The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues (Part 2)

[crowmanyclouds]

@Monty

Cue my mantra.

This is what they wanted for others.
This is what they voted for others.
This is what they got for themselves.

I’m partial to Have the day you voted for.

[dtilque]

@Sherrerd

The authoritarian mindset adores “agonizers”.

Yeah, I bet most of the ICE goons will be abusing on detainees and protesters and anyone else they don’t like. I wonder if it would be possible to make a shirt that would short them out and exhaust their batteries. ETA: just weaving some copper wire into the cloth might do the trick.

[Buck_Godot]

It might also cause the shirt to catch fire, and brand any skin next to the shirt, so a bit of a Pyrrhic victory.

[dtilque]

@Buck_Godot

It might also cause the shirt to catch fire, and brand any skin next to the shirt, so a bit of a Pyrrhic victory

OK, the idea needs a bit of work.

[Monty]

It’s a lawyer’s version of Old MacDonald!

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is facing a new lawsuit related to its new TSA Gold+ program that is set to roll out at a few airports throughout the country. Now, the plaintiffs in that lawsuit are issuing a warning to the American public.

The lawsuit, which has been filed by the union representing 47,000 TSA workers, is looking to force the release of records regarding the expansion of privatized security screening at airports, a new program known as TSA Gold+, and the union is warning Americans about what the new program might mean for them.

& (of course)

This month, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents TSA officers at over 400 airports throughout the United States, filed a lawsuit against the TSA claiming that the agency made a “secretive push” of the private-public partnership without proper formal disclosure.

The AFGE claims it found out about the new program “by accident,” when a flyer was seen at Orlando International Airport back in April.

The lawsuit seeks more information about the program, its planning, and its rollout.

“This lawsuit is a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, so we hope to get the information we ask for that they are legally required to provide us. And we believe that it’s going to show that they’re not doing this in a lawful way, right?” AFGE General Counsel Rushab Sanghvi said via USA Today.

Don’t hold your breath.

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! The felon’s even tried deporting active military members.

Democrats in Congress have launched a probe into the Trump administration following reports it tried to deport more than 50 military members and members of military families.

The Associated Press reported last week that President Donald Trump’s administration has detained 52 parents and spouses of active-duty service members since he took office in January 2025, with at least six interventions resulting in deportation and at least eight people remaining in immigration custody.

In response to this report, 60 Democrats sent a letter Sunday evening to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs, vowing to investigate whether the DOD and DHS were working together to deport military service members and their families.

The inquiry includes multiple questions directed at various agencies, including how the purported collaboration between DHS and the military to deport troops’ families “raises both ethical and legal concerns.”

“These efforts imperil military readiness, weaken service members’ morale, and betray America’s promises to the people who put their lives on the line for our nation,” according to the letter, viewed by the Associated Press.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office is leading the probe, with direct support from Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).

“Donald Trump is breaking our country’s promises to service members by tearing apart dozens of military families who were promised immigration protections,” Warren told the AP. “That’s just plain cruel, and it’s hurting our military readiness and morale.”

The lawmakers are calling on Trump to shield military service members from immigration enforcement while allowing them to adjust their legal status, as was the case in previous administrations.

The Pentagon reportedly told the AP it would “reply directly to the authors of the letter.” DHS told the AP that it values service members’ contributions, adding that “U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

For the record, one of the benefits currently, supposedly, of joining the military is getting one’s family member’s immigration status adjusted.

But, hey, as we’ve seen far too often the only adjustment the felon wants for immigrants he doesn’t marry is to gone.

The felon doesn’t want to be silenced.

Attorneys for President Donald Trump have asked a federal appeals court to immediately step in and halt a judge’s scathing sanctions order, after the jurist declined to issue a stay.

“This appeal arises from the district court’s extraordinary abuse of its sanctions power,” Trump’s brief said Wednesday, repeating that a “stay would harm no one” in the interim.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams last week said there was no “good cause” to halt a ruling that referred Trump attorney Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar and granted monetary “reimbursement” for amici curiae — or friends of the court — she allowed to enter the IRS lawsuit.

&

According to Trump’s lawyers, Williams made those findings without “proof of collusion and bad faith” — all while slapping a “sweeping, unconstitutional, and unlawful gag order” on the president himself.

“The injunction categorically forbids Movants from even ‘referring to’ the Settlement Agreement, and separately bars any use of its provisions in official proceedings,” the brief said. “That gag order wrongly silences the sitting President, the Government, private parties, and counsel on a matter of obvious public concern at a politically consequential moment — and denies the public the right to hear their views.”

Why don’t they admit it? “Your honor, you’re wasting your time with a gag order. Our client is incapable of shutting up and he’s rigged the top of the judiciary such that he will never suffer a consequence of ignoring your order.”

[solost]

@ThelmaLou

The next reel of the dystopian sci-fi movie we’re living in unfolds:

AP Exclusive: ICE plans to give officers gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks

I was going to post this in the ‘Real or Onion Headline’ thread yesterday, but got distracted.

Yeah, what gets me is they even have a stupid made-up acronym for it: ‘G.L.O.V.E.’ like a cartoon supervillian.

[Gyrate]

I’m disappointed they didn’t go with “Glove-inator”.

[Q.Q.Switcheroo]

I guess Power Glove was already taken.

[CalMeacham]

How About The Absurdity Gauntlet

[Just_Asking_Questions]

I want to know what happens if they get wet? Do they arc back and shock the wearer? That would be funny to see.

With the current Quality of the American Craftsman, I’d expect they don’t work all that well on a good day.

[Q.Q.Switcheroo]

@Just_Asking_Questions

I want to know what happens if they get wet? Do they arc back and shock the wearer? That would be funny to see.

I’m waiting for the inevitable moment when two ICE agents wearing the gloves high-five each other.

[ThelmaLou]

Deja vu all over again.

Kennedy Center Board Decides to Inscribe Trump’s Name on Building

The vote to add “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” is an aggressive test of a judge’s order to remove his name.

Kennedy Center Board Decides to Inscribe Trump’s Name on Building - The New York Times

The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted on Thursday to inscribe President Trump’s name on the building beneath the main signage, aggressively testing a federal judge’s order to remove it, according to two people with direct knowledge of the proceedings.

According to the resolution approved by the Trump-allied board, the inscription underneath the institution’s name would read: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” The board’s decision came shortly after it voted to move forward with Mr. Trump’s plan to shutter the building for renovations.

[JKellyMap]

@Q.Q.Switcheroo

I’m waiting for the inevitable moment when two ICE agents wearing the gloves high-five each other.

Ha! Love it.

[Frodo]

Did he actually restore or renovate anthing? besides the sign?

[Dr.Drake]

@Frodo

Did he actually restore or renovate anthing?

I see you’re unfamiliar with Newspeak. “Restore” means “make great again,” and “renovate” means “change.” Of course, “great” means “worse” and “change” means “change for the worse.”

[Frodo]

Double plus ungood!

[OttoDaFe]

Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Trumpsoc.

[Pardel-Lux]

I think you are going to love reading G.L.O.V.E.'s intructions of use, particuarly if you like eufemisms (link to internet archive, not paywalled, but probably a captcha, thus no pre-view):
https://archive.is/20260813061229/https://www.404media.co/heres-the-manual-for-ices-electric-shock-gloves/
Quotes:

The manual says users should avoid using the G.L.O.V.E device against elderly people, small children, pregnant women, and “the severely handicapped.”

I am sure they will. Always, without exception.

Another page includes a diagram of the human body and says officers can “grab anywhere on the body” with the gloves “while avoiding the head, face, throat, chest and groin areas.” If the subject resists, though, another page says to deploy the gloves “as necessary.”

Be careful, use good judgement. Or don’t.

The manual says the gloves may even contribute to “sudden death.” It says “Conductive Distraction and De-escalation Devices” or CD3s may “increase the affects [sic] that can cause sudden death including physiological changes.” It then lists increases in blood pressure, respiration, and heart rates; changes in heart rhythm; and increases in adrenaline.

Only losers die, it’s their own bloody fault.

[ThelmaLou]

If God approved of them, He wouldn’t have made them losers, amirite?

[Q.Q.Switcheroo]

@Pardel-Lux

officers can “grab anywhere on the body” with the gloves “while avoiding the head, face, throat, chest and groin areas.”

But the kiester is A-OK!