Applebaum: What binds Russia, China, Iran and North Korea is not religion or ideology.
China is communist, Russia nationalist, Iran theocratic. What binds them is fear of liberal language: rights, rule of law, separation of powers and independent courts. 1/
Hegseth removed Chappie James's portrait from the Air Force Art Gallery and left the wall empty.
James flew 179 combat missions across two wars. First Black four-star general in US military history.
Curry passed that portrait every day for a decade. When it came down, he retired.
The wall is still empty.
@micyoung75 We must have a government that works for the people and protects us from screwworms and other corrupt parasites.
Vote these self serving bums out.
Let's walk through what actually happened here, in order.
DOGE cut the USAID program specifically designed to prevent screwworm from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. DOGE cut USDA's animal disease control and prevention funding. That funding had supported more than 180 outbreak investigations in 22 countries and capacity-building in more than 160 laboratories. The screwworm monitoring and response program that watched the border for exactly this parasite - cut.
Then screwworm showed up in Texas cattle. Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a disaster for Zavala and Uvalde counties this week.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins went on CNBC this morning and blamed the Biden administration, 17 months out of office.
Her specific words: "obviously not much had been done to push back."
The program that was supposed to push back existed. DOGE eliminated it in March 2025. Rollins has been Agriculture Secretary since February 13, 2025. The cuts happened on her watch.
Beef prices are already high. Ranchers in south Texas are now dealing with a flesh-eating parasite that was eradicated in this country in the 1960s - eradicated, specifically, using the sterile fly program her department defunded.
The flies existed. The program existed. The budget existed.
Until it didn't.
@SenMarkKelly All the while the current FFY 26 budget deficient is estimated at $1.9 trillion by the CBO. Where are all the savings promised by DOGE and Trump? Reduce the deficit and tax fairly, particularly rich oligarchs avoiding taxes.
Trump promised to lower costs. Instead, he's pushing a $1.5 trillion military budget — a huge increase.
Here's an idea: How about we cut that number and put money toward lowering bills for families and actually making people's lives better. That's what I'll be fighting for this week.
@tedlieu@SecRollins Lying incompetents. We need effective government, not Trump sycophants. Vote these incompetents and supporter out. Government is our means to protect us collectively from this kind of threat.
Dear @SecRollins: You keep getting fact checked for your lies. It’s your Administration that cut the Screwworm programs.
Also, the life cycle of a Screwworm is 14 to 54 days. The trump Administration has been in office over 500 days.
If you can’t stop lying, you need to resign.
Democrats just forced a vote to put an end to Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund.
Every House Republican rejected it & voted to support your tax dollars going to cop beaters & right wing extremists. Despicable.
.@SenTedCruz the guy who didn’t defend his wife and who left Texas as an brutal Snow storm was arriving to Texas, talking about the meaning of “masculine”…🤣🤣🤣😆😅😇hello?
Good god this is a crazy interview. Listen as Scott Pelley describes how Bari Weiss wanted journalists at CBS to cover the killing of Renee Good in Minnesota. This is why we can��t have oligarchs running our news outlets, this is absolutely devastating.
@RepMikeLevin The “old king’s” administration is so corrupt- let me count the ways; family insider trades, selling pardons, non- bid fed contracts, selling their bitcoin to foreign nations, accepting $ gifts for influence, promoting special projects like ballrooms and concerts…..
@MalloryMcMorrow Good grief. The projected current fiscal budget deficit is $1.9 trillion. Despite all the cuts by DOGE and the large federal staff reductions, the “old King” is spending more than ever. Cutting taxes for oligarchs has helped to contribute to this problem.