DL Open Thread: Sunday, February 2, 2025
Non-Citizen Nazi Sympathizer Granted Access To All Federal Payment Info:
The Trump administration has approved plans to grant Treasury officials affiliated with Elon Musk’s team access to the federal system that handles trillions of dollars in payments, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has signed off on a plan to give access to the payment system to a team led by Tom Krause, the CEO of Cloud Software Group, who is now working for the Treasury Department and serves as a liaison to Musk’s DOGE group that operates out of the United States Digital Service. One person familiar with the effort said Krause’s role will be subject to safeguards that would not allow any ability to make changes to the system and that no one outside Treasury would have access.
If the ACLU isn’t already in court over this, they had better be soon. This must not be normalized.
Hope You Stocked Up On Avocados And Maple Syrup:
President Donald Trump on Saturday imposed tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, the nation’s three largest trading partners, invoking emergency economic powers in a high-stakes bid to compel them to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs reaching the United States.
They drew sharp replies from the leaders of Canada and Mexico, as well as immediate opposition from business and labor groups, which warned of profound upheaval throughout the economy. For the typical U.S. household, the tariffs will mean a loss of about $1,200 in annualpurchasing power, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University, a nonpartisan research center.
Trump Goes After Federal Employment Contracts:
President Donald Trump said late Friday that he plans to nullify federal employee union contracts that agencies agreed to late in former President Joe Biden’s term.
In a memo to agency heads, Trump said that Biden officials had negotiated new collective bargaining agreements meant “to harm my Administration,” in part by undermining his return-to-office mandate, and that he intended to scrap them and bargain his own.
The memo did not make clear his legal justification for nullifying existing union contracts. He referred to a 2010 Supreme Court decision that stated that a president “cannot choose to bind his successors by diminishing their powers.”
“Therefore, it is the policy of the executive branch,” Trump proclaimed, that contracts negotiated within 30 days prior to a presidential inauguration “shall not be approved.”
The American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing some 800,000 workers, said Trump would be breaching legally binding contracts. The union called it an attempt to “frighten and confuse career federal employees.”
He is trying to replace the Federal workforce with Trump loyalists, oh, and nobody. Where the fuck are the Democrats? They should be screaming bloody murder.
Hedge Funds Bet On Stock Meltdown:
Hedge funds are making a multi-billion-dollar gamble against the US economy, betting Donald Trump‘s presidency will result in a massive market crash that could devastate 401(k)s, pensions, and household savings across America.
Data from Goldman Sachs has sent shockwaves through financial circles, revealing a dramatic surge in ‘short’ positions against US stocks – a move that signals a belief the market is headed for a precipitous crash.
Throughout January, investors placed 10 times more bets on American stocks falling than on their continued rise, a staggering shift that reflects growing unease over Wall Street’s future under Trump’s leadership.
The timing of such financial revolt is no coincidence and comes just as the world witnessed a $600 billion wipeout in major US tech stocks earlier this week, driven by fears over Chinese AI rival DeepSeek, which disrupted the once-unshakable dominance of America’s technology sector.
The Magnificent Seven – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla— all suffered massive losses, leaving investors scrambling for answers.
The latest hedge fund moves mark a staggering reversal from just two months ago when Wall Street billionaires were pouring money into so-called ‘Trump trades.’
Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger. Makes sense, though.
Democrats on Saturday elected Ken Martin, the party leader in Minnesota, as the national chair, turning to a low-profile Midwestern political operative to coordinate their resistance to Donald Trump’s presidency.
Ultimately, Martin’s relationships with DNC members helped him overcome Wikler’s higher-profile alliances. Martin is one of the longest serving state party chairs, having led the Minnesota Democratic-Labor-Farmer Party since 2011.
Kansas’ Jeanna Repass speaks for me:
“Your workhorse pulls the plow, and you need that. But we don’t have that voice, that champion, to get out in front of us,” Repass said. “Donald Trump, for all of his faults, is able to get up there and lie with impunity and do it convincingly, and I don’t hear or see that voice in our party.”
Martin on Saturday promised to refocus the Democratic message on working-class voters, strengthen Democratic infrastructure across the country and improve the party’s anti-Trump rapid response system. He has pledged not to shy away from Democrats’ dedication to diversity and minority groups, a pillar of the modern-day party. (Translation: Blahblahblah.)
Whaddaya expect when the likes of Betsy Maron are deciding the future of the Party? Garbage in, garbage out. Hey, Betsy–whose birthday are we celebrating this week? Which reminds me–has anyone stepped forward to challenge her leaderless leadership as State Party chair?
Why Can’t Delaware Kids Read? A question that Delaware’s Worst Governor Ever never pondered. At least this has Gov. Meyer’s attention:
Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer declared a “literacy emergency” after national test scores revealed eighth grade reading scores in the First State hit a 27-year low in 2024. The overall results were a mixed bag, with one bright spot being post-COVID-19 gains for fourth graders in math.
The 2024 results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, show students across the country are struggling in reading. Delaware kids are performing lower on average in reading for both fourth and eighth grades than the national average. The average score of fourth-grade students in Delaware last year was 210, compared to the national average of 214. The average for eighth graders in Delaware was 249, which was lower than the national average score of 257.
Peggy Carr, associate commissioner of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, said it appeared to be an issue of reading comprehension, reading with understanding and being able to make inferences across the text.
“It clearly was exacerbated by the pandemic, but it is not a pandemic story, or it’s not just a pandemic story,” she said. “We started to notice the biggest drop in reading was from 2017 to 2019. Again, that was the national drop, but we saw it for many states as well.”
“Today marks a turning point for Delaware,” Meyer said in a statement. “We have a literacy emergency, and it is time for shared accountability and unwavering support for every child.”
What do you want to talk about?
The effects of the tariff war won’t start showing up until the March inflation and jobs reports at earliest. The stock market crash could happen any time.
We have a literacy emergency because kids are on screens most of the time, just like adults.
I have no issues with Ken Martin. The Democratic Party in Minnesota has proven the ability to win consistently in a very purple state. I think Ken Martin is the guy who knows how to win back some elements of the white working class where are getting our clocks cleaned right now.
Yes Democrats, you still need to win over SOME white guys to stay competitive. You can’t just write off a huge demographic. Letting MAGA take over union halls is the death of the Democratic Party.
If it was the UAW guy, fine. But a ‘party insider’ who displays no fire in the belly? Not so much.
Maybe the only one who was really good in this job was Howard Dean, and it wasn’t because he had fire in his belly.
“You still need to win over SOME white guys to stay competitive.”
And how are you going to get them? Don’t say with pro-union policies. Biden was more pro-union than any president this century. How’d that go?
So was Ben Wikler in Wisconsin though. I think he would have a better idea of how to use technology for outreach.
“You still need to win over SOME white guys to stay competitive.”
To that I say: – to continue to exist, unions still need SOME branches of the government to be majority Democratic.
WTF makes union members think they can keep voting for the anti-union party with no consequences for their livelihoods?
Every union should be up in arms about the collective bargaining that was AGREED to. Sorry tRump that it coincided with your new term; however, bargaining never happens over night. At least the unions are protecting jobs. If that’s not a call to arms for everyone he is running roughshod over, I don’t know what is. And, if he wants to renegotiate that contract, wow what a can of worms because then every contract should be opened and issues that were long settled, well, just saying, careful what you ask for.
What a dumpster fire with the tariffs. Yeah, one, let’s pick a fight with our neighbors. This is not the way to combat the fentanyl crisis and this is not the way to lower costs for average Americans. Here’s a couple of suggestions on the fentanyl crisis: work collaboratively with other countries on law enforcement efforts is one way and invest in human services. Addiction is a harsh mistress. While the drug trade may be disproportionately in low income areas, there are plenty of affluent people who go and buy their drugs there. Clearing out open drug markets is certainly a step in the right direction. However, human services needs funding to provide not only drug treatment services, which are not a one and done in many cases, but, also the next steps in a recovering addicts journey. Many face homelessness and not being able to obtain gainful employment. What happened to second chances? And where is the Democratic outrage related to how these tariffs a) have the hallmarks of tanking not just our economy but global economies and b) impacts everyday citizens. If tRump and his cronies are not going to lower food, housing, technology, energy, etc. then it’s up to the states to figure out better ways to meet the needs of the people. It’s also up to citizens to stop buying Tesla’s and other billionaires’ products en masse. And where are my social media friends tracking how many times tRump is golfing while America burns???
First off, this has nothing to do with fentanyl. Less than 1% of fentanyl comes in from Canada.
Interdiction doesn’t come from the supplying country, it comes from the receiver. You go through customs when you enter the country, not when you leave. And if you think any of those services for addicts are coming anytime soon, well, dream on, dreamer.
You’re welcome to your outrage, but I don’t want my congresscritters expressing outrage. That’s just more political theater, which appeals to as many people on the left as the right. Democrats have no power. The GOP controls everything, and outrage just makes the MAGAs more certain they’re doing the right thing.
They should be pressuring their Republican colleagues – what are you doing in this regard, Chris Coons? – by pointing out that this is going to be a shitshow that only the Republicans can stop.
Until then, I want the media demanding every Republican express his rationale for supporting these tariffs. Have they been briefed by the Trumpies on how this is supposed to work? Because I don’t think they have, because I don’t think there’s any plan at all behind it. That’s what they should be trying to expose.
^This
In 2025, both the Beatles and Rolling Stones win Grammies.
The Beatles, for ‘Best Rock Performance’ for something that isn’t even a performance.
And the Rolling Stones, for an album which, at best, is not as bad as you might have thought it would be.
Pathetic.