Glen Hiemstra, Futurist

Room 101 now required for all Gov workers. sigh

"A whole new level of cruelty": Health experts decry "devastating" cuts to HIV treatment programs The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation said the latest cuts will deprive 350,000 people of HIV treatment.

“What’s transpired over the last three or four days just takes it to a whole new level of cruelty and inhumanity and, frankly, a whole new level of stupidity in doing this is the most non-strategic way.” Tens of thousands of people will die as a result of this action.

www.salon.com/2025/02/28/a...

“Move fast and break things” was bad enough as a business axiom, @karaswisher.bsky.social argues, but “when it’s applied to the entire apparatus of our democracy, it’s terrifying.” theatln.tc/ldNshQHr

Eternal shame for the Trump sycophants who support his disgraceful, deadly betrayal of democratic Ukraine to side with Putin. The blood is on their hands.

All this business I am reading about social security is nonsense. My mom died on 2/18. My dad got a letter yesterday informing him her benefits were ending and he had to repay the February payment because they don’t give a payment in the month someone dies. They know where every dollar is.

This is precisely what the Democrats should do at Shitler’s address to the joint session of Congress. 👇🏻👇🏻

The fundamental choice has not been as stark since World War II: democracy and freedom, or dictatorship and tyranny.

Trump and his sycophants are siding with the latter. The rest of us must loudly, proudly, and boldly proclaim our allegiance to the former.

The savings on DOGE's "wall of receipts" keep shrinking every time they update it. It started at $16 billion. Now it's under $9 billion, as billionaire Elon Musk's outfit cleans up some obvious mistakes. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03...

LOL now it's a "brief pause" to the spending of the agency he crowed about "putting through the wood chipper"

The same week that Elon Musk baselessly called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," his co-president Donald Trump announced that he wants to create a national crypto reserve.

This could result in taxpayer dollars being used to prop up an actual Ponzi scheme.

Hello?

We are firing Rangers at National Parks, scientists & aid workers that treat/prevent/research disease and feed the poor, & disabled vets helping fellow vets at VA hospitals, but the good news is we are going to buy a shit ton of crypto so Trump & his friends can make billions.

old Soviet joke for our times:

Guy stops by the newsstand every day, scans the front page, doesn’t buy the paper. One day the vendor asks what he’s up to.

Guy says: “looking for an obituary.”

Vendor says “those are towards the back of the paper, comrade.”

Guy says: “not the one I’m looking for.”

A screenshot of an X post by Elon Musk from February 12. The post features a meme with a smiling young woman and the Dogecoin ($DOGE) logo next to her. The text on the meme reads: "Watching Trump slash federal programs knowing it doesn't affect you because you're not a member of the Parasite Class." Below the post, engagement stats show: 17K comments, 55K retweets, 443K likes, and 35M views.

Not just a bad joke.

The T4 program killed 300,000 “undesirables” because Nazis saw them as “useless.” Today, Musk laughs about cutting aid to the “Parasite Class.” History shows what happens when we let the rich decide who deserves to live. Don’t look away.

443K likes 😤

And there it is. Putin’s lifelong dream. After years of relentless Russian propaganda, now fully embraced by the American president and the world’s richest oligarch, millions of Americans are convinced that this is a good plan because Europe is an enemy and Putin is our friend.

This is a bigger issue than people realize. Not just jobs lost. But their families losing benefits. Landlords losing tenants. Cities and towns losing revenue. This is how recessions start

Ready Fire Aim is no way to govern.

A lot of people are going to die from this

Listening to this now.
Sarah gets it. In fact, she has such a firm grasp of what's happening that it's kind of scary.

Five Failures in the Oval Office (video) America hurt itself badly today.

Here I react to the shameful encounter between American leaders and media and the Ukrainian president. No doubt there were more, but I saw five failures on our side: of hospitality, decency, democracy, strategy, and independence. Please watch and share.
snyder.substack.com/p/five-failu...

History will remember this day— when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for.

ICE roundups framed as TV shows. Layoffs breathlessly livetweeted. Cabinet secretaries picked because they can spar on TV. Oval office ambushes as pseudoevents for creating spectacle on TV. SIzzle reels on the WH website

We are pushing up against Daniel Boorstin's ideas about governing by image.

EU, Canada, Britain must rise as one, now.

Trump and Vance told Zelensky he had no cards, then laid their pro dictator hand on the table for all the world to see. Excellent summary from @davidfrum.bsky.social

excerpt from THEY KNEW

:There was a coup in America, and no one noticed. It was a slow-moving coup, decades in the making, forged by redefining laws and loyalty until the contours of betrayal blurred."

--THEY KNEW (2022)

Elon Musk Thinks Democrats Should Love DOGE Isn’t everyone in favor of efficiency?

Contrary to what Elon Musk may claim, there's no comparison between the Clinton administration's reform efforts and DOGE, Jonathan Chait writes: "Crucially, the Clinton administration was actually attempting to make the government more efficient."

Seattle stands with Ukraine and democracy.

It’s one of the smartest things they could do. They don’t have to leave D. Just post here first and engage.

They never engage there. They can actually talk to people here. And yes there are republicans and independents on here.

Many Republicans hate Toxicity too.

Germany’s election winner pledges ‘independence from US’ Friedrich Merz says he has ‘no illusions’ about Trump administration’s ‘indifference’ towards Europe

After Germany's center-right CDU won the elections, its leader Friedrich Merz promised to “achieve independence” from the US, which supported the Nazi-infected Alternative for Germany. The US has turned anti-democratic.
www.ft.com/content/a87d...

@chrismurphyct.bsky.social why are you not posting on here first ? You have some great things to say. You are trying some great things. Yet you post on X where 100pct of the replies are meaningless and hateful.

It's not all roses here, but the engagement has depth and real convos happen