A New One From Jess Piper

One Thing… by Jess Piper Read on Substack

The world is on fire and none of us can do much to stop it on our own, but we can each do a little to stop it, and those actions add up to a massive resistance.

Red state residents recognize the shock and awe doctrine that we are all seeing from the first few days of the Trump administration. It’s something we have a lot of experience working with. Our nervous systems are already familiar with the constant attacks on democracy — the constant need to keep up with our lawmakers and pushback on our lawmakers.

I live in Missouri. I have lived under the tyranny of a GOP supermajority for two decades.

It’s not easy, but I have learned to make calls and post and write and then get outside. Do the work and take a break.

My emboldened lawmakers do whatever they want. They will not honor the will of the people and they need constant pushback from the people. We have been fighting in this way for over two decades.

The only way to stop them is through constant resistance. Because screw them and their authoritarian instincts. We didn’t elect Kings and I won’t have a boot on my neck and I won’t stand for one on my neighbor’s neck.

We can’t be shocked into silence.

My testimony against SJR 54, Jefferson City, MO. 2/4/25.

Yesterday, I drove to the Missouri Capitol to testify against something that has already been resolved. Abortion.

I thought I would share my testimony to the committee. This was my one thing yesterday. This was my act of defiance and resistance.

Here is my testimony:

Hello. My name is Jess Piper and I am here to testify against HJR 54. This resolution is an attempt to overturn the will of Missouri voters.

The Republicans who are behind this fake resolution claim to represent rural people. They don’t and I am here to set that record straight.

I am a rural mom to five and grandmother to four. I live in Northwest Missouri and I am angry about the overreach of the Missouri GOP. I am here to testify on the disrespect – the absolute disdain – shown to every Missouri voter by some of the folks in this room.

Amendment 3 passed in Missouri. There is no reason why I had to drive eight hours round trip to testify against an abortion restriction. Why can’t you just accept the will of your constituents?

I collected signatures for Amendment 3 in some of the most rural areas of this state. Brookfield is a town of 4,000 and when I pulled up to set up my table and gather signatures, there were folks in the parking lot waiting. A woman signed her name and then texted her Bible group to remind them to come sign the amendment.

Ever heard of Marceline? The town has a population of 2,000. A woman I met in Marceline chored her animals and farm – and then came to sign the amendment in overalls and mucks.

She knew what she was signing, and I am here to give her voice. It’s hard to get your chores done and make it all the way to Jeff City to testify against legislation and your own lawmakers who won’t honor your vote or your voice.

I bet many of you know where Maryville is. We were able to get a few hundred signatures in that town. Maryville is a “huge urban space” in the middle of cornfields, population 11k. They even have a Starbucks. I sat at that coffee shop for hours one afternoon to get signatures. When I was about to pack up, a man named Gordon came in to add his name to the petition.

Gordon is 86 years old. He uses a walker and drove all the way to town and proudly signed his name to a petition to make sure his great-granddaughters would not suffer under the tyranny of an abortion ban.

I am here to remind you that lawmakers who would overturn the will of Missourians should remember they serve the folks who sent them here, and many of those folks voted to approve abortion rights in this state.

Those people include the Bible group from Brookfield and the farmer from Marceline and the great-grandfather from Maryville.

I am also here to express my disgust with the Missouri GOP. You claim to be the party of “small government” but that is a lie. You want to control books, curriculum, teachers, children’s private parts, and every uterus in the state. You overreach into the lives of Missouri citizens each day.

You can’t be the party of “small government” when your members act like tyrants. Do better.

It’s as easy as that.

Well, it wasn’t that easy — I had to drive all day to speak for 3 minutes, but it was worth every mile. They were forced to listen to someone they have tried to disenfranchise. They were forced to see my face and listen to my scathing review of their tenure. They couldn’t escape me or the dozens who testified against the resolution to ban abortion…again.

I know how hard every day is, but do one thing today.

Share an article with friends and then call your Congressional Rep to demand they hold the line with Musk. Call your Senators and demand they do the same. Call you AG and demand they stand with the American people on the biggest data breach in American history — sue Elon for stealing the data of the people of their state.

And then go outside if you can.

Don’t be paralyzed in front of the television or your phone. Doomscrolling without action will make you crazy and exhaust you. That’s the point of shock and awe.

Do one thing. And then rest.

Rinse. Repeat.

~Jess

P.S. I am so thankful for the Abortion Action group and the Missouri ACLU who planned the resistance event at the Capitol. There were so many Missourians there to oppose SJR 54, that we filled the hearing room and an overflow room. The hearing went on for several hours with testimony opposing the resolution.

This is what democracy looks like. (snip)

“This is like the Nigerian Prince on crack.”

Phishing With Elon by Clay Jones

Worse than a Nigerian prince Read on Substack

In addition to mocking people, challenging authority, and making people laugh while making others soil themselves in anger, political cartoons can be a public service. Today’s cartoon is a good example of that because every American needs to know about this shit. when I sent this cartoon to proofer Laura, she told me she was hoping I’d cover this today because it hasn’t been covered enough. Some of you, dear readers, have also posted in the comments about this issue. So, let me begin.

Elon Musk has been granted access to the Treasury Department’s payment system. What does this mean? It means Elon and his people have access to the financial information for everyone who receives payments from the federal government, including Elon’s competitors for government contracts…and even those who receive tax refunds.

This means Elon has your social security number, your date of birth, your address, your income, and if you do direct deposit with the government, he has your banking information. Elon might have your bank account and routing numbers. If you’re not pissed off yet, Elon even has access to your Social Security and Medicare accounts.

This is like the Nigerian Prince on crack.

Perhaps the only person safe from this is that survivalist living “off the grid” with a YouTube channel my little sister cites for anti-vaccine information.

David Lebryk, a top Treasury official and a non-political civil servant was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after a standoff with Musk and his lieutenants. Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, gave Elon and his goons the keys to the car.

Elon is pretending he needs this access to monitor and stop government spending he deems unnecessary or corrupt. But again, Elon can’t approve or cancel government spending because he does NOT have that authority. Even Trump doesn’t have that authority.

Elmo attacked the Treasury Department Saturday, criticizing the department for not rejecting more payments as fraudulent or improper. Except, how does he know the payments are fraudulent or improper? Before last Saturday, Elmo didn’t even know what payments the government was making. Has he read every single contract the government has or just the billion-dollar contracts he has with the government?

Do you remember when the goons were outraged with the idea President Barack Obama was born in Kenya? Do you remember when the goons were upset over unelected bureaucrats?

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is NOT a government department, but a team within the Trump administration (sic). Some members of DOGE have been made employees of the Treasury Department which is very odd since Trump demanded a hiring freeze. Somehow, these new Treasury employees have all passed speedy background checks which I’m sure aren’t suspicious at all.

Other DOGE teams have begun demanding access to data and systems at other federal agencies.

One of the people affiliated with DOGE who now has access to the payment system is Tom Krause, the chief executive of a Silicon Valley company, Cloud Software Group, and is worth over $83 billion. He’s only “affiliated,” and not officially a part of DOGE. Trump is allowing billionaires to rifle through the Treasury. Has Tom Krause passed a background check?

Guess what! Surprise, surprise, Cloud Software Group, much like Elon’s companies, has contracts with the federal government. I didn’t read that in any stories about this issue, I traced it. Krause was the individual who pushed for access and was first resisted by Lebryk until his hasty retirement.

This is like the bank robbers demanding the code to the safe and the manager giving it to them while making them a cake.

Elon having anything to do with the government is a conflict of interest. Even the name, DOGE, is a conflict of interest and a violation of the Emoluments Clause. This shouldn’t be allowed.

The best information I can find for accountability for DOGE is that there are about 20 employees and its office is next to the White House in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. What I can’t find but I’m sure will turn up throughout the Executive Grift, is how much DOGE is costing us.

Elon has talked about cutting $2 trillion from government spending, but it’s always always always always Republicans who do the most spending. I get to mention Dwight Eisenhower twice in this blog because he’s the last Republican president to leave a surplus. Now, here’s Elon to help Trump trim $2 trillion when it was Trump who increased our debt by over $7 trillion.

Ike sent that budget to Congress on January 25, 1960. A Republican president hasn’t sent a balanced budget to Congress since Running Bear by Johnny Preston was the number one song. See the shit I research for you? Also, Running Bear was the kind of shit we were forced to listen to before The Beatles (Elvis was in the Army and then he started a decade of those movies).

Bessent was confirmed just last week, but did he mention handing the government’s payment system over to Elon during his confirmation hearing? Since Trump didn’t mention it on the campaign trail, probably not.

Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee said, “I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission-critical systems.”

I get texts and emails from scammers all the time, but I’m pretty good at spotting them, just like I’m good at spotting fake news. Some of those scams claim a package from USPS can’t be delivered, so click this link. Another will claim my Netflix payment didn’t go through, so click this link. There’s a new one claiming you have unpaid tolls, so guess what they want you to do…click this link. Then there are those gorgeous women on Facebook leaving comments on your posts telling you that you seem like an interesting person, but their friend requests won’t go through, so please send one to them. Last year, someone sent me a check for over $6,000 for me to draw them something (that one had flies on it). But all of them can only wish to be as good of a phishing scammer as Elon.

If you’re not pissed off yet, then there’s something wrong with you.

Now, someone tell Donald Trump that Elon also has access to all his financial information too.

Creative note: This blog was written at Wegmans. I found a nice quiet spot in the corner of the dining area upstairs. The location is almost hidden. I got about two paragraphs of this blog written when a lady sat one table over from me with her pink computer and started blasting videos. It was like being the only person in a movie theater and a creeper comes in and sits next to you. Actually, I think that’s how my parents met. Dad was a creeper.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go see)

Weekend/Monday AM News

has been moving along rapidly, and I haven’t put much here because it’s moving so quickly that posting doesn’t keep up with the changes. Anyway, we’ve likely all heard of the non-government workers who are directed by an unelected, unsworn, non-government worker and are accessing US Treasury data bases and We The People’s personal and financial data. If not, well; it’s everywhere. Anyway, I spent a lot of time writing to my Rep, the one of my senators who’s not insane, and Sen. Chuck Schumer about this yesterday, and had more letters and calls (messages) about other business this morning. I’ve had 6 stories up to post only to find as I began to set up posts that something had changed, and they weren’t accurate news anymore. However, here’s a thing. Many people have been despairing of and finger-pointing to “the Dems” as being at fault for all of this. Here is where Dems’s actual momentum is at this time:

Senate and House Dem Presser Outside USAID Today (Video) – Please Watch And Share by Simon Rosenberg

Senate and House Dems forcefully challenge Trump/Musk’s illegal attacks on USAID and the US government Read on Substack

https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/senate-and-house-dem-presser-outside?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Above is the link to the video, and all of what Simon Rosenberg wrote. Here’s a snippet:

Friends,

I was really impressed with the House presser today and decided to send it along to all of you. Please watch and share with others you think might be interested. You all have wanted Dems to fight – well here you go!

Note that several speakers today talked about how important the calls are they’re receiving from constituents. These calls matter everyone. Keep working it!

(snip-go see everything, and if you’ve contacted your legislators, thanks and please keep it up! If not, I don’t know what it’s gonna take, but to me, we don’t want things to get worse than this, so now is the time. Unless you think this is all fine, of course, but I don’t think you’d be reading here if you did. Links to contact and phone numbers are right beneath.)

https://www.congress.gov/ , https://www.house.gov/representatives

https://www.senate.gov/ , https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

Here’s the only one of the tabs I was going to post, but it gives good background if someone needs a little more info in order to act: Musk’s Little Green Men

What we must now fight against what is pushed worldwide by the wealthiest people.

CRT, DEI, ABC, And Initialled Villains!

You Are Fabulous!

I just now learned that today is International Compliment Day, and you know I’m here for that-I love giving compliments! Stay As Wonderful As You Are! (Also enjoy this toon, which is funny, but unfortunately on topic. YOU Are Still AWESOME!)

Last Kiss by John Lustig for January 24, 2025

Last Kiss Comic Strip for January 24, 2025

https://www.gocomics.com/lastkiss/2025/01/24

The Crucible and more in Peace and Justice History for 1/22

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january22

Right Wing Weirdos Defend Disturbing Trans Hate Crime

“The GOP Is Passing Anti-Trans Bills, But Damn The Dems Are Actually Fighting!”

by Crip Dyke Jan 17, 2025 | Rebecca Schoenkopf

Where’d all these shivs come from all of a sudden? Read on Substack

Maxwell Frost represents the 10th House District of Florida. I dutifully looked that up for you before realizing it’s right there on the screen.

Over the last three years, the states have been on fire with anti-trans legislation, bathroom bills, healthcare bans, and most recently sports segregation bills. In 2024, the Heterosexism Santa Anas whipped these flames into a an actual fire tornado. But on Tuesday this week, Republican Congress members took new action that might just reverse this trend: They decided to take away states’ rights to regulate trans bodies and start making these bans national. First up was an amendment to Title IX that would ban trans sports participation. Grotesquely titled the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025,” HB 28 passed the House 218-206 — but its fate in the Senate is uncertain given the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster (there are 53 Republicans in the Senate this year). If it reaches Trump’s desk, he’s guaranteed to sign it.

What’s more clear than the GOP’s chances to get the bill through the Senate, however, is that the Democratic approach to this Republican proposal is very different from how they have responded to anti-trans efforts in the past. This week only two Dems sided against trans people, Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. (Both represent Texas swing districts, if that matters to you.) But more importantly than the relative unity of the Democrats — even from Reps. Tom Suozzi and Seth Moulton who just recently decided to broadside the party for liking trans people so much they threw the election — they actually sounded a bit salty that the GOP was trying this shit on their watch. Almost like hating trans people was an affront to their values or something.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got a lot of attention for her speech:

She started on fire by calling out infamous anti-woman actions to make it clear that she isn’t buying GOP protestations that the bill is somehow motivated by concern for girls and women. Then she hit them for what they were actually doing:

“[You] open up gender, and, yes, genital examinations into little girls in this country in the so-called name of attacking trans girls. To that, today, what we have to say are two words: Not today.

“The majority right now says there is no place in this bill that says it opens up for genital examinations. Well, here is the thing: There is no enforcement mechanism in this bill. When there is no enforcement mechanism, you open the door to every enforcement mechanism.”

She also stressed that having these laws on the books limits the freedoms of cis (that is, “non-trans” if you’re new) women and girls:

“What this also opens the door for is for women to try to perform a very specific kind of femininity for the very kind of men who are drafting this bill, and to open up questioning of who is a woman because of how we look, how we present ourselves, and yes, what we choose to do with our bodies.”

AOC wasn’t the only one to body the misogynistic GOP. Congresswoman Sara Jacobs sharpened her shiv and stuck it right in,

“This bill doesn’t even come close to protecting women and girls in sports. In fact, it puts all women and girls in danger of sexual abuse.”

Lori Trahan, the only woman Division-1 athlete in Congress, attacked on the same line, this time asking, What about the children?

“[T]he consequences of that approach will be devastating: Girls as young as 4 years old being subjected to invasive lines of questioning about their bodies and even physical inspections by an adult, a stranger, a predator, all because some creep accuses them of not being a girl. What parent would want to put their daughter through that? I know I wouldn’t.”

Brand new Congressman Rep Maxwell Frost turned up the heat even more, if that’s possible, giving a few small but horrifying details about a recent investigation into a volleyball player in his home state of Florida. And he did it in front of a sign naming HB 28 “The GOP Child Predator Empowerment Act.”

That’s some shit, y’all. His video was posted to Twitter, which I will link this one time, because he’s almost as good at this as AOC.

And this Dem messaging? It got under Republican skin. When secret Wonkette girl crush Rep. Jasmine Crockett accused Nancy Mace of whipping up cissexism as a fundraising tactic, Mace actually challenged Crockett to step outside and fight. Joy Reid had a great take on this, but there’s nothing funnier than Mace herself, thinking she can take Crockett on when just five weeks ago she had her arm in a sling from shaking a man’s hand (yr Wonkette did not see any evidence she’d even visited medical staff or had any injury diagnosed, but damn that sling was sure real for a couple days).

This is, to use a technical term usually found only in the official records of the Parliamentarian of the House, some cool ass shit. I know that many of us have been waiting for Dems to hit the GOP and hit them hard when they come after minorities or rights or values that we on the Left would like to see them protect. So folks have to be wondering, what woke them up?

Though your friendly, neighborhood Crip Dyke doesn’t have hard information, it would be irresponsible not to speculate that last November’s election made a difference. And by this we mean not only the elevation of Trump, once again, to head of the executive branch which may indeed have lit a fire in some, but also the election of Sarah McBride, an election which elevated the entire US House of Representatives by finally making it possible for a trans legislator to participate in debates on the bills that target us.

Many noticed that McBride didn’t instantly and loudly fight back when Nancy Mace attacked her personally, using McBride’s election as an excuse to pass new bathroom restrictions for those working on Capitol Hill. But as yr Wonkette reminded at the time:

McBride [needs] a chance to work, a chance to develop reputation and influence. She needs to do some very careful relationship building now.

The House Dems did a fantastic job of articulating exactly how government interest in girls’ bodies becomes a predatory risk for cis and trans folks alike. But it wasn’t cis people that first noticed the problem or developed the argument. I know because I had to come up with these observations and arguments in 1996 without any cis help at all, and I spent 14 years teaching cis people patiently, over and over, how transphobia, like homophobia, is a weapon of sexism.

Whether McBride was secretly organizing Democratic rhetorical strategies and asking cis folks to take the point so that she couldn’t be marginalized as a trans radical, it’s certainly not an accident that it is now that congressional Dems are spending time on a daily basis talking to a real live trans person that they are figuring out how to talk about trans issues. Here’s hoping they’ll continue to make the GOP majorities bigoted victories more and more costly.

Grrr; US Media Suck

Wonkette does this better than I.

Politico Demands Karen Bass Explain How She’ll Make Politico Stop Smearing Her

Oh, the balls on these assholes. The BALLS!

Doktor Zoom

Tuesday afternoon, Politico ran a very good story about media and political attacks against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her response to the ongoing wildfires. The piece, by reporter Melanie Mason, points out that much of the criticism has been unfair and often baldface lies. It also notes that Bass’s public persona as a detail-oriented consensus builder has in part led to the perception that she’s not an action-oriented take-charge leader in this crisis. It’s one of the better discussion of Bass and the wildfires we’ve read, in addition of course to our own, ahem.

The money quote for the story comes from Rob Quan, an organizer with good-government nonprofit Unrig LA. Says Quan,

“Nationally, there’s just a pile-on. […] If you look at her replies [on social media] now, she could be posting a video of her literally running into a burning building and taking a child out of there, and people would still be replying ‘resign!’”

Mason’s piece is a smart, thoughtful look at how an accomplished politician is being dragged in the media, and how her own political instincts and strengths aren’t proving to be much help in countering the overwhelmingly negative coverage. Kind of like having a municipal water system that’s perfectly capable of handling building fires, but not designed to contain a fire hurricane made far more catastrophic by climate change. By all means, you should read it!

But because we are doing a Doktor of Rhetoric post today, we’re only going to discuss Mason’s very good reporting and analysis in the context of how Politico distorted its own goddamn coverage for the sake of adding more cheap shots to the shitstorm of belligerent bellyaching with which Bass is contending.

Later yesterday afternoon, Politico’s “California PM Playbook” column took Mason’s thoughtful, nuanced reporting and ran it through a bullshit filter, resulting in a column that mentions the pile-on of disinformation that Bass has faced, but ultimately paints Bass as responsible for her own unfair coverage, darn her.

California Playbook editor Lindsay Holden quotes and paraphrases Mason liberally, but hypes up the negatives almost to the exclusion of all else, leaving the reader with the impression that Bass, as Holden’s headline puts it, “has lost the plot.”

Mason depicts Bass as a competent leader whose substance-over-style political instincts aren’t necessarily a great match for a crisis where cable news and rightwing social media are driving the narrative:

Bass has also been hampered by instincts she honed as a deal-making legislator and coalition-building community activist. Never someone to actively seek the spotlight, her unflashy demeanor now comes off as uninspiring for people seeking a leader projecting command.

An unnamed Democratic consultant says that right now, LA needs a media hero, “someone to stand up in the middle of the Pacific Palisades or the middle of Sylmar or the middle of Hollywood every day and say, ‘This is our community, and we will rebuild.’”

The consultant added, “I want her to show some emotion, that she’s tapping into the fear and anxiety that so many people feel, and not reflect this soft brand of optimism that she’s been known for.”

Soft optimism bad, Henry V filtered through Independence Day good. But Mason also notes that after the widespread devastation of the first horrible hours, when high winds kept water bombers grounded and blew the fires out of control,

firefighters have been remarkably successful in halting additional damage — despite new fires cropping up throughout the week.

“All of those could have been massive conflagrations had they expanded, and they didn’t,” said Doug Herman, a Democratic strategist who works with Bass.

That note doesn’t make it into Holden’s version, which instead seems to be cheering on style, and the hell with substance. After noting that Elon Musk’s attacks on Bass are “often half-baked or outright false,” Holden adds in an anecdote that wasn’t in Mason’s piece, bizarrely framing a dishonest video clip as somehow one more example of Bass’s “painfully poor messaging strategy” (a phrase Mason does not use):

The latest example came Tuesday afternoon, when CBS News sent out a misleading tweet suggesting its reporter asked Bass whether she “regrets” taking an overseas trip while the wildfires erupted. The accompanying video clip showed Bass answering “No.”

In fact, CBS’ Jonathan Vigliotti asked Bass whether, looking back, she still would’ve taken the diplomatic trip to Ghana.

CBS News subsequently revised the tweet to get the question right, and added a note to clarify that Bass was saying no, on reflection she wouldn’t have taken the trip. For all the good it did.

Here’s where we lost our patience with the Playbook piece: Holden went right ahead and insisted that Bass had fucked up:

The episode served as a mini illustration of Bass’ problems — specious information, followed by her own unwillingness to provide a fuller explanation, let alone a broader acknowledgement of her mistake. The narrative about her trip might have been put to bed last week, but Bass’ resistance to engage on it has allowed her enemies to continue painting her as an absent and ineffective leader.

Apparently, Bass should have anticipated that CBS would send a tweet distorting what she said, and she should have pre-debunked it, too. Shame on her! She really has lost the plot, all right.

Perhaps Mason should update her own piece with a close look at how her own outlet indulged in the kind of bullshit she was analyzing, but that might be a little too meta. And god knows Meta has enshittified itself plenty already.