pik mukherji

EM Educator: Teach Praxis Hunt Signal Slay Noise. Assoc Prof KP Northern Cal. Invite me to #EMConf!

[pik mukherji @ercowboy]

@DRitterMD I hear you.

But I just repeat the Pratchett Rule of EM:

"It may not be your fault, but it is now your responsibility."

[Paolo Mossetti @paolomossetti]

Leen Hijaz, valedictorian at her high school in North Carolina, said the following in her graduation speech:

"Before I leave the stage, I have one last thing to say. Every single person here has a voice; we have the privilege to use it when millions around the world are struggling and suffering to be heard. Whether it’s the millions suffering in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Afghanistan and so many other countries around the world, or families being torn apart by ICE. These are not just an issue here; they are happening there, they’re happening right here as I speak. My point is, we’re not given a voice to stay silent."

Corey Robin, a political theorist at Brooklyn College, writes: "The mere mention of Palestine—maybe ICE, too—sent the high school principal, Melissa Moore, hurtling across the stage to seize the microphone from Hijaz, and stop her from saying these unapproved words.

Just look at this photograph: A young Muslim woman, speaking out, and a desperate, terrified principal trying to shut her down, lest the student say something unauthorized, disapproved, discordant with the views of an increasingly small clique of government officials and voters.

It's so pathetic. It reads like a comic play by Václav Havel. It looks like the desperate last days of the Soviet Union. I can only hope Hijaz speaks for a generation that will, one day, sweep all this garbage into the dustbin of history".

[Annie Grayer @AnnieGrayerCNN]

New: CNN spoke with more than a dozen current and former female staffers who say they’ve faced harassment from House members or senior congressional staff, nearly all of whom chose not to report the incidents and still fear publicly naming their harassers https://t.co/xcOUPotmyZ

[Viral Reel Addict @ViralReelAddict]

Trump in 2008: Anyone who invades the Middle East under false pretenses should be impeached.

[Jesus Freakin Congress @TheJFreakinC]

🚨BREAKING: Right-wing streamer Cam Higby was caught on video walking up to a group of protesters and pepper spraying multiple people, outside the Newark ICE Facility.

Then, as people reacted to being sprayed, an armed man pulled him away, telling him, “It’s not worth it… it’s time to go.”

Last time I checked… walking up to a group of people and spraying them with a chemical irritant is commonly charged as assault or battery.

And then, after spraying the crowd, the video show Higby, and the armed man, running into the ICE facility while agents allowed them inside.

Imagine the outrage if a left-wing activist walked up to a group of conservatives, pepper sprayed them, and then disappeared behind federal gates.

The headlines would never stop.

The law is supposed to apply equally to everyone.

[Governor Newsom Press Office (parody) @AwesomeNewsom]

American soldiers die in Trump's war, not a word from Donald. Gas and food prices skyrocket, not a word from Donald. People demand the Epstein files, not a word from Donald. But the minute you take his fat name off a building, Donald writes Mein Kampf for Morons.

[Joe @electionsjoe]

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. This is insane. Republicans are voiding elections that have already happened to change the maps to get the results they want. They're dismantling democracy.

[The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln]

The Republican Party quietly deleted their own ad attacking Ken Paxton's record on crime... because Paxton is now the Republican Party's nominee to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.

Figured if the ad is important enough to delete, it's important enough to see...

[Mike Nellis @MikeNellis]

Call me old-fashioned, but I think it should be a bigger story that a sitting Republican member of Congress is missing, nobody knows where he is, yet he’s somehow still insider trading.

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

There was only one thing that surprised me about the Jubilee with MAGA die-hards.

It wasn't that some people scream and refuse to stop talking. It wasn't that these were mostly young people cheering and finding purpose in wars but never fighting in them. It wasn't that their politics is more of a cult of personality. All expected and found in all factions.

It was that, despite being political junkies, they had no idea about Trump's enormous corruption scandals because the corporate and independent media they consume doesn't mention it. They had no idea it existed:

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

Trump is now reportedly responsible for roughly 27.7% of the entire U.S. national debt accumulated under all presidents combined.

That is an astonishing figure historically.

The national debt just crossed $39 trillion.

President Trump has added roughly $12–13 trillion to the debt across his two terms in office.

That’s approximately 30% of ALL U.S. national debt accumulated since 1789.

In 2016, Trump said he would pay down the national debt “over a period of eight years.”

Instead:

- First term: +$7.8 trillion
- Second term: roughly +$4–5 trillion already

And yes, COVID affected first-term spending.

It does not explain adding another trillion dollars every five months without a pandemic.

A political movement built on:
“fiscal conservatism”
“small government”
“balanced budgets”

has now overseen the largest debt expansion tied to any single presidency in American history.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Not getting enough attention: the one-page order from Todd Blanche to wipe out every audit of Donald Trump.

Many experts believe it’s illegal, and here’s why.

Federal law prohibits the President or his aides from directing or halting an IRS audit. Agents who carry out a politically motivated audit, or stop one at the direction of the White House, can face prison time. That is the statute on the books.

Now look at what just happened.

Todd Blanche, the Acting Attorney General and Donald Trump’s former personal criminal defense lawyer, signed a one-page order demanding the IRS drop every existing audit of Trump, his family, and their “affiliates.” One of those audits reportedly could have cost Trump more than $100 million.

The Treasury Department’s top lawyer resigned over it.

The acting top IRS lawyer had to recuse himself because he previously represented Trump in his tax cases.

There is no precedent for an Attorney General ordering an end to audits of a group of taxpayers. Many experts say the Attorney General has no authority to do this.

So we have a likely illegal order, signed by the President’s former lawyer, on behalf of the President, protecting the President. And the only people with jurisdiction to investigate it work for the President.

I will fight this with every tool I have.

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

Not enough people are talking about this.

A Florida airport was renamed after Donald Trump. He walked away with the trademark, the licensing rights, and a deal that lets him profit off every piece of merchandise sold there.

But the story of how he got it is even worse.

County staff told commissioners that rejecting the name change would put state transportation funding at risk. DeSantis has already removed state attorneys and school board members who dared to cross him. That is the reality the Democratic commissioner who cast the deciding vote was living in when she made her choice: hand Donald Trump control of a public airport or watch Florida Republicans strip funding from the very people she was elected to represent.

That is absolutely insane.

Florida Republicans handed Trump a money machine and called it a naming rights deal, and the people of Palm Beach County never got a say in any of it.
https://t.co/M2nm9qFXc8

[Meryl Kornfield @MerylKornfield]

The Trump admin is quietly deleting info about the Capitol attack from the DOJ website as it prepares to give funds to J6ers. This week, DOJ deleted a press release about one man with an ongoing child solicitation case who came to the Capitol with bear spray. Before and after:

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

🚨 Every Republican present in the House Appropriations Committee last night voted to make THEMSELVES eligible to collect from Trump's $1.8 billion January 6th slush fund. I am not making this up.

I introduced an amendment to stop Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President from collecting a single dollar from Trump’s slush fund unless a court actually orders it.

Every single Republican who cast a vote was AGAINST my amendment, making themselves eligible for settlement funds.

Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President, have no business lining their own pockets by claiming they were victims of government weaponization. Trump set up this fund, now MAGA Republicans in Congress are ensuring they all can collect from it.

That is exactly the kind of self-dealing corruption the American people are sick of.

[Acyn @Acyn]

PabloReports: What happened with the war powers vote?

Olszewski: The Republicans don’t have the votes, so they decided to take their bags and run home instead.

PabloReports: So they didn’t have the votes to continue the war, so instead of stopping the war they went home.

Olszewski: They closed up shop for the holiday, and in the meantime, the American people are paying tens of billions, we’re losing service members, and we’re getting crushed at the pump.

[Prez @PrezLives2022]

Warehouse in Surprise Arizona valued at 12 million sold to HS for 70 million.

Another in Social Circle, Georgia valued at 30 million and sold to HS for 130 million.

One in Roxbury New Jersey valued at 54 million and sold for 129 million.

Tremont PA worth 60 million and sold for 120 million dollars.

Salt Lake City 90 million sold for 145 million.

I’d like to see where the money went and how much people in the Trump administration got paid in kickbacks.

On just 5 warehouses our government overpaid by 348 million dollars. Kristi Noem should be in prison and we should stop sending taxes to the federal government. They can no longer be trusted with our money.

[Basil🧡 @LinkofSunshine]

Mitt Romney text to McConnell, January 2nd

[pik mukherji @ercowboy]

Chief complaint hemoptysis:

I give a mini lecture to the resident that “no, bronchitis is still the #1” it’s not gonna be TB and cancer and PE and weirdness why are you talking like this…

Get in room: “had a lobectomy for aspergillus PNA and presented like this…”

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This New York Times piece is worth your time. Here’s what is happening, as simply as I can put it.

Back in January, Trump sued the IRS, an agency he controls, demanding $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns a number of years ago.

IRS lawyers did their jobs. They wrote a memo laying out the defenses that could beat the suit, including the fact that Trump filed too late. His own lawyer was in court when the leaker pleaded guilty in October 2023, more than two years before Trump sued.

The Justice Department never showed up to court. Never argued back. Never used the defenses sitting on their desk.

The judge got suspicious and ordered both sides to explain whether they were actually opposing each other or just colluding. The day before that brief was due, Trump dropped the suit.

Same day, his Justice Department announced a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded “anti-weaponization fund.” 

Trump gets a formal apology. The IRS agrees to drop any audits of him and his family, even though a 2024 Times report found a loss in an ongoing audit could cost him over $100 million.

The acting Attorney General, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, picks the five commissioners who decide who gets paid. Trump can fire any of them. Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are not ruled out.

This is the most corrupt thing I’ve ever seen from an American president.

Where in the hell are my Republican colleagues?

https://t.co/La0nlLuz1r

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

The instant he lost his seat, Cassidy began standing up for things he’s known all along were right. Profiles in cowardice, through all the ranks of the GOP.