They did. And your asshole forebears slaughtered them.
Apr 19, 2025
Dear MAGA
Just a quick note to all you guys with the tiny dick energy, who're always spoutin' off about how the Jews wouldn't have had it so bad if they'd just fought back.
History Lesson
I was an on-again-off-again fan of John McCain. There was always something likeable about him, even though he was pretty much a total nepo-baby fuckup until he spent 5 years as a POW in North Vietnam.
He was the logical heir to Barry Goldwater (also on-again-off-again for me), but McCain seemed less like a Bomb-'Em-First-And-To-Hell-With-Asking-Questions kinda guy - way less than Goldwater anyway. For a while, you could count on the guy to go with his intellect and not his emotions.
That began to change as MAGA made inroads, and he began to feel forced to go along with it.
We'll forever have to wonder about 'what if' McCain had still been around to keep guys like Lindsey Graham on the right side of things.
Long sad late night bull sessions are waiting to be had by the PoliSci majors of the future.
From 10 years ago:
John McCain's prophetic words spoken 10 years ago...but nobody listened.
byu/yaponetsa inukraine
Level Up
There're reasons to draft a threatening letter so you have it handy in case you need it, but when your crew fucks up (assuming it was in fact a fuck up), and you get bad push back, the decent honorable thing to do is to retract it publicly, and reprimand whoever made the unauthorized decision to send it out.
But we're talking about the Trump White House, so we're not talking about decent honorable people.
Key Points
- The Trump administration’s April 11 letter to Harvard University was “unauthorized,” two people familiar with the matter told the New York Times.
- In the letter, the White House demanded that Harvard eliminate its DEI programs and screen international students for ideological concerns, among other sweeping changes.
- The letter set off a public feud between the White House and Harvard over funding for the institution.
The April 11 letter, which demanded that Harvard eliminate its DEI programs and screen international students for ideological concerns, among other sweeping changes, was “unauthorized,” people familiar with the matter told the Times.
The contents of the letter were authentic, but “there were differing accounts inside the administration of how it had been mishandled,” per the Times.
The letter was signed by Josh Gruenbaum, the commissioner of the General Services Administration, Sean R. Kevney, the acting general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services and Thomas E. Wheeler, the acting general counsel of the Department of Education.
A Harvard spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC that “the letter that Harvard received on Friday, April 11, was signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, was sent from the e-mail inbox of a senior federal official, and was sent on April 11 as promised.”
“Recipients of such correspondence from the U.S. government—even when it contains sweeping demands that are astonishing in their overreach—do not question its authenticity or seriousness,” the spokesperson said.
“It remains unclear to us exactly what, among the government’s recent words and deeds, were mistakes or what the government actually meant to do and say,” the spokesperson added.
“But even if the letter was a mistake, the actions the government took this week have real-life consequences on students, patients, employees, and the standing of American higher education in the world.”
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the New York Times report.
The April 11 letter set off a public feud between the White House and Harvard.
The university on Monday rejected the White House’s demands that were put forth in the April 11 letter, putting almost $9 billion in federal funding for the university at risk.
The White House quickly fired back and, in response, said it would freeze approximately $2.2 billion in grants to the university.
According to the New York Times, the April 11 letter came as lawyers at Harvard University were in dialogue with the White House about how the school handled antisemitism and other issues.
The letter was signed by Josh Gruenbaum, the commissioner of the General Services Administration, Sean R. Kevney, the acting general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services and Thomas E. Wheeler, the acting general counsel of the Department of Education.
A Harvard spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC that “the letter that Harvard received on Friday, April 11, was signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, was sent from the e-mail inbox of a senior federal official, and was sent on April 11 as promised.”
“Recipients of such correspondence from the U.S. government—even when it contains sweeping demands that are astonishing in their overreach—do not question its authenticity or seriousness,” the spokesperson said.
“It remains unclear to us exactly what, among the government’s recent words and deeds, were mistakes or what the government actually meant to do and say,” the spokesperson added.
“But even if the letter was a mistake, the actions the government took this week have real-life consequences on students, patients, employees, and the standing of American higher education in the world.”
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the New York Times report.
The April 11 letter set off a public feud between the White House and Harvard.
The university on Monday rejected the White House’s demands that were put forth in the April 11 letter, putting almost $9 billion in federal funding for the university at risk.
The White House quickly fired back and, in response, said it would freeze approximately $2.2 billion in grants to the university.
According to the New York Times, the April 11 letter came as lawyers at Harvard University were in dialogue with the White House about how the school handled antisemitism and other issues.
Today's Belle
Stagflation is just about the worst thing ever. I don't know the ins and outs and loops and spins that got us there, but I lived thru it in the 70's and into the 80s, and it sucked.
An awful lot of people were barely squeaking by - like now. And that was back when a one-bedroom apartment in the city was renting at about $120 a month, you could buy a new car for $99 down and $99 a month, gas was 50¢ a gallon, and 25 or 30 bucks bought you 4 big paper sacks filled with groceries.
If Trump tips us into a full blown stagflation-type recession, we'll be lucky if it doesn't come to blows.
I understand that there has to be disruption of the usual everyday shit that we seem to be locked into before we can make the kind of changes we need, but what Trump is doing will only change things for the worse.
Everything Trump touches turns to shit.
Philosophizing
Fear is a universal emotion,
common among all sentient beings.
We all walk with fear - all day every day.
But here's the point:
Never ask your fear for directions.
Apr 18, 2025
92
The fuckin' idiot we've got for a president has issued 92 separate tariff policies in the last 6 weeks.
And still the rubes are cheering. Because, apparently, they believe that if you throw a big enough tariff at somebody on Tuesday, manufacturing plants will magically materialize by the weekend - or in a few months - or weeks - or decades - or whatever.
"C'mon - he said there'd be some discomfort at first. The guy's a super genius. He's playing 37-dimension chess. Trust the plan."
None of it really matters, because Trump has created the chaos he always creates, which creates opportunities for his minions to go grubbing around, looking for some easy-pickin's in the rubble. Plus, he owns the news cycle for another day or two.
Everything is totally episodic. If today's show flops and creates a problem, no sweat - we'll just throw some different bullshit at 'em tomorrow.
In the meantime, guys with the money to spare are stockpiling things like cell phones and laptops.
Apr 17, 2025
A Quote
Hell, you can decide to invade Russia at dinner - choose Waterloo for battle on a whim. It's the details. The small stuff.
It's easy to gamble a million lives. What's hard is to see how it can hurt one single person. And if you can't keep that straight, you'll lose your humanity.
Even-Handedness My Ass
Yes, Republicans were all over Obama when his DOJ was looking at certain "conservative" outfits that claimed tax shelter under their 501(c)(3) status because they'd been stepping over the line between "research and political education" and straight up campaigning.
And of course, it doesn't matter that Vance, Cruz, and Rubio were quite vocal in their condemnations, but also vocally adamant about how they'd definitely for-sure absolutely condemn a Republican administration if they did the same thing.
Guess what
Vance: 2:30
Cruz: 8:30
Rubio:10:15
Overheard
Our justice system was put together in a way that lets a few of the bad guys slip through the cracks, in order to protect decent law-abiding people.
And the justice system is there not only to protect us from each other, but to protect us from any overzealous goons working for a wacked out demagogue.
If government can deny even one single person the right to due process, then nobody has any rights that the government is legally bound to respect.
MAGA:
I don't care that gang members don't have the right to plead their case in court - they deserve whatever law enforcement doles out to them, and the harsher the better.
Normies:
Alrighty then - I say you're a gang member. The government is coming to arrest you, and they'll have you on a plane to El Salvador in the morning.
MAGA:
I'm not a gang member. They can't touch me. They have no right.
Normies:
You can't prove you're not a gang member. Without due process, none of your rights even exist. Government can do whatever it wants.
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