Mad King Monstrosities

You know the drill. I read, I share. You maybe read? And maybe share? Mad Men Monstrosities await within…

One of these days I will need to separate out the content more — but the news is rushing by so freaking quickly, I’m only capturing glimpses and sharing.

• Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. Our Police State Has Arrived.– “It’s the forced mass transports of immigrants. These are not even deportations, in the way we typically think of them. Rather than being sent to their country of origin, Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador, where they are being imprisoned, indefinitely, without due process. It’s the sight of men being marched in formation, their heads shaved, hundreds of people yanked from their individual lives to be reduced to an undifferentiated mass. It’s the sight, days later, of the secretary of homeland security posing against the background of men in cages and threatening more people with the same punishment.”
• Doge’s attack on social security causing ‘complete, utter chaos’, staff says -“He said he was concerned the situation was creating a “negative feedback loop” where, as more employees leave, more work is put on those remaining, depressing morale and inducing more to leave “until the agency ends up in a death spiral with staffing, inducing office closures. You’re going to see a wholesale collapse in the agency’s service structure. Call wait times will skyrocket, wait times for appointments, processing times, all of it going to skyrocket because there won’t be enough people to do the jobs, which opens the door to privatization.”
• National Park Service removes references to Harriet Tubman from ‘Underground Railroad’ webpage – “Whereas previously, the article started with a description of enslaved peoples’ efforts to free themselves and the organization of the Underground Railroad after the Fugitive Slave Act, the article now starts with two paragraphs that emphasize the “American ideals of liberty and freedom” and do not specifically mention slavery. “
• Cultural groups across U.S. told that federal humanities grants are terminated– Among the thousands of groups affected by the sudden cessation of funds are state humanities councils, museums, historic sites, archives, libraries, educators and media outlets in all 50 states.
• ‘Time for you to abandon the United States’: Asylum seekers who used app being told to leave– “Their point isn’t really to enforce the law, it’s to project fear in communities,” he said.
• Petitioning the King: Trump believes crashing the economy is worth it if he can extract what he needs from the rest of the world – “After all, the pain doesn’t impact him, so ultimately, he’s not particularly concerned. He doesn’t need to pull from his 401k. He doesn’t have to worry about the impacts of tariffs on housing or rent or groceries or cars or electronics or food. He is a billionaire who doesn’t pay for anything. Americans suffering is a price that he’s willing to have us pay.