nevada, and Wyoming one-upping each other with permissive laws designed to entice corporate clients to their states. The World Bank reported in 2011 that the US had formed more anonymous companies than the 41 leading tax havens combined. And that trend only accelerated in the years that followed.
In 2021, however, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act, which required limited liability companies to disclose their owners effective this year. The rules are hardly onerous. The paperwork takes minutes to fill out and, unlike shell-company registries in other countries, the US database is visible only to federal authorities. Still, anti-corruption watchdogs heralded the law as a sea change.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur @RepMarcyKaptur
Where does the accumulated debt of this country come from? It comes from Republican Presidents going back to Ronald Reagan. 3/4 of the accumulated debt of this country is due to Republican Presidents who didn’t pay for their spending—so much for Republican’s being the party of fiscal responsibility.

SECURITY

NEXT TIME A REPUBLICAN TELLS YOU THAT “SOCIAL SECURITY IS BROKE,” REMIND THEM THAT PRES. BUSH “BORROWED” $1.37 TRILLION OF SOCIAL SECURITY SURPLUS REVENUE TO PAY FOR HIS TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH AND HIS WAR IN IRAQ… AND NEVER PAID IT BACK.
– AMERICANS AGAINST THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

@BoringSleuth The Ethereum Foundation Must be Disolved
The GateCoin Exploit, Ethereum’s first large exploit, occurred exactly 8 Years and 9 Months ago, today. Vitalik Buterin, and other members of the Ethereum Foundation, were closely connected to the exploit of GateCoin, which was hacked for Ethereum and Bitcoin valued at almost Half A Billion Dollars today. The Ethereum Foundation originally funded the wallet the funded the wallet that performed the Exploit.

“We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests,” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, January 6, 1941

Kakistocracy a system of government which is run by the worst,
least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.

Optimism in the face of absolute disaster is both delusional and a superpower.

▓▓▓—▓▓▓—▓▓▓—▓▓▓—▓▓▓

Democrats let DeJoy get away with it

Bob Lefsetz

We’re in an endless loop. The left keeps depending on the system, and the right rigs the system and then the left is positively STUNNED when things don’t work out its way. Were there any consequences for DeJoy slowing down the mail? Of course not, he just stonewalled, and ignored the government and judicial orders. He said removing sorting machines was de rigueur and there was no way to reinsert them and…HE GOT AWAY WITH IT! Yes folks, in plain sight Trump and his cronies put their finger on the scale with absolutely no consequences.

And then there was the voter suppression. Been happening for years. Trump even says if everybody votes Republicans can’t win. When are the Democrats and the media going to take what Trump says on face value? He only changes his take if it’s to his advantage, and it’s not to his advantage to leave office.

Sure, he may concede, or at least agree to go, even as I write this, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Meanwhile, with the support of his party apparatchiks Trump has succeeded in undermining the legitimacy of the election in the minds of 40% of the electorate, so even if Biden takes office, expect pushback, expect very little to get done.

Meanwhile, sorting the smoldering ashes all the Democrats can do is lament they didn’t move even FURTHER to the center. Yes, the reason people voted for Trump was the protests and “Defund the Police” and if we just shut up and obeyed orders and played the game properly, we’d win. That hasn’t worked for DECADES, if ever!

Meanwhile, AOC goes on record the DNC lives in the last century, focusing on TV and the mail as opposed to Facebook, and she’s excoriated by the same gang who keeps on losing, putting a stake in the heart of the Democratic Party, if not ultimately democracy itself. If things are going in the wrong direction, if you’re losing market share, that’s when you take big risks, that’s when you throw the long ball. You don’t get customers back by polishing up the old crap, you give them something new. We’ve seen this movie over and over again in tech, even sports are run on data, even GOLF, but when it comes to politics we must trust the old “experts,” as if the game never changes and they can’t possibly be wrong.

If you can find someone who is excited about Biden, you’ve found someone who is happy their nest egg will be protected. I’ve yet to find a single voter excited about Biden. Oh, they voted for him, anybody but Trump, but when you serve up a milquetoast like this and you expect people to follow you…

God, kids could not steal music, they needed to be told it was wrong and sued into submission. Did that work? NO! MySpace was huge, Friendster started the social network phenomenon, but did that keep them alive when a better mousetrap, i.e. Facebook, came along? Of course not. And Zuckerberg was smart enough to buy WhatsApp and Instagram to protect his mindshare, those in government woke up YEARS later! As for the public? It doesn’t care that Zuck owns and controls them all, it doesn’t even really care that’s it’s coughing up its privacy, the truth is the public hates to pay and that’s why Zuck proffers ads, and when Apple tries to hamper targeting, Zuck and the rest of the advertisers blow back and Apple postpones implementation. Do you know what I’m talking about? If not, maybe like AOC says you need to go online and follow the news, where it’s going. Yes, we’re never going back. As for Trump’s administration, there was almost no going back, even coal didn’t come back. DeVos emphasized private schools, the rich and powerful were taxed less and were unfettered and…

We are never going back. Hell, Joe Biden talked about bringing manufacturing back to America, HUH? You wanna pay 6k for a computer, or 3k for a flat screen, do you know anything about global economics? But if you speak the truth you’re seen as a joke, like Andrew Yang, or you’re just too dangerous, like Bernie Sanders, and then there’s Elizabeth Warren who blinked and lost all credibility, oh, she’s still pontificating, but it’s meaningless, everyone knows her backbone is flexible, if not nonexistent.

So, like a typical autocrat, Trump is on a disinformation campaign. His babes go on Bill Maher and even Fox and spew ridiculousness but he keeps on winning for himself. Pompeo talks about another Trump term and everybody laughs, huh?

Come on, rule of law, what did the police ever do for you? They won’t even come to a car accident anymore, and when you call for help they usually say there’s nothing they can do. But somehow the police keep being lauded, just like the military. Come on, the fighters are pawns who’ve been sent overseas by Bush and Cheney and why don’t we stop lauding those at the bottom and stop the bleeding by holding those at the top accountable?

Wall Street skates after ruining the economy twelve years ago and what’s the solution? GIVE THEM MORE MONEY! The news is littered with fat cats who gamed the system to get money from the government this spring, meanwhile, the hoi polloi, out of work, about to get kicked out of their dwellings, are getting no relief. McConnell says no relief before the election, which is still in play according to the Trumpians.

And, like an autocratic country, Republican elected officials are afraid of getting on the wrong side of Trump. Oh, we read in the left wing press, the same one that trumpeted inaccurate polls, that once Trump was defeated everybody would come back to their senses. HASN’T HAPPENED YET! And it’s not about to happen, because Trumpism is working for their constituents, as in they all voted for Trump and more, who wants to offend these people? And all the DNC will tell us is we must appease the Trumpers… That didn’t work and it will never work. You’ve got to start a fire on your side that draws people to you, you don’t hobble your message to try and be accepted by the other side.

So, we keep on getting all this analysis. About lawsuits re the count. Oh, that’s another thing, you’re laughing that in some states Trump and his cronies want all the votes counted and in others they want votes excluded. Up is down and down is up and truth doesn’t matter, they just play with impunity. Meanwhile, the Fox opinion-mongers, like Hannity, Ingraham and Carlson, just double down, they haven’t accepted Biden, they’ve just riled up the right saying the election was rigged. But they’re even better than that, they take the left’s motto and remake it for themselves. They just want “every vote counted.” Just like Trump embraced the concept of “fake news.” These people are geniuses at marketing, and the DNC is run by wimps, who don’t know how to fight. You OWN your edges, that’s the rule of all art. Stop apologizing, the right never does, and embrace all the crap the right gives you crap for. As for political correctness and trigger warnings, et al, you know you’re in trouble when many members of your own party wince and don’t agree. Come on, we’re allowed to offend some in the pursuit of not only the greater good, but the right good. You can’t keep everybody happy, no way, that’s why people hate politicians, they pander. Meanwhile, Trump constantly offends and he’s winning, his minions see him as a tough guy who will fight for them. As for Joe Biden…

But Kamala Harris is VP, WHOOP-DE-DOO! Unless the Democrats win both Senate seats in Georgia, absolutely nothing will be accomplished in D.C. Oh yes, Biden has his executive orders, as for bipartisanship…the right hasn’t wanted it for thirty years, why should they want it now?

So you thought the game was over. The media waited FIVE DAYS to give Biden the election, you were dancing in the street, meanwhile, Trump keeps saying he won and Covid-19 is raging and it’s the same as it ever was.

But when they go low, we go high. HUH? Dirty for dirty is what Joni Mitchell sang, turns out she knows more than everybody in the DNC.

The right is not going to take Biden’s election lying down. No way. They don’t accept it in PRINCIPLE! Hell, their behavior is bad and they constantly get away with it, try to run a Biden bus off the highway and your party CONGRATULATES YOU, CHEERS YOU ON! Meanwhile, all we’ve got on the left is infighting.

They took to the streets in Belarus. But in America? WE’VE GOT TRUMPERS TAKING TO THE STREET! What is it gonna take to get Americans motivated, to show Trump and his cronies that they’re not playing fair, not according to the rules, and Trump should concede?

Trump breaks the law in plain sight in Ukraine, but he’s not convicted. What makes you so sure the RNC and its elected officials are gonna tell Trump to fly straight?

For a second there we thought it would be like Watergate, the Republican brass would go to the White House and tell Trump he’s cooked, he’s got to go, instead they keep adding gasoline to Trump’s bonfire.

As for information… Zuck placated the right, but not well enough, and now they’re going to Parler. Furthermore, Zuck was gonna encrypt communication, make discussions private on Facebook and now…IT CAN’T POLICE DISINFORMATION! Once again, the mad scientist has created something that’s come out of the lab and infected the populace. Zuckerberg is just as complicit in wrecking this country as Covid-19. But the stock market keeps putting billions in his pocket, and money is everything.

NO, HEARTS AND MINDS ARE EVERYTHING!

The Black Lives Matters protesters had it right, they were mad as hell and weren’t going to take it anymore. That’s what we need now, spontaneous demonstrations that evidence our power to Trump! Oh, you’re afraid, he controls the military, it’ll just add fuel to the fire. But are you winning? No, you keep depending on the system to make things right, but that hasn’t happened in four years, why should it happen now?

Yes the U.S. is not that different from Belarus. And most people are on the Democrats’ side. They demonstrated against involvement in Vietnam, Johnson declined to run for re-election, but we must lay down in the face of Trump, our worst nightmare, a threat to democracy itself, who has packed all the courts, including the Supreme, with his lackeys, oftentimes unqualified. So they lied. THEY’VE BEEN LYING FOR YEARS!

And forget the false equivalency. Blame the media for this. Afraid of expressing an opinion, all media, print and broadcast should lead with this story each and every day, TRUMP MUST GO! We must evidence our power, we must bring this to a head, otherwise we’re playing Trump’s game, and he keeps on winning.

And if you think even if Biden gets in office it’s going to solve all our problems, wait for 2022, never mind 2024. Zuck realized mobile was key and redesigned his entire platform for handsets almost overnight. Meanwhile, the Democrats are still using faxes and BlackBerrys, or their equivalent.

Innovation. Disruption. Trump won on those theories. He disrupted politics, own it, admit it. Why can’t we do this on the left?

BECAUSE WE’RE PUSSIES!

P.S. I’m not supposed to use that word. And I know it. I could change it, but that’s what’s wrong with the left, it’s so busy trying to comfort everybody that its ultimate message has no edge and doesn’t resonate. They swear all over TV, and Arsenio Hall labeled computers porn machines over two decades ago, but those in charge keep talking about parental controls when you can Google porn and every kid knows how to get what they want online. It’s a new day. We are never going back to normalcy, our only hope is to create a new paradigm that works not only for the left, but ultimately everybody. THINK ABOUT IT!


Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/