Issues You May Know, 31 January 2025.
A list of things you might want to know about - or write your reps about.
Donald Trump has repeatedly wrong economic advisor Kevin Hassett working on bird flu. Kevin Hassett is an economist with a history of being way wrong. Chloe Humbert Jan 30, 2025 — (my letter to reps included)
Why do people just accept putting up with contaminated information?
Some guy on a podcast about January 6th disinformation said we have to educate kids about fake stuff online so they can navigate it. Good luck with that. I’m not against media literacy education, but that’s not going to solve everything because it’s just too time consuming to research everything yourself. The bullshit asymmetry principle and that sort of thing. He might as well just tell people “do your own research” like a Qanon already. He claimed we have to do that because private companies are within their rights to allow all manner of crap on their platforms. It’s like making people get years of education just to do their own medical testing to make sure medications they’ll need to take someday are safe and effective. Or making people test all the food to make sure it’s safe. I thought the whole point of a civilization was division of labor. What is going on with these people who want us all to have to do the job of sorting through every bit of misinformation? And this while hugely rich billionaires just rake in the money and refuse to provide that reasonable service for all that money they get. Why would we have to put up with that?
We need some kind of structure to be able to manage information pollution.
Less than 10 days in, Trump administration tries totalitarianism central government power grab.
Trump administration attempts to impound appropriations under the responsibility of Congress is an attempt at monarchy described in Project 2025 and by Curtis Yarvin.
The odd memo out of the White House and freezing access to Medicaid portals and threatened to shut down daycares is some pretty extreme overreach, but impounding already allocated funds of the federal government is part of the Project 2025 plan to consolidate power in the executive branch, much like monarchy. And we know the tycoons surrounding Trump want to transition to monarchy – possibly by doing shutdowns similar to covid shutdowns.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503 THE DIRECTOR January 27, 2025 M-25-13 MEMORANDUM FOR HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES FROM: Matthew J. Vaeth, Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget SUBJECT: Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal. This temporary pause will provide the Administration time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities. (...) Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending “wokeness” and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again. The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.
I feel like Trump wrote this himself, or at least did the draft, because he's the one who always uses scare quotes in odd inappropriate ways and uses extremely online qanon conspiracy talking points. And who else is always on about the green new deal as if it’s something to “overturn”? He seems to think it is a law that was passed when it was never even voted on. I think Jesse Dollemore is right, someone needs to keep singing Schoolhouse Rock "I'm Just a Bill" for Republicans.
Government Executive - White House rescinds widespread freeze on federal funds that caused chaos inside agencies- The revocation follows public outcry and an injunction in court. January 29, 2025 02:56 PM ET – Eric Katz “This one line walk back fortunately saves America from political disaster,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the fight over the funding issue is “far from over.” “The Trump administration—through a combination of sheer incompetence, cruel intentions, and a willful disregard of the law—caused real harm and chaos for millions over the span of the last 48 hours which is still ongoing,” Murray said, adding Trump’s more narrow freezes focused on foreign aid, infrastructure and climate spending remain in effect and the president’s pick to lead the OMB on a permanent basis, Russ Vought, has suggested he could ignore impoundment law. Democrats also voiced concern the rescission will not be permanent. “If they did it once, they can do it again,” Blumenthal said. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday the revocation was only to reduce confusion with the judge’s order.Lawsuits have been filed and a federal court ordered a halt to the freeze, but it's only temporary and Congress needs to assert constitutionally appropriate power over appropriations.
My letter to my US Rep in Congress & my US Senators:
The executive branch should not be allowed to do impounding of the budget appropriations that are allocated and promised by Congress. What are you doing to ensure that all these important federal operations appropriately continue going forward?
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
Trendy nicotine and the content creator gig economy indirect marketing landscape.
Bloomberg - Big Take: How Zyn Nicotine Pouches Made It Big Jan 24, 2025 Zyn nicotine pouches hit the market as a run-of-the-mill tobacco-replacement product, but over the past few years, they’ve gone viral thanks to so-called “Zynfluencers”: content creators who post about Zyn. They’re not paid by Zyn’s parent company Philip Morris, and while the online hype has likely helped sales, it also presents risks for the tobacco giant. Today on the show, Bloomberg Businessweek writer Ellen Huet joins host Sarah Holder to discuss what could become an existential question: Can the company ride the Zynfluencer wave without getting in trouble if kids get hooked?
In this podcast they mention how these influencers are helping to do "free" advertising for Phillip Morris by hyping this nicotine product. But I think the fact that it's in the right-wing mediasphere and MTG is talking about a "Zynsurrection" and whatnot, makes it clear that it's all fueled up by the same apparatus that is indirectly funding all these people in the information gig economy. All someone with various investments has to do is contribute to some PR operation that goes out with their botnets and sock puppets hitting like and doing paid subscriptions on all these things from content creators, even small-time content creators. There are potentially many layers between who's funding and the advertisements, that these influencers don't have the conflicts to report, because they don't even know who or why is hitting like and subscribe, and driving most of their traffic. They have complete deniability about their audience capture in chasing clicks.
Related:
The information gig economy. Sep 18th, 2024 wat3rm370n.tumblr
The Internet of Fakes — PR Tactics, Troll Farms, Sock Puppets, Botnets, Influencers, Operatives, & Chaos Agents. A collection of evidence of persuasion, advertising, sales, target marketing, propaganda, agent provocateurs, and cognitive warfare - the true reality of the media landscape. Chloe Humbert Sep 14, 2023
The grass is not that much greener on the blue sky. Don't Wait For Everybody - Episode 013 Chloe Humbert Nov 20, 2024
📍 There’s no such thing as a “late term abortion”.
FYI:
KFF Health News - Abortion “Until the Day of Birth” Is Almost Never a Thing By Julie Rovner November 15, 2023 Take note: There’s no such thing as a “late-term” abortion. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, late-term refers to the period after 40 weeks, when the pregnancy has exceeded full-term.
Crypto conflicts in Congress.
Citation Needed - Issue 75 – Absolutely preposterous Trump horrifies even some of his crypto-steeped fans by launching a memecoin before his inauguration, and a flurry of activity from the new administration signals what’s in store for the crypto world in the next four years. Molly White 24 Jan 2025 Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) faked out the bitcoin markets by tweeting “₿ig things are coming👀” and then “Stay tuned for 10 A.M.” Bitcoin prices jumped on the news as many anticipated that it would for some reason be her announcing the bitcoin strategic reserve. Instead, at 10:44am, she tweeted that she was “honored to chair the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets” — something Punchbowl News journalist Brendan Pedersen had reported weeks ago.17 Personally, I think it’s not great that a Senator who personally holds bitcoin can move bitcoin markets by a couple thousand dollars with just a tweet — and it’s not great that someone with a financial stake in crypto is tasked with regulating the sector.d The Subcommittee is stacked with crypto proponents, with pro-crypto Ruben Gallego (D-AZ, recipient of $10 million in crypto PAC funding) serving as the ranking member. Pro-crypto Republicans Bernie Moreno (OH, recipient of $40 million), Dave McCormick (PA, recipient of $35,000), Thom Tillis (NC), and Bill Hagerty (TN) are also taking seats. However, the Democrats besides Gallego on the committee have historically been skeptical of crypto: Mark Warner (VA), Chris Van Hollen (MD), and Tina Smith (MN).18
My letter to reps:
There should obviously be a rule that elected officials can't hold cryptocurrency and use their positions in Congress to move markets with posts on social media about what they're doing in legislation or by making noises about what they're up to in the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets and then subsequently make money on their investments in this scammy financial scheme that resembles a rigged casino for public officials.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
Eugenics is always a pseudoscience hoax.
It’s just an ideology, and a bad one based in accelerationist hopium and ableism, and racism.
Mother Jones - January 2, 2025 - Eugenics Isn’t Dead—It’s Thriving in Tech - A new book takes on the throughline from the rise of 20th-century eugenics to Silicon Valley. - Julia Métraux The US psychologist and eugenicist Henry Goddard played an especially critical role. He first introduced the term “moron” in medicine to establish a multi-tiered classification for the “feeble-minded”. With fellow eugenicists, he strove to prove low intelligence as the primary indicator of deficient self-control, criminality, alcoholism, laziness, prostitution, and even political dissent. He advocated intelligence testing for all US immigrants to exclude so-called “unfit” arrivals. In 1913 he began an infamous study on immigrant intelligence that included as assessment questions that he delivered in English to respondents: “What is Crisco?”—the US-made cooking product introduced just two years earlier as an alternative to butter, and “Who is Christy Mathewson?”—an American [baseball] player. Based on responses to such questions, he classified over 80 percent of his respondents as feebleminded—confirming, as Goddard wrote when the study was published in 1917, “that a surprisingly large percentage of immigrants are of relatively low mentality.” Goddard ended the article by proudly sharing the dramatic expansion in deportations of mentally defective populations from Ellis Island—by 350 percent and 570 percent in 1913 and 1914, respectively—that his study had triggered.
Trump & Elon downsizing public services.
Trump administration offers all federal workers Elon Musk styled job buyout framed as a way to avoid Return To Office mandates.
Robert Reich to feds: Don’t do it!
Nextgov/FCW - Trump reportedly will offer buyouts to all 2 million federal workers January 28, 2025 07:16 PM ET The White House’s plan to offer “deferred resignations” that pay departing federal employees their salary through Sept. 30 will likely run afoul of rules governing buyout payments. By Erich Wagner Axios, who first reported the development, cited debunked claims from White House officials that 6% of the federal workforce does not work in person—more than half of federal workers cannot telework because their duties are not portable, and employees who telework spent around 60% of their work hours in person, per 2024 Office of Management and Budget data. The email frames the buyout offer as a respite from the administration’s effort to effectively end telework for most of the federal workforce, relocate workers and eliminate programs. It warns that a “majority” of agencies will see reductions in force, and “the reclassification to at-will status for a substantial number” of feds.
Trump Buyouts Mirror Elon Musk's Twitter Purge Trump's sweeping orders reek of Musk's management philosophy Ken Klippenstein Jan 28, 2025 Trump’s plan, expressed in a memo blasted out to federal workers, bears a striking resemblance to one sent by Elon Musk sent to Twitter (X) employees in 2023, before laying off around 80 percent of the company’s workforce. The two memos even have the same title — “Fork in the Road.”
Yahoo News - Salon Trump OPM hires include recent high school grad who interned at Musk's Neuralink Alex Galbraith Wed, January 29, 2025 at 3:33 PM EST The outlet reports that the upper echelons of OPM include a 21-year-old software engineer who formerly worked at Palantir, the analytics company owned by Musk's former Paypal partner Peter Thiel. Another unnamed employee graduated from high school this year and reportedly lists bicycle mechanic and camp counselor on their resume, alongside an internship at Musk's Neuralink.
Government Executive - Employee groups, Democrats, experts warn feds not to accept ‘deferred resignation’ offer - The lack of a legal underpinning for the purported eight-month severance package, and Elon Musk’s history of offering—and then revoking—severance payments have many federal workers wary of the measure. January 29, 2025 05:19 PM ET By Tuesday morning, a consensus had emerged among unions and other federal employe associations: Don’t take the deal. Between the questionable legal authority to grant deferred resignations, a lack of guarantee that an employees’ resignation will be accepted and that their pay and benefits will actually continue, and Elon Musk’s involvement and past history with mass resignation efforts, feds should be wary, they said. “Right now, we have more questions than answers about this email and the ‘deferred resignation program,’” reads an email from Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers to union locals.
Trump administration's central government email plan raises red flags.
Nextgov/FCW - OPM’s new email system sparks questions about cyber compliance - By David DiMolfettaJanuary 28, 2025 02:17 PM ET Until very recently, the Office of Personnel Management lacked the capability to send mass emails to all federal employees, a person familiar said, fueling concerns that the agency bypassed procurement rules.
Ken Klippenstein said that the new comms system made it possible for him to message the entirety of NOAA. That sounds off.
The desire to consolidate centralized power from the White House with impoundment and such. The anti-science, anti-education, and anti-expert stance of Trumpism. The heavy emphasis on having a cultural revolution for specifically MAGA culture. It really makes it seem like Trump is a lot like Chairman Mao and MAGA are maoists looking to have central control and destroy public education. I thought righties were against having central government? I guess every accusation really is a confession. The tech tycoon guru said outright he wants a covid lockdown to bring back a monarchist system, for example.
My letter to reps:
This federal central government email scheme that has been suddenly introduced seems like it's sketchy. This email system needs to be investigated. Where did it come from and who really controls it? Were proper procurement rules followed? The Trump administration is looking more and more like a Maoist totalitarian regime with the centralization of power with a central government, also the anti-education and anti-expertise stance. Very peculiar.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
There has been a coup of the federal civil service.
Citation Needed - Trump’s Project 2025 ghostwriters - Exposed PDF metadata from the Office of Personnel Management reveals that Heritage Foundation-linked Trump devotees are writing policies at federal agencies. Molly White - 27 Jan 2025 An anonymous, unverified post on the r/fednews subreddit by someone claiming to work at the OPM suggests that the Project 2025 policy ghostwriting is only one of the many problems suddenly facing the agency in recent weeks:
This is a huge step beyond clientelism. Anyone who thinks that Democrats are the same as this needs a reality check. If even half of this is true, people need to, and will, be going to jail. But not soon enough.
My letter to reps:
We need a criminal investigation into the federal civil service takeover by private interests. If even half of what is being reported is true, people need to go to jail for their highly improper conduct in restructuring the federal government in secret, behind closed doors, and without the American people having any say in it. I daresay some crimes being committed against civil servants may in fact be treason and motivated by foreign interests, in which case, I think the death penalty might be on the table. I however oppose the death penalty. I would be satisfied with life imprisonment for these bad actors. I expect you to mount investigations on this with haste.
The appropriate people to send this to would be US Senators, Reps in Congress, and State Attorney Generals.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
Is this what people really voted for? To rename Denali to insult people in Alaska?
AP - McKinley descendant promotes a compromise Trump wants North America's tallest peak renamed in honor of President William McKinley, drawing heat from many in Alaska. Jan. 23, 2025, 5:03 PM EST By Erik Ortiz King and many others who live in the mountain’s shadow say most Alaskans will never stop calling the peak Denali, its Alaska Native name, despite President Donald Trump’s executive order that the name revert to Mount McKinley -- an identifier inspired by President William McKinley, who was from Ohio and never set foot in Alaska. For many who live near Denali, Trump’s suggestion was peculiar. “I don’t know a single person that likes the idea, and we’re pretty vocal about it,” King said. “Denali respects the Indigenous people that have been here and around Denali for tens of thousands of years.”
The sad part, from the perspective of Donald Trump is that it won't last. And all that will happen is some money and time wasted and a lot of people insulted and inconvenienced. Even before the name was officially changed before, people have always called it Denali, and people will continue to. Eventually Donald Trump will be gone and they switch the name back because mostly nobody wants it.
My letter to reps:
Wasting time on changing the names of stuff on the map shows that the Trump administration doesn't respect people. Not because people in Alaska or wherever didn't ask for this crap, which that's true – but because the waste of time and money on this is pointless while Americans have real problems. It's a mockery of governance.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
Another “Manifest Destiny” – in space.
Universe, Discovered weekly newsletter from Dave Eicher, editor-in-chief of Astronomy wrote about the Trump administration's declaration of pursuit of "manifest destiny into the stars", saying “Manifest Destiny” of course refers to the 19th-Century American movement that fueled the expansion of the United States across the continent to seize territory, displace Native Americans, cook up a war with Mexico, and justify border disputes and the annexation of Texas to push the boundaries of the United States as far as possible." Dave Eicher continued by mentioning that "the White House announced Janet Petro as acting administrator until Jared Isaacman is installed. This surprised many who assumed that James Free, NASA’s current associate administrator, would serve as acting administrator."
I have to mention that this is the culmination of far too many astronomy and physics scientists and enthusiasts falling for the big lie of tech tycoon worship and thinking that the way forward was privatization kissing up to big business and tycoons instead of doing the type of research that led to the innovations and technological advancements we have today.
Twitter post: Neil deGrasse Tyson @neiltyson While casting shade on @elonmusk for what he's done, is doing, or will do, try to pause & remember that he made electric cars a normal thing in society and he commercialized space for cargo, satellites, & people. Count him among those who are inventing civilization's future. 5,634 replies, 7,174 retweets, 60.9K hearts, Tweet reply Chloe in Scranton PA @watermelonpunch Replying to @neiltyson and @elonmusk You know you can eat the shoe polish straight out of the can. 2:36 AM Dec 21, 2022
Strangely enough, Neil deGrasse Tyson had spent years pointing out how the public programs underpinned so much of technology, only to roll over to courting billionaires and promoting the commercialization of space – something that's already leading to problems for professional scientists and amateur astronomers and ordinary people on Earth now, and may lead to many more crashes going forward.
Unfettered capitalism is not known for public safety and long-term planning.