The Hill reports: Trump announces task force to ‘eradicate anti-Christian bias’ -- DJT announced plans Thursday to establish a task force and a presidential commission to protect Christians from religious discrimination. “While I’m in the White House, we will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares,” he said. “And we will bring our country back together as one nation under God.” The president also said he would sign an executive order to make Attorney General Pam Bondi the head of a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias.” The task force will aim to stop “all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government,” Trump said. He also said he would create a White House Faith Office, led by the Rev. Paula White, who has served as a religious adviser to Trump for several years.
In my firm opinion, that is undeniably Christian nationalist (CN) theocracy in action. Christians in America are seriously not discriminated against, much less persecuted. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits religious discrimination in employment, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 further protects religious practices from government interference. Tax law provides tens of billions/year in tax breaks. On top of all of that, Christians overwhelmingly dominate local, state and federal governments, law enforcement, state and federal courts, state legislatures, congress, governorships, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, and damn-near everything else of significance in American government, society, religion, commerce and public education. Where the hell is all of this alleged discrimination coming from, the Navajo Indian tribe? Lost puppies? A lady bug?
Yes, yes, we all know that some Christians claim being marginalized or face career limits due to their views on sexual ethics or gender identity. But that does not constitute discrimination or persecution. Instead those are disagreements over differing moral or social values. To say there is serious or even moderate discrimination against Christians in the US is a deeply insulting lie. One can rationally see this move as the another major step toward the rise of Christian Taliban Sharia in American law.
And make no mistake, theocratically-minded CNs are hell bent on discriminating and oppressing individuals and groups that CN elites say God wants to discriminate against and oppress under the rule of law. That includes the LGBQT community, women generally, unacceptable ethnicities and races, and atheists (and this). Reports from organizations like Open Doors International report that over 380 million Christians outside the US face high levels of persecution, with many facing violence, imprisonment, or death for their faith. That is real discrimination and persecution. By comparison to real persecution, America's coddled, legally protected and heavily tax subsidized American Christian nationalist snowflakes face mere dust bunnies of inconvenience and falsely perceived discrimination.
The cynicism and dishonesty in this theocratic Christian Taliban move is jaw dropping and terrifying. In this regard, the US moves toward some form of a new Dark Ages.
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The Hill reports: Trump: ’60 Minutes’ should be ‘immediately terminated’ after Harris transcript release -- DJT on Thursday suggested CBS News’s “60 Minutes” be taken off the air after the program released a transcript of an interview it aired last fall with former Vice President Harris amid a federal investigation into the broadcast. “CBS and 60 Minutes defrauded the public by doing something which has never, to this extent, been seen before,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website. “They 100% removed Kamala’s horrible election changing answers to questions, and replaced them with completely different, and far better, answers, taken from another part of the interview.”
DJT is a shameless, insulting pathological liar and hypocrite. His allegations here are false. But this is a predictable authoritarian (dictator) 101 tactic. Tyrants attack and try to kill the professional press whenever they can. Putin did it. So did the Chinese tyrants. They all at least try to do it.
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404 Media reports: DOGE Employees Ordered to Stop Using Slack While Agency Transitions to a Records System Not Subject to FOIA -- Employees working for the agency now known as DOGE have been ordered to stop using Slack while government lawyers attempt to transition the agency to one that is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, 404 Media has learned. “Good morning, everyone! As a reminder, please refrain from using Slack at the moment while our various general counsels figure out the best way to handle the records migration to our new EOP [Executive Office of the President] component,” a message seen by 404 Media reads. “Will update as soon as we have more information!”
This too is a predictable authoritarian 101 tactic. Authoritarians almost always try to work in as much unwarranted secrecy and opacity as possible. Here, MAGA elites like Musk are openly looking for ways to circumvent the FOIA law to hide from the public what is going on in the federal government. Based on MAGA's public record so far, one can rest assured that two of the things will be going on are authoritarianism and kleptocracy. The three kinds of authoritarianism that will very likely dominate (~95% chance?) are dictatorship, Christian theocracy and capitalist plutocracy.
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According to USAID documents, Ivanka Trump used over $11,000 from the department in 2019 to buy video recording and reproducing equipment for a White House event.
The documents show $11,539 was to used by Trump in November 2019 to purchase software, CDs, tapes and records.
The purchase was approved by Jenifer Healy, who was serving as USAID deputy chief of staff at the time, and the Administrator's Office. It is not clear which White House event the equipment was used for.It comes at a time when the Trump administration is making plans to dismantle the agency. The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that nearly all USAID workers would be withdrawn from the field amid the efforts.
So this is a second reason that MAGA elites are furious with USAID. Musk is enrgaed because USAID was looking into shenanigans with how Musk's Starlink technology was being misused in the Ukraine.** Now, we see that Ivanka misappropriated funds for unknown reasons.
This is kleptocracy in action.
** Some reports suggested that Musk's aggressive actions against USAID were motivated by the agency's investigation into Starlink's contracts in Ukraine. This investigation was looking into the oversight of Starlink Satellite provided to the Ukrainian government and USAID's initiatives to safeguard against sexual exploitation and abuse in Ukraine.
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Slate reports: Pam Bondi Instructs Trump DOJ to Criminally Investigate Companies That Do DEI -- On Wednesday evening, newly installed Attorney General Pam Bondi sent staff in several divisions of the Department of Justice more than a dozen memos within a 15-minute span, laying out the agency’s new policies on issues ranging from reviving the death penalty, to targeting sanctuary cities, to enforcing a strict return-to-office policy. One astonishing memo, seen by Slate, puts the DOJ at the center of DJT’s widespread efforts to destroy any traces of initiatives that would create inclusive and diverse workspaces, otherwise known as DEIA. The new memo claims that it will target private-sector diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives for potential “criminal investigation.” It’s hard to overstate both the constitutional wreckage this crusade will leave in its wake and the havoc it could wreak on the American workforce. In the name of protecting constitutional rights, Bondi’s Justice Department is teeing up an all-out assault on fundamental First Amendment rights to speak, organize, and associate.
The astonishing memo, 2 pages:
This too is a predictable authoritarian 101 tactic. Authoritarianism targets groups and policies that undermine authoritarianism or defend democracy. DJT promised to attack and obliterate DEI, which is inherently pro-democracy and anti-MAGA. Proponents of DEI and DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility) argue that these initiatives are essential for promoting fairness, justice, and equal participation, which are foundational to democratic values. MAGA reverses that reasoning, claiming that DEI and DEIA are authoritarian because they impose a particular ideological framework on organizations, potentially stifling free speech and academic freedom.
Most of the backlash against DEI has been fueled by misinformation, disinformation and MAGA dark free speech (DFS) generally. Attacks on DEI are almost always based on the sophisticated DFS tactic of pointing to isolated incidents. Those incidents are then falsely claimed to be representative of the entire situation. That is called the hasty generalization fallacy. In its attacks, MAGA does not rely on comprehensive data or understanding of DEI's broader goals. One analysis commented: "In a rebuke to a congressional hearing attacking DEI efforts on university campuses, 12 scholars debunk the politicized misinformation with evidence-based responses. The two-hour hearing overflowed with misinformation, misunderstandings, and reckless mischaracterizations."
