Political Roundtable Part XXXIV

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Read on Twitter

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The Trump administration is enlisting national park visitors into the Republican president’s fight to rewrite American history, with a new directive that forces all park units to display signs that encourage guests to report any information that is critical of American history.

On May 20, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed all park units to display the signs to comply with President Donald Trump’s earlier executive order, which claims that U.S. history has been distorted by ideology and seeks to counter what it describes as revisionist narratives that portray the country’s past in a negative light.

Burgum’s order directs federal agencies and cultural institutions to remove content that “inappropriately disparage[s] Americans past or living,” and to instead highlight the nation’s progress and achievements. It also calls for the removal of what it terms “improper ideology” from museums, monuments and public exhibits under federal control.

Those who fail to learn from history...

Straight out of 1984. Horrifyingly evil.

Fahrenheit 451 as well.

His firemen are burning stories of none-white historical figures and of American atrocities.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

i wasn't referencing the west point speech specifically but the spate of news that's come out recently. Dubai jet. Pardons given out to people whose family attended a $1M/plate mar a lago fundraiser. Continued violations of constitutional rights on immigrants. the Harvard stuff. the Tariff stuff. Ukraine still raging. Gaza worsening. every time RFK is mentioned in the news. every time Elon/DOGE is mentioned. just everything.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/us/trump-administration-lawsuits.html

There are hundreds of active lawsuits right now. They take time to work their way through the court. Yes they all end up with the lapdogs of the stacked supreme court. Yes we are in Consitutional crisis. But people are still fighting the good fight. The hope is the pendulum isn't broken because there's going to be one hell of a backswing on the return stroke.

i'm not holding my breath since we had a number of active, and decided lawsuits pre-election, and even though the good guys won some of those lawsuits, trump's sitting in the oval office. and his nosepicking kids are openly profiting from his office, with Trump Org recently announcing multiple Saudi Arabia projects in the wake of his diplomatic visit.

couple this with the news coming out from the dem side, it's hard making out the light at the end of the tunnel

What I read and was hesitant to explicitly say since I thought
the sourcing (FB) was questionable was that many of the
West Point graduates felt conflicted about the possibility
that they would be faced with the possibility of shaking
Golfy's hand which would in the minds of some (many?)
violate West Point's Code of Honor given his criminal
record and reputation as a fabulist etc. Golfy's conduct
on the occasion was the usual incoherent mountain
of 'stuff'.

We already know the answer. There will be no consequences regarding his West Point speech/behavior.
He acts like this every day and nothing happens. I don’t see any signs of dementia. Just manifestations of his narcissistic personality.

wait, what's the issue?

Jim and others think Trump’s behavior at the West Point commencement was particularly offensive. It was, but imo he can do anything with no consequences.

I feel like what my greatmother (whose father was born into slavery) and others who endured Jim Crow must have felt like. All we can do is pray and wait on the Lord.

Sure. Call your congressman. Call your senator. But with all three branches locked up by Republican/MAGA/Trump/Saudi/Oligarch, it's pretty much out of our hands.

Evil is gonna rule unless we repent and a miracle happens.

2 Chronicles 7:14

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Chronicles%207:14&version=KJV

[pancakes3]

i'm nauseous at the thought of sitting through Elon's Ross Perot run in 2028

[AFM]

i'm nauseous at the thought of sitting through Elon's Ross Perot run in 2028

Dude was born in South Africa.

[dobrojim]

UKR is putting up a fight. Apparently they just bombed
the bridge to Crimea with a $h!t ton of underwater
explosives. This just on the heels of them taking out
a duckTon of their strategic bombers. It's not clear to
me who is more foolish, Golfy or Putin.

They also successfully attacked an artic sub base.

The Russian military infrastructure ain't what it was
and they will struggle to repair stuff, not to mention the
cost when they are broke.

[doclinkin]

No comments on the very specific Musk tweets about the vote totals in the election? Or are we still pretending there’s no way a tech billionaire could affect the outcome by messing with the data.

[dobrojim]

No one bows down to money quite like the Donald.
He's gotta be taking this hard.

Mara Gay (NYT) on msnbc is talking about how voters
in both parties are unhappy about billionaire influence.
Thank you John Roberts & Citizens United.

Tesla stock down 15% today.

[AFM]

from NYT

Stephen K. Bannon, one of Elon Musk’s most vocal critics, said he was advising the president to cancel all of the tech billionaire’s contracts and launch several investigations into the world’s richest man.

“They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status, because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately,” Mr. Bannon, the former top aide to President Trump who is now an influential ally and informal adviser, said in an interview.

Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump had a public falling out on Thursday, as each attacked the other on social media. Mr. Musk, who leads the electric car manufacturer Tesla, the rocket company SpaceX and the artificial intelligence start-up xAI, left his role last week as a special government adviser tasked with slashing federal spending.

Mr. Musk’s companies have received billions in federal contracts over the years, and in 2023, his companies were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts with 17 federal agencies.

Mr. Bannon said the Trump administration should also investigate Mr. Musk’s drug use, as reported by The New York Times, and his effort to get a classified briefing on China from the Pentagon.

Mr. Musk’s security clearance should be suspended during these investigations, he added.

Can you imagine if this happens (it won't) but, just imagine Elon being deported to SA because trump is butthurt

[closg00]

No comments on the very specific Musk tweets about the vote totals in the election? Or are we still pretending there’s no way a tech billionaire could affect the outcome by messing with the data.

Anything new? The social media battle between Trump and Musk has been epic....they are acting like schoolyard kids.

[AFM]

No comments on the very specific Musk tweets about the vote totals in the election? Or are we still pretending there’s no way a tech billionaire could affect the outcome by messing with the data.

I don't see anything to support the conspiracy you're implying. Musk did "meddle" but by literally bribing people to vote and by dumping hundreds of millions of dollars behind Trump. Using his platform to amplify pro Trump anti Biden sentiment. His retweets get tens of millions of views.

Or do you think he's going on twitter and publicly admitting to hacking the election, shooting himself in the foot with a ballistic missile...

Something about Occam's razor...

[closg00]

In light of Trump vs Elon, it would be wise to follow this stuff, there is one court case.

Read on Twitter

[dobrojim]

Just back from my post dinner walk (w/a small amt of running). Was going to ask what the over/under was on Musk being deported.

Not one word so far on UKR's new offensive.

[doclinkin]

Can you imagine if this happens (it won't) but, just imagine Elon being deported to SA because trump is butthurt

And then he just sells data and codes and secrets to Russia. And China. He doesn’t care as long as he can make it to Mars.

[doclinkin]

No comments on the very specific Musk tweets about the vote totals in the election? Or are we still pretending there’s no way a tech billionaire could affect the outcome by messing with the data.

I don't see anything to support the conspiracy you're implying. Musk did "meddle" but by literally bribing people to vote and by dumping hundreds of millions of dollars behind Trump. Using his platform to amplify pro Trump anti Biden sentiment. His retweets get tens of millions of views.

Or do you think he's going on twitter and publicly admitting to hacking the election, shooting himself in the foot with a ballistic missile...

Something about Occam's razor...

What’s the ‘or’? Multiple things can be true. They can spend the money to make it look plausible enough that it’s not investigated and also hedge their bets by making it impossible to lose.

And what in Musks behavior suggests he is moderate or reasonable in his public comportment? He doesn’t care. Find the clip of the Tucker Carlson interview where he agrees that if Trump is not elected he is screwed and probably going to jail for a long time. This is a guy who publicly admitted to taking too much ketamine. To the point where he loses bladder control.

[AFM]

Multiple things can be true but some things make logical sense and some don’t.
If liberals want to double down on election conspiracy theories that’s fine. It’s a free country, still. But do I need to point out the irony?

[doclinkin]

Multiple things can be true but some things make logical sense and some don’t.
If liberals want to double down on election conspiracy theories that’s fine. It’s a free country, still. But do I need to point out the irony?

What irony? That’s their entire playbook: to accuse the opposition of doing a thing, then try to do that exact thing. Claim weaponization of the justice dept. Then weaponize it. Claim overreach of presidential power in executive orders under Obama , then break the constitution by doing so.

The fact that they are inoculated from suspicion by smirky dismissal of ‘conspiracies’ is a side benefit. But the first departments they DOGED were offices of election security. Torpedoing information sharing and defunding cyber security agencies. Placing the entire dept on administrative leave.

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/cisa-puts-election-staff-on-administrative-leave/

Snark does not substitute for wisdom. The suspicion is worth investigation. If there’s nothing to it, then like trump the allegations will be dismissed or disproven in a court.

Me I’m 100% certain they tried to game the system in non traditional ways. Spending $ and amplifying false stories proved insufficient against Biden. The stakes were too high to rely on the American people to be convinced. I know in 10-20 years when a forensic analysis is done if this era there will be stark light shed in the shenanigans that dirty actors got away with. Weve played that game in other countries elections. Why not internally.

[AFM]

Snark doesn’t substitute for wisdom, and none of that substitutes for evidence. Or anything remotely close to it.

I suppose Elon used his GoldenEye satellite dish to hack the election. Then hired 19 year old interns to destroy the evidence.

Or maybe this very backwards country decided to elect a very backwards president, for the second time. Third time maybe. Depending on who you ask.

Sorry, but all the “we actually won!” talk stinks of sore loser behavior.

[dobrojim]

My son calls Zirin "the best"

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/john-carlos-80th-birthday/

[doclinkin]

Doubtless half the country is ignorant. Yes the Dems run weak candidates trying to straddle the line between pandering to corporate funds and appearing empathic.

And ALSO the repugnicans are diabolical and will do everything they can to win. To ignore that sets us up to see democracy eliminated by fiat instead of having to play the game for the cameras.

Evidence. Right. The links lead directly to the page of the agency that oversees electronic security of elections and say they are no longer in existence.

No point burying one’s head in the grass and saying ‘there’s no such thing as leopards, I don’t see any from here.’ I have a buddy who worked for the big old tax agency on the task force watchdogging electronic currency enforcement. He said the first thing the Department of Graft and Extortion did was not to fire the workers but to take away all of their duties. From the bosses on down. Lock them out of their computers. The more skilled the worker the quicker they got them out. Sent them home. Assign their desks to other people. Then call them back off remote duty despite having no place to work but conference rooms and storage rooms and no work to do. This is not to save $. But to bury alive anyone who can flag what they’re doing or stop them. A mass firing would make it news.

Kinda stupid to think it requires movie magic to do any of this. Just computer code, money, the will to do it and arrogance to think you’re smarter than everyone, will never get caught. Or that even if you do it won’t matter. All you need is access.

They’ve had all the access they need, without oversight, after removing all the watchdogs. They haven’t shown themselves to be morally unscrupulous? Ask yourself. What was it that Musk wanted to get his fingers in for 3 months, and then walk away. Because it had nothing to do with government efficiency. Its proven his efforts have cost us more money than it saved.

I’ve seen that same dismissive attitude from the doddering old lefties who want to pretend protest marches and strongly worded editorials will save the world by convincing people to be better. With an overweening optimism that democracy will save itself. If we just say the right magic words. And are earnest.

Cool. All that’s good. I been a protest kid since diapers. I got tear gassed as a tot near black panther protests. But I also play war games and know the opposition is always looking for the weakness in your game to exploit. If you aren’t watching the tech carefully. The tech is what will get you. Anything you can imagine, someone has the wherewithal and funding to make it happen. If not the richest tech bro in the world, then who?

Let’s not all be deliberately stupid about this. First chance we get we will need programmer samurais to find every damned back door and Trojan horse he left behind.

[doclinkin]

My son calls Zirin "the best"

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/john-carlos-80th-birthday/

Chitchatted with Dave Zirin the other day. Always a good dude. Friendly and personable. Was Odd to see how grey and wrinkly he’d gotten since I last saw him. But I guess fighting the good fight will take it out of you. And it’s been a whole pandemic and insurrection ago.