News Briefs #3

Governing by Intimidation

Joyce Vance in “The Democracy Index” published by The Contrarian, for February 21, reported four areas in which the Trump regime is governing by intimidation and threats of violence.

https://contrarian.substack.com/p/the-democracy-index-e1f

1)  A former member of Trump’s first administration told Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair that the current Senate Republicans are “scared shitless about death threats”. Senator Thom Tillis was warned by the FBI of “credible death threats” when he was considering voting against Pete Hegseth for defense secretary. Tillis provided the 50^th vote for Hegseth which allowed vice president Vance to break the tie in his favor.

2) Ed Martin, the interim US Attorney for Washington DC sent letters this month to two Democratic members of Congress threatening federal prosecution for what Martin considered threats of violence to Elon Musk and to two Supreme Court justices. You decide if these threats were real or metaphorical.

Rep. Robert Garcia said in a February 12 CNN interview “What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy”.

Senator Chuck Schumer on March 4, 2020, commented at a private rally regarding possible votes on overturning Roe v. Wade: “I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

So why send these now if not to intimidate further criticism of the Trump regime? While ignoring real threats from Trump and his followers including those by the pardoned January 6 rioters against federal prosecutors, FBI agents and judges.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/19/ed-martin-dc-letters-schumer-garcia/

3)  Republican members of Congress are threatening to impeach any federal judges who rule against the Trump administration. Yesterday Rep. Derrick Van Orden filed impeachment against the judge who blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury information. Other Republican Congressmen have threatened to do the same.

4)  The Trump administration preaches free speech but practices the opposite. Last week they banned The Associated Press from attending events because it still uses “Gulf of Mexico” for the Gulf of Mexico. Musk complaining about what was normal editing procedures of a Kamela Harris interview tweeted “[CBS] deserves a long prison sentence”. Trump forced the State Department to cancel subscriptions to The New York Times, The Economist, and Politico, periodicals that publish articles critical of the regime. They have also threatened (frivolous) lawsuits for defamation against any media company that criticizes them.

This rule by intimidation, forcing members of Congress to vote along party lines against their conscience (and their constituents) and to refrain from criticizing the administration, pressuring judges to rule favorably for the administration, and forcing media to print only favorable articles, is not something we expect to see in America. And we haven’t seen it – until now. This is what we expect in Hungary, India or Russia.

The Trump regime’s real objective is not to Make America Great Again (MAGA) but to Make America Like Russia (MALR).

 

IRS Fires 6,700 employees

On Thursday February 20 the Internal Revenue Service laid off 6,700 employees. This is an agency that has been understaffed and under-budgeted for decades. And income tax season has just started.

This will encourage dishonest citizens to cheat on their tax returns as the chance for getting audited is reduced. For the honest ones it will likely make getting a question answered by phone impossible and getting a refund greatly delayed or worse.

But for the billionaire “owners” of the MAGA party, the benefits are enormous. The IRS estimates that $600 billion a year of income tax goes uncollected because of lack of staff and budget.

Ask any businessman if it’s a wise cost-saving move to close down your Accounts Receivable department.

Source:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/business/irs-fires-employees-layoffs-trump.html

 

Chris Kluwe’s Speech

Former NFL player Chris Kluwe spoke at a Huntington Beach City Council meeting opposing a new plaque to be put up at the public library. The plaque’s design had a not too subtle reference to MAGA.

Chris had this to say about MAGA:

MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence.

MAGA stands for resegregation and racism.

MAGA stands for censorship and book bans.

MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing. 

MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal.

MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling research on veteran suicide.

MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children.”

MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy and most importantly, 

MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but every single thing MAGA stands for is what the Nazis did...

Kluwe then took a few steps towards the council members when he was taken down by police, cuffed, and hauled to the city jail.

Source:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chris-kluwe-arrested_n_67b69201e4b050f805a0e92b#

You can read Chris Kluwe’s entire speech here with links to back up each statement.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JUi1DcJY4tTGKfVkuwM7aibjD7lr1GDa/edit

 

Watch the Show

Tomas Friedman in conversation with Patrick Healy, NYT Feb 20, 2025  https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/opinion/trump-putin-ukraine-europe.html

On the Trump road show

Trump is driving, we’re all in the back seat, and I think he’s heading into a wall. If this weren’t my country, Pat, I’d put my feet up, grab some popcorn and watch the show. What a show! But it is my country.

On Republican congressmen’s capitulation:

There’s so many C.E.O.s in America, and they know this tariff stuff is just crazy. But he was surrounded by buffers in his first term, and now he’s surrounded by amplifiers. He’s surrounded by bobbleheads, and that’s just really crazy. I think Xi and Putin probably get more domestic pushback than Trump does now. Between the bobbleheads around him and then the echo chamber around them. And they’re all living in fear that Trump or Elon Musk, wait for it now, Pat, might tweet about them!

Northern Viewpoint: It’s not my country, but I have family and friends in the U.S. so have mixed feelings. On one hand I would like to just sit back and watch America implode so I can say “Believe me now?” But there is also the “collateral damage” to the rest of the world. Ukraine, my brother’s adopted home, will be the first and biggest casualty. Gaza, Taiwan, Panama, Greenland, and yes my own country of Canada, will all feel the impact. So writing this blog is one small thing I can do to help save the world.