Hullo science nerds,

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall has a gig I was unfamiliar with until just now... I would regularly see and love his work published in "Funny Times" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funny_Ti… but I saw this post from him:

TMI Show Ep 151: “Artificial Blood Breakthrough”

youtube.com/live/qBlX7b0B0EA

Jun 3, 2025 brings you a heart-pounding episode of “The TMI Show with hosts Ted Rall and Manila Chan,” diving into a game-changing medical revolution! Japan’s Nara Medical University, led by Professor Hiromi Sakai, is making waves with clinical trials for universal artificial blood. Rare blood type? No problem! Nara has you covered with fake blood.

This purple-hued, hemoglobin-based blood, usable for all blood types and storable for two years at room temperature, could solve global blood shortages, especially in emergencies and low-income nations with sketchy refrigeration facilities. With only 40% of the world’s 118 million annual blood donations coming from high-income countries, millions of sick people lack access to the kind of transfusions that saved Ted’s life in 1984, costing lives in trauma, surgery, and childbirth.

Sakai’s lab is out to eliminate infection risks, blood type mismatches, and short shelf life, hoping to launch by 2030. But it’s not without risks—previous artificial blood trials in the U.S. and U.K. raised safety concerns like toxicity and immune reactions. Will Japan’s project solve these issues or face similar setbacks? Tune in for a deep dive into this potential lifesaver and its global impact.

#news #science #technology #medicine #ArtificialBlood #breakthrough

Purloined from elsewhere on the Interwebs. Despite it's claim, Snopes says Liz Cheney DIDN'T write the letter below,. But it's a good letter. Alas, the need to make false claims about the authorship take away from it.

Like her or not, we're now on the same side and this woman knows what she's talking about. She suggests actionable steps steps we must take to win our country back from the fascists.

From Liz Cheney

Dear Democratic Party,

I need more from you.

You keep sending emails begging for $15,

while we're watching fascism consolidate power in real time.

This administration is not simply "a different ideology."

It is a coordinated, authoritarian machine - with the Supreme Court, the House, the Senate, and the executive pen all under its control.

And you?

You're still asking for decorum and donations. WTF.

That won't save us.

I don't want to hear another polite floor speech.

I want strategy.

I want fire.

I want action so bold it shifts the damn news cycle - not fits inside one.

Every time I see something from the DNC, it's asking me for funds.

Surprise.

Those of us who donate don't want to keep sending money just to watch you stand frozen as the Constitution goes up in flames - shaking your heads and saying,

"Well, there's not much we can do. He has the majority."

I call bullshit.

If you don't know how to think outside the box...

If you don't know how to strategize...

If you don't know how to fight fire with fire...

what the hell are we giving you money for?

Some of us have two or three advanced degrees.

Some of us have military training.

Some of us know what coordinated resistance looks like - and this ain't it.

Yes, the tours around the country? Nice.

The speeches? Nice.

The clever congressional clapbacks? Nice.

That was great for giving hope.

Now we need action.

You have to stop acting like this is a normal presidency that will just time out in four years.

We're not even at Day 90, and look at the chaos.

Look at the disappearances.

Look at the erosion of the judiciary, the press, and our rights.

If you do not stop this, we will not make it 1,460 days.

So here's what I need from you - right now:

---

1. Form an independent, civilian-powered investigative coalition.
   I'm talking experts. Veterans. Whistleblowers. Journalists. Watchdog orgs.
   Deputize the resistance. Build a real-time archive of corruption, overreach, and executive abuse.
   Make it public. Make it unshakable.
   Let the people drag the rot into the light.
   If you can't hold formal hearings, hold public ones.
   If Congress won't act, let the country act.
   This isn't about optics - it's about receipts.
   Because at some point, these people will be held accountable.
   And when that day comes, we'll need every name, every signature, every illegal order, every act of silence-documented.
   You're not just preserving truth - you're preparing evidence for prosecution.
   The more they vanish people and weaponize data, the more we need truth in the sunlight.
2. Join the International Criminal Court.
   Yes, I said it. Call their bluff.
   You cannot control what the other side does.
   But you can control your own integrity.
   So prove it. Prove that your party is still grounded in law, human rights, and ethical leadership.
   Join.
   If you've got nothing to hide - join.
   Show the world who's hiding bodies, bribes, and buried bank accounts.
   Force the GOP to explain why they'd rather protect a war criminal than sign a treaty.
   And while you're at it, publicly invite ICC observers into U.S. borders.
   Make this administration explain - on camera - why they're terrified of international oversight.
3. Fund state-level resistance infrastructure.
   Don't just send postcards. Send resources.
   Channel DNC funds into rapid-response teams, legal defense coalitions, sanctuary networks, and digital security training.
   If the federal government is hijacked, build power underneath it.
   If the laws become tools of oppression, help people resist them legally, locally, and boldly.
   This is not campaign season - this is an authoritarian purge.
   Stop campaigning.
   Act like this is the end of democracy, because it is.
   We WILL REMEMBER the warriors come primaries.
   Fighting this regime should be your marketing strategy.
   And let's be clear:
   The reason the other side always seems three steps ahead is because they ARE.
   They prepared for this.
   They infiltrated school boards, courts, local legislatures, and police unions.
   They built a machine while you wrote press releases.
   We're reacting - they've been executing a plan for years.
   It's time to shift from panic to blueprint.
   You should already be working with strategists and military minds on PROJECT 2029 -
   a coordinated, long-term plan to rebuild this country when the smoke clears.
   You should be publicly laying out:
   
   • The laws and amendments you'll pass to ensure this never happens again
   • The systems you'll tear down and the safeguards you'll enshrine
   • The plan to hold perpetrators of human atrocities accountable
   • The urgent commitment to immediately bring home those sold into slavery in El Salvador
     You say you're the party of the people?
     Then show the people the plan.

   
   

4. Use your platform to educate the public on rights and resistance tactics.
   If they're going to strip us of rights and lie about it - arm the people with truth.
   Text campaigns. Mass trainings. Downloadable "Know Your Rights" kits. Multilingual legal guides. Encrypted phone trees.
   Give people tools, not soundbites.
   We don't need more slogans.
   We need survival manuals.
5. Leverage international media and watchdogs.
   Stop hoping U.S. cable news will wake up.
   They're too busy playing both sides of fascism.
   Feed the real stories to BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Reuters, Der Spiegel - hell, leak them to anonymous dropboxes if you have to.
   Make what's happening in America a global scandal.
   And stop relying on platforms that are actively suppressing truth.
   Start leveraging Substack. Use Bluesky.
   That's where the resistance is migrating. That's where censorship hasn't caught up.
   If the mainstream won't carry the truth - outflank them.
   Get creative. Go underground. Go global.
   If our democracy is being dismantled in broad daylight, make sure the whole world sees it - and make sure we're still able to say it.
6. Create a digital safe haven for whistleblowers and defectors.
   Not everyone inside this regime is loyal.
   Some are scared. Some want out.
   Build the channels.
   Encrypted. Anonymous. Protected.
   Make it easy for the cracks in the system to become gaping holes.
   And while you're at it?
   Stop ostracizing MAGA defectors.
   Everyone makes mistakes - even glaring, critical ones.
   We are not the bullies.
   We are not the ones filled with hate.
   And it is not your job to shame people who finally saw the fire and chose to step out of it.
   They will have to deal with that internal struggle - the guilt of putting a very dangerous and callous regime in power.
   But they're already outnumbered. Don't push them back into the crowd.
   We don't need purity.
   We need numbers.
   We need people willing to burn their red hats and testify against the machine they helped build.
7. Study the collapse-and the comeback.
   You should be learning from South Korea and how they managed their brief rule under dictatorship.
   They didn't waste time chasing the one man with absolute immunity.
   They went after the structure.
   The aides. The enforcers. The loyalists. The architects.
   They knocked out the foundation one pillar at a time -
   until the "strongman" had no one left to stand on.
   And his power crumbled beneath him.
   You should be independently investigating every author of Project 2025,
   every aide who defies court orders,
   every communications director repeating lies,
   every policy writer enabling cruelty,
   every water boy who keeps this engine running.
   You can't stop a regime by asking the king to sit down.
   You dismantle the throne he's standing on - one coward at a time.

---

Stop being scared to fight dirty when the other side is fighting to erase the damn Constitution.

They are threatening to disappear AMERICANS.

A M E R I C A N S.

And your biggest move can't be another strongly worded email.

We don't want your urgently fundraising subject lines.

We want backbone.

We want action.

We want to know you'll stand up before we're all ordered to sit down - permanently.

We are watching.

And I don't just mean your base.

I mean millions of us who see exactly what's happening.

I've only got 6,000 followers - but the groups I'm in? The networks I touch? Over a quarter million.

Often when I speak, it echoes.

But when we ALL

speak, it ROARS with pressure that will cause change.

We need to be deafening.

You still have a chance to do something historic.

To be remembered for courage, not caution.

To go down as the party that didn't just watch the fall - but fought the hell back with everything they had.

But the clock is ticking.

And the deportation buses are idling.

#DNC #DemocraticParty #resist

From Fear and Loathing:: Closer to the Edge

You’re not a criminal. You’re not an agent of chaos. You’re not the villain here. You’re a person with a conscience — which already makes you a public threat in 2025.

So maybe you’re thinking: What if I cross that line? What if I refuse to sit still while the country catches fire around me? What if I choose to get arrested?

Here are answers to some FAQs:

CAN I SAY I PLAN TO GET ARRESTED?

Yes. This is still technically America, even if it feels like the set of a rejected dystopian pilot. You can say, “I plan to sit down in that intersection and refuse to move until I’m cuffed.” That’s called speech. That’s called protest. That’s called not letting the bastards have the last word.

CAN I TELL OTHER PEOPLE TO GET ARRESTED TOO?

You can say, “Join me.” You can say, “We need bodies in the streets.” You can even say, “Let’s shut it down.”

What you can’t say — unless you want an extra charge or three — is “Let’s go full Joker mode and blow up a courthouse.” Don’t do that. No Molotovs. No violence. Keep it nonviolent, organized, and defiant. That’s how movements win — and how we sleep at night.

IF WE PLAN IT TOGETHER, IS THAT CONSPIRACY?

If you're planning brunch, it's a group chat. If you're planning a peaceful protest, it’s the First Amendment. But the moment someone in power decides you’re inconvenient? Suddenly it's conspiracy to trespass, interference with government operations, or whatever else they dig up to shut you up.

They want you afraid of organizing. That’s why you organize harder.

And after the action? Zip it. Post no selfies. Give no statements. Shut the hell up and call a lawyer.

WHAT WILL THEY CHARGE ME WITH?

These are their favorite hits:

* Trespassing
* Disorderly conduct
* Failure to disperse
* Obstructing a sidewalk (yes, seriously)

Sometimes you’ll get a ticket.

Sometimes a night in jail.

Sometimes a scar. But for most people, it's a manageable misdemeanor — unless you’re in a red state, on federal land, or your protest made a donor’s brunch go cold.

The real charge? Making them look bad. That’s when they start to overreact. Wear it like a badge.

STATE VS. FEDERAL ARREST — WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Think parking ticket vs. Kafka fan fiction.

A state arrest? You’re dealing with local cops, local jails, maybe local news. It sucks, but it’s doable.

A federal arrest? Now you’re in alphabet soup territory — DHS, FBI. Avoid federal property unless you're ready to be treated like a threat to national security because you dared to sit in front of a door.

CAN I CHAIN MYSELF TO SOMETHING?

Yes — if it’s symbolic, safe, and not a federal war monument. Chain yourself to a tree, a gate, a friend — fine. Chain yourself to the doors of a federal building? You just upgraded from “activist” to “federal case number.” Know your audience.

CAN I TELL THE COPS I WANT TO BE ARRESTED?

Absolutely. Civil disobedience only works if you’re willing to take the hit — peacefully, loudly, and on camera. Just don’t swing, don’t run, and don’t say anything stupid. “I’m doing this to protest injustice” = fine. “I’m gonna torch your squad car” = felony.

WILL THIS STAY ON MY RECORD FOREVER?

Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on your state, your lawyer, your skin color, and your luck. Some charges get dropped. Some get sealed. But you know what stays on all our records?

Silence.

The shit we didn’t do. The people we didn’t help. The moment we stayed home when it mattered most.

WHAT IF I ANNOUNCE MY PLANS PUBLICLY?

Go ahead — just know what comes with it. If you post “I’m organizing a sit-in at the Capitol,” don’t be surprised when they know your name. Leaders get targeted first. But someone’s gotta lead. And if not you, then who?

WHAT HAPPENS IF I DO NOTHING?

That’s the real question.

You keep your record clean, maybe. You sleep in your own bed, probably. But the machine keeps grinding. They ban more books. They deport more kids. They criminalize more bodies. They redraw more maps. They rewrite more history.

You don’t get arrested. But you lose the country.

SO SHOULD I DO IT?

We’re not telling you what to do. We’re telling you what it costs — both ways. The risk of action is real. So is the risk of inaction.

Movements don’t need martyrs. But they do need bodies. Real people. Loud voices. Unbreakable courage. And sometimes, yes — someone willing to sit in the street and say: Enough.

Because bravery spreads. So does fear.

And the country we get next?

It’s the one we earn.

#CivilDisobedience #protest #resist #resistance #advice #guide #arrest

Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t just about tax cuts it quietly guts federal protections and reshapes entire agencies. Here’s what’s buried inside:

• Closure of the U.S. Department of Education
• 25% expansion of logging in national forests, bypassing environmental reviews and fast-tracking timber production
• Rollbacks on clean energy incentives, cutting tax credits for EVs and renewables, gutting key climate provisions
• More public lands opened up for drilling, mining, and logging, with royalty breaks for fossil fuel companies
• Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, ending U.S. participation in global climate efforts
• Executive Order 14215, forcing independent federal agencies to follow White House legal interpretations and centralizing authority under the presidency
• Pension changes for federal workers hired before 2014, cutting take-home pay by raising required contributions, reducing future payouts, and eliminating early retirement supplements
• REINS Act-style regulation repeal, where major federal rules expire unless Congress re-approves them every 5 years allowing Trump to quietly erase protections without rewriting laws
• Expanded executive control over agency budgets, allowing the White House to move federal funds internally without explicit congressional approval
• Restoration of impoundment powers, giving Trump the ability to block or delay spending already passed by Congress reviving powers stripped after Watergate
• Creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), placing White House–aligned teams inside every federal agency with access to internal systems and influence over hiring and daily operations
• Sharp cuts in regulatory enforcement, with agencies like the EPA, CFPB, and Labor and Transportation Departments halting enforcement of key safety, environmental, and anti-discrimination rules
• Trump’s personal control over economic policy, strengthening his power to direct tariffs, pressure private companies, and dictate pricing with little resistance treating the U.S. economy like his own business

This bill isn’t just “big.” It’s a roadmap for dismantling oversight, hollowing out federal protections, and handing Trump sweeping, unchecked control. Read the fine print.

#MadKingDonald #resist #authoritarianism

May 2025 - Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band opened their Land of Hope & Dreams Tour in Manchester, England. Bruce launched this run of shows with three statements about the situation in the United States, with comments preceding his songs "Land of Hope and Dreams," "House of a Thousand Guitars" and "My City of Ruins."​ 👍

VIDEO: Land of Hope and Dreams

Meanwhile... a deranged narcissist​ unable to cope with the popularity of the above posted his ​latest fantasy on his vanity website, hoping to reinforce his delusions that he is more popular than Bruce.​ 👎

VIDEO: Mad King Donald's rock star fantasies

(​Actually, I'm trying to fact-check that. It seems to be widely reported / reposted, but I'm having trouble finding neutral sources... Supposedly originally posted to his vanity website, which is behind a paywall... So, take it with at least a grain of salt.)

#BruceSpringsteen #MadKingDonald #resist #authoritarianism #fascism #xenophobia #narcissism #speech

Author ~ Eilene Workman

I know a little something that so many do not appreciate about Donald, but that those of us who worked with him in the financial services game have known for many decades—LONG before he ever made a run at politics.

His stated motives rarely reveal his true agenda. His showmanship and charisma bedazzles the uninformed, which is exactly how he likes it.

He never signed a contract or met an agreement he wouldn’t violate or wriggle out of if it suited his hidden agenda. He never met an investor whose purse he didn’t consider his own in some strategic way. And he never met a human being he wouldn’t screw in order to advance or satisfy himself.

If you want to understand his beef with Panama, don’t look at the canal to which he now points. Look at Trump enterprises and their fraught financial and criminal relationship with Panama, and look to the Russian oligarchs who bought condos in his Panama Tower.

If you want to understand his fixation with Gaza, don’t look at the Palestinian or Israeli people; look at the real estate value he now perceives that Gaza holds, and he’d like to unlock.

If you want to understand his insane, obsessive beef with energy renewable windmills, don’t look at the wind energy aspect; look at his beef with Scotland over his golf course and the nearby windmills that damaged his idea of its aesthetics.

If you want to understand his irrational hatred of Obama, don’t look at the policies of the Obama administration; look to the annual press corp dinner where Obama poked fun at him and bruised his ego. If you want to understand his demonization of Democrats, look not to Democratic social policy, but to the fact they didn’t want him to run under color of their party.

If you want to understand his hatred of “immigrants” don’t look to the actual contributions and challenges related to immigration, but to his own germophobia and personal disgust for all things “dirty and brown.”

What he does SO masterfully, as many sociopaths do, is figure out how to align, however temporarily, his own personal agenda with the drives of those he can then USE to help him execute it. And the GOP fell right in line with that abusive strategy.

The GOP now looks much like a battered wife who would LOVE to quit Trump, but who also knows their financial security, personal comfort, and social status would collapse if they ran away. And they fear they won’t get much sympathy or support from the people who tried to warn them not to marry the dude—a serial, liar, cheater, thief, sadist, and a generally Bad Person.

Many of the GOP politicians today are busily masking their own abuse from the general public; at some point, however, as they watch their power continue to erode, their reputations get smashed, and themselves get blamed for the extensive abuse they now suffer, something’s gonna give.

I don’t know what it is, but every bone in my body FEELS an energetic convergence heading toward a massive, MASSIVE explosion—coming soon.

Author ~ Eilene Workman

#MadKingDonald #NarcissistInChief #resist

BREAKING: The tide has shifted.

by Bo Forbes

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, it turns out, has been having second thoughts about the illegal abduction and deportation of U.S. residents by the Trump Administration and their internment in El Salvador.

It seems much less funny to him than it did just weeks ago, when he laughed with Trump in the Oval Office and claimed he couldn't "smuggle a 'terrorist' (by which he meant Kilmar Abrego Garcia) into the U.S."

Beneath his jocular exterior lurked a rising tension. And now, we know several reasons why.

The New York Times has just published an investigative piece revealing a shocking behind-the-scenes look at the agreement between Trump and President Bukele.

A piece I'm publishing tomorrow on Substack (sign up for free at Bodies of Knowledge) shows how on April 18, Trump began to post photoshopped pictures of what he claimed to be Abrego Garcia's knuckles.

(In the badly botched attempt, someone had inserted the number-letter combination M-S-1-3 above the real tattoos on Abrego Garcia's hand- in a font completely unlike the one that MS-13 favors.)

But Trump's disinformation was a day late and, perhaps, millions of dollars short.

Trump's doctored photo directly contrasts several pictures that President Bukele posted on his own Twitter account one day earlier, on April 17, when Senator Chris Van Hollen came to visit.

In the caption that accompanied the posts, Bukele wrote, "Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the “death camps” & “torture”, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!🍹"

But in Bukele's own photos of himself, Abrego Garcia, and Van Hollen, there are no M-S-13 signifiers on Abrego Garcia's knuckles.

And as you can see from the photo that accompanies this post, no such numbers are tattooed on his knuckles there, nor are they on any of the photos that Abreego Garcia's fiancee Jennifer supplied to the government.

This is, to put it mildly... awkward.

The NYT piece explains one reason why Trump attempted to save face by parading around this ridiculously photoshopped image in the hopes that no one would figure out that it was photoshopped, or that the images already there on Abrego Garcia's hand do not signify MS-13.

Many in Trump's base had claimed that the letter-number combination was merely a symbol to indicate gang membership rather than actually present on the hand. This would have given Trump an "out," but his hubris wouldn't let him take it.

The NYT piece (and now, dozens of others reporting it) explains why Trump got very testy in an interview with Terry Moran of ABC this week. In the interview, he insisted that the photoshopped M-S-1-3 were not signifiers but were actually on Kilmar's hand, a fallacy even a five-year-old child could detect.

Trump then badgered Moran to just "accept" the photoshopped picture as the real deal. When Moran wouldn't do so and tried, oddly, to give Trump an out by changing the topic to Ukraine, Trump insulted the journalist by saying that the only reason he agreed to the interview, which he tried to pass off as the "big break" of Moran's career, was because he'd "never heard of" Moran.

The NYT piece explains why the administration continues to insist that Abrego Garcia was "deported" when he was not, or that he's an MS-13 member when he is not.

And it explains why the Trump administration trotted out the mother of Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old autistic woman who was raped and murdered by a fugutive from El Salvador in 2023. They were trying to put forth a racist trope that associates Salvadorans with rapists and murderers.

This trick is as old as... Lee Atwater, the blues-playing political operative who envisioned the racist Willie Horton ad that won George H.W. Bush the election in 1988. (Lee taught Karl Rove everything he knew, which gives you an idea of how despicable he was, and how unprincipled.)

My brother Stefan Forbes (Interpositive Media Awareness Campaigns) made a film about Lee in 2008, called Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story.

It's an electrifying film, which you can view on multiple outlets. Stefan won the Polk award and Edward R. Murrow award for journalism for the work he did in that film.

For the short version of the tricks the film uncovers, you can also catch Stefan's appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe (way back in 2008), here: youtube.com/watch?v=XXZn-Vafi8…

Lee died of a brain tumor in 1991 at the age of 40. He had a deathbed conversion of sorts, in which he apologized for the ad, and for his "naked cruelty" to Dukakis in the 1988 campaign. Many say the apology was just another of his cons.

While reviewing the trailer for Boogie Man in preparation for tomorrow's article, I was shocked to see a photo of Lee standing next to none other than a young Donald Trump, who likely admired Lee's racist strategies.

Back to Bukele. According to several sources in the current administration who spoke to the NYT, the Salvadoran President agreed to house only "convicted criminals" (the operative word here being "convicted") in his prison, and not people abducted and deported without due process, which is what the Trump administration decided to do.

Bukele began quietly to express reservations about these abductions, which grew more pronounced when Senator Chris Van Hollen and several members of Congress visited.

President Bukele agreed to let the U.S. use his prisons, but with conditions, he had told Marco Rubio and Mauricio Claver-Carone, Mr. Trump’s Latin American envoy.

Bukele asked the U.S. for assurances that each of the people sent to CECOT, his prison, were members of Tren de Aragua, the transnational gang with roots in Venezuela, according to people familiar with the situation and documents obtained by The New York Times.

But Trump's strategy for mass deportations depended on invoking the "Alien Enemies Act," an 18th-century wartime law which would treat migrants as though they were citizens of a country at war with the United States.

According to the NYT, the strategy was employed so haphazardly that 8 women were deported to the prison, a males-only facility, and had to be flown back to the U.S. immediately.

Among his conditions, Bukele in particular did not want to bring in noncriminal migrants. As he explained to Trump's aides, he could not convince Salvadorans he was prioritizing their national interests if he turned their country into a "dumping ground" for U.S. deportees from other countries.

But for a fee, he did agree to take in violent criminals, no matter their nationality, which would help subsidize the country’s prison system.

Bukele is now in a difficult position.

The deal was only for convicted criminals, not people with no criminal records and no evidence concerning involvement either in Tren de Aragua or MS-13.

Bukele continues to hold Abrego Garcia and hundreds of others who have been deported without due process, many without criminal records, and who he imprisoned in CECOT.

Abrego Garcia's name and story are have become internationally known. He is the focus of human rights groups worldwide.

And now, the eyes of the world are upon Bukele, too.

Bukele was content to imprison and torture his own people under the veneer of economic gain.

Now, people will forever see him as the Gulag Keeper, a far cry from his self-described image as the world's "coolest dictator".

It's abundantly clear to much of the world that these abductions and deportations have been conducted illegally and without due process.

Now, not only the world but Bukele's own people believe the rumors that he imprisons innocent people.

And should he return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. where he belongs, he'd cause a massive "political blow" to the Trump administration.

The Trump-Bukele bromance and the problems it leaves in its wake also signal to Trump's other would-be authoritarian allies that Trump's cabinet is crooked, unable to cover their tracks, and are security risks. Oh, and that colluding with Trump in these ways may well prove to be a liability.

There's more, too, having to do with U.S. attorneys spending years building cases against the actual leaders and members of MS-13, whose extradition Bukele has requested before they can give up their secrets in U.S. courts of law.

Please note: Like all my work here and on Substack, this one is cited and has evidence to support it; the full piece is coming out on Thursday. Bodies of Knowledge.

To complement this post and offer background as well as historical comparisons to Stalin's Gulag, Hitler's network of concentration camps, and of course, the U.S.'s removal of First Nations people from their land and Japanese internment camps, try: The New American Gulag or The Geography of Dehumanization

The point of this extra-judicial prison system, where Trump has also voiced his desire to send "really bad" U.S. citizens but also, as we see, people whose beliefs do not agree with his, is also to foment bias and prejudice for the citizens of the countries (like El Salvador) in which these prisons are located.

The idea is that eventually, of course, anyone sent to these concentration camps will be considered "terrorists". We won't need proof; we'll simply take Trump's word for it. Or so he thinks.

The people claiming that the illegal abductions and deportations taking place against court orders and beyond the reach of U.S. jurisdiction, are a "much-needed reset", or trying to associate Salvadorans with terrorists, are (like Trump and his cabinet) deeply out of touch with reality.

Feel free to share (with attribution, naturally).

(A gift subscription to the NYT piece.)

#immigration #deportation #crime #politics #authoritaranism #dictatorship #resist #MadKingDonald #UnitedStates

Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker rallies Democratic Party

by Heather Cox Richardson
·
April 28, 2025 (Monday)

There has been a change afoot in the Democratic Party for a while now as its leaders shift from trying to find common ground with Republicans to standing firmly against MAGAs and articulating their own vision for the United States.

That shift burst dramatically into the open last night when Democratic Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker gave a barn-burning speech to Democrats in New Hampshire. After walking out to the American Authors song “Go Big or Go Home,” Pritzker urged Democrats to stop listening to “do-nothing political types” who are calling for caution at a time when Americans are demanding urgent action, and to “fight—EVERYWHERE AND ALL AT ONCE.”

Pritzker highlighted three ordinary Americans who are opposing the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” by building communities to protest, hanging an upside-down flag on the face of Yosemite National Park’s famous cliff El Capitan, and welcoming Vice President J.D. Vance to Sugarbush Resort in Vermont with a snow report calling attention to the administration’s attacks on veterans, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ Americans, immigrant workers, and people of color. He urged Democrats to lead with the same passion.

He listed the positions on which he wants Democrats to stand firm, beginning: “It’s wrong to snatch a person off the street and ship them to a foreign gulag with no chance to defend themselves in a court of law.” This is not about immigration, he said, but about the Constitution. “Standing for the idea that the government doesn’t have the right to kidnap you without due process is arguably the MOST EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN SLOGAN IN HISTORY,” he said. “Today, it’s an immigrant with a tattoo. Tomorrow, it’s a citizen whose Facebook post annoys Trump.”

Pritzker tore into the MAGA myth that Democrats want rapists and murderers on the streets, saying that Democrats do not want undocumented immigrants who are convicted of violent crimes to stay in the country. He called for “real, sensible immigration reform.”

But, he said, “Immigration—with all its struggles and its complexities—is part of the secret sauce that makes America great, always. Immigrants strengthen our communities, enrich our neighborhoods, renew our passion for America’s greatness, enliven our music and our culture, enhance understanding of the world. The success of our economy depends upon immigrants. In fact, forty-six percent…of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.”

Trump’s attacks on immigrants, he said, are likely to make the U.S. economy fail.

Indeed, he suggested, making America fail is the point of the Trump administration's actions. “We have a Secretary of Education who hates teachers and schools,” he said. “We have a Secretary of Transportation who hates public transit. We have an Attorney General who hates the Constitution. We have a Secretary of State, the son of naturalized citizens—a family of refugees—on a crusade to expel our country of both.

“We have a head of the Department of Government Efficiency— an immigrant granted the privilege of living and working here, a man who has made hundreds of billions of dollars after the government rescued his business for him—who is looking to destroy the American middle class to fund tax cuts for himself. And we have a President who claims to love America but who hates our military so much that he calls them ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’ and who can’t be bothered to delay his golf game to greet the bodies of four fallen US soldiers. And we have a Grand Old Party, founded by one of our nation’s bravest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln—who today would be a Democrat, I might add—... so afraid of the felon and the fraud that they put in the White House that they would sooner watch him destroy our country than lift a hand to save it.”

He called on Democrats to “stop wondering if you can trust the nuclear codes to people who don’t know how to organize a group chat. It’s time to stop ignoring the hypocrisy in wearing a big gold cross while announcing the defunding of children’s cancer research. And time to stop thinking we can reason or negotiate with a madman. Time to stop apologizing when we were NOT wrong. Time to stop surrendering, when we need to fight.

“Our small businesses don’t deserve to be bankrupted by unsustainable tariffs. Our retirees don’t deserve to be left destitute by a Social Security Administration decimated by Elon Musk. Our citizens don’t deserve to lose healthcare coverage because Republicans want to hand a tax cut to billionaires. Our federal workers don’t deserve to have, well, a 19-year-old DOGE bro called Big Balls destroy their careers.

“Autistic kids and adults who are loving contributors to our society don’t deserve to be stigmatized by a weird nepo baby who once stashed a dead bear in the backseat of his car.

“Our military servicemembers don’t deserve to be told by a washed up Fox TV commentator, who drank too much and committed sexual assault before being appointed Secretary of Defense, that they can’t serve this country simply because they’re Black or gay or a woman.

“And If it sounds like I’m becoming contemptuous of Donald Trump and the people that he has elevated, it’s because...I am. You should be too. They are an affront to every value this country was founded upon.”

Pritzker called on Democrats to be “bold and our ideas fearless…. And we must deliver on that agenda for working families and for the real people who truly make America great.”

“I understand the tendency to give in to despair right now,” he said, “But despair is an indulgence that we cannot afford in the times upon which history turns. Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now.

“These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have. We must castigate them on the soap box, and then punish them at the ballot box. They must feel in their bones that when we survive this shameful episode of American history with our democracy intact—because we have no alternative but to do just that—that we will relegate their portraits to the museum halls reserved for tyrants and traitors.”

“Cowardice can be contagious,” Pritzker said, “But so too can courage…. Just as the hope that we hold onto in the darkness, shines with its own...special light.

“Tonight, I’m telling you what I’m willing to do...is fight—for our democracy, for our liberty, for the opportunity for all our people to live lives that are meaningful and free. And I see around me tonight a roomful of people who are ready to do the same.”

“So I have one question for all of you,” Pritzker said. “Are you ready for the fight?”

#resist #authoritarianism #MAGAs #MadKingDonald #DOGE #news #Pritzker #DemocraticParty #politics #UnitedStates #immigration #health #education #defense

Making the rounds on social media. I make no claims as to it's validity. Nonetheless, I present it here:

Just when you think you couldn’t love Tommy Lee anymore he delivers this bit of solid Gold.

"An Open Letter to the president"
From the Drummer of Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee

Dear Fucking Lunatic,

At your recent press conference - more a word salad that had a stroke and fell down stairs, you were CLEARLY so out of your depth you needed scuba gear. Within minutes of going off air your minions were backpedaling faster than Cirque De Soliel acrobats...

In India a week ago, i couldn’t get past the bit about your being the most popular visitor in the history of fucking india — a country of a BILLION human souls that’s only 3000 years old, give or take.!!! Trust me - Gandhi pulled CROWDS.. You pulled a cricket stadium and half WALKED out...

Do you know how fucking insane you sound, you off-brand butt plug? That's like the geopolitical equivalent of “that stripper really likes me” — only 10,000 times crazier and less self aware.

You are fucking exhausting. Every day is a natural experiment in determining how long 300 million people can resist coring out their own assholes with an ice auger. Every time I hear a snippet of your Queens-tinged banshee larynx farts, I want to scream!

We are fucking tired. As bad as we all thought your presidency would be when Putin got you elected, it’s been inestimably worse.

You called a hostile, nuclear-armed head of state “short and fat.” How the fuck does that help?

You accused a woman — a former friend, no less — of showing up at your resort bleeding from the face and begging to get in. You, you, YOU — the guy who looks like a Christmas haggis inexplicably brought to life by Frosty’s magic hat — yes, you of all people said that.

You attempted — with evident fucking glee — to get 24 million people thrown off their health insurance.

You gave billions away to corporations and the already wealthy while simultaneously telling struggling poor people that you were doing exactly the opposite.

You endorsed a pedophile, praised brutal dictators, and defended LITERAL FUCKING NAZIS!

Ninety-nine percent of everything you say is either false, crazy, incoherent, just plain cruel, or a rancid paella of all four.

Oh, by the way, Puerto Rico is still FUBAR. You got yourself and your family billions in tax breaks for Christmas. What do they get? More paper towels?

Enough, enough, enough, enough! For the love of God and all that is holy, good, and pure, would you please, finally and forever, shut your feculent KFC-hole until you have something valuable — or even marginally civil — to say?You are a fried dick sandwich with a side of schlongs. If chlamydia and gonorrhea had a son, you’d appoint him HHS secretary. You are a disgraceful, pustulant hot stew full of casuistry, godawful ideas, unintelligible non sequiturs, and malignant rage.

You are the perfect circus orangutan diaper from Plato’s World of Forms.

So fuck you Mr. President. And fuck you forever.

Oh, and Pence, you oleaginous house ferret. Fuck you, too. You'll be as useful as a chocolate teapot against a medical crisis you Bible thumping cock socket.

#resist #protest #politics #UnitedStates #dictatorship #fascism #MadKingDonald

In response to this edict from the Trump administration giving every school district only 10 days to respond, one brave district superintendent wrote this. (Name was withheld for obvious reasons..)

Still Not Signing: A Superintendent's Response to the Department of Education's Anti-DEI Ultimatum

The federal government gave us ten days to sign away our values. Here’s our answer.

April 8, 2025

To Whom It May (Unfortunately) Concern at the U.S. Department of Education:

Thank you for your April 3 memorandum, which I read several times — not because it was legally persuasive, but because I kept checking to see if it was satire. Alas, it appears you are serious.

You’ve asked me, as superintendent of a public school district, to sign a "certification" declaring that we are not violating federal civil rights law — by, apparently, acknowledging that civil rights issues still exist. You cite Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, then proceed to argue that offering targeted support to historically marginalized students is somehow discriminatory.

That’s not just legally incoherent — it’s a philosophical Möbius strip of bad faith.

Let me see if I understand your logic:

If we acknowledge racial disparities, that’s racism.

If we help English learners catch up, that’s favoritism.

If we give a disabled child a reading aide, we’re denying someone else the chance to struggle equally.

And if we train teachers to understand bias, we’re indoctrinating them — but if we train them to ignore it, we’re “restoring neutrality”?

How convenient that your sudden concern for “equal treatment” seems to apply only when it’s used to silence conversations about race, identity, or inequality.

Let’s talk about our English learners. Would you like us to stop offering translation services during parent-teacher conferences? Should we cancel bilingual support staff to avoid the appearance of “special treatment”? Or would you prefer we just teach all content in English and hope for the best, since acknowledging linguistic barriers now counts as discrimination?

And while we’re at it — what’s your official stance on IEPs? Because last I checked, individualized education plans intentionally give students with disabilities extra support. Should we start removing accommodations to avoid offending the able-bodied majority? Maybe cancel occupational therapy altogether so no one feels left out?

If a student with a learning disability receives extended time on a test, should we now give everyone extended time, even if they don’t need it? Just to keep the playing field sufficiently flat and unthinking?

Your letter paints equity as a threat. But equity is not the threat. It’s the antidote to decades of failure. Equity is what ensures all students have a fair shot. Equity is what makes it possible for a child with a speech impediment to present at the science fair. It’s what helps the nonverbal kindergartner use an AAC device. It’s what gets the newcomer from Ukraine the ESL support she needs without being left behind.

And let’s not skip past the most insulting part of your directive — the ten-day deadline. A national directive sent to thousands of districts with the subtlety of a ransom note, demanding signatures within a week and a half or else you’ll cut funding that supports... wait for it... low-income students, disabled students, and English learners.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. A moral victory for bullies and bureaucrats everywhere.

So no, we will not be signing your “certification.”

We are not interested in joining your theater of compliance.

We are not interested in gutting equity programs that serve actual children in exchange for your political approval.

We are not interested in abandoning our legal, ethical, and educational responsibilities to satisfy your fear of facts.

We are interested in teaching the truth.

We are interested in honoring our students’ identities.

We are interested in building a school system where no child is invisible, and no teacher is punished for caring too much.

And yes — we are prepared to fight this. In the courts. In the press. In the community. In Congress, if need be.

Because this district will not be remembered as the one that folded under pressure.

We will be remembered as the one that stood its ground — not for politics, but for kids.

Sincerely,
District Superintendent
Still Teaching. Still Caring. Still Not Signing.

#education #resist #broligarchy #fascism #racism #DEI #MadKingDonald #authoritarianism

From LinkedIn

The social security administration “never had a data breach" in its 85 years of operation. TikToker lnkd.in/ev73WSJa , policy nerd Kathryn Anne Edwards, talks about the SSA for 53 minutes and somehow makes it interesting: lnkd.in/emueVBEN

As a young person (age 22) she wrote “A Young Person’s Guide to Social Security” and clearly has been obsessed with the topic since then.

Apparently the SSA was never in danger of bankruptcy. Even the 2035 milestone of having to reduce payments is 70% solvable if they remove the cap on payments for incomes over $170,000 (5% of the population). The cap was introduced in 1983 at the same time as 50-year planned change in payments rates to safeguard beyond 2035. The plan had two mistakes: one, adding that cap, and two, not predicting that wages would stagnate for people below the cap while skyrocketing for the people above the cap.

In other words it has nothing to do with the ageing population – that was predicted, priced and planned 50 years ago, with regular updates from the government’s actuaries.

She wrote her book back then because young people keep on being told social security will not last. This is not true and it is an amazing welfare program.

This Is Not a Drill: Trump’s Day-One Order Sets the Stage for Martial Law

By Tony Pentimalli

On January 20, 2025, while the press focused on the optics of Donald Trump’s indoor inauguration, something far more dangerous was set in motion—off-camera, away from ceremony, and beneath the radar of a public lulled by spectacle.

Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency at the southern border. But the most alarming part? It gave the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security just 90 days to deliver a joint report on whether he should invoke the Insurrection Act.

That deadline is April 20.

This wasn’t about immigration. It was about power.

The Insurrection Act, passed in 1807, gives the president the authority to deploy the U.S. military on American soil. That means troops in our cities. That means bypassing governors. That means suspending protest rights. That means the death of democratic dissent—under the false pretense of restoring “order.”

And Trump’s not hiding it. He’s preparing it.

We’ve seen this before. In June 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, millions of Americans rose up in protest. Trump didn’t respond with compassion—he called for “domination.” When the military hesitated to invoke the Insurrection Act, Trump sent federal forces to violently clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square so he could wave a Bible in front of a church. Not an ounce of remorse followed. He was angry the generals didn’t go far enough.

This time, he’s made sure they won’t hesitate.

Since returning to power, Trump has purged the Pentagon of independent thinkers. In their place? Loyalists. Pete Hegseth is now Secretary of Defense. Tulsi Gabbard runs intelligence. And J.D. Vance—Vice President—is openly on board with using military force against Americans on American soil.

Then, on March 19, those three—Vance, Gabbard, and Hegseth—staged a photo op at the southern border. Not a routine visit. Not a strategy session. A performance.
Think about it. Why would the Vice President, the head of military intelligence, and the Defense Secretary all need to go to the border together? Why make a media spectacle of it?

Because it wasn’t about the border. It was about the optics. It was about laying the emotional groundwork for invoking the Insurrection Act. They were building the narrative. “We had to act.” “We had no choice.” “The crisis was too big.”

And what comes next?

It’s June 2025. Trump goes on national TV and declares that Democratic cities are under siege by “radicals” and “illegals.” He signs the Insurrection Act order. Troops hit the streets of Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia. Protesters are arrested under “emergency provisions.” Journalists are detained. Social media accounts vanish. Immigrants are swept into detention centers. The press is told to stand down. The public is told to shut up.

And it’s all legal.

Some of you might think, “He’s bluffing. The military won’t go along. The courts will stop him.”

Really?

• Were they bluffing when federal agents brutalized peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square?
• Did the military refuse? No. The National Guard was deployed. Many in uniform carried out the order. It was only later that a few expressed regret—after the damage was done.
• Did the courts stop January 6? No. They prosecuted rioters after the fact, but the attack happened. Congress fled. Democracy was nearly strangled live on TV.
• Did they stop the family separation policy? No. Thousands of children were taken from their parents before courts intervened—long after the trauma was inflicted.
• Did they stop the Muslim ban? No. The Supreme Court upheld it. Entire families were stranded or banned simply because of where they came from.
• Did they stop ICE raids or CBP abuses? Rarely. A handful of rulings. A few headlines. But the system kept grinding, unchecked and cruel.

So if you’re waiting for “the system” to save us, you’re waiting for something that has already failed.

The April 20 report is coming. If it recommends using the Insurrection Act—and let’s be honest, it will—Trump will frame it as a reluctant but necessary move. He’ll say he tried everything else. He’ll claim it’s about protecting America.

But what he’s really protecting is his own authority.

This is how authoritarianism arrives: not with tanks, but with legal memos, press events, and a scared public hoping someone else will stop it.

So what do we do?

• We speak now. Loudly. Forcefully.
• Call your representatives and demand they investigate Trump’s January 20 order.
• Push the media to report on the Insurrection Act report before it’s too late.
• Demand public statements from military and intelligence leaders—now, not after.
• Organize. Educate. Resist.
• If you’ve never joined a protest before, this is the moment.
• If you’ve never spoken up politically, this is the time.
• If you’ve never thought it could happen here—it already is.

The threat isn’t coming.

It’s here.

And silence is exactly what Trump is counting on.

Tony Pentimalli is a political analyst and commentator fighting for democracy, economic justice, and social equity. Follow him for sharp analysis and hard-hitting critiques.