Required Weekly Reading

Always These Two:

• The List – Week 20 — The Return – Amy Siskind
• Letters from an American – Heather Cox Richardson

And a few other things I’ve read…

• Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal – “Statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, & Trump combined w/ assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts have led us to believe that people should see the texts to reach their own conclusions.” – I mean boxes of intelligence stored in a bathroom and ballroom didn’t awaken MAGA concerns. A text chain with emoji won’t either. We live in the upside down. The dumb fucks chanting but her emails…

• Long waits, waves of calls, web crashes: Social Security is breaking down – “They’re creating a fire to require them to come and put it out,” said one high-ranking official who took early retirement this month…Entire offices, including those handling civil rights and modernization, were driven out. The 10 regional offices that oversee field operations were slashed to four.”

• EXCLUSIVE: Memo details Trump plan to sabotage the Social Security Administration – “The memo predicts “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls.” It also says preventing people who cannot use the internet or travel to an in-person office from receiving benefits could result in “legal challenges and congressional scrutiny.”

• People are terrified”: Fear over Medicaid cuts across rural America could sway some Republicans– “While 41 states have a Medicaid expansion program, nine states — Montana, Utah, Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina and New Hampshire — have trigger laws that would end their Medicaid expansion programs if there is any reduction in federal funding.”

• Trump orders states to require proof of citizenship in federal elections – YOU CAN’T EXECUTIVE ORDER WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT AND DECLARE IT SO PEOPLE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS RIGHT? Under his watch, I no longer can vote. Passport expired. No REAL ID. BANNING BIRTH CERTIFICATES!

• Heartbreak, New York – “…elected officials will not and cannot save the day. While politicians may also be our neighbors, they often answer to different interests. Being a good & righteous neighbor yourself is the only way through.” – The takedown of America by MAGA was no surprise to anyone aware of Project 2025. But my two Democratic senators rolling over and allowing it? That, I didn’t expect. Darkest day for me. Does not compute.

• For the sake of US democracy, it’s time for Chuck Schumer to step down– Any day…Now?

• Why Chuck Schumer Should Step Down – “The problem is that they see our country on fire and gleeful arsonists pouring on the lighter fluid and they’re thinking to themselves: Why are Democrats just going along with this? Why aren’t they fighting back?”

• “You’re Here Because of Your Tattoos” – The Trump administration sent Venezuelans to El Salvador’s most infamous prison. Their families are looking for answers.

• Some Americans Have Already Been Caught in Trump’s Immigration Dragnet. More Will Be. – “I’M A US CITIZEN…HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE”

• The Justice Department Just Debuted a New Defense of Trump. It’s Terrifying. – “This is not a constitutional argument, and it barely pretends to be. It is more akin to an argument from an archaic notion of the divine rights of kings: Trump is our ruler, it holds, such that anything he does is intrinsically lawful.”

• Trump administration cancels at least 68 grants focused on LGBTQ health questions – Only 68. Nothing to see here.

• Speaker Mike Johnson floats eliminating federal courts as GOP ramps up attacks on judges– ELIMINATE COURTS.

• As Trump works to cut FEMA, data shows there was a major disaster declaration every four days in 2024– and this isn’t counting the biggest major disaster of all – the November Election.

• And last but never, ever, least. This post is a reminder to every single person who thought we were overreacting. There’s a fucking reason my body shut down after the election.

  I was an election worker – could not sleep the night before then worked 5am-10pm. Crashed sometime on Wed & woke up in fetal position – 12? hours later and puked my brains out several times. I got out of bed Friday – around the house. And ventured out for coffee on Sat. Worse week of my life.

  This post is a reminder to every single person who thought we were overreacting. There’s a fucking reason my body shut down after the election.

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  — All Things Jennifer (@allthingsjennifer.bsky.social) March 26, 2025 at 10:08 AM