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I want to thank all of you who came to my first Substack Chat last night. I really enjoyed hanging out with you. If you missed it, check it out here [ [link removed] ]. We talked about David Axelrod’s comment [ [link removed] ] that Democrats should just throw in the towel on USAID—and the famine prevention and lifesaving healthcare we provide to needy children all over the world—because Americans want to cut foreign aid.
Well, I’m not a smart political consultant like David, but to me, this is a shitty, defeatist take. What Donald Trump is doing with USAID is illegal [ [link removed] ]. Throw in the towel on the rule of law? What’s next…should we let Trump illegally gut the CIA because the American people think they’re the “deep state”?
No, David. Vital American soft power around the world—and more importantly, the rule of law here at home—are worth fighting for. If you cave to Trump on USAID, he’ll come back for more. I understand choosing your battles in normal times. These are not normal times. Trump isn’t choosing his battles discriminately. He is fighting on every front. We have to do the same.
I was glad to see that you all agreed. That is the fire and unity we need, and we have to put pressure on Democrats to hold the line on everything. So no, Senator Fetterman [ [link removed] ], don’t approve Trump’s Cabinet nominees. It doesn’t make you look like a good moderate; it makes you an appeaser to an authoritarian. Don’t cave on ANYTHING. Don’t give him an inch.
Let’s stay in close touch, my friends. Chat again soon.
HEROES OF THE WEEK. Everyone protesting [ [link removed] ] and telling Trump and Elon Musk (who is busy feeding sensitive national data [ [link removed] ] into his AI systems) that they can fuck right off [ [link removed] ] is my hero this week. A special shoutout to U.S. District Judge John Coughenour [ [link removed] ], who indefinitely blocked Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. He said: "It has become ever more apparent that, to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals. The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain. Nevertheless, in this courtroom and under my watch, the rule of law is a bright beacon which I intend to follow." Hell yeah. If most of our judiciary has the balls Judge Coughenour does, we might make it through this mess intact.
YEAH, WE’RE IN DANGER. According to Sam Stein [ [link removed] ] from The xxxxxx, the government is being strangled: PEPFAR programs are faltering, Head Start grant recipients are having issues with funds, a refugee aide group in the U.S. says it can’t access funding, National Institutes of Health applicants have grants in limbo, climate and infrastructure grants are frozen, and more. Throw in what Trump is doing to the CIA [ [link removed] ], FBI [ [link removed] ], and DOJ [ [link removed] ], and we know for certain that America will be less free and way less safe because of Trump. Americans will die because of Trump’s actions. Innocent people around the world will die because of Trump’s actions. To quote Twitter’s most obnoxious disinformation-spreader, “Let that sink in.”
IS THERE A BIGGER WUSS IN AMERICA THAN LITTLE MARCO? To be fair, he has a lot of competition. But because he took the exact opposite journey I did, from early NeverTrump hero [ [link removed] [link removed] ] to slavish devotee, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is particularly egregious. In February 2017, Rubio said [ [link removed] ], “Foreign Aid is not charity. We must make sure it is well spent, but it is less than 1% of budget & critical to our national security.” He was right! Now he’s accusing USAID of operating as a “global charity” [ [link removed] ]. Nothing has changed about USAID. It’s the same exact agency with the same exact mission as eight years ago. But Rubio is not the same man. Sad.
BECAUSE IT’S A CULT. Here’s another reminder that MAGA’s only ideology is devotion to King Donald. Trump campaigned on extricating America from the rest of the world and focusing on the homeland, with no more wars and no nation-building. MAGA cheered. But now that he’s in office, Trump wants to take over Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal, and now Gaza [ [link removed] ]. And MAGA still cheers.
LOVE THIS QUOTE. “The Tea Party, who strenuously protested when a Black guy they claimed was born in Africa was spending their tax dollars, are strangely silent now that a white guy who was definitely born in Africa is doing it.” —Andy Borowitz [ [link removed] ]
Hey, when he’s right, he’s right [ [link removed] ].
So what can you do?
Protest [ [link removed] ] peacefully where you can, whenever you can.
Write to your congressperson, write to your senators, write to your red-state governor, if you’ve got one. Or call their offices locally or in D.C. Keep up the pressure.
Join the growing #NOKINGS community! Let’s build a community right now of Americans who rally around and identify with that basic truth: we don’t have kings in America. We’ll figure out where to go beyond that down the road. I’ve changed all my profile pictures to #NOKINGS, and you can too. Grab the #NOKINGS graphic below and go to www.oneflaginitiative.org [ [link removed] ] for instructions on how to change your profile pics.
America’s Loss of Checks and Balances: The Price of Forgetting How We Got Here
By Joe Walsh
I was angry. I witnessed a President of the United States groundlessly fire inspectors general, purge military leaders who disagreed on policy matters, and sign more executive orders in a year than his predecessor did in four.…...
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