Blanche K
@blanchekolaczek.bsky.social
1K followers 590 following 3.1K posts
Doing my best.
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Reposted by Blanche K
danielchomsky.bsky.social
Ordinary Americans are not euphoric about Donald Trump’s racist police state.
gregsargent.bsky.social
ICE's military raids and masked kidnappings are resonating deeply/negatively in the cultural spaces we keep hearing Dems need to reach: Manosphere, Joe Rogan, country music, disengaged voters. That's rare and it gives Dems a big opening to engage.

Thoughts on this:

newrepublic.com/article/2018...
Reposted by Blanche K
blanchekolaczek.bsky.social
Paul Vallas hasn’t been on the CTA since 1999.
Reposted by Blanche K
bbkogan.bsky.social
Trump and Vought are now breaking both sides of spending law. They’re illegally not spending where the law requires them to spend, and they’re illegally spending where they don’t have the money to spend.

What we have is an appropriations king.

Spending “deals” are meaningless under that setup.
Reposted by Blanche K
billkristolbulwark.bsky.social
"We are a decade into Trumpism. These Young Republicans have never known any other type of Republicanism. We’re talking about a full generation of Republicans who only understand politics in the context of an authoritarian project."

www.thebulwark.com/p/all-the-pr...
All the Pretty Little Nazis
The shape of things to come.
www.thebulwark.com
Reposted by Blanche K
factpostnews.bsky.social
Unearthed invitation shows Trump will host a lavish $1 million per person fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago this Friday.

This will take place on the 17th day of his government shutdown.
Reposted by Blanche K
danielkayhertz.bsky.social
What they’re joking about when they joke about Hitler
auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social
16 October 1938 | A Hungarian Jewish girl, Klára Boda, was born.

In July 1944 she was deported to #Auschwitz and murdered in a gas chamber.
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A short video showing the ruins of gas chamber and crematorium III: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ipQmBPAlJQ8
Vintage black and white photo of a young girl holding a toy and standing next to a stuffed animal, set against a patterned backdrop.
Reposted by Blanche K
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Again, it is a full-blown federal felony crime for anyone in the White House or Executive Office of the President to order tax investigations into anyone.

And it's not just a crime to DO it, it's even a federal crime for an employee not to REPORT such an order to the Treasury Inspector General.
26 U.S. Code § 7217 - Prohibition on executive branch influence over taxpayer audits and other investigations
U.S. Code
Notes
prev | next
(a)Prohibition
It shall be unlawful for any applicable person to request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service to conduct or terminate an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer with respect to the tax liability of such taxpayer.

(b)Reporting requirement
Any officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service receiving any request prohibited by subsection (a) shall report the receipt of such request to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

(c)Exceptions
Subsection (a) shall not apply to any written request made—
(1)to an applicable person by or on behalf of the taxpayer and forwarded by such applicable person to the Internal Revenue Service;
(2)by an applicable person for disclosure of return or return information under section 6103 if such request is made in accordance with the requirements of such section; or
(3)by the Secretary of the Treasury as a consequence of the implementation of a change in tax policy.
(d)Penalty
Any person who willfully violates subsection (a) or fails to report under subsection (b) shall be punished upon conviction by a fine in any amount not exceeding $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.

(e)Applicable person
For purposes of this section, the term “applicable person” means—
(1)the President, the Vice President, any employee of the executive office of the President, and any employee of the executive office of the Vice President; and
(2)any individual (other than the Attorney General of the United States) serving in a position specified in section 5312 of title 5, United States Code.
Reposted by Blanche K
prchovanec.bsky.social
Whatever you think about CFPB, it was created by Congress (as part of the Dodd-Frank Act) and can only be abolished by Congress, not by the President acting as a dictator.
Reposted by Blanche K
Reposted by Blanche K
davidcorn.bsky.social
It's going up to $40 billion.

USAID's budget last year was $28 billion.
Reposted by Blanche K
radleybalko.bsky.social
The Supreme Court’s majority right wing indicated in oral arguments that they think racism is over on the same day that the vice president defended the “I love Hitler” guy, and that the NYT reported that the current administration plans to accept only white, English-speaking refugees.
Reposted by Blanche K
davidho.bsky.social
ICE agents kidnapped a US citizen in Chicago because she didn’t “look” American to them. She even had her US passport on her. 🤬
ICE Detains Citizen After Saying She Doesn’t “Look Like” Her Last Name
She even had her U.S. passport on her.
newrepublic.com
Reposted by Blanche K
donmoyn.bsky.social
RFK Jr. greenlighted Vought further gutting the CDC, which no longer has any scientists or public health specialists in leadership.
RIFs were so chaotic (firing disease detectives during an Ebola breakout) than many were reversed.

Shutdown shitshow. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-shutdo...
Lets break this down a bit. Because of the way RIFs work, entire units were cut. Once the administration found that people they knew and liked, including people who had decades of experience in managing what to do when shit hits the fan, were being fired, they restored the entire unit. This speaks to the arbitrary nature of the RIFs. Someone who does not know the core tasks of the agency, or the science behind what they do, decided “hey, we don’t really need this.” Then they realize that they do. This is echoes the firing of nuclear weapon security staff that happened a few months ago. These are careless people, but sometimes they cuts are so obviously dangerous that they have to walk things back.
Reposted by Blanche K
Reposted by Blanche K
dburbach.bsky.social
Kids? The participants in the racist chat were in their 20s and 30s and included elected state legislators and senior staff to statewide elected officials.
Reposted by Blanche K
unraveledpress.com
A FB live just ended in Carpentersville, where neighbors filmed more feds putting people in a van. This was in front of Village Hall adjacent to a Walmart. Elgin area RR has issued an ongoing alert: www.facebook.com/share/p/1CCm...
Sceeengrab showing men in olive and camo and white van
Reposted by Blanche K
donmoyn.bsky.social
New, from me: I break down all that is happening with the shutdown.
Shutdowns are bad. But only Trump and Russ Vought are brave enough to ask: what if shutdowns aren’t painful enough? How can we use this as an opportunity to target our political enemies? 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-shutdo...
The Shutdown Shitshow
As Trump uses the shutdown to settle scores, the public bears the cost
donmoynihan.substack.com
blanchekolaczek.bsky.social
They want so much to rule over us completely. They won’t.
atrupar.com
Bessent: "No kings equals no paychecks"
Reposted by Blanche K
radleybalko.bsky.social
Fascinating. Politico notes that when notified of the texts, many state-level Republicans fired or condemned these cretins. Now Vance emerges to excuse the racism, and calls the reaction to it "pearl clutching."

He seems determined to purge the party of its last enclaves of decency.
‘College Group Chat’: JD Vance Dismisses ‘Pearl Clutching’ Over Young Republicans Leak to Attack Jay Jones
Liberals hit back at Vance's blunt dismissal of racist, antisemitic and misogynistic messages leaked from a Young Republicans group chat.
www.mediaite.com
Reposted by Blanche K