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#uspol

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Ok, what is really important here, is that this is not a government organization. This is a private nonprofit with congressional funding. Elons brown shirts broke into a private building, and Trump threw the board out...none of which is in the executive mandate. DC cops watched, but as far as I can tell from reporting, did nothing to stop the marauding band of techbros.

Today the Institute of Peace, tomorrow CREW, Planned Parenthood, the United Nations? Just how far are we willing to let a few dozen madmen destroy the country?

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m

The Guardian · Doge breaks into US Institute of Peace building after White House guts boardBy Guardian staff reporter

The Trump administration is perfect storm of vicious racism, cruelty, illegality, stupid & dangerous science/medical/education/climate decisions, and so on ... but the flat-out boneheaded IT mistakes are SO ASTONISHING, too.

"DOGE aide violated US Treasury policy by emailing an unencrypted database containing people's private information to two Trump administration officials"

theregister.com/2025/03/17/dog

The Register · Court filing: DOGE aide broke Treasury policy by emailing unencrypted databaseBy Jessica Lyons

It appears former USMC folks are leading the charge against the travesty in DC. 👏

“As a United States Marine Corps combat veteran stationed overseas their entire enlistment, this is the exact situation we are trained to look for and not participate in”

He then asked for whoever is reading the email to maintain the culture he was taught in the Marine Corps: “Honor, Courage and Commitment.”

seattletimes.com/seattle-news/

Continued thread

All of the above then brings us to last night, when Trump attempted to declare all of former US president Joe Biden's outgoing pardons "void" based on the purported use of an autopen, and treating longstanding winger conspiracy arguments about why certain presidential orders signed by Democrats (and seemingly *only* Democrats) aren't legal because using said autopen means the president didn't officially sign them into law; a nonsensical theory that has no legitimate basis in law, and owes more to schoolyard games of Simon Says than any sort of official rule or policy.

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m

Trump makes unsupported claim Biden pardons are ‘void’ as he used autopen

"Trump made his claim in a post to his social media platform that used his abusive nicknames for Biden and members of the House January 6 committee, writing: “The ‘Pardons; that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.

“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!”

I'll be honest in saying that I don't think this is a great article by The Guardian because it spends way too much time proving that Trump's autopen argument is "wrong," and that there is nothing abnormal about the president automatically producing his or her signature as part of their official duties. After all, being wrong about the law has done little to stop Trump's fascist agenda so far, and given that this is a conspiracy argument that has repeatedly been deployed by the ultra-right reactionary "fringe" of the larger Republican coalition against former US president (and Democrat) Barack Obama, a simple one paragraph debunking and a greater focus on why this conspiracy argument has resurfaced now that this same ultra-right reactionary "fringe" has become the dominant force in GOP politics, would likely have been more productive. Furthermore, the Guardian repeatedly frames this as a "claim" by Trump, when Downmarket Mussolini's Truth Social post at least, clearly indicates that the president is trying to void Biden's pardons by fiat, over social media, in a very direct sense. Legally speaking Trump doesn't have the power to do that just because he's president, and social media posts aren't legal edicts, but that just brings us back to the fact that Trump being wrong about the law and trying to rewrite it via public proclamations against his enemies, hasn't really stopped him from turning his animosities into official policies so far during his second term in office.

Given Trump's own words as reprinted here however, it is abundantly clear that he's pursuing the autopen argument to allow himself to target members of the January 6th Committee that investigated his 2021 coup attempt, which in turn ties into both Downmarket Mussolini's quest to punish officials that brought accusations or charges against him, and his efforts to seize control of the Justice Department and use it as an instrument of authoritarian vengeance for those (completely legal) activities. Here too we find the previous pattern by which the regime turns unreality into official action occurring once again; the Heritage Foundation, the same fundie fascist thinktank that wrote the Project 2025 document we can now confirm lies at the heart of Trump's fundie fascist agenda, produces a report attacking the validity of Biden's pardons and pushing the autopen conspiracy argument, Trump then immediately repeats those claims to reporters on Air Force One before saying the courts will have to decide but he thinks the pardons are "null and void," and then early the very next morning Trump attempts to literally void the pardons via fiat in a Truth Social post with no mention of courts whatsoever. At this point, all we're waiting for is the larger Trump regime to begin acting as if Der Führer's ranty argument has the force of law and the unreality cycle of transformational autocracy is complete.

Can president Trump actually get away with this scheme? I don't have the slightest idea, but the aggressiveness with which he's pushing the autopen argument, and the speed with which his larger political movement has already laid the groundwork to give it a go, strongly suggests that Trump isn't just ranting and he means to actually turn this aggrieved conspiracy bullshit into a very real attempt to persecute and neutralize his political enemies through the force of law.

The Guardian · Trump makes unsupported claim Biden pardons are ‘void’ as he used autopenBy Martin Pengelly
Replied in thread

If your U.S. rep is one of the 14 who signed the letter demanding that the government release #MahmoudKhalil (Tlaib, Pocan, Moore, Valasquez, Ramirez, Omar, Crockett, Green, Lee, Pressley, McGovern, Simon, Carson, Williams) <thenation.com/article/politics>, please send this letter to them to thank them for their support and ask them to keep up the fight. Text SIGN PWRYXS to 50409 or visit <resist.bot/petitions/PWRYXS>.
If not, write or call your rep and ask them why not!
#politics #USPol #WriteYourReps

LAST DAY for public comments on anti-trans passport rules

Today (Monday) is the LAST DAY to public-commentc-protest Trump/Musk anti-trans passport rules.

You’ve got ’til 9PM CASCADIAN/PACIFIC or Midnight EASTERN time to make public comments against Musk and Trump’s hate.

There are THREE open public comment sections. If you use the ACLU’s site, it’ll cover all three. But if you want to do it directly, you can. Just do it all three places.

Here’s the ACLU’s comment relay site. It also links directly to the individual comments sections.

Go. Do.

action.aclu.orgHands Off Our Passports: Stop Attacking Transgender AmericansThe Trump administration is denying accurate passports to trans, intersex, and nonbinary people – so I’m joining the ACLU to fight back. Urge the State Department to reject this dangerous attack on our rights.
#fascism#LGBT#LGBTQ