21st Century Book Burnings...and FBI Agents Suing the Justice Department
An Outrage -- or Three -- a Day
“Beginning on May 10, 1933, Nazi-dominated student groups carried out public burnings of books they claimed were “un-German.” The book burnings took place in 34 university towns and cities. Works of prominent Jewish, liberal, and leftist writers ended up in the bonfires. The book burnings stood as a powerful symbol of Nazi intolerance and censorship.” - Holocaust Encyclopedia
Thousands of U.S. Government Web Pages Have Been Taken Down Since Friday More than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites have been taken down since Friday afternoon, a New York Times analysis has found, as federal agencies rush to heed President Trump’s orders targeting diversity initiatives and “gender ideology.” The purges have removed information about vaccines, veterans’ care, hate crimes and scientific research, among many other topics. Doctors, researchers and other professionals often rely on such government data and advisories. Some government agencies appear to have removed entire sections of their websites, while others are missing only a handful of pages. Among the pages that have been taken down…”- New York Times
Climate Change Pages Removed from State Department Website On January 25, 2017, ThinkProgress reported that various pages mentioning climate change had been removed from the State Department website. The removed pages dealt with, among other things, the U.S. contribution to the U.N. Green Climate Fund, U.S. obligations under the Montreal Protocol, and the State Department’s Climate Action Report (with links to the 2010, 2014, and 2016 Reports removed)…Various references to “climate change” and associated terms were also removed from other State Department webpages. For example, the department’s “Office of Global Change” webpage was updated to remove references to “greenhouse gases.” The webpage of the “Office of the Special Envoy for Climate Change” was also amended to remove a sentence indicating that it is “committed to combating climate change.” The page now states that the office is “responsible for developing, implementing, and overseeing U.S. international policy on climate change.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI agents who participated in investigations related to President Donald Trump have sued over Justice Department efforts to develop a list of employees involved in those inquiries that they fear could be a precursor to mass firings.
Two lawsuits, filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington on behalf of anonymous agents, demand an immediate halt to the collection and potential dissemination of names of investigators who participated in probes of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. One of the complaints says agents were also asked to fill out surveys about their participation in the investigation into Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The suits mark an escalation in a high-stake dispute that burst into public view on Friday with revelations that the Justice Department had demanded from the FBI the names, offices and titles of all employees involved in Jan. 6 investigations so that officials could evaluate whether any personnel action was merited. Thousands of FBI employees were also asked over the weekend to fill out an in-depth questionnaire about their participation in those probes, a step they worry could lead to termination.
The outrages come so fast that the news cycle buries them…this is intentional, to open so many fronts that we can’t possibly keep up. But let’s enumerate a few:
Abandoned in the Middle of Clinical Trials, Because of a Trump Order
The stop-work order on U.S.A.I.D.-funded research has left thousands of people with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies, with no access to monitoring or care. — NY Times
Government web sites that contain millions if not billions of dollars worth of scientific research are wiped out. This is the equivalent of burning our books…and our tax dollars that paid for that research as well.
A cad who is apparently a violent misogynist, a drunk, and who ran 2 Veteran’s organizations into the ground is approved as SecDef…and his first move is to remove General Milley’s photo from the Pentagon – AND THEN STRIP HIM OF HIS SECURITY DETAIL despite MAGA death threats…
The January 6 criminals – including the leaders and most violent among them – are set free…and the DOJ and FBI lawyers and agents who investigated and prosecuted them, and investigated Trump’s role, are purged, to be replaced by unqualified MAGA apparatchiks…
Addressing a tragic accident over the Potomac, our “President’s” first instinct is to use it to insult thinly-staffed and overworked air traffic controllers, blame his predecessors, and worst of all scapegoat his favorite targets…oh, and did I mention Trump purged FAA leadership awhile back, likely at Elon Musk’s behest?...AND A QUESTION: with the govt in Trump’s hands, will we be able to be confident in the report ultimately issued by the NTSB?
Speaking of trusting Trump's gov't, at least 17 Independent Inspector Generals, whose role was created after Watergate to monitor the honesty and performance of the govt agency they are assigned to, were illegally fired…a repeat trick from Trump’s first term. (You’ll love this story of one who resisted)…and this one as well:
A key Democrat on the Federal Elections Commission has hit back after President Donald Trump made a pathetic attempt to illegally remove her.
Ellen Weintraub, an opponent of corporate dark money who has served as a commissioner on the FEC panel for 20 years, on Thursday posted a letter that she had received, signed by the president himself. His message was brief.
“You are hereby removed as a member of the Federal Election Commission, effectively immediately. Thank you for your service on the Commission,” the letter said.
Weintraub wasn’t going to be so easily dismissed. “Received a letter from POTUS today purporting to remove me as Commissioner & Chair of @FEC,” Weintraub wrote on X. “There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners—this isn’t it. I’ve been lucky to serve the American people & stir up some good trouble along the way. That’s not changing anytime soon.”
Russian State TV Panel Call Tulsi Gabbard 'Our Girlfriend' —Unless four Republican senators grow a spine, the darling of Russian propagandists, and apologist for the murderous Assad, Tulsi Gabbard, will take over as Director of National Intelligence.
…Gabbard told Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on Monday that Biden's words showed U.S. intent and the Russian program, which is a bullhorn for Kremlin propaganda, played part of her interview on its show on Wednesday. Solovyov told the panelists on his show that he was going to show a clip of Monday's interview with "our girlfriend Tulsi."
Nice work, recommending you!