Arrrggghhh— feeling speechless. Nothing more to be added. You have said it all, Thom. 😱🙏🏻 McCarthyism was bad but nothing compared to this shit. MJT’s “town hall” last night was an early indication of what the future could look like. Her goons even broke a guy’s wrist for asking a non-vetted question that had not been presubmitted. Then there were the others who were repeatedly tazed while being held down to the floor. Good grief.
"Labor Leaders Fear Elon Musk and DOGE Could Gain Access to Whistleblower Files
What Happened: The AFL-CIO and former OSHA officials warn that Musk’s operatives are embedded at the Department of Labor, and may gain access to sensitive whistleblower files. Musk's companies—Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company—have over 50 active OSHA investigations for workplace injuries and safety violations.
"Why It Matters: Musk’s operatives inside federal agencies pose a dangerous conflict of interest—especially as whistleblowers from Musk-linked and Trump-aligned companies seek protection. Their confidential files could be weaponized to punish them, turning oversight into retaliation".
Source: WIRED
IMHO worse at another agency where I once worked -- SSA.
" at the direction of DOGE, has begun knowingly adding living people to SSA’s death records — the Death Master File (DMF) — by assigning them false “dates of death” to “terminat[e]” their “financial lives.”
"Being wrongfully identified as dead in Social Security records “can lead to benefit termination … and severe financial hardship and distress to affected individuals.” Because the DMF is leveraged by many federal and state agencies to determine eligibility — and by the Treasury Department’s government-wide “Do Not Pay” system to prevent improper payments — false inclusion of a death date can lead to an individual losing their health coverage through Medicare, having their tax return delayed, or having their Social Security or other eligible benefit payments cancelled, among other harms.
"The DMF is also used by some private-sector companies with a legitimate business or anti-fraud need for the data — including financial institutions, credit agencies, insurance companies, and pension administrators. As a result, being inappropriately listed as dead can result in severe financial consequences like disruption in bank account access, credit cards being cancelled, pension benefits being paused, insurance coverage being cancelled or claims being denied, rejected employment applications, or denial of credit.
"The first group of people to be wrongfully and knowingly declared dead by the Trump Administration are reportedly being targeted in an immigration enforcement effort focused, at least in part, on people who were lawfully present and eligible to work until the Trump Administration abruptly terminated their lawful status. These individuals would have been correctly issued Social Security numbers (SSNs) upon obtaining their lawful immigration statuses, and any change in those statuses should not limit their access to their own financial resources in U.S. banks."
My mother, my grandmother, a cousin and who knows who else all died in New Jersey, yet when I researched them there names are not on the SSA death list.
Have you run across that, is it NJ's policy to keep people "alive" for the purpose of drawing benefits. I wonder if the nursing home in which she died is still getting payments from SSA
The super computers and AI can do more information gathering and storing of files than millions of spies and infiltrators ever could. This ain't the 60's.
The sadists and psychopaths sat in the Oval and laughed about Abrego-Garcia and the others that they don't want to get out of the torture prison. Bukele brags he has never let anyone out of there. Trump loves him. Dictators of a feather.......
Every new thing is a test to see how far they can go. They are trying to turn our country into a prison.
Be Harvard and tell them to shove it. Be Bernie and AOC telling everyone they can about these criminals. Be brave like Berulis and the whistleblowers. Be bold like the Dems planning a CODEL to El Salvador. Do what you can, friends. It adds up--- see you in the streets!
I heard that, Bukele's prison has no exit. You enter but leave on a gurney. I wonder what they do with the corpse, bury it, must be one hell of a graveyard, cremate it, it takes 2to 3 hrs to cremate one body, and Cremation typically requires a significant amount of fuel, usually in the form of natural gas, to achieve the necessary temperatures and burn time. A typical cremation consumes around 25 therms of energy, which is roughly equivalent to driving 310 miles by car. This equates to approximately 28 gallons of gasoline or 110 liters of fuel.
Still no mention of the extradition treaties between the US and El Salvador.
In addition to a request for mandamus for extradition, if I were the ACLU, I'd hire a civil rights lawyer in El Salvador.
From AI: In El Salvador, habeas corpus is a legal remedy to ensure personal freedom and prevent illegal detention. The Supreme Court of Justice, and in some cases the Appellate Court, are responsible for protecting constitutional rights, including habeas corpus. The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court has jurisdiction over habeas corpus claims.
Something tells me the law in El Salvador is what Bukele says it is, just as this country is becoming.
What pisses me off is that the media is not exposing the charade for what it is.
Trump is paying Bukele to imprison these people. He writes the check, all he has to do is ask Bukele to return him, put him on an airplane. Bukele makes pretense that he can't do that. "what do you want me to do, smuggle him in" he said.
Heritage and all the other right-wing operatives have laid the groundwork for this to happen over the last half-century. But it is the paranoid delusions and insane needs and ambitions of a single person which has actually activated the mechanisms and applied the necessary power and influence to unleash the malcontents, extremists, and fascist fanatics. Until that pernicious person is removed from power, attempts to control the damage will be quite useless. An impeachment conviction must be effectuated, one way or the other, sooner rather than later.
I'm working on a Substack essay about how Hitler killed and put many conservatives from the party that gave him power in concentration camps, starting with "The Night of the Long Knives."
The Republicans think they're on the right side, but nobody is on the right side of a paranoid dictator. Pol Pot killed his closest allies.
Congress better do its job and do it soon. Impeach now!
Bravo. Somehow the republicans and billionaires who have deluded themselves into thinking they will be okay and get richer need to get that message. Destruction, Hate, Greed, and Power are trump's middle names. Everyone eventually falls under suspicion and becomes a dangerous enemy for the true paranoid. Check the DSM V for the exact criteria listed for paranoia. Some of the voices in the head are louder and more prominent, but you can bet he has heard them. No one will be safe and half of the people working in his administration are chosen on the basis of their own conspicuous symptoms. This is probably true for most of all the world leaders who have been tyrants and murderers. Stalin might be your best model along with Napoleon. When you post your article, please let us know. Maybe someone could distribute it in Congress.
I read something yesterday. Musk realizes that he will never be the Elon of Mars, so he is trying to set things up to be the Elon of Earth. But to do that he has to destroy the present superpower, America.
But there is no way he can become the Elon of Earth, too many powerful and wanna be powerful dictators ahead of him.
Never the less he is forging a relationship with Putin,Orban, Millei, Meloni, the AfD, and all right wing factions.
There is no doubt that he is a NAZI, not just his salute, but his parents. his grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, he’s head of the Canadian branch of a U.S. movement called Technocracy Incorporated. And Technocracy Incorporated is essentially a movement to overthrow democratic governments in the United States and have technocrats, but big businessmen, in many ways, come in and run the country. That’s partly a reaction to FDR’s election and New Deal and massive reforms that he’s introduced in the United States.
William,there is another part of this,I think you'll find interesting.In 2022 Musk made the statement" Older people should just die" He has no respect for anyone that might be depend upon SS or Medicare and thinks only people with wealth should exist. When Trump knew his feelings for seniors,he let Musk come in and destroy SS and Medicare. All who contribute to this substack know there is only one answer. It is not talking.
Thanks for adding that David. The man shares with Trump, an antipathy towards anything and anyone that does not fulfill his needs and desires. He is like Trump and Thiel devoid of any empathy or human qualities.
They are parasitic vermin. They produce nothing,contribute nothing, but devour from the inside out. A parasite is an organism that lives in the body of another, and nourishes itself at the expense of the host.
That describes them, describes the paypal mafia finance capitalists, and the oligarchs as well.
I go back to when the John Birch Society and the YAF - Young Americans for Freedom- tried to start generational warfare, alleging the "old" were stealing the youths' future. I think this was the genesis of the Ponzi scheme lie about the SSA retirement trust fund.
Even within the agency, when most agency employees were CSRS and did not pay into SSA, that bullshit was accepted as fact.
Debt has always been with us, it is in the Jewish TeNACH, the old testament of the Christian bible. They even had a 7 year jubilee when all debts were forgiven. debts are personal and financial.
Interest was called usury, now usury is "excessive" interest (and who determines what is excessive anyway)
None of us could live as we do were it not for debt, I remember when the only forms of debt were mortgage and automobile loans, then Sears and JC Penney came up with the Revolving charge, a credit line, and the available credit depended on how much of your credit line was unused.
Gas companies came out with Gas cards, I had Gulf and Texaco, we got yellow receipts when they slid the card, and reconciled them against the bill when it came due.
Then came Visa, Master Card and Discover card, and the economy took off like a rocket, consumerism roared out of the pits of hell.
America which had become a superpower because of production, switched to consumption and shed production and the Presidents, PM's, Kings of the world became salesmen and trade representatives, knocking on the door at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, with hat in hand, falling on their knees, begging us to buy their wares and resources.
What resources weren't being offered, but were needed, or if desperately needed and were in short supply, well we used financial, political and military force to procure them.
Panama had a very stable economy. The Bank of Panama was an off shore branch of Citibank (Group) authorized by the Edge act of 1919.
It's currency was , is, the US Dollar, it's coins are minted in the Philadelphia Mint of the same stock as US coins (they work flawlessly in our vending machines) the difference being the design on the obverse and reverse.
Living was good, hardly any inflation. I would go to the market on Avenida Balboa on Saturday, by prawns for grilling and whole beef tenderloins for chateau briand or filet mignon, everything reasonable,
Then Citibank started it's propaganda campaign to get Panamanians to get credit cards.
It worked, credit cards proliferated so did their use, and then out of the blue, inflation, run away inflation, the more use of the credit card, the greater the inflation.
Credit/debt is a two edged sword, like capitalism. Both promote prosperity, but left unchecked, they produce misery.
Government CAN keep capitalism in check, but only human restraint and discipline can keep debt in check.
The Quran, btw, forbids usury, So Islamic banks, calculate the time value and risk of lending and front load it onto the loan. You need $1,000 your loans is for , say, $1100, but you only get $1,000 in remittance, but you have to repay the $1,100.
In Islamic banking, the alternative to riba (interest) is primarily achieved through Murabaha (cost-plus financing), where a bank purchases an asset for a client and sells it at a higher price, the profit margin replacing interest. Other methods include Ijara (leasing), where the bank leases an asset to the customer, and Mudarabah (profit-sharing), where the bank invests capital in a business and shares in the profits.
In the west you can avoid paying interest by paying off the loan early, in Islam you can not, you are stuck with paying off the Murabaha regardless of how long you pay on the loan.
The concept behind SSA reirement was and shoud still be endowment. Unfortuantely the statisticians did not anticipate the baby boom and that's why that Ponzi scam bull sounds reasonable to willing idiots.
For most of our history, our money was backed by gold, which hypothetically should preclude debt.
Our national debt began with the Revolutionary War and our first secretary of the treasury devised the plaln to amoritize it.
There is not enough gold to "back" money or fulfill the needs for a medium of exchange. The USSR had a 100% gold standard. as a result a perpetual shortage of rubles, that is a permanent depression.
Silver was what backed bank notes and used as the reserve base. The base upon which banks, decided on their own, how much of a reserve was needed to cover outstanding notes (obligations - banknotes)
Lincoln financed the civil war by selling bonds in London, when the war ended the bond holders demanded redemption in gold. Lincoln demurred offered them greenbacks (still legal currency) he was assassinated, they demanded the same of Andrew Johnson. Johnson also demurred. August Belmont of the NY World withdrew support for the conservative candidate, Horatio Seymour, because his party would not endorse redemption of American War Bonds in Gold.
He threw his support on Grant, Grant won and his first official act was to sign legislation that redeemed the bonds in gold.
Our monetary system was bimetallic unlike they struck the Comstock Lode, and then so much silver flowed in that there was a silver inflation.
The congressional response in 1893, was to demonetize silver, leaving gold as the basis for a medium of exchange, and the U.S. entered into a 7 year depression, subsequent periodic depression were also caused by the shortage of gold.
The Federal Reserve act of 1913 was passed, precisely to bring to a halt this dependency of "precious metals"
Bitmetallism also was the cause of campaign promises. Garfield ran on bimetallism, lasted 6 months and was assassinated. McKinley was not a bimetallist until reelected, then after promising to bring back silver he was assassinated.
Government mainly financed itself via tariffs, but also by selling securities (that is the way that Abe financed the civil war)
The problem is that there was never, and still is not, enough gold to redeem all debts.
If we had a gold standard, and let the market determine it's price, then there would be wild fluctuations and , even gold inflation an gold depressions, as there were in Europe after the conquest and exploitation of Mexico and Peru.
Then the Spanish empire came tumbling down, when they started hauling silver out the mines of Potosi, Bolivia, so much silver that there was, yet again, an inflation., which did have the effect of spurring the renaissance, but brought to an end the dominion of Spain over the low countries.
The point is there just isn't enough gold to cover all notes (Federal Reserve or Treasury)
And if your currency is based on gold, then we still have a fractional reserve system. just like today when dollars created out of debt based on the reserves held by the Federal reserve system, only instead of gold or silver being the reserve base, the base if checking accounts, corporate bonds, and government securities.
Musk's buddy Yarvin said something about "old people" being used for fuel. It reminded me of "Soylent Green," except it was "fuel" instead of "food". Yarvin is the original "Dark Enlightenment" idiot.
Since all the wealth of billionaires comes from the work and spending of the non-wealthy, it's not feasible to have a population of wealthy only. Of course, in a police state you can have wealth and slavery, which is probably the plan, though the system would need good trade relations - as when the south sold cotton to mills in the north. There would also have to be a professional class of sorts - to provide medical care for the wealthy, educate/indoctrinate their children, do their banking and investing, operate high end consumer businesses and fill the ranks of the all important Military/Police/Spy services. The slaves, living in the system of detention centers DHS is now being budgeted to start building, would be encouraged to reproduce, as in the slave-holding south, with billionaire men having their pick of the choicest child-bearers. What party!
Slavery comes in many forms Judith, not just chattel slavery which is the legacy of the south. there is wage slavery, even ideological slavery (religion is a sectarian ideology). emotional slavery (abusive spouses?), financial slavery .
Slavery exists when you have no choice, feel or believe you have no choice, but to submit and comply.
I agree - we have a long and ongoing history of wage slavery - I don't expect it to end any time soon. But I was thinking at the moment more in the vein of Hitler using slave labor for manufacturing.
Judith,I think they are hoping with Robots and AI that the need for workers is reduced. The detention centers are just the beginning,I think they will try to do what Hitler did with crematoriums. There is nothing beyond the reach of our imagination that they will not do to destroy the country.
Good point - the need for workers will be reduced. I know that the detention centers are just the beginning, but my mind hadn't let me track to the horror of crematoriums. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around Salvadoran "disappearing stations." Unfortunately, I think you are right - the self-serving inhumanity has no limits.
Cremation requires the use of a lot of gas, about 28 gals and takes 2-3 hrs per body, shove more than one corpse in a crematorium at a time and the time and gas used doubles.
More efficient is terramation, composting the corpse. My wife has signed, for terramation I am donating mine to MedCure to train surgeons.
The human body contains roughly 18% carbon by mass. This equates to about 13,572 grams of carbon for an average human body with a mass of 75.4 kg
I would expect that the body would be recycled, carbon extracted, minerals extracted,
A little fact, it is rare to find any bones from the battlle of Waterloo, because the local dug them up, sold them to sugar refiners, who ground them up, burned them and used them to refine sugar. This was the fate of the millions of buffalo killed by the government and the rail roads.
The Trump/Musk takeover has touched me personally. I've been censored, denied access to X, Musk's social media website. Here's what happened.
At the April 5th Hands Off rally I photographed indivisual protestors and their homemade signs--57 photos in total. To spread the messages I've been posting four images daily, on FaceBook, Instagram, my Substack account, X (formerly Twitter), and BlueSky. This has continued since April 6. (Tried unsuccessfully to post an example here.)
Uploading the April 13 batch of photos, I clicked on X's link and the following message apppeard: "Seems like you lost connectivity. We'll keep retrying." Nothing has changed since.
I tried opening another account with a different user name, but that was rejected, too.
Trump/Musk is attacking or shutting down every source of criticism or exposure: universities, hostile media outlets, law firms, federal agencies. It's terrifying that their scrutiny even identified and shut down the puny effort of a single citizen.
Thom is absolutely correct: the overturning of democracy is real and it's happening.
This is what organized crime looks like in the AI area. These people are the viruses we talk about. They infiltrate and infect and move so rapidly that bureaucracy doesn’t have time to figure out how to stop them or exactly what they’ve accomplished.
They have no morals, no compunction, or compassion. Like cockroaches they rush in and consume then quickly go somewhere else before we can get the insecticide sprayed. But the faster we start treating them like infestation, the faster we’ll get rid of them.
As my good friend, the late Yellow Dog Granny would say, "We are fucked." As long as we can keep it blocked at the border, America is welcome to what they voted for over the years. Not just 2024. Education is illegal in America. People reading below Grade 6 is a ctually below Grade 3 in the civilized world. Worshipping 2A like Communists worshipped Lenin. Issue every child born a Glock 9mm and an AR15 with 10k rounds for each. Seal the border. Russia and China already control the world.
25th Amendment is initiated by the Presidents cabinet.
Section 4:
If the vice president and a majority of the cabinet or a body designated by Congress declare the president unable to perform duties, the vice president becomes acting president. This can be contested by the president, leading to a congressional vote.
This was Never a department, or a division, or a section inside a department of a cabinet branch of a govt. It is a Mole, a treasonous Traitor, a betrayer, a castrator, a murderer.
It is a virus with a very high virility and at least an exponential growth rate. It metastasizes into a terminal cancer. The Mole is nihilistic chaos, a nuclear fusion weapon with a death wish.
WB Yeats said it all: 'The gyre widens, the falcon cannot hear the falconer; things fall apart.'
The falconer is, itself, a slave holder, and the falcon a slave. When any paradigm begins with a lie, it grows like an onion, layer upon layer and the cancer will eventually consume it. Here we are.
Epic tragedy in what was once a perfect paradise. Perhaps Dr. Leary was right. Homo sapiens itself came from another rock in space, perhaps exiled there long ago from Earth, whose former evolutionary intelligences knew it was a cancer, and cast it out, like the mythical god cast the devil out of heaven. How do we destroy a devil?
If the history of how our constitution and government structure has performed in the last 40 years is any indication, there’s no hope because it’s way too late. Like cancer, we have to destroy ourselves to stop it. With your commentary and astute analysis we’re able to observe this incredible and fantastic turn in humanity that’s turning the world’s progress upside down.
Things are quiet here in Costa Rica. No political ranting and raving, no giant protests, no Gestapo arresting people from the streets, just people living peacefully and getting ready for Semana Santa. I wish that for everyone in the USA. I do what I can from here, mostly writing Congresspeople although I feel like I am hitting a wall with my North Carolina senators. I was hoping that Tillis could be turned but he is under the thumb of Krasnov like all the rest.
Thoughts and prayers to all of you, but you know how that works out.
What's happening is chillingly terrifying. And I fear that we know only a sliver of the havoc that Doge continues to wreak on our government and our democracy. What's even worse is the prospect of bringing an end to this pillaging is frighteningly small unless Congress and the Supreme Court figure out what's at stake and take action. Please don't ask me what I think the chances are of that happening...
Trump's golden admissions ($ 5M a pop) could be sold in bulk to KGB hitmen. [DJT would get a slice, of course.] And with this data, they could commence Russian-style "spring cleaning."
A little Polonium in your tea? Perhaps a swift calf-jab with a poisoned umbrella? An aerosol bottle of Novachuk masquerading as Chanel.
Some tactical defenestrations. A spanking new Salvadorian gulag where Democracy goes to die.
Ds are in a war, but some [Hakeem? Are you there? Hello? Hello?] don't seem to know it.
It's like watching a lump grow and sucking on your binky, instead of resecting the tumor.
The remedy for deportations is required. My thoughts are not good on state terror, and reflect my impatience when there are torture and abuse being condoned.
Trump is using fear. He even ordered that picture of himself where he tries to look intimidating in every public building (I think it's his WH portrait).
Again you tell us what is happening in no uncertain terms. As you said, our govt is being ransacked and dismantled. I suspect they fully want to destroy democracy and assume all the power in an oligarchical authoritarian dictatorship. With conservative white Christian supremacist patriarchy overlay. You have researched your topic and here it is. You research everything you write. I cannot thank you enough for helping us to see and understand what is happening to our country.
Arrrggghhh— feeling speechless. Nothing more to be added. You have said it all, Thom. 😱🙏🏻 McCarthyism was bad but nothing compared to this shit. MJT’s “town hall” last night was an early indication of what the future could look like. Her goons even broke a guy’s wrist for asking a non-vetted question that had not been presubmitted. Then there were the others who were repeatedly tazed while being held down to the floor. Good grief.
In one instance, a woman
had submitted a question asking whether the congresswoman
would push back against pinocchio tariffs and his “chainsaw approach”
to cutting spending.
It was met with scattered applause from the audience.
“Oh, poor Christina. Poor, poor, Christina.
I’m sure, Christina, you think you’re pretty smart,” Greene said.
“But the reality is, you are being completely brainwashed
by whatever source of news you listen to.”
“What am I going to do? I am going to stand by my president.
I’m going to support my president.
And I’m going to fight for his agenda
with everything I have in Congress,” she said.
Greene was interrupted several times by protesters,
but was dismissive and moved on quickly
as local police escorted them from the room.
“Protest is outside. Bye. Have fun out there,” she told one person.
At my former agency:
"Labor Leaders Fear Elon Musk and DOGE Could Gain Access to Whistleblower Files
What Happened: The AFL-CIO and former OSHA officials warn that Musk’s operatives are embedded at the Department of Labor, and may gain access to sensitive whistleblower files. Musk's companies—Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company—have over 50 active OSHA investigations for workplace injuries and safety violations.
"Why It Matters: Musk’s operatives inside federal agencies pose a dangerous conflict of interest—especially as whistleblowers from Musk-linked and Trump-aligned companies seek protection. Their confidential files could be weaponized to punish them, turning oversight into retaliation".
Source: WIRED
IMHO worse at another agency where I once worked -- SSA.
" at the direction of DOGE, has begun knowingly adding living people to SSA’s death records — the Death Master File (DMF) — by assigning them false “dates of death” to “terminat[e]” their “financial lives.”
"Being wrongfully identified as dead in Social Security records “can lead to benefit termination … and severe financial hardship and distress to affected individuals.” Because the DMF is leveraged by many federal and state agencies to determine eligibility — and by the Treasury Department’s government-wide “Do Not Pay” system to prevent improper payments — false inclusion of a death date can lead to an individual losing their health coverage through Medicare, having their tax return delayed, or having their Social Security or other eligible benefit payments cancelled, among other harms.
"The DMF is also used by some private-sector companies with a legitimate business or anti-fraud need for the data — including financial institutions, credit agencies, insurance companies, and pension administrators. As a result, being inappropriately listed as dead can result in severe financial consequences like disruption in bank account access, credit cards being cancelled, pension benefits being paused, insurance coverage being cancelled or claims being denied, rejected employment applications, or denial of credit.
"The first group of people to be wrongfully and knowingly declared dead by the Trump Administration are reportedly being targeted in an immigration enforcement effort focused, at least in part, on people who were lawfully present and eligible to work until the Trump Administration abruptly terminated their lawful status. These individuals would have been correctly issued Social Security numbers (SSNs) upon obtaining their lawful immigration statuses, and any change in those statuses should not limit their access to their own financial resources in U.S. banks."
I recommend that Thom interview Ed Weir, PhD, Former Social Security Manager. https://www.youtube.com/@MyGovExpert
https://www.cbpp.org/blog/trump-and-doge-claim-power-to-falsely-list-living-persons-as-dead-in-social-security-records
Auch, using lie detectors on employees....
"Vas du effer ein member of the Democratic Party?"
'Didst du effer kiss ein Democrat?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7vb89c6pQY
My mother, my grandmother, a cousin and who knows who else all died in New Jersey, yet when I researched them there names are not on the SSA death list.
Have you run across that, is it NJ's policy to keep people "alive" for the purpose of drawing benefits. I wonder if the nursing home in which she died is still getting payments from SSA
No. If true qui tam case worth billions.
Then for some reason NJ is not reporting deaths to SS. My cousin passed in north Jersey, my grandmother in Ocean City, my mother nearby in Ocean View\
What reason would Jersey have for not reporting their deaths?
Tested.
The super computers and AI can do more information gathering and storing of files than millions of spies and infiltrators ever could. This ain't the 60's.
The sadists and psychopaths sat in the Oval and laughed about Abrego-Garcia and the others that they don't want to get out of the torture prison. Bukele brags he has never let anyone out of there. Trump loves him. Dictators of a feather.......
Every new thing is a test to see how far they can go. They are trying to turn our country into a prison.
Be Harvard and tell them to shove it. Be Bernie and AOC telling everyone they can about these criminals. Be brave like Berulis and the whistleblowers. Be bold like the Dems planning a CODEL to El Salvador. Do what you can, friends. It adds up--- see you in the streets!
I heard that, Bukele's prison has no exit. You enter but leave on a gurney. I wonder what they do with the corpse, bury it, must be one hell of a graveyard, cremate it, it takes 2to 3 hrs to cremate one body, and Cremation typically requires a significant amount of fuel, usually in the form of natural gas, to achieve the necessary temperatures and burn time. A typical cremation consumes around 25 therms of energy, which is roughly equivalent to driving 310 miles by car. This equates to approximately 28 gallons of gasoline or 110 liters of fuel.
Still no mention of the extradition treaties between the US and El Salvador.
In addition to a request for mandamus for extradition, if I were the ACLU, I'd hire a civil rights lawyer in El Salvador.
From AI: In El Salvador, habeas corpus is a legal remedy to ensure personal freedom and prevent illegal detention. The Supreme Court of Justice, and in some cases the Appellate Court, are responsible for protecting constitutional rights, including habeas corpus. The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court has jurisdiction over habeas corpus claims.
Something tells me the law in El Salvador is what Bukele says it is, just as this country is becoming.
What pisses me off is that the media is not exposing the charade for what it is.
Trump is paying Bukele to imprison these people. He writes the check, all he has to do is ask Bukele to return him, put him on an airplane. Bukele makes pretense that he can't do that. "what do you want me to do, smuggle him in" he said.
It's a transparent charade.
Like with everything else in life, never up never in.
El Salvador has a lot of US property, banks that are subject to attachment....
Yes, I know but who has standing to attach those assets?
The families of those wrongully detained, for example can file cases, get judgments. There are ways to freeze assets pending litigation.
Heritage and all the other right-wing operatives have laid the groundwork for this to happen over the last half-century. But it is the paranoid delusions and insane needs and ambitions of a single person which has actually activated the mechanisms and applied the necessary power and influence to unleash the malcontents, extremists, and fascist fanatics. Until that pernicious person is removed from power, attempts to control the damage will be quite useless. An impeachment conviction must be effectuated, one way or the other, sooner rather than later.
I'm working on a Substack essay about how Hitler killed and put many conservatives from the party that gave him power in concentration camps, starting with "The Night of the Long Knives."
The Republicans think they're on the right side, but nobody is on the right side of a paranoid dictator. Pol Pot killed his closest allies.
Congress better do its job and do it soon. Impeach now!
Bravo. Somehow the republicans and billionaires who have deluded themselves into thinking they will be okay and get richer need to get that message. Destruction, Hate, Greed, and Power are trump's middle names. Everyone eventually falls under suspicion and becomes a dangerous enemy for the true paranoid. Check the DSM V for the exact criteria listed for paranoia. Some of the voices in the head are louder and more prominent, but you can bet he has heard them. No one will be safe and half of the people working in his administration are chosen on the basis of their own conspicuous symptoms. This is probably true for most of all the world leaders who have been tyrants and murderers. Stalin might be your best model along with Napoleon. When you post your article, please let us know. Maybe someone could distribute it in Congress.
He killed many of his own people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%C3%B6hm
I read something yesterday. Musk realizes that he will never be the Elon of Mars, so he is trying to set things up to be the Elon of Earth. But to do that he has to destroy the present superpower, America.
But there is no way he can become the Elon of Earth, too many powerful and wanna be powerful dictators ahead of him.
Never the less he is forging a relationship with Putin,Orban, Millei, Meloni, the AfD, and all right wing factions.
There is no doubt that he is a NAZI, not just his salute, but his parents. his grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, he’s head of the Canadian branch of a U.S. movement called Technocracy Incorporated. And Technocracy Incorporated is essentially a movement to overthrow democratic governments in the United States and have technocrats, but big businessmen, in many ways, come in and run the country. That’s partly a reaction to FDR’s election and New Deal and massive reforms that he’s introduced in the United States.
Does that sound familiar at all? Read the rest here: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/27/elon_musk_south_africa
William,there is another part of this,I think you'll find interesting.In 2022 Musk made the statement" Older people should just die" He has no respect for anyone that might be depend upon SS or Medicare and thinks only people with wealth should exist. When Trump knew his feelings for seniors,he let Musk come in and destroy SS and Medicare. All who contribute to this substack know there is only one answer. It is not talking.
Thanks for adding that David. The man shares with Trump, an antipathy towards anything and anyone that does not fulfill his needs and desires. He is like Trump and Thiel devoid of any empathy or human qualities.
They are parasitic vermin. They produce nothing,contribute nothing, but devour from the inside out. A parasite is an organism that lives in the body of another, and nourishes itself at the expense of the host.
That describes them, describes the paypal mafia finance capitalists, and the oligarchs as well.
You reminded me of Michael Hudson's book, Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy.
I go back to when the John Birch Society and the YAF - Young Americans for Freedom- tried to start generational warfare, alleging the "old" were stealing the youths' future. I think this was the genesis of the Ponzi scheme lie about the SSA retirement trust fund.
Even within the agency, when most agency employees were CSRS and did not pay into SSA, that bullshit was accepted as fact.
Our congressman, LaHood, is the son of a Bircher who was a congressman before him
Debt has always been with us, it is in the Jewish TeNACH, the old testament of the Christian bible. They even had a 7 year jubilee when all debts were forgiven. debts are personal and financial.
Interest was called usury, now usury is "excessive" interest (and who determines what is excessive anyway)
None of us could live as we do were it not for debt, I remember when the only forms of debt were mortgage and automobile loans, then Sears and JC Penney came up with the Revolving charge, a credit line, and the available credit depended on how much of your credit line was unused.
Gas companies came out with Gas cards, I had Gulf and Texaco, we got yellow receipts when they slid the card, and reconciled them against the bill when it came due.
Then came Visa, Master Card and Discover card, and the economy took off like a rocket, consumerism roared out of the pits of hell.
America which had become a superpower because of production, switched to consumption and shed production and the Presidents, PM's, Kings of the world became salesmen and trade representatives, knocking on the door at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, with hat in hand, falling on their knees, begging us to buy their wares and resources.
What resources weren't being offered, but were needed, or if desperately needed and were in short supply, well we used financial, political and military force to procure them.
Panama had a very stable economy. The Bank of Panama was an off shore branch of Citibank (Group) authorized by the Edge act of 1919.
It's currency was , is, the US Dollar, it's coins are minted in the Philadelphia Mint of the same stock as US coins (they work flawlessly in our vending machines) the difference being the design on the obverse and reverse.
Living was good, hardly any inflation. I would go to the market on Avenida Balboa on Saturday, by prawns for grilling and whole beef tenderloins for chateau briand or filet mignon, everything reasonable,
Then Citibank started it's propaganda campaign to get Panamanians to get credit cards.
It worked, credit cards proliferated so did their use, and then out of the blue, inflation, run away inflation, the more use of the credit card, the greater the inflation.
Credit/debt is a two edged sword, like capitalism. Both promote prosperity, but left unchecked, they produce misery.
Government CAN keep capitalism in check, but only human restraint and discipline can keep debt in check.
The Quran, btw, forbids usury, So Islamic banks, calculate the time value and risk of lending and front load it onto the loan. You need $1,000 your loans is for , say, $1100, but you only get $1,000 in remittance, but you have to repay the $1,100.
In Islamic banking, the alternative to riba (interest) is primarily achieved through Murabaha (cost-plus financing), where a bank purchases an asset for a client and sells it at a higher price, the profit margin replacing interest. Other methods include Ijara (leasing), where the bank leases an asset to the customer, and Mudarabah (profit-sharing), where the bank invests capital in a business and shares in the profits.
In the west you can avoid paying interest by paying off the loan early, in Islam you can not, you are stuck with paying off the Murabaha regardless of how long you pay on the loan.
The concept behind SSA reirement was and shoud still be endowment. Unfortuantely the statisticians did not anticipate the baby boom and that's why that Ponzi scam bull sounds reasonable to willing idiots.
For most of our history, our money was backed by gold, which hypothetically should preclude debt.
Our national debt began with the Revolutionary War and our first secretary of the treasury devised the plaln to amoritize it.
A primer in money Daniel.
There is not enough gold to "back" money or fulfill the needs for a medium of exchange. The USSR had a 100% gold standard. as a result a perpetual shortage of rubles, that is a permanent depression.
Silver was what backed bank notes and used as the reserve base. The base upon which banks, decided on their own, how much of a reserve was needed to cover outstanding notes (obligations - banknotes)
Lincoln financed the civil war by selling bonds in London, when the war ended the bond holders demanded redemption in gold. Lincoln demurred offered them greenbacks (still legal currency) he was assassinated, they demanded the same of Andrew Johnson. Johnson also demurred. August Belmont of the NY World withdrew support for the conservative candidate, Horatio Seymour, because his party would not endorse redemption of American War Bonds in Gold.
He threw his support on Grant, Grant won and his first official act was to sign legislation that redeemed the bonds in gold.
Our monetary system was bimetallic unlike they struck the Comstock Lode, and then so much silver flowed in that there was a silver inflation.
The congressional response in 1893, was to demonetize silver, leaving gold as the basis for a medium of exchange, and the U.S. entered into a 7 year depression, subsequent periodic depression were also caused by the shortage of gold.
The Federal Reserve act of 1913 was passed, precisely to bring to a halt this dependency of "precious metals"
Bitmetallism also was the cause of campaign promises. Garfield ran on bimetallism, lasted 6 months and was assassinated. McKinley was not a bimetallist until reelected, then after promising to bring back silver he was assassinated.
Government mainly financed itself via tariffs, but also by selling securities (that is the way that Abe financed the civil war)
The problem is that there was never, and still is not, enough gold to redeem all debts.
If we had a gold standard, and let the market determine it's price, then there would be wild fluctuations and , even gold inflation an gold depressions, as there were in Europe after the conquest and exploitation of Mexico and Peru.
Then the Spanish empire came tumbling down, when they started hauling silver out the mines of Potosi, Bolivia, so much silver that there was, yet again, an inflation., which did have the effect of spurring the renaissance, but brought to an end the dominion of Spain over the low countries.
The point is there just isn't enough gold to cover all notes (Federal Reserve or Treasury)
And if your currency is based on gold, then we still have a fractional reserve system. just like today when dollars created out of debt based on the reserves held by the Federal reserve system, only instead of gold or silver being the reserve base, the base if checking accounts, corporate bonds, and government securities.
Musk's buddy Yarvin said something about "old people" being used for fuel. It reminded me of "Soylent Green," except it was "fuel" instead of "food". Yarvin is the original "Dark Enlightenment" idiot.
Gloria, calling him an idiot diminishes the threat he poses. He is no idiot, he is malevolent, a sociopathic, pyschopath
Since all the wealth of billionaires comes from the work and spending of the non-wealthy, it's not feasible to have a population of wealthy only. Of course, in a police state you can have wealth and slavery, which is probably the plan, though the system would need good trade relations - as when the south sold cotton to mills in the north. There would also have to be a professional class of sorts - to provide medical care for the wealthy, educate/indoctrinate their children, do their banking and investing, operate high end consumer businesses and fill the ranks of the all important Military/Police/Spy services. The slaves, living in the system of detention centers DHS is now being budgeted to start building, would be encouraged to reproduce, as in the slave-holding south, with billionaire men having their pick of the choicest child-bearers. What party!
Slavery comes in many forms Judith, not just chattel slavery which is the legacy of the south. there is wage slavery, even ideological slavery (religion is a sectarian ideology). emotional slavery (abusive spouses?), financial slavery .
Slavery exists when you have no choice, feel or believe you have no choice, but to submit and comply.
I agree - we have a long and ongoing history of wage slavery - I don't expect it to end any time soon. But I was thinking at the moment more in the vein of Hitler using slave labor for manufacturing.
That too. Wage slavery sans wages.
Judith,I think they are hoping with Robots and AI that the need for workers is reduced. The detention centers are just the beginning,I think they will try to do what Hitler did with crematoriums. There is nothing beyond the reach of our imagination that they will not do to destroy the country.
Good point - the need for workers will be reduced. I know that the detention centers are just the beginning, but my mind hadn't let me track to the horror of crematoriums. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around Salvadoran "disappearing stations." Unfortunately, I think you are right - the self-serving inhumanity has no limits.
Cremation requires the use of a lot of gas, about 28 gals and takes 2-3 hrs per body, shove more than one corpse in a crematorium at a time and the time and gas used doubles.
More efficient is terramation, composting the corpse. My wife has signed, for terramation I am donating mine to MedCure to train surgeons.
The human body contains roughly 18% carbon by mass. This equates to about 13,572 grams of carbon for an average human body with a mass of 75.4 kg
I would expect that the body would be recycled, carbon extracted, minerals extracted,
A little fact, it is rare to find any bones from the battlle of Waterloo, because the local dug them up, sold them to sugar refiners, who ground them up, burned them and used them to refine sugar. This was the fate of the millions of buffalo killed by the government and the rail roads.
The Trump/Musk takeover has touched me personally. I've been censored, denied access to X, Musk's social media website. Here's what happened.
At the April 5th Hands Off rally I photographed indivisual protestors and their homemade signs--57 photos in total. To spread the messages I've been posting four images daily, on FaceBook, Instagram, my Substack account, X (formerly Twitter), and BlueSky. This has continued since April 6. (Tried unsuccessfully to post an example here.)
Uploading the April 13 batch of photos, I clicked on X's link and the following message apppeard: "Seems like you lost connectivity. We'll keep retrying." Nothing has changed since.
I tried opening another account with a different user name, but that was rejected, too.
Trump/Musk is attacking or shutting down every source of criticism or exposure: universities, hostile media outlets, law firms, federal agencies. It's terrifying that their scrutiny even identified and shut down the puny effort of a single citizen.
Thom is absolutely correct: the overturning of democracy is real and it's happening.
This is what organized crime looks like in the AI area. These people are the viruses we talk about. They infiltrate and infect and move so rapidly that bureaucracy doesn’t have time to figure out how to stop them or exactly what they’ve accomplished.
They have no morals, no compunction, or compassion. Like cockroaches they rush in and consume then quickly go somewhere else before we can get the insecticide sprayed. But the faster we start treating them like infestation, the faster we’ll get rid of them.
As my good friend, the late Yellow Dog Granny would say, "We are fucked." As long as we can keep it blocked at the border, America is welcome to what they voted for over the years. Not just 2024. Education is illegal in America. People reading below Grade 6 is a ctually below Grade 3 in the civilized world. Worshipping 2A like Communists worshipped Lenin. Issue every child born a Glock 9mm and an AR15 with 10k rounds for each. Seal the border. Russia and China already control the world.
Are people still camping at the border trying to get into America? I haven't heard much about the migration problem or "caravans"
By seal the border I meant don't let anyone out
"If we don't stop this now..." OK, Let's. But how? 25th Amendment?
Nah. If anything the members of the cabinet are as cruel and vicious as he is.
Read Feathers of Hope.https://jerryweiss.substack.com/
San Francisco?
25th Amendment is initiated by the Presidents cabinet.
Section 4:
If the vice president and a majority of the cabinet or a body designated by Congress declare the president unable to perform duties, the vice president becomes acting president. This can be contested by the president, leading to a congressional vote.
Rots of ruck, try another idea.
Too bad, ehh?
This was Never a department, or a division, or a section inside a department of a cabinet branch of a govt. It is a Mole, a treasonous Traitor, a betrayer, a castrator, a murderer.
It is a virus with a very high virility and at least an exponential growth rate. It metastasizes into a terminal cancer. The Mole is nihilistic chaos, a nuclear fusion weapon with a death wish.
WB Yeats said it all: 'The gyre widens, the falcon cannot hear the falconer; things fall apart.'
The falconer is, itself, a slave holder, and the falcon a slave. When any paradigm begins with a lie, it grows like an onion, layer upon layer and the cancer will eventually consume it. Here we are.
Epic tragedy in what was once a perfect paradise. Perhaps Dr. Leary was right. Homo sapiens itself came from another rock in space, perhaps exiled there long ago from Earth, whose former evolutionary intelligences knew it was a cancer, and cast it out, like the mythical god cast the devil out of heaven. How do we destroy a devil?
Isn't that the essence of scientology
How do we destroy a devil, we don't, it destroys itself, and the species is intent on self destruction and taking other species with it as well.
If the history of how our constitution and government structure has performed in the last 40 years is any indication, there’s no hope because it’s way too late. Like cancer, we have to destroy ourselves to stop it. With your commentary and astute analysis we’re able to observe this incredible and fantastic turn in humanity that’s turning the world’s progress upside down.
Read Feathers of Hope. https://jerryweiss.substack.com/
I don't have time to watch YouTube videos. What are Al Green's articles of impeachment? Has he added anything in the past two weeks?
No. Need some rightheous House Republicans.......
Things are quiet here in Costa Rica. No political ranting and raving, no giant protests, no Gestapo arresting people from the streets, just people living peacefully and getting ready for Semana Santa. I wish that for everyone in the USA. I do what I can from here, mostly writing Congresspeople although I feel like I am hitting a wall with my North Carolina senators. I was hoping that Tillis could be turned but he is under the thumb of Krasnov like all the rest.
Thoughts and prayers to all of you, but you know how that works out.
What's happening is chillingly terrifying. And I fear that we know only a sliver of the havoc that Doge continues to wreak on our government and our democracy. What's even worse is the prospect of bringing an end to this pillaging is frighteningly small unless Congress and the Supreme Court figure out what's at stake and take action. Please don't ask me what I think the chances are of that happening...
The worst that could happen?
Trump's golden admissions ($ 5M a pop) could be sold in bulk to KGB hitmen. [DJT would get a slice, of course.] And with this data, they could commence Russian-style "spring cleaning."
A little Polonium in your tea? Perhaps a swift calf-jab with a poisoned umbrella? An aerosol bottle of Novachuk masquerading as Chanel.
Some tactical defenestrations. A spanking new Salvadorian gulag where Democracy goes to die.
Ds are in a war, but some [Hakeem? Are you there? Hello? Hello?] don't seem to know it.
It's like watching a lump grow and sucking on your binky, instead of resecting the tumor.
The remedy for deportations is required. My thoughts are not good on state terror, and reflect my impatience when there are torture and abuse being condoned.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/state-terrorism?r=3m1bs
Trump is using fear. He even ordered that picture of himself where he tries to look intimidating in every public building (I think it's his WH portrait).
Again you tell us what is happening in no uncertain terms. As you said, our govt is being ransacked and dismantled. I suspect they fully want to destroy democracy and assume all the power in an oligarchical authoritarian dictatorship. With conservative white Christian supremacist patriarchy overlay. You have researched your topic and here it is. You research everything you write. I cannot thank you enough for helping us to see and understand what is happening to our country.