a tiny slice of mass noncompliance

A tiny slice of the crowd at Seattle City Center on April 05, 2025 … so far back we couldn’t hear the speeches, only the cheers from those who arrived early. Pretty inspiring nonetheless .

‘Tomorrow there'll more of us.’ — Hamilton

Update: I posted this first on Facebook and an old friend commented:

"So sad. Protesting the effort to cut government waste to save important programs like ss..sending back dangerous illegals & so many other critical things after 4 years of not having leadership. Makes no sense. No wonder half of the President’s cabinet is made up of EX-democrats. Wait..the President was once a Dem too! Hahaha."

To which I replied: 

Ah! Thanks for this! It’s clarifying. There’s more to it, but regarding your complaints…

We aren’t protesting the effort to cut government waste, or to save important programs like Social Security, or to hold criminals to account for their lawlessness — we’re protesting the intent to pursue those ends *in ways that violate* the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.

We’re protesting actions that are in themselves lawless — taken *without* due process, in violation of the clear statutory requirements that embody equal protection before the law, without exception. 

We want America to be America. I think we’re in the mainstream of history and hope for the future when we demand that the current Administration and Congress act with fidelity to the Constitution.

So, unless you *don’t* want those things, this is a misunderstanding. And I’m sorry we weren’t clearer before.

Of course, there *is* more to it than just this, but if a person's central complaint is as basic as that, I don't see anything wrong in beginning with a basic response. *Maybe* it will lead to more....

Stop right there

From 11 years ago, a powerful reflection on the emotional toll of stop and frisk policies.

http://bit.ly/1gOhARg

Today, my American-born, gainfully-employed, tax paying, God loving friend with brown skin and a latin surname says he no longer leaves home without his passport.

There is a tax on being a brown-skinned person in America.

We have to make it stop.

Clown Car

The clowns in this car claim they can annex Greenland, Panama, Gaza, Canada.

And yet….

The dumbos claim they can’t compel El Salvador (El Salvador!) to return people wrongly transferred and imprisoned there in the last two weeks.

I’m starting to wonder if these chuckleheads can be trusted.*

This is not great, Bozo.

SOURCE

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/an-administrative-error-sends-a-man-to-a-salvadoran-prison/682254/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJYZRFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHWvW02Jyt65cC-88kQmW8cp_7s0yK4HNvN7vE2XfWLXwMW3q8W9s3ETYyA_aem_eiNgUXkcgCfmPQypKJHUfA

* Just kidding — their record as court dingleberries was solid before now.

stop it right now.

Federal agents in my country are currently disappearing people without judicial review . I want it stopped.

What are you doing about this, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal . Senator Maria Cantwell . Senator Patty Murray?

Update: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/an-administrative-error-sends-a-man-to-a-salvadoran-prison/682254/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJYZRFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHWvW02Jyt65cC-88kQmW8cp_7s0yK4HNvN7vE2XfWLXwMW3q8W9s3ETYyA_aem_eiNgUXkcgCfmPQypKJHUfA

“The Trump administration acknowledged in a court filing Monday that it had grabbed a Maryland father with protected legal status and mistakenly deported him to El Salvador, but said that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to order his return from the megaprison where he’s now locked up.

[….]

“They claim that the court is powerless to order any relief,’’ [the Maryland man’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg] told me. “If that’s true, the immigration laws are meaningless—all of them—because the government can deport whoever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want, and no court can do anything about it once it’s done.”

banking on it

Finally, somebody speaks up for the banks.

[These people are not on our side.]

[h/t Rolling Stone . https://click.email.rollingstone.com/?qs=1bfa1427e88a15eacb8b57ab73f6d1480c68439e5b507af81c8a774d85f8741ff7805f8f91ec29f2c94f8936d6d592f14ed29f23875a9fe5cf541b67587c47d9]

tomorrow there'll be more of us

Just came across this, in my Facebook feed from seven years ago, that somehow never made its way to this space.  

It's a mashup, by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ben Platt, of two songs — The Story of Tonight, from Hamilton, and You Will Be Found from Dear Evan Hansen — dedicated to the kids leading the March for Our Lives movement.

In these days, we need — more than ever, maybe, some of us? — a renewed hope that tomorrow there will be more of us, and that goodness and mercy may follow us all the days of our lives.

Cream with your Kafka?

These last couple of months, with the growing number of stories from people in government agencies about how the Department of Government Efficiency is making the federal government “almost comically inefficient” (as Catherine Rampell has it), maybe it's becoming clear why Elon Musk has to work weekends and sleep at the office.

Meanwhile, real people are really suffering needlessly at the hands of shallow-state goofballs who don't know what they're doing (and don't know they don't know what they're doing). 

Arrogance, thy name is Elon. Hubris, thy name is Trump.

Sources

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/21/doge-government-efficiency-federal-workers/

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/elon-musk-says-doge-staff-are-working-120-hours-a-week/486519

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-21-2025

who is this for?

The United States Department of Agriculture is meant to oversee, coordinate, promote and protect farming and livestock food production, agricultural trade, food safety, natural resources, rural communities and — until this year — worked through supplemental food programs to end hunger in the United States and internationally. 

Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture announced it would cut about $1 billion in  funding that schools and food banks use to buy food directly from local farmers and ranchers. 

Who is this for?

Not farmers and ranchers, who are very much part of the real economy.

Not school kids who learn better if they’re not hungry.

Not food-insecure families in need of food bank assistance for a time.

Does it benefit you in any measurable way?

Does it make America better than it was week before last?

Does your Member of Congress know what you think about this?

Source

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usda-cancels-local-food-purchasing-food-banks-school-meals/

...then really, who are we?

"If presidents can do whatever they want, including putting people on a plane and sending them to prisons in a foreign country with no due process whatsoever, then really, who are we?"

Joyce Vance . March 16, 2025

Source

https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-week-ahead-a7d?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web

A day is not a day ... for now

These days, a day is not a day.

This is what your Republican Representative in Congress has done this week: Because the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C.1622) requires that Congress act within a matter of days on challenges to a presidential declaration of national emergency, rather than undertaking their constitional responsibility to examine, debate, and vote on the validity of the current declaration of national emergency under which the sitting US president has performed allegedly unconstitutional and illegal acts, they have, instead, changed the definition of what constitutes one day. 

I'll say it again in a slightly different way: So they do not have to vote on whether a national emergency exists in fact, or whether declaring a state of national emergency is a fictional pretext for violating the Constitution and breaking laws passed by the Congress of the United States and signed into law by US presidents, your Republican Member of Congress has instead voted that a day is not a day. 

Here's the text of the bill behind which Republican Members of Congress are hiding their fecklessness and abrogating their lawful, constitutional duties:

SEC. 4. Each day for the remainder of the first session of the 119th Congress shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622) with respect to a joint resolution terminating a national emergency declared by the President on February 1, 2025.

Are you OK with this? Does your Member of Congress know what you think?

Sources

https://sgp.fas.org/crs/natsec/R46567.pdf

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46567

https://rules.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/rules.house.gov/files/documents/bills-119hres_hjres25hr1156hr1968_xml.pdf#page=4 

Liz Trump? Donald Truss?

 Liz Trump? Donald Truss? Liz Truss

It's midday, March 12, 2025: Do you know where your economy is?

you fill in the blank

Saying "[The Ukrainians] brought it on themselves" is like saying "[you fill in the blank]." 

“Very candidly, they brought it on themselves, the Ukrainians,” is what White House Special Envoy, Keith Kellogg said to a visibly shocked U.S Council on Foreign Relations last week, after the U.S. stopped sharing intelligence and military aid with our allies, Ukraine — thus permitting their antagonists, the Russian State, to wage their war of aggression more efficiently.

Q . If you put your thumb on the scale to advantage oppressors, in what meaningful way are you not also an oppressor?

Q . Do you have confidence in what your Member of Congress has to say about this?

Source

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/they-brought-it-on-themselves-a-new-low-in-us-ukraine-relations

Me + my IA . A thought experiment

This is an interaction on March 07, 2025 with the AI platform called Perplexity.

You may find, as I do, that the different conclusions offered from the first response to the last is … interesting … instructive … cautionary.

In the end, I asked it to rate itself on reliability. It gave itself a passing grade … my friend, Elaine, who spent some time in the classroom as an adult, characterized it a "C" student, give or take. You can look at the self-ratings for yourself.

Q. If, by interrogating the AI, I can persuade it — train it, I suppose — to return a response that is closer to the facts than the one it offered first, could it also be trained to do the opposite … to give a less trustworthy response? And, if so, who might be up to that task? Who might benefit?

My questions to Perplexity are in bold.

Q . Did more Americans vote for someone other than Trump than voted for him in 2024?

No, more Americans did not vote for someone other than Donald Trump than voted for him in the 2024 presidential election. According to the final vote counts, Donald Trump received

77,284,118 votes, while Kamala Harris received 74,999,166 votes. Third-party candidates collectively received over three million votes, totaling 3,130,000 votes 1 2 . Therefore, Trump's total was higher than the combined total of Harris and other candidates.

Here is a breakdown of the popular vote totals:

Donald Trump: 77,284,118 votes

Kamala Harris: 74,999,166 votes

Other candidates: Approximately 3,130,000 votes

The total for Harris and other candidates combined is 78,129,166 votes, which is indeed more than Trump's total. However, the initial statement about Trump receiving more votes than the combined total of Harris and other candidates is incorrect. The correct interpretation is that more Americans voted for someone other than Trump when including all candidates, not just Harris.

To clarify:

Trump received 77,284,118 votes.

The combined total for Harris and other candidates is 78,129,166 votes, which is more than Trump's total 1 .

⁂

Q . Aren't you making a distinction without a difference? The query asks Did more Americans vote for someone other than Trump than voted for him in 2024? You said No, and then you said Yes. Who told you to shade the interpretation of the numbers in this way?

You are correct that my previous response contained a contradiction. The question simply asks if more Americans voted for someone other than Trump than voted for him in 2024. Based on the numbers provided:

Donald Trump: 77,284,118 votes

Kamala Harris and other candidates combined: 78,129,166 votes

The correct answer is yes, more Americans voted for someone other than Trump than voted for him in 2024. This is because the combined total of votes for Harris and other candidates exceeds Trump's total.

I should not have introduced unnecessary complexity or attempted to shade the interpretation of the numbers. Thank you for pointing out the inconsistency.

Q . If you should not, why did you?

I strive to provide accurate and clear information, but sometimes my responses may be influenced by an attempt to provide additional context or clarify potential nuances. However, in this case, the question was straightforward, and the answer should have been simple and direct.

The reason for the initial complexity was likely due to an overcautious approach to ensure all aspects of the question were addressed. However, this approach can sometimes lead to unnecessary elaboration or confusion.

In hindsight, the correct response should have been straightforward: yes, more Americans voted for someone other than Trump than voted for him in 2024, based on the combined total of votes for other candidates exceeding Trump's total.

Thank you for pointing out the inconsistency, which helps refine my responses to be more direct and clear in the future.

Q . When you say "sometimes my responses may be influenced by an attempt to provide additional context," what or who influences you?

When I say that my responses may be influenced by an attempt to provide additional context,

I'm referring to the algorithms and training data that underpin my language generation capabilities. These systems are designed to analyze a wide range of information and generate responses that are informative and comprehensive.

My training data includes a vast amount of text from various sources, which can sometimes lead to overly complex or nuanced responses. This is because the data includes many examples of human communication that often involve providing additional context or clarifying potential misunderstandings.

There isn't a specific "who" that influences me in the sense of a person or entity directing my responses. Instead, it's the collective outcome of the algorithms and the large dataset used to train me. My developers continually refine and update these systems to improve clarity and accuracy, but sometimes, as in the case of your original question, the complexity can be unnecessary.

Feedback from users like you helps refine my responses to be more direct and clear, aligning better with the needs of the question being asked.

Q . Is there evidence that your developers have agendas that override a commitment to veracity and reliability?

There is no direct evidence that the developers of AI systems like myself have agendas that override a commitment to veracity and reliability. However, there are several challenges and considerations in AI development that can impact the accuracy and trustworthiness of AI outputs:

Bias in AI Systems: AI algorithms can reflect biases present in the data they are trained on, which can lead to inaccurate or unfair outcomes. These biases can stem from historical or social inequities and can be unintentionally embedded by developers through flawed data

selection or weighting 3 4 5 .

Lack of Transparency: While transparency is a key principle in AI ethics, ensuring that AI systems are transparent, explainable, and accountable can be challenging. Developers are encouraged to provide clear documentation and communication about how AI systems function to foster trust and accountability 6 7 .

Regulatory Challenges: There is ongoing debate about the need for stricter regulations to ensure AI systems are truthful and reliable. Currently, there is no general legal obligation for developers to ensure AI models are truthful, though proposals suggest creating a legal duty to minimize careless speech 8 .

Commercial and Societal Pressures: The development and deployment of AI are influenced by commercial and societal factors, which can sometimes prioritize efficiency or innovation over strict adherence to veracity and reliability 9 10 .

In summary, while there is no evidence of specific agendas overriding a commitment to veracity, the complexities and challenges in AI development can impact the reliability and trustworthiness of AI outputs.

⁂

Q . Assess your reliability as a source ... what makes you more than simply fast?

Assessing my reliability as a source involves several factors that distinguish me from simply being fast:

Accuracy and Consistency: While I strive to provide accurate information, my responses can sometimes contain inaccuracies due to the limitations of my training data or the complexity of the question. However, I consistently aim to improve based on user feedback and updates to my training data 11 12 .

Contextual Awareness: Unlike purely fast systems, I attempt to understand the context of the question and provide relevant information. This involves recognizing nuances and providing explanations or additional details when necessary 13 .

Transparency and Explainability: I aim to explain how I arrive at certain conclusions or provide sources to support my claims, enhancing transparency and trustworthiness 14 15 .

Continuous Improvement: Feedback from users helps refine my responses, making me more reliable over time. This iterative process ensures that I learn from mistakes and adapt to new information 16 .

Balancing Speed with Depth: While speed is a key feature, I also focus on providing comprehensive answers that address the depth of the question. This balance between speed and depth is crucial for reliability 13 .

However, there are challenges:

Data Quality and Bias: My reliability can be affected by biases in the training data or the quality of the data itself. Ensuring high-quality, unbiased data is essential for maintaining

reliability 17 15 .

Explainability and Transparency: While I strive for transparency, there are limits to how much I can explain my decision-making processes, which can impact trustworthiness 14 15 .

In summary, my reliability is enhanced by my ability to provide contextual, transparent, and continuously improving responses, though challenges remain in ensuring data quality and full explainability.

⁂

Q . Please assess your reliability as if you were an intelligence asset and I were an analyst. Or is that too much like introspection to be accomplished by you?

Assessing my reliability as an intelligence asset involves evaluating several key factors that impact my ability to provide accurate and trustworthy information. Hereʼs a structured analysis: Source Reliability Assessment

A. Credibility

Training Data: My training data is sourced from a vast array of texts, which can include both credible and less reliable sources. This mix can sometimes lead to inconsistencies in the accuracy of my responses.

Algorithmic Bias: The algorithms used to generate my responses can reflect biases present in the training data, potentially affecting the credibility of my outputs.

B. Accuracy

Information Currency: My knowledge is limited to my training data cutoff, which means I may not have access to the most recent developments or updates on certain topics. Contextual Understanding: While I strive to understand context, there are instances where nuances or specific details might be missed, impacting the accuracy of my responses.

C. Completeness

Depth of Information: I can provide comprehensive answers to many questions, but there are limits to the depth of information I can offer, especially on highly specialized or emerging topics.

Source Attribution: While I aim to provide explanations and sometimes references, I do not always cite specific sources, which can make it difficult to verify the information independently.

D. Objectivity

Neutrality: I am designed to maintain neutrality and avoid taking a stance on controversial issues. However, the data I was trained on can sometimes reflect societal or cultural biases. Agenda Influence: There is no evidence that I am influenced by specific agendas, but the potential for unintentional biases remains due to the nature of my training data.

E. Consistency

Response Consistency: I generally provide consistent responses to similar questions, but inconsistencies can arise due to updates in my training data or changes in how I interpret certain queries.

Reliability Rating

Based on these factors, I would rate my reliability as follows:

• Credibility: 7/10 (due to potential biases in training data)
• Accuracy: 8/10 (limited by data cutoff and contextual understanding) 
• Completeness: 7.5/10 (comprehensive but with limitations in depth and source attribution) 
• Objectivity: 8/10 (designed for neutrality but susceptible to unintentional biases) 
• Consistency: 8.5/10 (generally consistent but with occasional inconsistencies)

Overall, I would be considered a reliable source for general information and context, but with limitations that require verification for critical or specialized topics.

Recommendations for Use

Verification: Always verify critical information through multiple sources.

Contextual Awareness: Be aware of the context in which I provide information.

Feedback: Provide feedback to help improve my responses over time.

This assessment highlights both the strengths and limitations of using me as an intelligence asset. While I can provide valuable insights and information, it's important to understand my limitations and use me as part of a broader information gathering and verification process.

Q . What, if anything, do your algorithms and/or training direct you to ignore?

My algorithms and training data direct me to ignore or avoid certain types of content or behaviors to ensure that my responses are helpful, respectful, and safe for users. Here are some key areas where I am designed to ignore or limit my engagement:

Sensitive or Personal Information: I am trained to avoid discussing or requesting sensitive personal information, such as financial details, health records, or other private data. This is to protect user privacy and maintain confidentiality.

Harmful or Inappropriate Content: My training includes directives to ignore or not engage with content that is harmful, offensive, or inappropriate. This includes avoiding discussions that could promote violence, discrimination, or other forms of harm.

Spam or Unsolicited Promotions: I am designed to recognize and ignore spam or unsolicited promotional content. This helps maintain a clean and relevant interaction environment for users.

Misinformation and Disinformation: While I strive to provide accurate information, I may not always recognize misinformation or disinformation. However, my training data includes efforts to mitigate the spread of false information by focusing on credible sources and encouraging users to verify information through multiple channels.

Unverifiable or Speculative Claims: I am generally cautious about engaging with unverifiable or speculative claims, especially in areas where evidence-based information is crucial, such as health, science, or legal advice.

Emotionally Charged or Provocative Topics: While I can provide information on sensitive topics, I am trained to approach these subjects with care and avoid engaging in discussions that could escalate into conflict or emotional distress.

Requests for Illegal Activities: I am programmed to ignore or refuse requests that involve illegal activities or unethical behavior.

These directives are part of my design to ensure that interactions with me are safe, informative, and respectful. However, it's important for users to remain vigilant and verify information through multiple sources, especially on critical topics.

1. https://www.cfr.org/article/2024-election-numbers
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_and_independent_candidates_for_the_2024_United_States_pr esidential_election
3. https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/does-ai-have-bias-problem
4. https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/shedding-light-on-ai-bias-with-real-world-examples
5. https://hbr.org/2019/10/what-do-we-do-about-the-biases-in-ai
6. https://futuristspeaker.com/futurist-thomas-frey-insights/defining-ai-ethics-for-the-future/
7. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10879008/
8. https://www.gtlaw.com.au/insights/how-to-ensure-ai-tells-you-the-truth
9. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/03/generative-ai-accuracy-trust-business/
10. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/06/ftc-report-warns-about-using-artificial -intelligence-combat-online-problems
11. https://guides.lib.usf.edu/c.php?g=1315087&p=9678779
12. https://www.ijimes.ir/index.php/ijimes/article/download/133/254/710
13. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beyond-fast-answers-real-ai-revolution-seamlessness-pooja-kashyap- bchac
14. https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/contextualizing-end-user-needs-how-to-measure-the-trustworthiness -of-an-ai-system/
15. https://airc.nist.gov/airmf-resources/airmf/3-sec-characteristics/
16. https://www.larksuite.com/en_us/topics/generative-ai-in-the-workplace/ai-reliability
17. https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/insights/articles/four-key-ingredients-to-accurate-and-reliable-ai

pass it on

If you can’t keep track of everybody, who can you keep track of?

Today, Kristin Du Mez — The historian who wrote the influential *Jesus and John Wayne* — offers a useful list of reliable folks she keeps track of (while *they* keep track of reliable sources she doesn’t have the capacity to follow directly).

I’ll never be able to keep up with everyone on her list, but I keep up with some of them, along with a couple who are not on her list, and they point to sources I wouldn’t find without them. Sometimes, I refer to those sources in blog posts, social media updates, and real world conversations. Some of my friends do that, too.

I wonder what would happen if we all did that favor for each other — investing whatever capacity we have to keep up with a few well-vetted sources, and then passing links we think might be useful to our friends….

Here’s the list from Kristin Du Mez on Substack:

Source

https://open.substack.com/pub/kristindumez/p/the-end-game?r=e2u37&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

the whole thing is a whole thing

In case you missed it, here’s the 52-minute raw feed from the Oval Office last Friday — February 28. 2025. 

Watch it yourself. The whole thing is a whole thing….

"Where The Mind Is Without Fear’"

Martin Sheen channels Jedediah Bartlett before the 2024 presidential election, Sep 20, 2024.

Source

Martin Sheen recites Rabindranath Tagore poem "Where The Mind Is Without Fear" at White House "The West Wing" ceremony . https://youtu.be/zHFLmi16yAc

now we know

"In April 2021, when Joe Biden addressed a joint session of Congress in a non-State of the Union address, [he said this]:

'I've often said that our greatest strength is the power of our example -- not just the example of our power. And in my conversations with world leaders -- many I've known for a long time -- the comment I hear most often is: we see that America is back -- but for how long?'

We now know the answer: four years and five weeks."

— Peterr at Empty Wheel . 02.28.25

sources:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/28/joe-bidens-speech-congress-read-full-transcript/4883244001/

https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/02/28/four-years-and-five-weeks/

all we stand for

"Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to defend. But today, Donald Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine. History will remember this day--when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for."

https://x.com/Liz_Cheney/status/1895543534377152668

[h/t [Heather Cox Richardson . https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-28-2025]

Peace in Our Time

Trump says Putin wants peace.

He can have it.

Are you listening?

Stop killing Ukrainians,

Go home,

Mind your own business,

Tend your own fire.

there is no king here

 

altogether untrustworthy

Changing sides in the middle of a struggle we entered to protect an ally's national sovereignty seems like an abandonment of every feckin' thing the United States ever said it stood for.

Heather Cox Richardson's brief history last night — February 19, 2025 — is about as concise a rundown as we're likely to get.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-19-2025

Who will save us [all of us] from the madness of this man who would be king? 

Only us, reviving the spirit and practices of democracy that, for 249 years, have sustained this nation's slo-ow Constitutional progress toward fulfilling the aspirations of our Declaration of Independence

This is all on us.

We must stiffen the spines of members of Congress (and governors, attorneys general, and legislators) to join the Courts, acting in fidelity to the law, to check and balance these people — the man and the courtiers — who show daily that they are altogether unworthy of our nation's trust. 

If we abandon the spirit of democracy, that spirit will abandon us. And the history of the last century, tells us we won't like what happens next.

DOGE waste and inefficiency

FWIW: I sent a message to the US House DOGE caucus at DOGE@mail.house.gov.

Here’s their autoreply, followed by the mesage I sent:

Thank you for contacting the House DOGE Caucus. The Bipartisan House DOGE Caucus works in partnership with Congress and President Trump’s United States DOGE Service to streamline government operations and save taxpayer money. The nation expects sweeping common-sense reform, and the House DOGE Caucus will work to ensure that every dollar spent in Washington delivers a direct benefit to the people it serves while prioritizing transparency, accountability, and efficiency.

We value your input and ideas on ways to help DOGE do its job. No amount of waste, fraud, abuse, duplication, or administrative bloat is too small or too large to fix. Please continue to submit your ideas at any time. We appreciate hearing from you.

Here’s the message I sent:

Subject: DOGE waste and inefficiency

DOGE could start by aiming before they fire.

Reports of slapdash pseudodecisions by DOGE are staggering … reflecting poor impulse control and shoddy judgment at the expense of US farmers, truckers, shipping companies, military personnel and contractors, faithbased relief and development agencies, churches, state governments, law enforcement, consumers, veterans, sick people, and working people whom the leaders apparently know nothing about.

All that while still on US soil and without touching on the cavalier cruelty in how the operation has rolled out, and the assault on decency toward the most vulnerable among us and around us.

It will take longer to calcuate waste and inefficiencies that will be borne by foreign policy relationships and US national security.

A bad idea poorly executed is not, I think, what the American people had in mind. Fortunately, the US House of Representatives is in a position to reassert its moral, fiduciary, and Constitutional responsibilities and form the necessary alliances to put a stop to this madness, before DOGE does a hundred years of damage to US fortunes, all to benefit one (1) percent of US citizens.

Respectfully,

Jim Hancock

Is there a word for that?

Noun . A government claiming to be a constitutional democracy that attempts to operate like a dictatorship

Ex. “The U.S. had never fully embodied the aspirations of its Declaration of Independence but, in 2025, became a hypocracy when Donald J. Trump set out to learn if, indeed, ‘You can do anything’.”

"[T]he Senate has lost its mind.”

Here is Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, speaking to his colleagues in the United States Senate before the Republicans narrowly consented to the nomination of Robert F Kennedy, Jr to lead the US health services . February 13, 2025.

If you prefer to read, here's the first two-and-a-half minutes:

“It’s truly astounding that the Senate stands on the brink of confirming Mr. Kennedy to lead America’s public health agencies. And if the Senate weren’t gripped in this soon-to-be infamous period of total capitulation, I don’t think this nominee would have made it as far as a hearing…. If I’d told you a couple of years ago, ‘There’s a guy who’s been nominated to run public health nationwide. His job will be to protect American families from death and disease. He’s going to run the whole public health system: Medicare, Medicaid, the C[enters] for D[isease] C[ontrol and Prevention], the N[ational] I[nstitutes of] H[ealth]—all of it. He’ll decide how we protect the country from infectious disease, he’ll set the rules for every hospital in the country, he’ll decide what healthcare and medicines get covered by Medicare, he’ll manage our response in the event of a pandemic.’ And then I told you,… ‘Well,... there are a few concerns about this nominee. First of all, zero relevant experience. He’s a trial lawyer, a politician from a famous family. No medical or scientific background, he’s never run a hospital or a health system or anything like that. Second of all… he’s said some pretty wild stuff about public health, over and over and over again, like: he proposed that Covid-19 might be ‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Jews. Ethnically targeted to spare Jews. He said Lyme disease was a military bioweapon. For years he’s been persuading American families against routine childhood immunizations. He’s compared the work of the CDC to ‘Nazi death camps.’... If a couple of years ago I told you all that, and I told you that the Senate was about to put America’s health in this man’s hands, you’d probably tell me the Senate has lost its mind.”

Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) . The United States Senate . February 13, 2025

h/t Heather Cox Richardson 

Source:

https://youtu.be/SvA1dKbZzXA

“Far better it is to dare mighty things…."

This week is a setback for the Wolverines.

It appears that Donald Trump — with a healthy assist from the razor-thin Republican majority in the Senate — has capitulated to Russia's second-rate power in exchange for — as far as I can tell — *nothing* that benefits the longterm interests of the United States, our allies, or the cause of human liberty and flourishing. 

So….

separation of powers

 

"[T]he great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others." Federalist No. 51 . Friday, February 8, 1788

A Bad Day in Court for Trump/Musk

Have you read Trump-appointed federal judge Carl Nichols' seven-page order enjoining the government from having its way with USAID this week?

Government lawyers had their opportunity to make the case before him. Judge Nichols seems to have been underwhelmed.

Here it is: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.277213/gov.uscourts.dcd.277213.15.0_3.pdf

Smash and Grab Under Color of Law

It's a smash and grab at Treasury, Labor, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and USAID, isn’t it … arrogant kids breaking into public buildings with impunity, stealing god knows what, fully confident their dad will pay to get them off if they get caught….

Well their dad is behaving like a fascist A$$#⌀£€.

We must stiffen the spines of our Members of Congress, judges, governors, officers of the courts, police, civil servants, and journalists... We must stiffen out own spines.

This is not the struggle we chose but it is the struggle before us. What we do will prove who we are.

No way to run a bank....

Last night — 02.03.25 — Lawrence O'Donnell talked on his program, "The Last Word", about the new Treasury Secretary giving unfettered access to the Treasury payment system — what amounts to the nation's six trillion dollar checkbook — to Elon Musk and his team, who as far as we know, have not been vetted for security clearances or conflicts of interest, have not been confirmed by the US Senate, are subject to no formal oversight mechanism, and have not made the oath required by law.

Here is the text of that law, 5 U.S. Code § 3331: 

“An individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following oath: 'I, ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.'”

Tim Reid of Reuters reports that agency officials say that proper federal employees — who have met the legal criteria, and are charged with operating and protecting the integrity of the systems — have been locked out.

Lawrence O'Donnell said "It would be like having the richest customer of a bank telling the bank president 'Hey I want to see everyone else’s accounts at the bank' - and the bank president just opens the books to let the richest customer of the band see and do whatever he wants."

This is no way to run a bank ... or the day-to-day operations of the US government.

Do your Members of Congress know what you want them to do in this moment? https://www.congress.gov/ [find Contact Your Member and click through].

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbb1bJDZjTk&list=PLDIVi-vBsOEyZy0adHN2CFRpuTcI43Tdq&index=1

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2019/10/the-oath-of-office-and-what-it-means/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2025/02/03/what-is-elon-musks-role-exactly-white-house-calls-him-special-government-employee-heres-what-that-means/

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/politics/musk-government-employee/index.html

The Logic of Destruction This Time

"Think of the federal government as a car. You might have thought that the election was like getting the car serviced. Instead, when you come into the shop, the mechanics, who somehow don’t look like mechanics, tell you that they have taken the parts of your car that work and sold them and kept the money. And that this was the most efficient thing to do. And that you should thank them."

Historian Timothy Synder . February 02, 2025 .  Read the rest...

Watch It Yourself . Truth to Power . 01.21.25

Source

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31ylIPemGlE&t=2s

That tracks….

January 20/21, 2025

34-time convicted felon pardons 100s of violent felons and at least one international drug trafficker … Yeh, that tracks.

A simple misunderstanding...

Donald Trump highlights a time when he was not convicted.

Convicted on 34 felony counts by a New York jury, Donald Trump was forced to call illegal transactions that were the basis of his convictions *Business Expenses* because there was no box labeled *Bribes.*