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Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of February 3
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
NIH slashes grant money that goes towards administrative overhead
Hard to convey how catastrophic this is. Universities and departments will have to close, tuitions will have to go up. I've got 1 year left in my PhD and I'm just waiting for this to hit the agencies that fund me. I've got little hope that there will be money in a year's time for postdocs so this has really accelerated my move towards industry. I've worked hard for the last 10 or so years to try and be a scientist doing basic research and its all slipping away at the finish line because of this fucking idiot president. Pretty upset.
I feel like this should be its own post in ~science or ~health. This is more than politics.
I'm watching in horror. We had a know nothing party in the US a long time ago. Now we have the anti science anti medicine party
I thought a positive story would be nice
Neo-Nazis chased out of Greater Cincinnati, local residents set swastika flag ablaze
As the many videos I've seen of this incident show, the residents of the majority Black neighborhood of Lincoln Heights objected to the presence of the Neo Nazi group and they fled back into their U Haul. People walked right past the police officers to confront the racists.
A YouTube short of the flag burning from a newscast (actually the one part I hadn't seen on Tiktok)
The residents were just wanting some thoughtful discussion on their opinions.
Alright, we're in blatantly impeachable territory now with the Trump administration ignoring two federal courts: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/04/epa-spending-freeze-court-orders-00202253
Sure. But congress, controlled by his sycophants, won't do it. And Dems seem unlikely to take it back in 2 years. So here we are.
Democrats were unlikely to take it back in two years. Think of how many people have been upset in the last two weeks. I think these midterms are going to be wild.
The Democrats would have to win 67 senator seats to impeach him.
Worse than that, because not all senate seats turn over in every election. But I'm not convinced that Republican solidarity will last that long.
Newman: Trump is bringing the wrong kind of pain
Trump's tariffs are going to cause economic pain, including higher prices at the grocery store.
Newman argues the more pressing issue of the national debt, which exceeds $36 trillion, and associated interest payments now exceed defense spending.
What Newman doesn't state, is that Trumps tax cuts are one of the primary drivers of the ballooning debt, and that Trump wants to make tax cuts permanent. Trump needs GOP members to support his tax cuts, who have never once voted to increase the debt, so there is some hope Trump wont make the debt worse.
Aren’t Republicans 100% okay with running up the debt when it’s their guy in charge? Or do you mean that they only spend when the Budget is involved, because that’s been a thing ever since we lowered the threshold to 50+1 for a reconciliation?
Actually, I could be confusing the debt ceiling with tax cuts.
There are 49 republicans who have never voted to increase the debt ceiling.
But they might go along with tax cuts anyway.
I am confused on how they plan to fund the tax cuts without adding more debt, and without cutting costs from a third rail (social security, medicaid, medicare, military etc.)
Last time I thought they made the tax cuts temporary, to appease those folks who wanted spending cuts for each tax cut.
I had assumed that all these tariffs and cost cutting were to make the tax cuts more palatable to those reps worried about the debt.
They probably think getting rid of a lot of civil servants will solve the issue. I'm guessing they haven't looked at the pay charts.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he wants to root out “anti-Christian bias” in the U.S., announcing that he was forming a task force led by Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the “targeting” of Christians.
I’m sure this bodes well.
This may deserve its own topic. Trump is actually flying migrants to Guantanamo Bay: https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/u-s-begins-migrant-flights-to-guantanamo-bay-9fec8df3
Edit: this apparently isn't the first time. Under George H.W. Bush then Clinton, Haitians asylum seekers were kept at Guantanamo before most were repatriated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_refugee_crisis
Can you get an archive or gift link?
https://archive.ph/AtfU9
Alternative source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/first-flight-to-send-migrants-to-guantanamo-bay-set-to-depart-u-s-official-says
Thanks much
Also I can't express how bad this makes me feel.
It's not good, but this happened before and ultimately people lived. It's bad, but it's not a death camp. This is what Trump ran on, and a narrow majority of voters supported him anyway.
The problem is that Guantanamo's location makes it much less likely that mistakes will be solved or that abuses will be publicized and rectified
I cannot be blasé about it.
And I understand being empathetic because it is really bad, no argument there. Personally, I'm just wary of empathy burnout. We can't care too much about everything without eventually burning out. The best we can do is take care of our loved ones and build resilient local communities.
It's beyond just empathy, that's part of it, but this is also one more turning point for us as a country. And I'm not sure when we tip too far over that line. Just because it's not a death camp, even if leaves a "yet" unsaid.
The burnout comes when you're not taking care of yourself, not because you care too much for others. You have to care for your community, sure, but not at the expense of forgetting that those are people, part of other people's communities and thus part of our larger one. And it'd be weird to me if I were to truly have no one impacted by this or other EOs. Who's my community made up of that they're not impacted at all?
I am always surprised when people tell me "I'm not affected so I've been able to not pay attention." When their coworkers are directly impacted. And the people at their church. And their, nominally, friends. And the students or clients they work with. And the family of those folks. And so on. (Now if your boundaries are not engaging with the news that's different than "I'm not affected..." This is about caring, not how that care is acted on.) Its especially bad coming from Christians; "The least of my people," and all that.
Anyway, no, I don't fundamentally agree. We skipped from saying we're starting a concentration camp to doing it very quickly. Followed up with talking about deporting American citizens to El Salvadoran prisons. This is deeply and fundamentally wrong.
Don't get me wrong, I'm fully plugged in, perhaps too plugged in. I care, but I can only care so much about everything in the world. I assume you only follow English speaking media. I also check in with Japanese and Spanish happenings since they're semi-relevant to me. There a million things happening in the world at any given time, both good and bad. I don't think any amount of self care would give me the empathy capacity to care about everything.
It's hard to know whether all this extra information will actually help me make any different choices or change things. I don't have any power or influence over this specific situation, and there's clear historical precedent for the US president shipping migrants to Gitmo. I agree it's all appalling, and I'll always vote and advocate against it.
I guess my concern is that when we're messaging against fascists, I don't know if trying to care about everything at once is the most effective approach. In trying to prioritize and care about everything, nothing gets highlighted and focused on. Eventually, it all turns into noise people start to tune out. This is the explicit strategy pushed by Steve Bannon. It's similar to the ol' gish gallop.
I'm definitely not saying we shouldn't care about this. I simply don't know what we should care about the most and prioritize.
I listen to news from multiple countries but in English because I don't speak the other languages. So yeah I know things are bad around the world at all times. I know it's the strategy. I also cannot ignore the immediate direct impacts on the people I care about. The Treasury stuff is obviously bad but emotionally it's a non-impact for me. We're all going to care about different things and find dark humor in different places and take care of ourselves in different ways.
My point was that I cannot pivot from "this makes me feel very bad" to "well, it's happened before and people have lived (some did) and they're not death camps (yet, still bad either way) and people vote for this (yeah and the people that will suffer include millions who didn't vote for this and even if you vote to lose your rights you shouldn't). Might as well go do stuff at home." It felt blasé, which I simply stated I cannot do.
My community is impacted by these things, there's no getting around it. My community was impacted by other horrible things occurring elsewhere. The difference lies in the level of community impact - it's not incidental or part of the broader humanity, its local and in my own country, and directly impacting me and those I care about personally. The other major difference is the pace at which it's happening. There's no time for the restorative joy between hits of existential crisis.
If your boundary is not engaging with the existential crisis that's fine. I just ask you not try to tell me that people have survived concentration camps before without engaging with the inhumanity and the fact that at the least other people's communities are directly impacted and we cannot turn away to focus on those communities separate from these tragedies. That is not reassuring, but comes off as dismissive.
Thanks for explaining. I understand where you're coming from now. I think it's hard to convey empathy over text, but I appreciate that you're putting yourself out there. For my part, I find some cold comfort in looking to the past and learning about what we as humans have survived before. I really don't want to dismiss any of the awful, stupid stuff that Trump is doing. We all do our best to cope in different ways.
I don't know if you intended this line to be funny, but it got a good chuckle out of me so thanks. I hope the courts crack down on the executive orders and more congressional Democrats grow enough of a spine to slow down Trump appointees. Here's hoping we get at least a little restorative joy over the next four years!
No I get where you're coming from and I use the idea that we've survived before and will again with folks facing despair, I just can't set aside that there is still pain occurring and there will be loss in the meantime
I am happy to provide a chuckle wherever I can. My own anxiety has me awake long past when I should have slept
Extremely relatable! I recently bought a new melatonin oral spray at the advice of my doctor. Life is much easier to deal with when we're well rested.
Eh for what it's worth, "anxiety" at 3:30 AM was a mix of "did I double up on my ADHD meds and why won't my brain shut up" along with "I'd rather finish this book that is my coping mechanism, its absolutely normal to read 3 books in 5 days." I wasn't really having anxiety symptoms last night.
Body tired/brain awake and the odd night of zero sleep is an ADHD quirk
On the topic of sacrificing trans folks,
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is removing all references to non-binary genders, will deadname children, and if they cannot edit it, they'll take the material down. This was done due to the threat of funding being taken away, in the administration defying the court order halting the freeze.
Trans and queer kids will suffer further for this.
Trump orders U.S. to prioritize refugee resettlement of South Africans of European descent
At first I was aghast and appalled. But after some thought and consideration, I have come to conclude that Trump is actually correct here.
South Africa has a new land seizure law that allows the government to seize land... without compensation. But ostensibly in the name of justice and equity!
South Africa is rife with unashamedly naked corruption, so the legal-political systems to determine what is just and equitable seizure are untrustworthy: this law will undoubtedly be abused. This is akin to the Trump administration saying it'll deport illegal immigrants — but just the bad ones.
A growing far-left party proudly sings the song, "Kill the Boer". Supporters say it doesn't mean literally kill white people, that it's just an anti-apartheid song. But that comes off as a moat-and-bailey-like maneuver: I'm sure there are plenty of young supporters for whom the historical context is irrelevant and interpret it literally.
So are there actually any white South African refugees, or is this pure virtue signalling? There's a linked article with some more information about the law.
There may well be white people from South Africa who want immigration preference to the US. What criteria will the Trump government apply?
White South Africans reject idea they need to flee country for US (Politico)
Also, this whole thread feels like a good excuse to post this 1986 anti-apartheid classic:
Spitting Image - I've Never Met a Nice South African
Sadly I can't find the original music video on YouTube. Probably copyright shenanigans.
How much European descent? Or, rather, how much European descent is not enough? And who is it that will decide?
This is just a gesture to ensure that a particular African billionaire who broke the law when he stayed in the US illegally will be treated with kid gloves. It's for a demographic of one.
Trump orders creation of US sovereign wealth fund, says it could buy TikTok
ETA:
Venture Capital Extremism
Apple’s New ‘Game Changer’ iPhone Update Brings Starlink Satellite Access
Not his worst idea, I suppose. Tariffs, for all their faults, do raise a lot of money, and putting that money into a sovereign wealth fund may be a better idea than pumping it directly into the budget.
But there may be better uses for the money, like bailing out or subsidising businesses that suffer under the tariffs, or just paying off national debt.
Maybe not his worst, but not a good one. Money does not work the same for the us govt as it does for a business or a family. This is because the us govt creates money, among other reasons.
The tariffs are a transfer of wealth and power away from purchasers. They aren’t always a bad thing, as long as that wealth and power are used to benefit the whole people, not just the robber barons.
Creating that system is very hard, however.
The idea of the government controlling the media is on-brand for authoritarianism, so such a move makes sense to me in terms of his agenda but would be awful for the already threadbare integrity of the nation.
IMO, it's actually quite bad, because it would presumably represent a revenue stream under the direct control of the Executive branch. This is consistent with the administration's pattern of undermining Congress's power of the purse. I'm actually surprised that this has gotten so little attention.
I would not be surprised if this EO were found to be unconstitutional on that basis (but, then, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if it weren't found to be unconstitutional.)
The question is are he and Elon going to just transfer funds that are intended for payouts to other purposes to this fund through their takeover of the IT infrastructure of the treasury department
Investigating the Real Impacts of Debanking in America
Video clip — Sen. Tim Scott on debanking hearing: The weaponization of our banking system should never happen (link fixed)
Scott Announces Witnesses for Debanking Hearing
Comer Investigates Apparent Politically Motivated Debanking of Thirty Tech Founders, First Lady Melania Trump
Some of these are dated before this week, but I’ve included them to give context for the hearing set for tomorrow. Also, the end of the above clip touches briefly on the subject of the sovereign wealth fund.
Investigating the Real Impacts of Debanking in America
Just in case anyone wants to watch, this hearing is live. This is how they will push for deregulation. There is no love for the FDIC or OCC to be found in that room.
ETA: This is how they are selling the push for deregulation on conservative news; I would not have known about it if not for seeking out conservative news. Granted, that might say more about the algorithmic bubble I’m in than anything else, but I haven’t seen anyone talking about this.
There has been an effort to sow distrust specifically of every federal entity which regulates banking in the US, to make it appear liberally biased and actively hostile to conservative businesses. So, if someone were to eventually offer a means by which to save the right from these boogeymen, and the left were to become outraged over the solution… well, that’s just more evidence of “collusion” and “corruption” from the left.
Elon Musk wants operational control of the Treasury's payment system
Trump and Musk ending Kansas farmer contracts supplying food to USAID
US election integrity official says trump tried to fire her illegally
Kash Patel Took $25,000 From Russia-Linked Firm to Appear on an Anti-FBI TV Series
ETA:
And then there’s also this…
US intelligence agency employees given 'fork in the road' offer to leave their government jobs