Well... it's Trump... again. #47, here we go.

[Politesse]

Why does the Right Wing hate Dr Fauci so much? Nothing he has done justifies that level of hatred. He had a difficult job at a time when the scientific community was in flux and not quite sure what to do, and their views on Covid were rapidly changing, so his advice changed to suit the current stage of knowledge.

I’m assuming it’s because he said everyone should wear masks, which were useless and annoying, and he wouldn’t back the use of ivermectin, which would have cured everyone of Covid.

So... because of the two things he was 100% correct about?

 

[Elixir]

Why does the Right Wing hate Dr Fauci so much?

Because he made their Orange Jesus look like an utter moron
(despite his every effort to avoid doing so without lying).

 

[blastula]

Trump Admin. Lifts Ban on Immigration Arrests at Schools

A new change ends a policy that mostly prohibited agents from making immigration arrests at schools and other spots where children gather.

www.edweek.org

CPS says ICE agents 'showed up' at Chicago school, Secret Service says it was them

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were seen at a Chicago school Friday afternoon, according to officials with the city's public school district, though a spokesperson for the agency denied such an encounter.

www.nbcchicago.com

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Trump Admin. Lifts Ban on Immigration Arrests at Schools

A new change ends a policy that mostly prohibited agents from making immigration arrests at schools and other spots where children gather.

www.edweek.org

CPS says ICE agents 'showed up' at Chicago school, Secret Service says it was them

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were seen at a Chicago school Friday afternoon, according to officials with the city's public school district, though a spokesperson for the agency denied such an encounter.

www.nbcchicago.com

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were seen at a Chicago school Friday afternoon, hours after a Trump administration official confirmed that Illinois was among several states where hundreds of arrests had previously been made.

Hundreds. Not certain how to take that.

1) He isn't sending undocumented people en masse out of the nation
2) He is pretending that he is doing that he isn't.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It has been less than a week and I've had my fill of this idiot.

FEMA has been a very big disappointment. It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow. Other than that, we’re very happy with them.

FEMA just hasn’t done the job. We’re looking at the whole concept of FEMA.

It is like language from him is the thinnest stool that the body can eject from the anus.

His governance is bad enough, his god damn words make me want my head to explode.

 

[southernhybrid]

They just said on the news that ICE invaded a business in Newark, NJ. They are asking for people's IDs. Fuck! I guess Mr. Sohy who is of Arabic descent, better make sure he always has his star driver's license handy. That's the one that where we had to prove we were US citizens to get. Fuck! This is beyond insane!

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Turms out Trump doesn't care about the economy.

‘I Don’t Care’: Trump Barrels Through as Hannity Cuts In 5 Times To ‘Get To The Economy’

President Donald Trump shot down Fox News host Sean Hannity when he tried repeatedly — five times — to cut in and get Trump to talk about the economy.

www.mediaite.com

If you defend or support Trump, fuck you.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Why does the Right Wing hate Dr Fauci so much? Nothing he has done justifies that level of hatred. He had a difficult job at a time when the scientific community was in flux and not quite sure what to do, and their views on Covid were rapidly changing, so his advice changed to suit the current stage of knowledge.

I’m assuming it’s because he said everyone should wear masks, which were useless and annoying, and he wouldn’t back the use of ivermectin, which would have cured everyone of Covid.

So... because of the two things he was 100% correct about?

Well, you’d have to ask a Right Winger about that. It’s just what I am assuming.

 

[bilby]

Elon Musk's DOGE has a new target for cutting federal spending: the U.S. penny

Elon Musk's DOGE is taking aim at the U.S. penny, pointing out that it costs more to manufacture than it's worth.

www.cbsnews.com

Dump the penny.
This comes up all the time.
It would save $179 million.
But, would cost consumers as prices would be rounded up to nearest $.05.
Many countries have done it.
So, what happened in your country?

Barely anyone noticed or cared.

Prices are still to the nearest cent, and the rounding only applies to cash sales, and then only to the final total. It's not always a rounding up; 1,2,6 or 7 cent last digits are rounded down, 3,4,8 or 9 are rounded up, so generally it's a wash.

The most noticeable impact is that trouser pockets last longer.

 

[Derec]

Get rid of the penny and nickel.

Good idea!
The nickel is also more expensive to make than it's worth. Mostly due to its large size. And ever since the dime is no longer silver (i.e. since 1965), nickel being larger than the dime has not made any sense. Speaking of 1965, a dime today is worth about as much as a penny was in 1965.
Besides, it makes more sense to round to the nearest 10th because you can just get rid of the hundredth place altogether.

They are obsolete! But let's not pretend the savings is remotely in the neighborhood of the outlandish prophesized savings DOGE was targetting to meet.

What do you expect from an outfit named after a meme?

 

[Shadowy Man]

Sure, because of inflation those last few cents don’t mean much. BUT… once Trump brings down all the prices we may need to account for those hundredths.

 

[Derec]

The most noticeable impact is that trouser pockets last longer.

Which means that big trouser will never let the change happen. Not to mention big zinc.
The latter actually has been lobbying against retiring the penny.
Saving the penny makes cents for zinc-backed front group

 

[Shadowy Man]

The most noticeable impact is that trouser pockets last longer.

Which means that big trouser will never make the change happen. Not to mention big zinc.
The latter actually has been lobbying against retiring the penny.
Saving the penny makes cents for zinc-backed front group

When I read that first paragraph I thought at first this was an Onion article.

 

[Derec]

Two Trump pardons that actually make sense.

Trump pardons two police officers convicted in murder of Black man in Washington

Republican U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned, opens new tab two police officers in Washington who were convicted in the 2020 murder of a 20-year-old Black man named Karon Hylton-Brown, the White House said, opens new tab.
In September 2024, Terence Sutton Jr was sentenced, opens new tab to 66 months in prison while Andrew Zabavsky was sentenced to 48 months in prison over "an unauthorized police pursuit that ended in a collision on Oct. 23, 2020, that caused the death of Karon Hylton-Brown, 20, in Northwest Washington D.C.," the Justice Department said last year. The officers remained free pending the outcomes of their appeals.
[...]
Sutton was found guilty by a unanimous federal jury in late 2022, after a nine-week trial, of second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct, and obstruction of justice. The same jury found Zabavsky guilty of conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice.
The jury had found that Sutton caused Hylton-Brown's death by driving a police vehicle in "conscious disregard" for an extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury to Hylton-Brown.

What about Hylton-Brown fleeing from the police and riding his scooter 'in "conscious disregard" for an extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury to' himself? Where does his own responsibility come in here?

The "black man" in question was not killed by the cops, but rather killed himself during a police chase. Merrick Garland overcharged the cops here - the murder charge was especially egregious. I very much doubt the Justice Department would have been nearly that aggressive if not for the dead guy being black and for the racial politics of the George Floyd Insurrection.

More from a local article about the case from last year.
The Unjust Pursuit of Police Officer Sutton

But Sutton, a 13-year police veteran, did not strike, shoot, harm, or even touch Hylton. Hylton died after exiting a blind alley on a motorized scooter and being struck by a passing civilian vehicle. He had multiple drugs in his system. He ran through stop signs and red lights in the minutes before he drove into oncoming traffic. Sutton followed Hylton at a moderate speed, averaging 30 miles per hour.'
[...]
Yet, the pursuing officers believed that Hylton—a member of the violent Kennedy Street drug gang with previous arrests for drugs, illegal gun possession, and assaults on police officers—was on his way to retaliate against a rival gang member over a debt. At the request of federal prosecutors, the court blocked the jury from hearing about Hylton’s membership in the Kennedy Street crew, which was under Justice Department investigation at the time and whose other members would later be indicted for murder, drug trafficking, and racketeering. The jury also never heard that Hylton was wearing an ankle monitor for a violent assault in Montgomery County, Maryland, and had thousands of dollars in cash strapped to his body.

So it wasn't just a helmet violation either. And the jurors were not allowed to have all the salient facts about the case.
More reason why this prosecution was improper and why the pardon is appropriate.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Two Trump pardons that actually make sense.

Trump pardons two police officers convicted in murder of Black man in Washington

Republican U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned, opens new tab two police officers in Washington who were convicted in the 2020 murder of a 20-year-old Black man named Karon Hylton-Brown, the White House said, opens new tab.
In September 2024, Terence Sutton Jr was sentenced, opens new tab to 66 months in prison while Andrew Zabavsky was sentenced to 48 months in prison over "an unauthorized police pursuit that ended in a collision on Oct. 23, 2020, that caused the death of Karon Hylton-Brown, 20, in Northwest Washington D.C.," the Justice Department said last year. The officers remained free pending the outcomes of their appeals.
[...]
Sutton was found guilty by a unanimous federal jury in late 2022, after a nine-week trial, of second-degree murder, conspiracy to obstruct, and obstruction of justice. The same jury found Zabavsky guilty of conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of justice.
The jury had found that Sutton caused Hylton-Brown's death by driving a police vehicle in "conscious disregard" for an extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury to Hylton-Brown.

What about Hylton-Brown fleeing from the police and riding his scooter 'in "conscious disregard" for an extreme risk of death or serious bodily injury to' himself? Where does his own responsibility come in here?

The "black man" in question was not killed by the cops, but rather killed himself during a police chase. Merrick Garland overcharged the cops here - the murder charge was especially egregious. I very much doubt the Justice Department would have been nearly that aggressive if not for the dead guy being black and for the racial politics of the George Floyd Insurrection.

More from a local article about the case from last year.
The Unjust Pursuit of Police Officer Sutton

But Sutton, a 13-year police veteran, did not strike, shoot, harm, or even touch Hylton. Hylton died after exiting a blind alley on a motorized scooter and being struck by a passing civilian vehicle. He had multiple drugs in his system. He ran through stop signs and red lights in the minutes before he drove into oncoming traffic. Sutton followed Hylton at a moderate speed, averaging 30 miles per hour.'
[...]
Yet, the pursuing officers believed that Hylton—a member of the violent Kennedy Street drug gang with previous arrests for drugs, illegal gun possession, and assaults on police officers—was on his way to retaliate against a rival gang member over a debt. At the request of federal prosecutors, the court blocked the jury from hearing about Hylton’s membership in the Kennedy Street crew, which was under Justice Department investigation at the time and whose other members would later be indicted for murder, drug trafficking, and racketeering. The jury also never heard that Hylton was wearing an ankle monitor for a violent assault in Montgomery County, Maryland, and had thousands of dollars in cash strapped to his body.

So it wasn't just a helmet violation either. And the jurors were not allowed to have all the salient facts about the case.
More reason why this prosecution was improper and why the pardon is appropriate.

Well thank fucking gawd! At least 2% of what Trump did wasn't awful.

 

[bilby]

The most noticeable impact is that trouser pockets last longer.

Which means that big trouser will never let the change happen. Not to mention big zinc.
The latter actually has been lobbying against retiring the penny.
Saving the penny makes cents for zinc-backed front group

Tough shit. It's zinc or swim.

 

[Shadowy Man]

They just said on the news that ICE invaded a business in Newark, NJ. They are asking for people's IDs. Fuck! I guess Mr. Sohy who is of Arabic descent, better make sure he always has his star driver's license handy. That's the one that where we had to prove we were US citizens to get. Fuck! This is beyond insane!

See, for example, https://www.axios.com/2025/01/24/ice-raid-newark-new-jersey-immigration-us-citizens

ICE agents entered the Ocean Food Depot restaurant where owner Luis Janota said around a dozen immigration authorities detained three people after receiving a complaint...

• "I asked [the agents] what documentation they were looking for, and they said it was a license or a passport. I thought, who walks around with a passport?" Janota told the station.
• Janota said among the workers questioned was the manager of the restaurant's warehouse, a Puerto Rican man and military veteran. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.
• "It looked to me like they were specifically going after certain kinds of people — not every kind, because they did not ask me for documentation or my American workers, Portuguese workers or white workers."

If Mr. Sohy looks white he may be ok, but it may make sense for anyone who may look "foreign" to keep proof of citizenship on them.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Also, from https://abc7ny.com/post/newark-ice-...n-custody-warrant-mayor-baraka-says/15833458/

[Mayor Ras] Baraka said in a statement that agents "raided" the business without producing a warrant. In a press release, the mayor said one of the detainees was a veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned.

Here's what it is going to feel like under Trump:

"Walked in like it was their empire's own conquered land, they were heavily armed, there was no prior announcement, they were blocking entrances and exits, they were scrambling up delivery ramps, they were banging down bathroom doors to make sure no one was hiding inside," said Amy Torres with New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice.

And ICE's response:

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual's identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite today in Newark, New Jersey. This is an active investigation and, per ICE policy, we cannot discuss ongoing investigations."

 

[bilby]

And ICE's response:

"Your papers, please. Do not make me ask twice".

Having uniformed thugs roaming the streets with arbitrary power to stop, interrogate, and detain any person who cannot immediately produce documentary proof of their citizenship, is a small price to pay for freedom.

 

[crazyfingers]

While I clearly have white European ancestry and my risk is low, because they clearly do racially profile, I do keep wondering what I'd do if confronted. I refuse to carry my passport around. I have a Real-ID. I have a photo of my passport on my phone but might not volunteer that.

I wonder if I'll have to balls to repeat over and over to them their they boss is a fascist felon. I won't call them a fascist felon, but their boss.