iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Today in hypocrisy: saying that a woman deserved to be shot because she might have been sarcastic with pseudo-police, while people who actually assaulted police should be pardoned (and then hired as ICE officers…)

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Why is our government only at war sentiments like opposition to fascism? Economic Malaise is also pissing off the president, let’s call that feel an anti-American terrorist organization too, we’re already locking up economically struggling people, let’s make it official.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

All people besides Native Americans are descended from the children of immigrants who were allowed to become Americans through birthright citizenship. So by current Trump/Miller definitions, not only his parents are not citizens, but he is not American either.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

My mother was given this in high school in 1950. I wonder if people of all political allegiances can agree, that whether or not we are following this American Creed depends on whether freedom, equality, justice, and humanity apply to everyone, and who you define as enemies.

The American's Creed
By William Cyler Page
believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a Republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
therefore believe it is my duty to my Country to love it; to support its constitution; to obey its laws; to respect
its flag; and to defend it against all enemies.
*****
Presented to Dorothy Benedict
with
congratulations upon High School graduation. May the future bring you success, happiness, and achievement in the highest ideals of American citizenship.
Eunith B Kiatm
Member of Congress, 4oth District lof New York

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Seen in the Pittsburgh area… I thought the first sign was making fun of the MachoMAGA mindset, but no, the second display shows that Leonard is fully embracing Incel Gun Envy. I think I just heard Freud laughing, and DeTocqueville crying.

A sign that displays D.O.G.E., explaining the acronym as DEPARYMENT OF GUN ENVY.

The same sign as the previous photo, but now displaying “buy and sell guns.”

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

White is all right, brown is put down — Stephen Miller MAGA protest rules apparently #ThinBlueLine #Hypocrisy #Protest #Riot #MAGA #StevenMiller #Trump #Racism

The hypocrisy:

Picture was taken January 6th 2001 of Pro-Trump protesters assaulting police

Tweet:
FBI Director Kash Patel @FBIDirectorKash
Follow
Hit a cop, you're going to jail... doesn't matter where you came from, how you got here, or what movement speaks to you. If the local police force won't back our men and women on the thin blue line, we @FBI will.
• •

Text over photos of Los Angeles protesters and pro-Trump protesters assaulting police:

Just so l understand:
Mexican-Americans protest in Los Angeles, there are no reported deaths, and it's a riot.
A bunch of MAGA attack the Capitol Building, police officers die, and it's a peaceful protest.
Is that correct?*

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Trump in the 1980’s explaining his hypersensitive vengefulness: when people “didn’t do little things that could’ve helped” it’s disloyalty, and “I look upon it as a great act of horror.”

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

In case you can’t afford $2 million crypto purchases, you can always wind political favors such as pardons by claiming you persecuted for being a Trump supporter. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/u...

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

This is just the latest example of [conservative] fear-based policy: denying voting rights (or immigration, or health insurance, or even food benefits) to thousands of people out of fear that 100 of them might be undeserving or scary.

Zann Zsuzsannika
DOJ voting section has just three lawyers left There are only three attorneys left in the DOJ's voting section, according to an estimate a watchdog group provided to Democracy Docket, as the department pivots from protecting voting rights to investigating voter fraud. One former DOJ attorney called it a "decimation" of civil rights enforcement.

#Trump #Corruption #Republican #Conservative #Hateful #WeaponizingGovernment #VotingRights #VotingFraud

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

At a time when Medicaid is being cut, Trump Republicans plan to spend billions of dollars devastating remote ecosystems where no humans migrate but animals must migrate north and south to survive. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

On 27 April, the US House of Representatives homeland security committee unveiled its proposed budget, allocating $46.5bn to fund new chunks of barrier on the aimost 2,00 inile US-Mexico border, where building a wall was a focus and highly vexed issue in the first Trump administration and is far from complete.
The new push for more wall comes as
unauthorized crossings by people migrating to the
US through or from Mexico had been falling fast last year after Joe Biden tightened restrictions and have now reached historic lows. This was noted by CBP and trumpeted with inflammatory language by the Trump White House, even as the president spoke of "invasion".
"Even when numbers were the highest, people were crossing in areas that already had a border wall," said Meza. "San Rafael valley never saw those numbers."

• A javelina is seen on a trail cam attempting to squeeze through a portion of existing border wall in 2023. Video: Sky
Island Alliance/Wildlands Network
The Santa Cruz River is a vital animal migration corridor that meanders into Mexico and back to Arizona. "The river will now be walled on both legs of its journey," said Harrity. A nearby wildlife camera recently captured a video of a mountain lion carrying its prize, a dead coyote, into Mexico.
The valley is almost devoid of people. And it lacks the telltale signs of migration in the borderlands: ripped clothes on bushes, discarded backpacks and empty water bottles. in five years, a camera by the river has never captured an image of a migrant crossing into the US, even though it's one of the few parts of the valley with shade and water.

But in a 2024 study by the Wildlands Network and Sky Islands Alliance, motion-activated cameras along 100 miles of walled border showed an 86% decrease in wildlife crossings and a 100% reduction for animals such as wolves, bears, pronghorns, and jaguars.
"The Trump administration would rather score cheap political points and a favorable Fox News headline than solve a problem. Instead of wasting taxpayers' dollars, undermining military readiness and jeopardizing American families' safety, Trump and [Elon] Musk should focus on actually fixing our broken immigration system," said Martin Heinrich, US senator for New Mexico and a Democrat.
"New Mexicans who live on the border want actual solutions, like creating new legal pathways for immigration, investing in effective border security for law enforcement, and addressing the root causes of mass migration," he added.

In Arizona, 63% of the border has already been sealed off and the remaining open sections are critical for wildlife, with the San Rafael valley being one of the last intact expanses of Sonoran desert grasslands in the state. The area's rugged Huachuca and Patagonia mountains, part of the Sky Island range, serve as stepping stones across a harsh desert by offering a range of habitats, food sources and water for animals.
"The biodiversity here is incredible," said Meza, of the Sierra Club. As well as bears, mountain lions and wolves there are subtropical species such as the wild pig-like javelina, and rare big cats - ocelots and jaguars, with natural ranges of hundreds of miles between countries in search of food, water and mates.
"This is at the heart of all these different ecosystems coming together," Meza added.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

If you feel like a post about #Trump needs to include a picture, don’t use the ones he likes best or just the outrageous ones… here, I made some mutant options. Notice the background of destruction in the second one. Four more in a comment. #NotMyPresident

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

New protest poster: “White South African are not the only refugees.”

White South Africans
Granted Refugee Status by Trump Leave for U.S.

Dozens of Afrikaners who claim discrimination in their home country left Johannesburg on Sunday. Their departure for the U.S. came as the Trump administration was halting virtually all refugee admissions.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Found in this month’s Funny Times: not so funny, and something I am trying to keep in mind.

Anti-Tyrants Almanac
Do Not Obey in Advance
(Lesson 1 from "On Tyranny" by Timothy Snyder)*
"Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.

Bezos surrendered BEFORE TRUMP WAS EVEN ELECTED! His cowardly example has been imitated by other billionaires, CEOs, legacy media, big law firms and several universities.

*Timothy Snyder teaches history at Yale. Here at The Almanac, we consider his book "On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century" to be required reading. The same is true for all of his other books, especially "On Freedom," and "The Road to Unfreedom." But don't take our word for it. Pick up a copy of your own. And here's a suggestion: Don't buy it from Amazon. Jeff Bezos is rich enough. Support your public library of local book store instead.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

In case it might be relevant to some current political situation, here are some thoughts about #cults, with my addenda/elaborarions in the second image. #Trump #MAGA #cult

Warning Signs of a Cult
1. The leader is always right.
2. Criticism of the leader or questioning the leader is considered persecution.
3. Anything the leader does is justified no matter how harmful it may be.
4. The leader is the only source of the truth, everybody else is lying.
5. Followers must be blindly devoted to the leader and never question him.
6. The members won't recognize they belong to a cult.

Jim Foley
7. The leader is sometimes revered with an almost godlike status
8. The leader is seen as a source of protection from evil people and forces, and also someone to be defended.
9. Group members should not have contact with people outside the cult.
10. The leader is not held to typical standard of behavior, for some reason often including being allowed to have multiple sexual partners.
11. Group members can set aside any standards of behavior if it is in service of the cult/
"movement."

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

This reminds me of how Ukraine agreed to give up all of their nuclear weapons to Russia in exchange for the assurance of US protection…

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

North Carolina it has been at the center of so many controversies and changes related to Trump/MAGA culture wars and now economic policies. Check back on their furniture industry in a year to see which prediction here is correct. [fact-checking of the Time interview, by Glenn Kessler, WaPo]

"We're also, very importantly, because of that, because of the money we're taking in, those companies are going to come back and they're going to make their product here. They're going to go back into North Carolina and start making furniture again."
This is dubious. North Carolina has a thriving furniture industry, but it increasingly relies on wood from countries such as Mexico - and exports to Canada. Trump's tariffs will make raw materials more expensive and retaliatory tariffs will price U.S. products out of the market. Already this month, a North Carolina housewares company that supplies Walmart and Target said it would shut down and fire all its employees, in part because tariffs would make materials from Mexico and Asia too costly.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Trump’s lies about immigration might be partly generated by events from maybe the last time he read a news article besides a poll. Screenshots from an article by Glenn Kessler in WaPo, fact-checking the Time interview.

• Follow Fact-checking politicians
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"Many criminals - they emptied their prisons, many countries, almost every country, but not a complete emptying, but some countries a complete emptying of their prison system. But you look all over the world, and I'm not just talking about South America, we're talking about all over the world. People have been led into our country that are very dangerous."
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This is poppycock. Immigration experts know of no effort by other countries to empty their prisons and mental institutions. As someone who came to prominence in the late 1970s and early
'8os, Trump appears to be channeling Cuban leader Fidel Castro's 1980 Mariel boatlift. About 125,000 Cubans were allowed to flee to the United States in 1,700 boats - but there was a backlash when it was discovered that hundreds of refugees had been released from jails and mental health facilities. But there's no evidence this happened during the Biden administration. Yet again, Trump is basing policy on an invention.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Trump not only lies about tariffs, but might still truly not understand them. Screenshots from an article by Glenn Kessler in WaPo, fact-checking the Time interview.

"You know, we're resetting a table. We were losing $2 trillion a year on trade, and you can't do that. I mean, at some point somebody has to come along and stop it, because it's not sustainable."
Trump gets two things wrong here. First of all, the goods and services deficit was almost $920 billion in 2024, according to the Commerce Department. So he's doubling the real number.
Second, the United States is not "losing" money on trade deficits. After all these years, Trump still does not grasp this fundamental economic point.
Yet he's basing policy - and steering the United States into economic uncertain times - on this misunderstanding.

"We're taking in billions of dollars of tariffs, by the way. And just to go back to the past, I took in hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs from China, and then when covid came, I couldn't institute the full program, but I took in hundreds of billions, and we had no inflation."
This is false. Trump's China tariffs in his first term took in only about $75 billion - not counting $28 billion in aid to farmers who lost their shirts when China stopped buying soybeans, pork and other products. Inflation averaged about 2 percent in Trump's term, but was about 1.23 percent in 2020 because of the pandemic.
According to Customs and Border Protection, as of April 19, the United States has taken in about $14 billion in tariffs under his International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) declarations. But again, Trump has a
fundamental misunderstanding. Countries do not pay tariffs; the burden falls mainly on American consumers.

"If you look at, more importantly, the companies, the chip companies, the car companies, the Apple. $500 billion. Apple is investing $500 billion in building plants. They never invested in this country."
This is false. Shortly after Biden became president, Apple announced it would invest $430 billion over five years in the United States. In Trump's first term, Apple announced a $350 billion investment over five years - which Trump repeatedly credited to his policies.
"Look, that's what China did to us. They charge us 100 percent. If you look at India
- India charges 100-150 percent. If you look at Brazil, if you look at many, many countries, they charge - that's how they survive. That's how they got rich."

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

Hey #RFKJr , how is that Vitamin A #measles cure doing? I am sure that the kids developing Vitamin A liver damage and seizures just need essential oils or something. #Lubbock #outbreak

From #TheWeek magazine, with a small image of a measles testing program:

Lubbock, Texas
Measles: Texas' measles outbreak worsened this week as Health Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. continued to promote disproven treatments instead of vaccines.
Texas reported 18 new cases, bringing its total to at least 327. At least one child has died. The outbreak remains centered in rural Gaines County, which has low vaccination rates, but has spread to New Mexico and Oklahoma. Some parents followed Kennedy's recommendation to use supplements containing vitamin A such as cod liver oil, which he called "almost miraculous." But doctors at Covenant
Children's Hospital in Lubbock reported treating unvaccinated children with signs of liver damage from consuming too much vitamin A.
Doctors sometimes use vitamin A to manage severe cases, but it doesn't prevent measles and can cause liver damage, hair loss, dry skin, and, in extreme cases, coma and seizures.
"When we have kids taking it for weeks and weeks, then you do potentially have a cumulative impact of the toxicity," said Lubbock physician Lara Johnson.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Small rural conservative Wooster, Ohio: 1,000 people spread through the town square, lining the aptly named “Liberty St” crossed by Market St. #HandsOff #50501 #Resist #ProtectDemocracy

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Concentration Camps are not just in El Salvador: at Krome in Miami, people are packed in standing-room only for days with no food or bathrooms. Many sources on this, thanks to smuggled cameras; let’s start with usually Trump-apologist USA Today: www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/03/23/immigrant-women-hell-on-earth-trump-ice-detention/82029368007/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0LfIOJKklagqLwNDgh7XiPSliuO0rwC1vRQt9WiZFI_nTGckafvu5_Xbg_aem_LAIW7hXUk8xlK25w_QkHAw#ja64xqyiq9ilh7lcxaad8t4e4rpbywc

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

It makes sense that Witkoff would join the top secret discussion of military strategy while in Moscow: this of course makes it easier for the Russians to participate without any journalist knowing about it. Trump might point out that is smart!

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Democrats, building a spine vertebra by vertebra, are trying out some xenophobia. More important than Musk’s allegiance to South Africa is his allegiance to apartheid and to his wealth… but I have to acknowledge that mentioning Musk’s foreign background will reach some fear-based Repub voters.

Taking a Page From Trump's Book
Tim Walz's comments about Elon Musk suggest an attack on the tech billionaires immigrant background is making its way into the public conversation.
At a town-hall-style event in Wisconsin on Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz, Democrat of Minnesota, derided Elon Musk as a "South African nepo baby." Holden Smith/ZUMA Press Wire, via Alamy
Walz, his party's nominee for vice president last year, is one of several Democrats who have referred to Mr. Musk's immigrant background as they ramp up attacks on the billionaire's powerful role in the Trump administration. At times, their language, casting Musk as a foreign outsider, has echoed aspects of President Trump's own xenophobic insults of his political foes - although Mr. Trump's remarks were typically directed toward elected officials of color, not white billionaires.
At a news conference last month,
Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio said she wondered, "Which country is he loyal to? South Africa, Canada, or the United States?" Representative Nydia Velázquez of New York declared Mr. Musk should "go back to South Africa" at a recent protest. At a different protest, Representative Don Beyer of Virginia said, "We're going to send Elon back to South Africa."

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

This cartoon is from 2010. Knight had a great idea about renaming “global warming” as “weather extremism,” to be a better fit for what actually was happening. Instead, folks went with “climate change” which still doesn’t capture the level of alarm needed and the variety of extreme events we see.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Does anyone remember 2022 when newspapers even as conservative as the New York Post were willing to openly challenge Trump’s legitimacy? #Resist #Trump #Media #Journalism #Democracy #SaveDemocracy

Two articles mocking Donald Trump’s candidacy back in 2022, with phrases such as Trumpty Dumpty and “ Florida retiree announces running for president” published in the New York Post

#Politics #Trump #NewYorkPost

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

This is a sad commentary and mockery of response of Democrats to the crisis of the dismantling of government, but then I acknowledge it as part of the picture of rebuilding. At least for Gretchen Whitmer and Tim Walz, talking sports is most clearly not some new act, and it’s not all they are doing.

Ambitious Democrats
Have a New Game Plan:
Yak It Up About Sports
Prominent leaders are flocking to sports radio shows and podcasts, an early sign of how the party is trying to reach apolitical young men who have tilted toward President Trump.
Listen to this article • 8:26 min Learn more
"It takes the politics out of it," said Mr. Walz, whose career as a high school football coach was often highlighted after he became the Democratic nominee for vice president last year.
"When I go out there and go on those shows, it shows you're a real human being and it connects with people on something they care about."
Certainly, Americans have long mixed sports and politics, and many of these Democrats were talking sports well before the last election. Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, who once aspired to be a sports broadcaster, appeared on the "Locked on Lions" podcast last spring to talk about the N.F.L. draft, which was held in Detroit.
But the post-election appearances have been especially striking, particularly because former Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on only a few sports shows during the fall campaign.
The Harris campaign tried but failed to have her appear on popular podcasts hosted by the sports commentator Bill Simmons and the Kelce brothers of professional football, according to a person who sought to arrange her media interviews. (The campaign also failed in its efforts to book her with the podcaster Joe Rogan and the "Hot Ones" YouTube show, which interviews celebrities as they eat blisteringly spicy chicken wings.)

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Seriously, they’re doing their best to prevent firing those people who are “good”: white, male, straight (at least misogynist and pretending not to be gay), who declare unblinking loyalty to Trump rather than the USA, with no gender-affirming care other than masculinizing hair and jaw implants.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Put together local Community Impact Hearings! That’s one plan of our local pro-Democracy group. People might mistrust mainstream media, but they might listen to stories of neighbors affected by DOGE firings and destruction of safety infrastructure and services. #ProDemocracy #Resist #Community

Zann Zsuzsannika
Arizona AG Kris Mayes, New Mexico AG Raul Torrez, and Oregon AG Dan Rayfield have begin holding Community Impact Hearings - a national series of townhalls "to hear from the public about the impact of federal firings and DOGE funding freezes across the country." The first was in Phoenix March 5th.
Every single Democratic governor and attorney general needs to do this -- if only to make it clear to voters *right now that the firings and funding freezes that are about to hurt their states badly are the work of Trump-Musk in Washington. Get ahead of this now, or get blamed for it later.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Some positive news: Pro-Nazis fail in Germany, Angus King speaks against Trump as King, and Washington comically honors Sasquatch.

Pro-democracy forces won German national elections
Disappointingly weak show by neo-Nazi AfD party supported by Elon Musk, JD Vance, and the Kremlin - they might again be SHUT OUT of the government
Wonderful news for Europe - and critical for supporting Ukraine

Zann Zsuzsannika
In case you missed it: In the Senate, Angus King (I-ME) also reached back to the framers of the Constitution when he warned-again-that permitting Trump to take over the power of Congress is "grossly unconstitutional." Trump's concept that he can alter laws by refusing to fund them, so-called impoundment, is
"absolutely straight up unconstitutional," King said, "and it's illegal."

Zann Zsuzsannika
Washington state proclaimed Sasquatch its official state monster.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Some positive news related to resistance and to honoring Betty White.

Zann Zsuzsannika
Betty White to be honored on newest USPS
Forever Stamp

Zann Zsuzsannika
A weakened and embattled CBS is preparing to go on offense over Trump's bullshit 60 Minutes lawsuit even as Trump demands $20 billion in shakedown money from them.

Zann Zsuzsannika
Rep Ayanna Presley rallied with MA-07 federal workers to tell Elon & Trump:
Hands off our bodies.
Hands off our data.
Hands off our democracy.
Hands off our Constitution.
Hands off our federal jobs.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Lawyers are establishing a legal foundation for resisting anti-DEI efforts at universities.

Zann Zsuzsannika
Multiple lawyers and law professors wrote a letter that gives give legal backing to universities to resist the anti-DEl executive order. It is one tool among many that could be used to push universities to fight resegregation and exclusion.

Zann Zsuzsannika
Letter subject: DEl Programs Are Lawful Under Federal Civil Rights Laws and
Supreme Court Precedent
https://app.box.com/s/
2me4mszr6p4oinnucw8i4jmb8d7570kp
OGC Memo re Trump DEl and SFFA 2025 02 20.pdf | Powered by Box

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

The DOGE destruction might be triggering rebellion.

Zann Zsuzsannika
The Trump-Vance-Musk "shock and awe" plan is faltering.
In all these ways and for all of these reasons, the regime's efforts to overwhelm us are failing.
Make no mistake: Trump, Vance, and Musk continue to be an indiscriminate wrecking ball that has already caused major destruction and will continue to weaken and isolate America. But their takeover has been slowed. We can take courage from the green shoots of rebellion now appearing across America and the world.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Positive political news related to Ukraine support. Details duplicated in the Alt text.

Zann Zsuzsannika
The reaction to Trump's abandoning Ukraine and siding with Putin has been more devastating, putting congressional Republicans on the defensive. Prominent Republican senators Roger Wicker of Mississippi and John Kennedy of Louisiana criticized Putin. Bill Kristol, a former official in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, noted that "Nato and the US commitment to Europe has kept the European peace for 80 years. It's foolish and reckless to put that at risk. And for what? To get along with Putin?"

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Positive political and other news compiled and relayed by Zann Zsuzsannika. Details duplicated in the Alt text.

Zann Zsuzsannika
The Office of Special Counsel found that six federal civil servants from six separate agencies had been unlawfully terminated from their positions. Now the Merit Systems Protection Board has granted the request to halt those terminations.

Zann Zsuzsannika
In a victory for voters, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that blocked provisions of two Arizona laws seeking documentary proof of citizenship to vote in presidential elections. The Court called the challenged provisions "unlawful measures of voter suppression."

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Maybe Elon Musk also feels that his station is at war, although his uniform , unlike Churchill’s is not defensive, it’s offensive.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

I’m bummed that this was apparently fixed by the time I tried it out. Tempted to go to Silicon Valley and find that programmer who put in this bug and walk up to them and do a gentle fist bump and grin, and then just go on my way and leave them to get back to good work.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Ukraine is as much to blame for Russia’s #invasion as women who are told they are leading incels into raping them by being taking care of their minds and bodies. “How dare you, #Ukraine, having alluring mineral resources and attractive ports! You were basically saying you wanted to be invaded!”

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

I wonder if saying “Dear Donald” was intended with the same level of genuine affection and respect as people in the South USA saying “bless your heart” to someone who just did something ridiculous.

Article excerpt:
Mr. Macron called Mr. Trump "Dear Donald" four times during a joint news conference on Monday, while emphasizing the shared history between France and the United States - and underscoring that the two leaders had made progress in discussing a sustainable and strong peace agreement for Ukraine.
But even as he stuck to the script and emphasized shared goals and values, Mr.
Macron showed himself willing to push back.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Okay #NYT, you were getting bold in your headline, whoever writes these subtitles completely drops the ball. Here, fixed it for you…

New York Times headlines mentioning Trump’s lies, but then the subtitle refers to them as “manipulations of the truth,” so I changed that to “complete fabrications.”

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

AGAIN here we have the New York Times with an overly forgiving, #biased headline. #Trump and #Hesgeth and #Musk will openly admit that they are stamping out #diversity itself, not just #DEI initiatives. So #NYT should call it like it is. I fixed it for you.

Screenshot of the heading of a New York Times article about the firing of blacks and women in the military with wording “root out diversity initiatives” which I have replaced with the words “purge everyone but white males.”
Includes photo of General Charles Brown Jr., and a mention of Admiral Lisa Franchetti.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

“I still support him for getting rid of the Brown people, blowing up government, punishing the rest of the world, and only letting pure men in women’s bathrooms, but I wanted the government to make sure I have money! Maybe I need to invest in some Trump Bibles… “ — some Midwest farmer maybe

Headlines from two articles about farmers support Trump but worry about Trump tariffs and Trump freezing of funds that benefit them. Between headlines, a photo of two farmers in front of some industrial silos

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

A good way to sell a climbable border wall or or a Gaza full of Trump profit luxury hotels: simply paint an appealing picture. [Cartoon by Theo Moudakis]

Cartoon Donald Trump painting a picture of a tone solid rock wall as if painting makes the tunnel real, using imagery from an old road runner cartoon, while Trump says “a big beautiful tunnel“, the way he referred to the United States southern border wall fiasco has “a big beautiful wall”

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Trump actually posted this on the official White House Instagram account. OK, he’s just trolling and provoking us now. I’m adding some face swap material to make this post fair and balanced

A fake magazine cover with Trump portraying himself as King, posted on the official White House Instagram account, celebrating the denial of New York City’s right to set congestion pricing

An image of Trump’s face on Queen Elizabeth’s body, facing a goose with the caption “I am the queen and I demand respect”

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

America’s the land of opportunity… opportunity for grifters to use the political system to their advantage. How generous of Donald Trump to give Elon Musk a slice of the corruption pie “I’ll use real estate, you use tech, to make money and build power.”

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

This snarky analysis from the DailyShow is about right; we are wasting (um saving) money by letting food and medical supplies rot, (saving on delivery to poor people I guess), but the State Dept might buy $400 million in Cyber”Trucks”, not to mention the money freed up for tax cuts for the wealthy.

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Apple Maps is trying to have it both ways when it comes to the Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America name, but at least they make it possible to see the Mexico name, if you frame it right. [by the way, BOTH names are given by colonizers; this was the Gulf for Europeans on the way to Mexico.]

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Doing a training soon on neurodiversity in the workplace. I worried in my conservative area that talk on equity and inclusion even for autism and ADHD might be controversial, but at least I won’t be hauling out all of these books, which might get me reported to the Musk apartheid enforcers:

Books related to the currently controversial topic of #Diversity, especially when it applies to race: titles include white fragility, biased, Blindspot, anti-racism, waking up white, diversity in the workplace, slavery in the land of the free, and one that I actually will be using, the NeuroDiverse workplace. #DEI #Diversity #Equity #Inclusion #Racism #AntiRacism #Bias #CulturalCompetence

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Hopefully we here at blue sky can at least link to some good journalism. I don’t mean to include Funny Times as an example of journalism; it is refreshing to read every month as a break from digging through propaganda to find factual information. #Journalism #FunnyTimes #SocialMedia #BlueSky

Photo of the cover of the monthly newspaper “funny times”, featuring a cartoon showing people choosing social media for their information rather than authenticated investigator journalism sources

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Google Maps drank the Kool Aid, and allowed Trump‘s Sharpie to redraw maps including this gulf that’s down there by America as you can see, [and close to some of the states built from land stolen from Mexico]

A screenshot of Google maps showing the Gulf of Mexico re-labeled golf of America, as Trump decreed.
#GulfOfMexico #GulfOfAmerica #TrumpSharpie #Trump

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Globally, Locally Jim @thoughtfulpolitics.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Could somebody please plant the idea in Trump‘s mind that Taiwan would be a beautiful place to build a new resort, so maybe he should help protect it against China that he used to hate so much when they wouldn’t loan him money?

Article in The Week magazine, with a satellite image of China’s new military complex

Prepping for war: China is building a staggeringly huge military complex just outside Beijing that U.S. intelligence officials believe is intended as a wartime command headquarters, the Financial Times reported last week. Set on1,500 acres, the facility will be 10 times bigger than the Pentagon and equipped with a vast, hardened underground command center capable of protecting military leaders during a nuclear war. Former CIA China analyst Dennis Wilder said the project shows that Beijing is building "not only a world-class conventional force but also an advanced nuclear warfighting capability." A CIA evaluation in 2023 said Chinese leader Xi Jinping had instructed the military to "be ready by 2027" to invade Taiwan.

#Taiwan #SaveTaiwan #China #War #Imperialism #Trump #ForeignPolicy

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