politics

This will not end well.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/29169586

Anna Betts
Fri 25 Apr 2025 13.02 EDT

"A group of high-profile Democratic lawmakers has called on the Donald Trump administration to immediately release the Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, praised her “unwavering spirit” and warned that the White House is engaging in “repression”."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/37237712

Great powers often decline through self-inflicted blows. By starting a trade war he was unable to follow through on, Donald Trump may have just dealt a severe one to the United States.

It seems we have just crossed the Rubicon.

Summary:

President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum Thursday aimed at investigating ActBlue, the leading Democratic fundraising platform.

The memorandum directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “investigate allegations regarding the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make 'straw' or 'dummy' contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees, and to take appropriate action to enforce the law."

It specifically names ActBlue as an online fundraising platform being used "to improperly influence American elections."

A White House document accompanying the memo also suggested that ActBlue accepts donations in which donors evade federal limitations by breaking their contributions down into smaller ones and attributing them to numerous people.

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A spokesperson for ActBlue called Trump's move a "brazen attack on democracy in America."

"Today’s escalation by the White House is blatantly unlawful and needs to be seen for what it is: Donald Trump’s latest front in his campaign to stamp out all political, electoral and ideological opposition. This Administration continues to weaponize the instruments of federal power in an unprecedented assault on our democracy," the statement read, calling the administration's claims against it "baseless."

The spokesperson added that ActBlue plans to challenge the directive in court.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the executive memorandum.

ActBlue is the primary fundraising tool for Democratic candidates and, in many cases, the default donation option on Democratic campaign websites. It is widely considered one of the pillars of the party's digital ecosystem.

Oklahoma embarrassment Ryan Walters pulled a last minute switcheroo to make election denialism a state standard.

The largest “district” in the state of Oklahoma at the moment is an online virtual charter school, which has a sordid history of handing out state funds to families to purchase televisions and Christmas trees with; while considering answering a 5 question quiz the equivalent of a day of attendance.

Archived copies of the article:

• archive.today
• web.archive.org

So bad that even the Bezos-run opinion section at the Washington Post agrees.

Access options:

• gift link - registration required
• archive.today

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250424013900/https://washingtonmonthly.com/2025/04/23/democrats-need-to-make-republicans-fear-the-consequences-of-attempting-a-dictatorship/

getting your opinions entirely from stand-up comics, Bigfoot forums, and various men named Dave might not be the optimal method for acquiring knowledge

Damn, China must be hella pissed to go, "and fuck yo' pork too!"

An expert on the federal work force estimates that the speed and chaos of Musk’s cuts to the bureaucracy will cost taxpayers $135 billion this fiscal year.

Trump and Elon Musk promised taxpayers big savings, maybe even a “DOGE dividend” check in their mailboxes, when DOGE was let loose on the federal government. Now, as he prepares to step back, Musk has said without providing details that DOGE is likely to save taxpayers only $150 billion.

That is about 15% of the $1 trillion he pledged to save, less than 8% of the $2 trillion in savings he had originally promised and a fraction of the nearly $7 trillion the federal government spent in the 2024 fiscal year.

The errors and obfuscations underlying DOGE’s claims of savings are well documented. Less known are the costs Musk incurred by taking what Trump called a “hatchet” to government and the resulting firings, agency lockouts and building seizures that mostly wound up in court.

(Washington Post gift article) As the president nears 100 days in office, the survey suggests his administration’s aggressive enforcement tactics are losing public support.

President Donald Trump’s approval ratings on immigration, relatively strong in the early weeks of his second term, have dipped into negative territory, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, a sign that his administration’s hard-line and, in some cases, legally dubious enforcement tactics are losing public support.

A majority of Americans, 53 percent, disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration, with 46 percent approving, a reversal from February when half of the public voiced approval of his approach. Negative views have ticked up across partisan groups over the past two months, with 90 percent of Democrats, 56 percent of independents and 11 percent of Republicans now disapproving of the way the president has managed one of his core policy issues.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the defense secretary's hissy fit amid growing chaos.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly teed off on a high-ranking official he suspected of a leak, lewdly threatening him with a lie detector test.

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday divulged the alleged details of the embattled Hegseth’s tantrum. When word got out Hegseth was setting up a classified briefing for Elon Musk on China last month, Donald Trump got angry amid Pentagon concerns over the DOGE leader’s business connections to China, the Journal wrote.

That’s when Hegseth lost it.

“I’ll hook you up to a fucking polygraph!” Hegseth blared at Navy Admiral Christopher Grady, two people familiar with the exchange told WSJ.