Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of May 25

This is one of the more offensive things I have seen so far.

https://aliens.gov

No, it’s not about Area 51. It’s just racism.

For 60 years, the U.S. government has kept a closely guarded secret.

Aliens have been walking among us, living in our neighborhoods, and interacting with us in our daily lives.

They've shopped in the same stores, attended the same classes as our children, and lived seemingly normal human existences.

With one exception — they do not belong here.

It is interesting that they straight up admit that illegal immigrants are just like every other American. No more pretense about only deporting violent offenders.

No link to share, just an observation and a itty bitty rant. In the past week, there has been some wild news that would've garnered significant attention and discussion in normal times. The potential end of a war, a shooting at the White House, an assault on democracy and civil/voting rights, the Trump administration targeting activists for bringing aid to Cuba, the buildup to invade Cuba and the second bogus arrest of a sovereign country's leader, another round of activists detained and tortured by Israel for trying to deliver aid to genocide victims in Gaza, and potentially another genocide/ethnic cleansing campaign brewing in Lebanon. I'm sure there's plenty more that I'm forgetting.

Shit is crazy, but we got nothin about it over here except for a lively discussion about few companies leaving Canada and some classic incompetence from the Democrats. I'm not mad about it because I am not posting anything either. It's a sign of how horrifying and depressing and fucked up everything is and how often we have to confront major news.

Can't find any good articles on it right now, but a video's been posted that shows a protester at Delaney Hall getting their leg run over and broken by an 18-wheeler after ICE shoved them against the vehicle while it was moving. I'm linking directly since it's not a very graphic video (you can barely see the leg at all), but nevertheless, viewer discretion and all that: https://bsky.app/profile/marisakabas.bsky.social/post/3mmv6laq3j22h

For some context, Delaney Hall is the camp where a hunger strike is ongoing inside to protest inhumane conditions. The former protest was started in solidarity after ICE began to move the leaders of the hunger strike to other locations.

Personally, I'm most disturbed by the fact that the protester being attacked hasn't gotten any news coverage that I can tell. I expect ICE to be brutal, but I'd hoped it'd at least not get ignored.
_{Edited to clarify last paragraph, as Delaney Hall's hunger strike has in fact received media attention}

I mentioned above in another thread that I was posting less about politics recently because I'm burned out about Trump's crimes and there isn't much new to say about that. But I still read The Atlantic and I found this article to have a take that kind of explains everything about why Trump is a terrible and ineffective leader in a slightly different way. Personally, I usually am most concerned about why Trump does evil things, but it's also a big problem that he's a failure as a president in every way, even if you like his "policies".

This is actually a link to the latest episode of David Frum's podcast with the transcript. The meat of the podcast is an interview with Colorado Representative Jason Crow from the Armed Services Committee, but the part I'm highlighting is the preamble by Frum:

Has Trump Corrupted the Military?

... shows something very peculiar about President Trump, which is, he’s never thought of himself as a national leader. He’s a factional leader. He’s the leader of the MAGA movement that has seized power in the United States, and that attempted, actually, to hold power in 2021 by violence, then return to power in 2024 by legal means, and that is now looking for ways to hold on to power after the elections of 2026 through gerrymandering and other forms of rule bending. He has always seen himself as a movement leader who happened to arrive in the government of the United States—not as a national leader, not as the president of all the people.

Now, if what you want to do is, sort of, plunder the Treasury and deliver a few benefits to your supporters at the expense of the rest of the country, this is a kind of, perhaps, for the short term, workable political strategy. But if you want to lead the country to war, it is doomed to failure. Wars are big, costly, dangerous events full of shocks, full of bad news. And when a president makes the heavy decision to lead the country to a major war—and this war with Iran has been a major war involving massive expenditure, massive use of U.S. munitions, American loss of life, heavy loss of life on the Iranian side—when the president makes that decision, he needs to mobilize something more than his preexisting fragment of popular support. He needs to speak to the country as a whole, or at least try to.

...

But Trump has never thought that way, never tried to do it that way. And so long as things seem to go reasonably well, as they did for the first three or so years of Trump’s first term, it didn’t harm him much or didn’t hamper his plans. He was not regarded by half the country—and more than half the country—as some kind of interloper, somebody who got into the office by a kind of trick and who represented the interest only of a minority of the country, and who in everything from disaster relief to his tax program made no pretense of caring about the people who hadn’t voted for him.

But in this second term, where things have been bumpier, where the news has been worse, where he’s made more mistakes, and where first there was the economic hardship caused by his crazy tariff program and then outright war, his inability to speak to and for the country, his inability to act the role of an American president, has become a major strategic liability for the United States because the United States was never able to accept any costs at all from the Iran war.

A different president operating for different reasons would have said, I want to lead the country into war with Iran. I hope you all understand that this will be an expensive and difficult undertaking. Obviously, the price of fuel and perhaps the price of food will rise. I believe, might say the president, this will be a short-term shock, but a shock it will be. I have various measures in mind to cushion the shock for those most in need, but this is important for all of our interests. Here’s why. This is important for the peace of the world. Here’s why. And I ask you to follow me and trust my leadership. That’s what a normal president would try to do.

Because Trump had never tried to be that kind of president, he couldn’t acknowledge any kind of suffering. He couldn’t make the case for the war at all. He spoke to the nation at the State of the Union just a few days before leading the nation to war. He made almost no reference to Iran. He certainly gave no indication the war was coming, and he warned of nothing, and he asked for nothing. He asked for no support from Congress. He just went to war without any kind of consultation, no kind of authorization of the use of force, which his predecessors had done for large-scale military conflicts. Asking Congress for the use of force would mean that you would be subject to questioning by Congress. How much will this cost? How long will this last? What are the goals? Are they achievable? President Trump didn’t wanna face any of that kind of questioning, so he didn’t ask for authority. But that meant his war had no co-authors. It was entirely his own doing, a one-man show. So long as everything went smoothly, that might not be so much trouble, but, of course, things have not gone smoothly, and now they’ve ended very disappointingly, if not in outright defeat, and it’s still the one-man show.

Edit- Fixed the link to The Atlantic. Thanks @TemulentTeatotaler for noticing it was incorrect.

If you're in California, Scott Alexander's choices on the primary elections might interest you.

How Trump is transforming Washington - by adding his face everywhere

...including the Trump Kennedy Center, the Donald J Trump United States Institute of Peace and the White House, where a ballroom is being built. Also coins, and passports. Plus his signature on the dollar bill, the naming the Arc De Trump after himself, and painting the reflecting pool to "kiddie pool blue." That is "reminiscent" of pure authoritarian bullshit. (That last bit might be a little big of my own color commentary.)

2 of the 9 artists announced for the US 250th concerts have backed out

Edit: back to five nos - probably where it will stop?

It sounds like the "Freedom 250" company and/or the agents were less than honest with the performers.

Cancelled:

Young MC - explicitly said no
The Commodores
Morris Day & The Time - explicit no on Instagram
Martina McBride - explicit no on Instagram
Bret Michaels

Still listed
Milli Vanilli - the surviving member has explicitly said yes

Vanilla Ice - explicitly confirmed
C+C Music Factory - owner of the trademark explicitly said yes (but like was mostly pissed at being told what to do and he has the rights to the name?)
Flo Rida

Edited to update more responses

Edited again

This is "old" news, but it's gobsmackingly symbolic of the kakistocracy we're living in:

Penile implant specialist with history of far-right comments led hantavirus presser

U.S. public health has become a not-at-all funny joke. There's an Ebola outbreak of international concern, a new human-transmissible hantavirus strain, millions of HIV sufferers who now can't get medication and millions of at-risk people who can't afford PrEP without USAID, antibiotic-resistant TB and other bacterial infections, new fungal diseases without effective treatments... and influenza and COVID are still continually mutating. Endless wars and famines just make matters worse.

These problems are relatively cheap and easy to fix if addressed early and competently. If I had any skills or talents for public office, I'd be running - encourage your science and health-affiliated friends to throw their hats in the ring.

Pentagon spars with SpaceX over Starlink price hike during Iran war

Nothing like a little brazen war profiteering when setting up SpaceX's IPO.