#government-shutdown-2025 — Public Fediverse posts

Only 8% of aircraft traffic controllers would be eligible for a $10K "patriot" bonus after the govetnment shutdown. This is not acceptable to ATC personnel. They also have decades old issues which are not being addressed.
#airtrafficcontrol
#aviation
#governmentshutdown2025
https://www.thetravel.com/us-air-traffic-controllers-reject-faa-10k-government-shutdown-bonus-due-to-workplace-issues/

What the eight Democrats who caved by voting to end the #GovernmentShutdown hoped for

#uspol #politics #Trump #DonaldTrump #SecondTrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #GovernmentShutdown2025 #LongestShutdownInUSHistory #ObamaCare #AffordableCareAct #Medicare #Medicaid #ACA #ACA_subsidies #MAGA #Project2025 #SNAP #snap_benefits #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgram #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgramBenefits #SNAP #BigBeautifulBill #TheBigBeautifulBill

#Democrats: "We tried." Smdh #governmentshutdown2025

It’s hunger.
It’s medical debt.
It’s a generation losing faith that the richest nation on Earth cares about its own.

📖 Read: https://medium.com/@mohameddosou/the-cost-of-empire-9ed9149ed3b5

#USPolitics #Economy #ForeignAid #SNAP #governmentshutdown2025 #GovernmentShutdown #Foodstamp #SNAPupdate

You know what? I don't think I will. I think I'll wait until the (longest in our history) government shutdown is over and then see what the plans look like.

Context: I've gotten several emails recently from healthcare.gov imploring me to sign in and look at plans. I'd rather not. I know they'll be stupid expensive since the COVID-19 subsidies are currently set to expire.

#healthcare #GovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdown2025 #TheShutdown

What is the hunger of the American people against the hunger of #DonaldTrump for power?

#uspol #politics #Trump #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #MAGA #Project2025 #GovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdown2025 #GreatGatsbyParty #GreatGatsbyHalloweenParty #TrumpHalloweenParty #TrumpGreatGatsbyParty #TrumpGatsbyParty #snap_benefits #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgram #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgramBenefits #SNAP #ACA #Medicaid #Medicare #Obamacare

#DonaldTrump broke HIS OWN RECORD of having THE LONGEST #GovernmentShutdown IN U.S. HISTORY with 36(!) days—and counting.

#uspol #politics #Trump #SecondTrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #GovernmentShutdown2025

in capitalist america, federal gov't is on break, you must buy pizza ticket from a wizard so that a poor person can get fed

but in soviet russia, the pizza doesn't taste as good

#ROC #PizzaWizard #pizza #governmentshutdown #governmentshutdown2025

A little party never killed nobody—unless you need food stamps and have health issues

#uspol #politics #Trump #DonaldTrump #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #MAGA #Project2025 #GovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdown2025 #GreatGatsbyParty #GreatGatsbyHalloweenParty #TrumpHalloweenParty #TrumpGreatGatsbyParty #TrumpGatsbyParty #snap_benefits #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgram #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgramBenefits #SNAP #ACA #Medicaid #Medicare

RE: https://mastodon.social/@hstone519/115487864170663107

#BrianTylerCohen is on point as always 👍🏻

#BrianTylerCohenNews #uspol #politics #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #Trump #DonaldTrump #snap_benefits #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgram #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgramBenefits #GovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdown2025 #MAGA #Project2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_HZqVhKxIQ

https://piped.video/watch?v=j_HZqVhKxIQ

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=j_HZqVhKxIQ

#uspol #politics #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgram #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgramBenefits #USDA #USDepartmentOfAgriculture #GovernmentShutdown2025 #USGovernmentShutdown #SNAP_Benefits #GovernmentShutdown #Project2025 #MAGA #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration

– Oregon (D)
– Pennsylvania (#JoshShapiro, D)
– Rhode Island (D)
– Vermont (R)
– Washington (D)
– Wisconsin (D)

4/4

#uspol #politics #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgram #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgramBenefits #USDA #USDepartmentOfAgriculture #GovernmentShutdown2025 #USGovernmentShutdown #SNAP_Benefits #GovernmentShutdown #Project2025 #MAGA #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration

– Nevada (R, swing state)
– New Jersey (D)
– New Mexico (D)
– New York (#EricAdams (still, but maybe soon #ZohranMamdani), D)
– North Carolina (but not South Carolina, D, swing state)

3/

#uspol #politics #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgram #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgramBenefits #USDA #USDepartmentOfAgriculture #GovernmentShutdown2025 #USGovernmentShutdown #SNAP_Benefits #GovernmentShutdown #Project2025 #MAGA #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration

– Kansas (D)
– Kentucky (D)
– Maine (D, swing state)
– Maryland (D)
– Massachusetts (D)
– Michigan (#GretchenWhitmer, D, swing state)
– Minnesota (#TimWalz, DFL, swing state)

2/

#uspol #politics #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgram #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgramBenefits #USDA #USDepartmentOfAgriculture #GovernmentShutdown2025 #USGovernmentShutdown #SNAP_Benefits #GovernmentShutdown #Project2025 #MAGA #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration

Trump got sued by 23 states over his suspension of #SNAP_Benefits during the #GovernmentShutdown:

– District of Columbia (D)
– Arizona (D, swing state)
– California (#GavinNewsom, D)
– Colorado (D, swing state)
– Connecticut (D)
– Delaware (D)
– Hawaii (D)
– Illinois (#JBPritzker, D)

1/

https://en.as.com/latest_news/these-are-the-states-suing-the-trump-administration-over-snap-the-coalition-filing-the-lawsuit-f202510-n/

#uspol #politics #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgram #SupplementalNutritionAssistanceProgramBenefits #USDA #USDepartmentOfAgriculture #GovernmentShutdown2025 #USGovernmentShutdown

Trump Cut Maga Food Stamps & They'll Be Skinny Enough For Hegseth's Military

#halloween2025 #halloween #spookyseason #govtshutdown2025 #governmentshutdown #govtshutdown #governmentshutdown2025 #politics #politicalmeme #politicsmeme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGcLbWSjPbY

https://piped.video/watch?v=aGcLbWSjPbY

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=aGcLbWSjPbY

#uspol #politics #GovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdown2025 #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #Project2025 #MAGA #Trump #DonaldTrump #NoKings #GeneralStrike2025 #GeneralStrikeUS #DavidPakman #DavidPakmanShow #BrandonJohnson

It's now the second longest #GovernmentShutdown EVER, as it has just surpassed Bill Clinton's 1995–96 shutdown. Now, the two longest American government shutdowns are Republican, namely, #DonaldTrump's.

#uspol #politics #Trump #SecondTrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #GovernmentShutdown2025

GOP Screws Their Voters Exhibit 948383639

#gop #maga #argentinabailout #governmentshutdown #governmentshutdown2025

Lazy Caturday Reads: No Kings!

It’s No Kings Day!

There will be thousands of protests in cities and towns around the country today. Here’s what’s happening.

The Guardian: Millions expected across all 50 US states to march in No Kings protests against Trump.

Americans across all 50 states will march in protests against the Trump administration on Saturday, aligning behind a message that the country is sliding into authoritarianism and there should be no kings in the US.

Millions are expected to turn out for the No Kings protests, the second iteration of a coalition that marched in June in one of the largest days of protest in US history. Events are scheduled for more than 2,700 locations, from small towns to large cities.

Donald Trump has cracked down on US cities, attempting to send in federal troops and adding more immigration agents. He is seeking to criminalize dissent, going after left-leaning organizations that he claims are supporting terrorism or political violence. Cities have largely fought back, suing to prevent national guard infusions, and residents have taken to the streets to speak out against the militarization of their communities.

Trump’s allies have sought to cast the No Kings protests as anti-American and led by antifa, the decentralized anti-fascist movement, while also claiming that the protests are prolonging the government shutdown. Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, has said he will send the state’s national guard to Austin, the state’s capital, in advance of the protests….

“What’s most important as a message for people to carry is that the president wants us to be scared, but we will not be bullied into fear and silence,” said Lisa Gilbert, the co-president of Public Citizen, one of the protest organizers. “And it’s incredibly important for people to remain peaceful, to stand proud and to say what they care about, and not to be cowed by that fear.”

The simple framing of the protests is that the US has no kings, a dig at Trump’s increasing authoritarianism. Among the themes the organizers have pointed to: Trump is using taxpayer money for power grabs, sending in federal forces to take over US cities; Trump has said he wants a third term and “is already acting like a monarch”; the Trump administration has taken its agenda too far, defying the courts and slashing services while deporting people without due process.

I expect that some Republicans will try to spark violence at these protest rallies. I hope people will remain peaceful no matter what.

CNN is posting live updates of the events, with photos: Protesters rally against the Trump administration at ‘No Kings’ events across the country.

Politico: Round 2 of ‘No Kings’ draws Republican attacks.

The nationwide “No Kings” protest movement is back for round two — and after avoiding Washington during the summer, protesters are expected to descend on the nation’s capital Saturday amid an 18-day government shutdown that has no end in sight.

The demonstrations are part of the second national day of action, organized by dozens of liberal advocacy groups to protest what they call “authoritarian power grabs” on the part of President Donald Trump.

Organizers said they expect the more than 2,600 events across all 50 states to surpass the more than 5 million people who attended the first wave of “No Kings” rallies in June. The marches come amid heightened criticism from Republicans about this weekend’s rallies.

“They might try to paint this weekend’s events as something dangerous to our society, but the reality is there is nothing unlawful or unsafe about organizing and attending peaceful protests,” said Deirdre Schifeling of the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s the most patriotic and American thing you can do, and we have a 250-year-old history of disagreeing in public.”

Amid the heightened tensions of the shutdown, Republicans have repeatedly sought to vilify the planned protests. House Speaker Mike Johnson and other leading Republicans have referred to the protests as a “hate America rally” and sought to tie it to Hamas and antifa. And Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also announced Thursday that he would be sending members of the state’s National Guard — as well as state troopers, Texas Rangers and Department of Public Safety personnel — to Austin on Saturday in response to the planned demonstrations.

In an interview with Fox News earlier this week, Trump said “some people say [Democrats] want to delay” ending the government shutdown because of the rallies.

“They’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” Trump said in the interview.

Then stop acting like one!

A related and troubling story from The New York Times: Military Plans to Fire Artillery Over California Freeway on Saturday.

The Marines plan to fire 155-millimeter artillery shells over a major freeway in Southern California on Saturday as part of a demonstration at Camp Pendleton to celebrate the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary.

The plans to fire over the freeway triggered outrage by Gov. Gavin Newsom late Friday night after his office had been informed days earlier that the celebration would not involve firing munitions across Interstate 5, a heavily traveled corridor between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Early Saturday, Mr. Newsom said the state would shut a 17-mile section of the freeway from noon to 3 p.m. Pacific time because of potential hazards posed by the military’s plans.

“This is a profoundly absurd show of force that could put Californians directly in harm’s way,” Mr. Newsom said in a statement to The New York Times.

He criticized President Trump and said the lack of coordination among state, federal and local officials was creating a dangerous situation. The artillery demonstration, to be attended by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and military officials, will take place on the same day that anti-Trump activists plan to hold “No Kings” protests across the country, including in Southern California.

“Using our military to intimidate people you disagree with isn’t strength — it’s reckless, it’s disrespectful, and it’s beneath the office the president holds,” Mr. Newsom said.

I hope no one gets hurt. As I said earlier, I would not be at all surprised to see efforts by right wingers to spark violence at the demonstrations.

In Ukraine war news, Trump met with Ukraine president Vladimir Zelensky yesterday, and he refused Zelensky’s request for Tomahawk cruise missiles, seemingly based on a phone conversation with Vladimir Putin.

The Washington Post (gift link): With a phone call, Putin appears to change Trump’s mind on Ukraine. Again.

Russian President Vladimir Putin put his relationship with President Donald Trump back on track with a phone call just ahead of Trump’s crucial Friday meeting with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, that was meant to include discussions of providing Ukraine with powerful new long range weapons.

Up until the Thursday phone call, Trump had seemed ready to boost Ukraine’s arsenal and negotiating position with Tomahawk cruise missiles. But in its wake and after the subsequent meeting with Zelensky, Trump played down all talk of the missiles and instead focused on yet another summit with Putin.

It was the latest swing in Trump’s back and forth positions on the Russia-Ukraine war that often change following contact with Putin, who has shown a great deal of skill in persuading the U.S. president to his view of the conflict.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over with without thinking about Tomahawks. I think we’re fairly close to that,” Trump said to journalists as he began his meeting with Zelensky. “We don’t want to be giving away things that we need to protect our country.”

Instead of new support for Ukraine or sanctions on Russia, Trump announced a new summit with Putin — a bonus for the Russian leader — “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.” There was no talk of Russia curtailing its ongoing bombardment of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of winter.

So far, Russia has succeeded in deterring Trump from imposing further sanctions — or sending more powerful weapons to Ukraine — by continually dangling hopes of a peace deal, while it ramps up attacks.

Use the gift link to read the rest.

NPR: After Zelenskyy meeting, Trump calls on Ukraine and Russia to ‘stop where they are’ and end the war.

President Donald Trump on Friday called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they are” and end their brutal war following a lengthy White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump’s frustration with the conflict has surfaced repeatedly in the nine months since he returned to office, but with his latest comments he edged back in the direction of pressing Ukraine to give up on retaking land it has lost to Russia.

“Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts,” Trump said in a Truth Social post not long after hosting Zelenskyy and his team for more than two hours of talks. “They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!”

Later, soon after arriving in Florida, where he’s spending the weekend, Trump urged both sides to “stop the war immediately” and implied that Moscow keep territory it’s taken from Kyiv.

“You go by the battle line wherever it is — otherwise it’s too complicated,” Trump told reporters. “You stop at the battle line and both sides should go home, go to their families, stop the killing, and that should be it.”

So Trump is hanging out at Mar-a-Lago as the government shutdown continues.

Luke Broadwater at The New York Times (gift link): The Shutdown Is Stretching On. Trump Doesn’t Seem to Mind.

President Trump has repurposed money to fund military salaries during the government shutdown. He has pledged to find ways to make sure many in law enforcement get paid. He has used the fiscal impasse to halt funding to Democratic jurisdictions, and is trying to lay off thousands of federal workers.

Government shutdowns are usually resolved only after the pain they inflict on everyday Americans forces elected officials in Washington to come to an agreement. But as the shutdown nears a fourth week, Mr. Trump’s actions have instead reduced the pressure for an immediate resolution and pushed his political opponents to further dig in.

“We’re not going to bend,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said on Friday, the 17th day of the shutdown. “We’re not going to break.” He added: “All of these efforts to try to intimidate Democratic members of the House and the Senate are not going to work.”

Unlike past presidents, Mr. Trump appears to feel little urgency to strike a deal to reopen the government. Instead, he has used the shutdown, which began Oct. 1, as an opportunity to further remake the federal bureaucracy and jettison programs he does not like, seizing on unorthodox budgetary maneuvers that some have called illegal.

Administration officials appear undaunted by the criticism, even after a federal judge temporarily blocked their efforts to conduct mass firings. On Friday, some agencies indicated in court filings that they might proceed with layoffs that officials suggested were not covered by the order.

Russell T. Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget and the architect of the effort to remake the government, has pledged to “stay on offense” throughout the shutdown.

“He now has this cover for doing what at least Russ Vought and that coalition has wanted to do all along,” Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University, said of Mr. Trump.

Trump claims to be working on making health care more affordable.

Asked in the Oval Office this week whether he would use his deal-making skills to bring the shutdown to an end, Mr. Trump said that he was instead working to lower health care costs without the help of Congress, by negotiating agreements directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower prescription costs.

“We have to take care of our health care,” he said.

White House officials say that the administration’s moves are meant to send the message that it is Mr. Trump, not congressional Democrats, who is helping Americans when government funding has lapsed.

“Any negative impacts felt by the American people have purely been caused by the Democrats,” said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman.

Use the gift link to read more if you’re interested. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump lets the shutdown go on until next year and beyond. We’ll see if the Republicans fight back after hearing from their constituents.

Tom Latchem at The Daily Beast: Public Health Professor Warns Trump’s ‘Eugenics’ Policy Echoes Nazism.

An eminent ER doctor and health policy expert has warned that President Donald Trump’s government shutdown talk about “deserving” patients mirrors a “eugenics” policy adopted by the Nazis.

The shutdown is about to enter its fourth week after Congress failed to pass full-year funding. The White House and Speaker Mike Johnson are demanding spending cuts and immigration concessions, while Senate Democrats insist on extending ACA subsidies and undoing the summer healthcare cuts before reopening agencies.

Dr. Craig Spencer, who lectures on the history of health and eugenics at Brown University and is one of the country’s most influential clinician voices on emergency care, said the administration’s framing echoes America’s 1920s policy of sorting people by “worthiness… cloaked in what’s ‘acceptable’ by the state.

Spencer warns that President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are pursuing eugenics with their health policies.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

“It’s not a stretch to say this administration is touting a eugenics agenda, which was perfected by the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s and later adopted by the Nazis. People don’t want to call it that because it feels unsayable. But it’s real,” Spencer told the Daily Beast.

In 1920s America, eugenics was a mainstream policy movement that used bogus “race science” to justify restrictive immigration laws and state-mandated sterilization of people labeled “unfit.”

The language of Trump’s government, Spencer said, is “almost the same on immigration, access to healthcare, and who deserves the fruits of government,” and its “logical conclusion—while they won’t say it out loud—is letting certain people die.”

“I’ve been reluctant to compare what’s happening now to the eugenics movement 100 years ago, but as every new day goes by I’m less reluctant,” he added.]

There’s more at the link.

Meanwhile, some people will soon learn what their health insurance is going to cost them next year and what will happen to their food stamp benefits.

The New York Times: Higher Obamacare Prices Become Public in a Dozen States.

Health insurance prices for next year under the Affordable Care Act are now available in about a dozen states, giving Americans their first look at the sharp increases many will pay for coverage if Congress does not extend subsidies that have made some plans more affordable.

The annual enrollment period for Obamacare is expected to begin Nov. 1, but the costs for some Americans are becoming publicly available piecemeal through some state marketplaces. The federal website healthcare.gov, which includes 28 other state marketplaces, is slated to post prices before the end of October.

People shopping for coverage can now preview the costs they face from potentially expiring subsidies and sharply rising premiums in many markets, including California, New York, Nevada, Maryland and Idaho. Some consumers also found out that they would have fewer choices because their insurers dropped out of some markets for 2026.

Based on the newly posted information, a family of four making $130,000 in Maine would face an increase of $16,100 in annual premiums next year because they would no longer qualify for more generous subsidies, said Gideon Lukens, a health policy researcher for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which supports extending the subsidies.

Older people will also see sharp increases, according to his calculations. In Kentucky, a 60-year-old couple making $85,000 per year could face an increase of $23,700 in annual premiums. In Nevada, a similar couple could pay an additional $18,100 in annual premiums, while in Minnesota, the cost might be $15,500 more and, in Maryland, an additional $13,700.

The government shutdown has already amplified the potential for higher health insurance costs for millions of Americans if the subsidies are not continued. Democrats have demanded that Republicans extend the more generous subsidies in any deal to reopen the federal government, which has been closed for 17 days over a spending impasse.

The New York Times: Food Stamp Benefits May Run Out in November, Officials Warn.

If the government shutdown continues into November, about 42 million low-income people could face severe disruptions to their food stamp benefits, the Agriculture Department warned in a letter to state agencies last week, saying that the federal government would have “insufficient funds.”

More than a dozen states have since warned that food stamp recipients may experience significant delays in obtaining benefits next month, see their aid reduced or not receive assistance at all.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, said that the Agriculture Department’s Food and Nutrition Service, which operates the food stamp program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, was exploring contingency plans. But it directed state agencies to pause sending vendors the electronic files typically used to load the benefits for November.

“We’re going to run out of money in two weeks,” Brooke L. Rollins, the agriculture secretary, told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “So you’re talking about millions and millions of vulnerable families, of hungry families that are not going to have access to these programs because of this shutdown.”

In a statement, a White House official said that Democrats “chose to shut down the government knowing that programs like SNAP would soon run out of funds.”

Such a disruption would be the first in recent decades. Benefits have remained available through every shutdown in the last 20 years, said Carolyn Vega, the associate director of policy analysis for Share Our Strength, a nonprofit that supports antipoverty programs.

“We are in uncharted territory,” she said.

I’ll end with this enraging story, again from The New York Times: Coast Guard Buys Two Private Jets for Noem, Costing $172 Million.

The Department of Homeland Security has purchased two Gulfstream private jets for Kristi Noem, the secretary, and other top department officials at a cost of $172 million, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The jets, which a department official said were needed for safety, are the latest expenditures on behalf of Ms. Noem to draw scrutiny from Democrats and other critics who have noted her lavish spending on living and other expenses during her time in public life.

The Coast Guard put in its budget earlier this year a request to purchase a new long-range Gulfstream V jet, estimated to cost $50 million, to replace an aging one used by Ms. Noem.

“The avionics are increasingly obsolete, the communications are increasingly unreliable and it’s in need of recapitalization, like much of the rest of the fleet,” Kevin Lunday, the acting commandant of the Coast Guard, told members of Congress at a hearing in May.

He said a new aircraft was necessary to provide agency leaders with “secure, reliable, on-demand communications and movement to go forward, visit our operating forces, conducting the missions and then come back here to Washington and make sure we can work together to get them what they need.”

Documents that were posted to a public government procurement website and reviewed by The Times show that the department has since signed a contract with Gulfstream to buy not one but two “used” G700 jets, touted by the company as having the “most spacious cabin in the industry.” The total contract value is listed as a little over $172 million.

It was not immediately clear where the funding for the jets came from.

Only the best for the puppy killer.

#DonaldTrump #foodStamps #governmentShutdown2025 #healthCareCosts #KristyNoem #NoKingsDayProtests #ObamacarePrices #privatePlanes #TomahawkCruiseMissiles #TrumpSEugenicsPolicy #UkraineWar #VladimirPutin #VladimirZelensky

Senator #ElizabethWarren on #DonaldTrump's #ArgentinaBailout on the #SenateBankingHousingAndUrbanAffairsCommittee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNAVtJ5PDAM

https://piped.video/watch?v=BNAVtJ5PDAM

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=BNAVtJ5PDAM

#uspol #politics #Trump #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #JavierMilei #GovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdown2025 #Project2025 #MAGA #TrumpTariffs #TradeWar2025 #TACOTrump #FarmingCrisis2025

"paid protesters"—well, #MAGA Republicans/ #TrumpAdministration, at least one side is paid

#uspol #politics #NoKings #NoKingsProtest #Project2025 #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #GovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdown2025 #ACA #AffordableCareAct #Medicare #Medicaid #ObamaCare #BBB #TBBB #OBBB #TOBBB #BigBeautifulBill #BigBeautifulBillAct #OneBigBeautifulBill #OneBigBeautifulBillAct #TheBigBeautifulBill #TheOneBigBeautifulBill #TheOneBigBeautifulBillAct #WeAreAllGoingToDieAct

Happy #NoKingsDay! 💪🏻

#uspol #politics #NoKings #NoKingsProtest #Project2025 #MAGA #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #GovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdown2025 #ACA #AffordableCareAct #Medicare #Medicaid #ObamaCare #BBB #TBBB #OBBB #TOBBB #BigBeautifulBill #BigBeautifulBillAct #OneBigBeautifulBill #OneBigBeautifulBillAct #TheBigBeautifulBill #TheOneBigBeautifulBill #TheOneBigBeautifulBillAct #WeAreAllGoingToDieAct #BigUglyBill #BigBeautifulBetrayal

#DonaldTrump has laid off HALF of the employees of the #DepartmentOfEducation in March this year. Though blocked by courts, it eventually was allowed by the #SupremeCourt.

50 % of employees was the maximum possible amount, he could lay off without congress. Now, during the #GovernmentShutdown, he laid off another 466 department employees.

#uspol #politics #Trump #TrumpAdministration #Project2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #LindaMcMahon #DOGE #GovernmentShutdown2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLFl_-r8WSk

https://piped.video/watch?v=PLFl_-r8WSk

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=PLFl_-r8WSk

#uspol #politics #Trump #DonaldTrump #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #Project2025 #MAGA #TrumpTariffs #TradeWar2025 #TACOTrump #Trumpflation #JenPsaki #MSNBC #MSNBCTheBriefing #ArgentinaBailout #AmyKlobuchar #GovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdown2025 #ACA #AffordableCareAct #Medicare #Medicaid #ObamaCare #BigBeautifulBill #TheBigBeautifulBill #BigBeautifulBillAct

During the interview, #MarjorieTaylorGreene claimed to get an unusually high amount of death threads as a representative, which she attributes to "foreign governments". If that is true and if #MTG was killed, Republicans would benefit from that as there would one signature less on the #DischargePetition. And that's a horrifying possibility.

#uspol #politics #GovernmentShutdown #GovernmentShutdown2025 #Project2025 #MAGA #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration

What keeps the #HouseOversightCommittee (aside from the #GovernmentShutdown) to subpoena #DonaldTrump's and #PamBondi's #TruthSocial DMs to be archived by the #NationAlarchives?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfcIh7RFRk0

https://piped.video/watch?v=wfcIh7RFRk0

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=wfcIh7RFRk0

#GovernmentShutdown2025 #uspol #politics #VindictiveProsecution #BadFaithProsecution #JamesComeyIndictment #LetitiaJamesIndictment #JamesComey #LetitiaJames #Trump #DepartmentOfJustice #PresidentialRecordsAct

Lazy Caturday Reads

Good Day!!

portrait by Gurutze Ramos

It’s finally starting to feel like Autumn here. Leaves are starting to change color and temperatures are dropping into the 50s and 60s. We’re expecting a Nor’easter over the long weekend, with rain, high winds, and coastal flooding.

I’m still having trouble dealing with the news; it has just gotten to be too painful watching Trump and his thugs destroy my country. But the horror continues, whether I’m paying attention or not. Of course, the top story is the effects of the government shutdown.

The promised layoffs and firings of government workers have begun.

This morning’s Boston Globe has a story on the effects here in the Boston area: Local federal workers say they’ve never seen a shutdown like this.

Beth Willwerth, a federal employee at the Andover IRS office, learned she had been furloughed 15 minutes before she spoke to the Globe on Friday.

Willwerth, who is also the chapter president of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 68,has been with the IRS since 2009. This is her fourth shutdown.

“This is far different than anything I have ever seen,” she said. “I have never seen anything like this in my 16 years here. I have never hugged so many people coming into my office crying.”

As the government shutdown entered its 11th day, with no sign of a deal in sight, government workers are seeing their paychecks shrink or cut entirely, learning they are newly furloughed, or facing layoffs, as President Trump had promised. They’re dipping into savings and taking side hustles to make ends meet. Federal workers tell the Globe it’s more than just about finances. They’ve never seen a shutdown this chaotic, or this seemingly vindictive.

Many are continuously, unpleasantly surprised by breaking developments, particularly news of an increasing number of federal workers getting fired. By Friday afternoon, federal health, homeland security, education, energy, and Treasury Department employees had been laid off.

Mere hours later, 98 field staff working at the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity offices at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development across the nation had been notified they’d be laid off effective Dec. 9, a representative from local 3258 of the American Federation of Government Employees told the Globe. The office helps enforce the Fair Housing Act by investigating housing discrimination complaints and mediating cases.

The number of laid-off field staff includes all 11 field staff from the Boston Regional HUD Office.

CNN: Trump administration lays off thousands of federal workers during government shutdown.

More than 4,000 federal employees receivedlayoff notices Friday as part of the Trump administration’s broad effort to reshape the government while it remains shutdown, according to a court filing Friday.

The filing provides greater insight into an announcement from President Donald Trump’s budget chief earlier in the day that the administration had begun government-wide reductions in force that had been anticipated since federal funding lapsed on October 1.

“The RIFs have begun,” Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought posted on X, without elaborating on how many federal workers had received RIF – or reduction in force – notices.

As of Friday evening, RIF notices had gone out to employees at the departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security and Treasury, according to department spokespeople, union representatives and sources directly impacted.

Treasury and HHS saw the highest number of reductions, with more than 1,000 workers laid off at each department, according to the filing in a lawsuit brought by two federal employee unions seeking to stop the layoffs.

Also, the US Patent and Trademark Office, which is part of the Commerce Department, issued lapse-related RIF notices to employees last week, according to the filing. And the Environmental Protection Agency sent “intent to RIF” notices to 20 to 30 employees, though it hasn’t made a final decision on whether or when it would lay off those workers.

Other agencies are “actively considering” whether to conduct additional RIFs related to the shutdown, the filing said.

Trump said late Friday afternoon that he plans to fire “a lot” of federal workers in retaliation for the government shutdown, vowing to target those deemed to be aligned with the Democratic Party.

Read more at CNN.

The New York Times: Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials.

Dozens of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — including “disease detectives,” high-ranking scientists and the entire Washington office — were notified late Friday that they were losing their jobs as part of the Trump administration’s latest round of federal layoffs.

It was unclear on Friday how many C.D.C. workers were affected. But it was the latest blow to an agency that has been wracked by mass resignations, a shooting at its Atlanta headquarters in August and the firing of its director under pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Portrait by Naomi Jenkin

Layoff notices landed in the email inboxes of C.D.C. employees shortly before 9 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, notifying employees that their duties had been deemed unnecessary or “virtually identical” to those being performed elsewhere in the agency. Scientists, including leaders, in offices addressing respiratory diseases, chronic diseases, injury prevention and global health were among those affected.

The staff of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the journal that reports on health trends and emerging infectious threats, was also laid off. The publication’s storied history includes a June 1981 report that five previously healthy gay men were treated for an unusual pneumonia — the first hint of the AIDS epidemic.

Roughly 70 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers — the so-called “disease detectives” who respond to outbreaks around the globe — received layoff notices, according to a person familiar with them. The service was spared during an earlier round of layoffs in February.

An officer at an American Federation of Government Employees local union representing C.D.C. employees said that the agency’s human resources staff, which had been furloughed as part of the government shutdown, had been called back to work to send out layoff notices to their colleagues.

Catie Edmonson at The New York Times (gift link): Trump’s Shutdown Layoffs Deepen Impasse, Angering Democrats.

In almost any other government shutdown, Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both of Virginia, would probably top the list of Democrats most likely to try to find a quick off ramp.

They represent the state with the second-highest concentration of federal employees in the nation. Both have historically been eager to join the so-called bipartisan gangs of senators who try to negotiate their way through partisan gridlock.

Instead, the two have appeared remarkably dug in, even as President Trump and his top lieutenants have threatened to use the shutdown to drastically accelerate their campaign to reduce the size of the government. They say they are channeling federal workers who are furious at the White House’s ongoing assault on the bureaucracy and are urging their representatives in Congress to keep up the fight.

“I’ve heard that sentiment more loudly than I thought, because in Virginia, we have an awful lot at stake,” Mr. Kaine said in a recent interview. “We suffer more in a shutdown scenario than anybody else. But I think they feel like, ‘You’re threatening to hurt us. You’ve been hurting us since Jan. 20.’ In some ways, it’s kind of not a credible threat, because you’ll do it anyway, whatever happens.”

The dynamic has fueled Democrats’ resolve not to back down as the shutdown impasse drags into its second week. Democrats representing large populations of federal workers have for months heard from livid employees about the Department of Government Efficiency emails they received asking them to provide a list of accomplishments; the chaos and upheaval at their agencies; and the fears of retaliation.

A bit more:

Mr. Trump has stepped up the threats in recent days, saying that he would deny furloughed workers back pay earned during the shutdown, and promising that he would seize the opportunity to slash programs and projects Democrats care about.

So far that has only fueled Democrats’ outrage, strengthening their determination to continue demanding health care concessions as a condition of any deal to fund the government. But that determination will be tested in the days ahead.

Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, announced on Friday that the administration was beginning another round of federal worker layoffs, fulfilling Mr. Trump’s threats. And many federal employees, including military personnel, are set to miss their first paycheck next week.

“To their credit, the White House has now for 10 days laid off doing anything in hopes that enough Senate Democrats would come to their senses and do the right thing and fund the government,” Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, said at a news conference on Friday, minutes before Mr. Vought’s announcement. “But now where we’re getting to is where people are going to start missing paychecks. This gets real.”

Democrats on Friday gave few indications that they would be swayed.

“This latest round of federal firings is not an unfortunate byproduct of the government shutdown, but a deliberate choice,” Mr. Warner wrote on social media. “Republicans are intentionally holding federal workers hostage to force through their agenda driving up health care costs for millions.”

Good! I hope the Democrats stay angry.

On the shutdown fight:

Republicans are beginning to realize that they are losing the shutdown PR war.

Nathaniel Weixel at The Hill: Republicans, playing defense on health care, uncertain of path forward.

Republicans are on the defensive as Democrats have successfully made the shutdown fight about health care.

Most Republicans said they don’t want to see insurance premiums spike, but neither are they willing to openly support the extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits Democrats are asking for.

Portrait by Rachel Stibbling

While the GOP has remained united in refusing to even entertain the idea of an extension in the context of ending the shutdown, Republicans don’t appear to have an alternate plan for what happens next….

Democrats are feeling increasingly emboldened about their position and have made it clear they do not intend to back off their health care funding demands. If Congress doesn’t act in the next three weeks, Americans across the country will see major increases in their insurance premiums when open enrollment begins in November.

While Republicans insist that Democrats vote to fund the government before any talks on health care begin, GOP leaders have been forced to engage on an issue that’s long been a political vulnerability for the party.

“They’re trying to make this about health care. It’s not. It’s about keeping Congress operating so we can get to health care. We always were going to. They’re lying to you,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters Thursday. “The health care issues were always going to be something discussed and deliberated and contemplated and debated in October and November.”

Congress has extended the enhanced subsidies twice, and Democrats insist they need to do so again, citing estimates that premiums for tens of millions of people will more than double next year.

I remember when pundits were claiming that health care was too boring an issue to get serious traction. It looks like they were wrong.

Mike Johnson is keeping the House shut down for the third week. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s afraid of a vote on releasing the Epstein files or that some of his members may want to work with Democrats to end the government shutdown. And now he’s attacking the upcoming No Kings demonstrations.

Politico: Johnson describes planned No Kings rally as ‘hate America,’ ‘pro-Hamas’ gathering.

Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday slammed the No Kings protest march scheduled to take place at the National Mall next week, describing the planned protest as the “hate America rally” that would draw “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.” His characterizations, however, drew condemnation from some Democrats who defended the protest movement, whose first big demonstration was overwhelmingly peaceful.

“They’re all coming out,” Johnson said Friday in an interview on Fox News. “Some of the House Democrats are selling t-shirts for the event. And it’s being told to us that they won’t be able to reopen the government until after that rally because they can’t face their rabid base.”

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), another senior House Republican, also criticized the planned demonstration and blamed it for prolonging the shutdown. Telling reporters Democrats had caved to the “terrorist wing of their party,” Emmer alluded to a “hate America rally in D.C. next week.”

Painting by Lissette Aguirre Buendia

The No Kings movement first sprang up as counter-programming to a military parade spearheaded by the White House in June, leading to the largest coordinated demonstration against Trump to date since his return to the Oval Office. The protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, and organizers at the time said they specifically did not plan an event in Washington to avoid a conflict.

The coast-to-coast protests went on almost entirely without incident, with one notable act of violence — when rally “peacekeepers” in Salt Lake City shot and killed a bystander because they believed another man with a gun was about to fire on the crowd.

The organizers of the upcoming rally largely brushed off House GOP leaders’ characterization. In a joint, unsigned statement, which they said they issued “after a few moments of laughter,” they pressured Johnson over the government shutdown.

“Speaker Johnson is running out of excuses for keeping the government shut down,” the No Kings coalition wrote. “Instead of reopening the government, preserving affordable healthcare, or lowering costs for working families, he’s attacking millions of Americans who are peacefully coming together to say that America belongs to its people, not to kings.”

Non-shutdown news and comment:

Trump and his puppet at the Department of Defense are allowing a foreign country to have a military base in the United States. WTF?!

CBS News: Hegseth announces Qatar will build air force facility at U.S. base in Idaho.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday announced a finalized agreement that will allow the Qatari Emiri Air Force to build a facility at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.

The agreement, which Hegseth announced alongside Qatari Minister of Defense Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the Pentagon, will allow Qatari pilots to receive training alongside U.S. soldiers. There are no foreign military bases in the U.S., but some foreign militaries do maintain a presence for training. The Singaporean Air Force also has a presence at the Mountain Home base.

Hegseth said he is “proud that today we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force Facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho.”

“The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15’s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability, it’s just another example of our partnership,” Hegseth said. “And I hope you know, your excellency, that you can count on us.”

Later Friday, Hegseth clarified that Qatar would not have its own base in the U.S., writing on X: “The U.S. military has a long-standing partnership w/ Qatar, including today’s announced cooperation w/ F-15QA aircraft. However, to be clear, Qatar will not have their own base in the United States-nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.”

Whatever. It’s creepy, IMO.

The move is another demonstration of the Trump administration’s increasingly close relationship with Qatar.

President Trump signed an executive order last month “assuring the security of the state of Qatar,” following Israel’s decision to carry out a military strike in Qatar’s capital city of Doha, where the vast majority of Qataris live. “The United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States,” the executive order reads.

I guess that’s what you get when you bribe the “president” with a free luxury plane and help him build a golf course in your country.

Here’s another strange story from The Daily Beast: Melania Has Been Secretly Working With Putin for Months.

First Lady Melania Trump made a rare formal announcement from the White House on Friday where she revealed that she has been engaged in secret talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The first lady said that due to ongoing efforts eight children separated during the war in Ukraine have now been reunited with their families, and she said the work continues.

Cornilis Visscher, The Large Cat, etching-and-engraving-circa-1657-145×188-mm-5_651360851dc7f-thumb-36144200_1695768710Cornelis-Visscher, The

Trump said that her dialogue with Putin has been ongoing since she sent him a letter in August. The president first revealed the letter she had written to the Russian leader on Truth Social, which was hand-delivered to Putin during his summit with Trump in Alaska.

“Since President Putin received my letter last August, he responded in writing, signaling a willingness to engage with me directly, and outlining details regarding the Ukrainian children residing in Russia,” the first lady said Friday.

“Since then, President Putin and I have had an open channel of communications regarding the welfare of these children,” she continued….

The first lady, who spends most of her time in New York, made her roughly five-minute speech from a podium at the White House before turning around and exiting the room without taking any questions.

Melania has been a quiet adviser to her husband on the war in Ukraine since he took office. The president has said on numerous occasions that the first lady has been quick to point out to her husband that Putin had not been negotiating with him in good faith as the war dragged on.

I hope this does some good, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

The New York Times has an interesting story critical of the Supreme Court by Mattathias Schwartz and Zach Montague: Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders.

More than three dozen federal judges have told The New York Times that the Supreme Court’s flurry of brief, opaque emergency orders in cases related to the Trump administration have left them confused about how to proceed in those matters and are hurting the judiciary’s image with the public.

At issue are the quick-turn orders the Supreme Court has issued dictating whether Trump administration policies should be left in place while they are litigated through the lower courts. That emergency docket, a growing part of the Supreme Court’s work in recent years, has taken on greater importance amid the flood of litigation challenging President Trump’s efforts to expand executive power.

While the orders are technically temporary, they have had broad practical affects, allowing the administration to deport tens of thousands of people, discharge transgender military service members, fire thousands of government workers and slash federal spending.

The striking and highly unusual critique of the nation’s highest court from lower court judges reveals the degree to which litigation over Mr. Trump’s agenda has created strains in the federal judicial system.

White Angora Cat by Jean-Jacques Bachelier, 1761

Sixty-five judges responded to a Times questionnaire sent to hundreds of federal judges across the country. Of those, 47 said the Supreme Court had been mishandling its emergency docket since Mr. Trump returned to office.

The judges responded to the questionnaire and spoke in interviews on the condition of anonymity so they could share their views candidly, as lower court judges are governed by a complex set of rules that include limitations on their public statements.

Of the judges who responded, 28 were nominated by Republican presidents, including 10 by Mr. Trump; 37 were nominated by Democrats. While those nominated by Democrats were more critical of the Supreme Court, judges nominated by presidents of both parties expressed concerns.

In interviews, federal judges called the Supreme Court’s emergency orders “mystical,” “overly blunt,” “incredibly demoralizing and troubling” and “a slap in the face to the district courts.” One judge compared their district’s current relationship with the Supreme Court to “a war zone.” Another said the courts were in the midst of a “judicial crisis.”

Trump is threatening China with insane tariffs again. Politico: Trump wanted a trade deal. Xi opened a new front instead.

Beijing shattered a fragile trade truce with Washington this week, announcing sweeping restrictions on exports that contain even trace amounts of Chinese rare earth.

An irate President Donald Trump is threatening to retaliate with 100 percent tariffs and new restrictions on exports of critical software — and said there’s “no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this month.

The rupture marks the sharpest escalation in tensions between Washington and Beijing since the two countries slapped triple-digit tariffs on each other this spring and threatens to derail months of quiet efforts to stabilize the relationship. It also underscores how delicate the two sides’ uneasy economic peace has been and raises fresh doubts about whether Trump, operating with a hollowed-out national security team and a fragmented China strategy, is prepared for Beijing’s latest power play.

It’s also the clearest test yet of Trump’s ability to translate his transactional approach to trade into a coherent China strategy — one that can withstand Beijing’s deliberate and long-term economic warfare. Most of China’s new restrictions will take effect Dec. 1, while the U.S.’s retaliatory measures are set to kick in Nov. 1.

“China’s actions are being viewed by the administration as a major escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions,” said Everett Eissenstat, deputy assistant to the president for international economic affairs and deputy director of the White House’s National Economic Council during Trump’s first term. “China is flexing its power and trying to show the world that it has the ability to act as a major choke point for global trade.”

China’s Ministry of Commerce on Thursday unveiled its most expansive rare earth export controls to date, allowing Beijing not only to restrict shipments of raw materials and magnets — as it has in the past — but also any devices that incorporate those elements. Because Chinese rare earths are embedded in everything from iPhones and electric vehicle motors to fighter-jet sensors, the rules effectively give Beijing potential veto power over vast swaths of global manufacturing.

One more from The Washington Post on Trump’s architectural plans: Trump eyes a triumphal arch to mark America’s 250th anniversary.

Across from the Lincoln Memorial, barely inside the boundaries of Washington, sits a traffic roundabout known as Memorial Circle — familiar to commuters primarily as a major entryway to the city from Virginia.

But if President Donald Trump and his advisers have their way, the small patch of federal land will soon host a new monument — a triumphal arch to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary next year, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

Portrait by Diego Fernández

Justin Shubow, president of the National Civic Art Society, who has advised the Trump administration on its architectural plans, presented the idea to Trump and other officials earlier this year, and they were enthusiastic about the concept, the people said.

Photos of a model for the proposed arch in the Oval Office emerged this week, with Trump displaying it to Canadian officials on Tuesday. A mock-up again appeared on Trump’s desk on Thursday, according to photos by Agence-France Presse….

The arch initially was intended to be temporary and require expedited construction to coincide with next year’s anniversary, the people said. Now White House officials are considering plans for a permanent arch, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.

Nicolas Charbonneau, a D.C.-based architect at the firm Harrison Design, last month shared images of the planned arch on social media, writing that it represented a “closer study of what the #America250 arch could be.”

A bit more:

Construction of a triumphal arch to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, which was first publicly suggested by art critic Catesby Leigh in an article last year, would represent the president’s most audacious effort to remake the landscape of D.C.

Trump has installed a stone patio in the White House Rose Garden, begun construction on a vast, new White House ballroom that would significantly change the footprint of the historic mansion, and pledged to clean up parks and streets across the nation’s capital. The president in August also signed an executive order titled “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again,” which called for new federal buildings to be constructed in a “classical and traditional” style, in the spirit of the Capitol building or the White House, rather than the brutalist or modern styles that became widely used over the past half century.

“We want to see beautiful buildings,” Trump said in the Oval Office last month, touting his own expertise as a real estate tycoon. Administration officials have highlighted buildings such as the headquarters of the Departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development as eyesores that they would prefer to replace….

Triumphal arches were widely used by the Romans to commemorate victories. Those Roman arches inspired more recent structures in Europe, most notably the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which was constructed in the first part of the 19th century. The models displayed in the Oval Office closely resemble those structures, inspiring some online commentators to joke that the new monument would be “the Arc de Trump.”

I guess the Trump arch will “celebrate” his planned victory over American democracy after 250 years?

That’s it for me today. Take care everyone!

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