True Blue Progress

East Coast progressive grateful that Trump is no longer in the White House but worried that the GOP has become an authoritarian cult of personality and conspiracy theories. This blog is a secondary blog (focused mostly on politics) to my main Contemplating Life, the Universe & Everything blog (which covers a wider range of topics--not just politics).

[contemplatingoutlander]

DHS Secretary Mullin threatens to prosecute election chiefs who refuse voter roll demands

His speech marked a major escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to assert federal control over state election procedures.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened top election officials in all 50 states and D.C. with criminal charges if they do not comply with the Trump administration’s demands to feed their voter rolls through a flawed federal database. [....] Alongside his threats Friday, Mullin claimed that the database in question [i.e., the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements or SAVE database] had identified over 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania. [....] The database, however, has repeatedly falsely identified eligible voters as noncitizens. It particularly falsely flagged naturalized citizens as ineligible to vote. [color emphasis added] [....] A federal judge in Washington, D.C., last month barred the DHS from continuing to use the database to surveil and force removals from state voter rolls. [....] In her order, [U.S. District Judge Sparkle] Sooknanan warned that the Trump administration “haphazardly” threatened “the sacred right to vote” by adopting the expanded SAVE system knowing that it would falsely flag eligible voters as potential noncitizens. [color emphasis added]

▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️▫️

So, Mullins, a federal officer with zero constitutional authority to interfere with how states run elections, is trying to force states to use a database that he KNOWS "would falsely flag eligible voters as potential noncitizens."

Isn't this election interference?

A number of states have election interference laws on their books.

Maybe a group of state attorneys general should consider charging Mullin with attempted election interference?

It's way past time for the states that want to preserve our democratic republic to fight back against the devious efforts of the Trump regime to disenfranchise voters in the 2026 election.

___________________ Video source for GIF

[saywhat-politics]

[2bpoliticallycurious]

Unfortunately, according to The HIll, a DC appeals court is letting the post office continue to implement Trump's executive order and NOT deliver mail-in ballots in states that don't comply with Trump's attempt to purge eligible voters from voter rolls by using the error-prone SAVE database.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5976171-appeals-court-trump-administration-usps-mail-in-ballots/

Frankly, it's madness.

GIF source (before edits)

[saywhat-politics]

Whoever is making the comment “how dumb can the Republicans get?”

Please stop, they’re taking it as a challenge.

[dreamilypurpleoutcast]

[2bpoliticallycurious]

We have become such a selfish nation.

[porterdavis]

[2bpoliticallycurious]

Do the MAGA folks who watch Fox News even know that they had to settle a lawsuit with Dominion because they knowingly lied about the 2020 election being rigged against Trump?

My guess is they do not.

[ladytuarach]

[contemplatingoutlander]

Oh, the irony!

GIF source (before edits)

Even so, I wonder if that will even register with Trump. He seems to believe in creating his own reality. He's so used to talking about the "Russia hoax" that he will probably keep doing so.

Unfortunately, his supporters are NOT the kind of people who would bother to read "declassified intelligence documents." And Fox News/ right-wing media certainly won't report it. So, for about 40% of America it will have never happened.

That's what's so frustrating about these things. Even when Trump screws up royally, much of his base doesn't seem to know that he did.

[contemplatingoutlander]

DHS Secretary Mullin threatens to prosecute election chiefs who refuse voter roll demands

His speech marked a major escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to assert federal control over state election procedures.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened top election officials in all 50 states and D.C. with criminal charges if they do not comply with the Trump administration’s demands to feed their voter rolls through a flawed federal database. [....] Alongside his threats Friday, Mullin claimed that the database in question [i.e., the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements or SAVE database] had identified over 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania. [....] The database, however, has repeatedly falsely identified eligible voters as noncitizens. It particularly falsely flagged naturalized citizens as ineligible to vote. [color emphasis added] [....] A federal judge in Washington, D.C., last month barred the DHS from continuing to use the database to surveil and force removals from state voter rolls. [....] In her order, [U.S. District Judge Sparkle] Sooknanan warned that the Trump administration “haphazardly” threatened “the sacred right to vote” by adopting the expanded SAVE system knowing that it would falsely flag eligible voters as potential noncitizens. [color emphasis added]

▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️▫️

So, Mullins, a federal officer with zero constitutional authority to interfere with how states run elections, is trying to force states to use a database that he KNOWS "would falsely flag eligible voters as potential noncitizens."

Isn't this election interference?

A number of states have election interference laws on their books.

Maybe a group of state attorneys general should consider charging Mullin with attempted election interference?

It's way past time for the states that want to preserve our democratic republic to fight back against the devious efforts of the Trump regime to disenfranchise voters in the 2026 election.

___________________ Video source for GIF

[intothewildsstuff]

[contemplatingoutlander]

How many people will come in contact with the cyclospora parasite because the Trump regime is trying to protect one of its wealthy donors?

But that's only the tip of the iceberg, because cutbacks to the CDC likely interfered with how rapidly the government responded to this outbreak.

The CDC Has a Cyclospora Lab. DOGE Downsized It Last Year

“Based on simple math, these outbreak responses—which require rapid, timely responses—are going to be greatly diminished,” the former CDC la

As cases of the diarrhea-causing parasite cyclospora rise across the US, former employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the country’s response is being severely hampered by personnel cuts at the agency. [....] “Cyclospora is just one piece. It's making the news right now, but there are other, more dangerous pathogens than cyclospora" [said a former CDC lab director].

Contrary to Trump & the MAGA GOP's lies, the "deep state" ((i.e., agencies that regulate businesses & protect public health) is what protects Americans from being potentially hurt by shoddy corporate farming and production practices. They protect us from food, water, and air contamination.

Notice that RFK, Jr. of Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) fame, just went along with all these cuts.

If anything, under RFK, Jr.'s leadership, the CDC & other DHHS departments new mission logo should be: Make America Sick Again (MASA).

Source (before caption & frame edits): Greenpeace USA

[slipping-into-madness]

[2bpoliticallycurious]

Yes, undoubtedly they would invoke the 25th Amendment to remove a woman president from office if she did such things.

However, although it is bad enough that Trump is endlessly whining about his loss, it is exponentially worse that Trump is using the power of the presidency both now and in 2020 to try to rewrite the history of the 2020 election.

How many taxpayer dollars were wasted to fulfill Trump's countless requests for recounts in swing states and numerous court challenges to the 2020 election?

How many taxpayer dollars were wasted in the recent Tulsi Gabbard/ FBI raid on the Fulton County, Georgia 2020 election records?

How much court and federal law enforcement officer time and labor was nullified by Trump pardoning and/or releasing the January 6th insurgents/rioters--including the ones who attacked Capitol and DC police officers?

How many crimes have been committed and will be committed by the pardoned/released January 6th insurgents/rioters (especially the most violent ones or the far-right militia masterminds of the Capitol attack?

How many taxpayer dollars were wasted in the search for the heavily redacted election documents that Trump referred to in his misleading July 15, 2026 election integrity speech, especially since the released documents did NOT support Trump's implications that "foreign interference and fraud actually changed the outcome of previous elections"?

How many days and months of anguish did injured Capitol and DC police officers experience (and their families experience), all because of Trump's lies about the 2020 election?

How much damage was done to trust in the Biden administration and its ability to get things done because of Trump's 2020 election lies?

How many families and friends in the US have been divided because of Trump's need to never admit he lost the 2020 election?

I can go on and on. But it isn't just that Trump is whining like a child who cannot accept that he lost some competition. Trump's extreme need to rewrite history has taken a huge toll on our nation.

[slipping-into-madness]

[2bpoliticallycurious]

The corruption never ends does it?

[contemplatingoutlander]

CIA Officers Can Sense the Threat Within

A survey reveals concern among the rank and file that Trump-administration meddling is undermining intelligence work.

This is a gift🎁link (i.e., no paywall) to an Atlantic article about how CIA analysts feel pressured by the Trump administration to distort intelligence information to support the administration's policies. Here are some excerpts:

The CIA officer Ray Cline, who was the agency’s chief analyst during the Cuban missile crisis, once observed that when it comes to intelligence analysis, “objectivity is the only virtue that really counts.” By that standard, senior Trump-administration officials have fallen short, and they risk corrupting a system that’s supposed to remain apolitical and grounded in facts, according to a recent survey of CIA analysts.

Since Donald Trump returned to office, the number of CIA employees who said they are concerned that the objectivity of analysis is being undermined by political influence has gone up significantly, according to the survey. [....] Among the analysts’ concerns was last year’s dismissal of two senior career intelligence officers after one of Gabbard’s deputies tried to rewrite their assessment that Venezuela was not directing a criminal gang, Tren de Aragua. The administration wanted to claim the opposite to create a legal basis for deporting Venezuelan immigrants.

Respondents also cited Gabbard’s decision to revoke the security clearances of more than three dozen current and former national-security officials, without citing any evidence of wrongdoing. Some of them had worked on the... investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, which Trump derisively refers to as “the Russia hoax.” Gabbard... spent much of her time in office trying unsuccessfully to gin up evidence that intelligence leaders had engaged in a conspiracy to link Trump to Russia.

But the survey results.... reflect broader concerns about a political climate in which the president has routinely misrepresented intelli-gence to the public and directed his advisers to find evidence, however dubious, to support his claims about a stolen election in 2020. [....] Trump has instructed his new acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, to find and disclose evidence that he actually won the 2020 election. Pulte will have access to essentially all of the classified information in the government’s possession.... Lawmakers worry that he will give the public an incomplete picture of what really happened in the 2020 election, and that he will undermine confidence in the fairness of the midterms later this year.

[nuckgirl16]

[liberalsarecool]

Ted Cruz, too!!

[progressivepower]

Marco Rubio launches campaign to dismantle international criminal court http://news.usaunify.org/TTWjQs http://news.usaunify.org/TTWjWk

[comeonamericawakeup]

Of course. That court will likely charge the Trump Regime members with crimes. The US is not a participant in the ICC. But your abilities to travel freely in the world will be restricted once charged.

[2bpoliticallycurious]

Marco Rubio launches campaign to dismantle international criminal court

Trump’s secretary of state claims the global tribunal is interfering with US military and law enforcement operations

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, launched a campaign to dismantle the international criminal court (ICC) on Monday, claiming the global tribunal was interfering with US military and law enforcement operations at the risk of American sovereignty.

Rubio invoked images of US border patrol agents and elected leaders being “dragged before an international court” and tried by judges from around the world in a lengthy op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal Monday.

“If we stand idle, all of them will be at the mercy of foreign judges, thousands of miles away – facing the constant risk of prosecution and even imprisonment for the so-called ‘crime’ of defending their own country,” Rubio warned in a companion video posted to X.

The state department plan to “dismantle” the ICC will involve pressuring other nations to abandon the court, according to CNN. “Nations that refuse to reject the ICC’s false authority while relying on US assistance are likely to come under increased scrutiny,” an official told the outlet, adding that possible punishments could involve sanctions, travel bans and visa revocations.

But three international legal experts described Rubio’s remarks as a mischaracterization of the tribunal’s powers.

“The ICC is not claiming jurisdiction over conduct in the United States,” said Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Rubio is dressing up his quest for impunity for American war crimes under the label of national sovereignty, which ignores the sovereign right of other nations to invoke the ICC for crimes committed on their territory.”

▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️▫️

The ICC's forerunner was the Nuremberg Trials when war crimes were filed against the fascists after WWII.

Fascinating how as the Trump administration acts more and more like fascists they suddenly want to "dismantle" the ICC.

edited

[saywhat-politics]

Lake Powell reaching critically low elevation levels, nearing 'dead power pool,' experts say

Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the U.S., is nearing critically low water elevation levels, the latest data shows.

Lake Powell reaching critically low elevation levels, experts say

The reservoir is nearing the lowest point at which hydropower can be produced.

Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the U.S., is nearing critically low water elevation levels, the latest data shows.

As of Monday, water levels at Lake Powell measured at 3,524.3 feet above sea level, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation tracker.

Minimum, or "dead," power pool -- in which the water is too low to spin the hydroelectric turbines and can no longer produce hydropower -- starts at 3,490 feet of elevation, Peter Soeth, public affairs lead at the Bureau of Reclamation, told ABC News. Elevation at Lake Powell is currently about 34 feet above the minimum power pool.

[liberalsarecool]

Solidarity, human rights, and workers' independence.

[politicalantibody]

Trump hates democracy, and considers it an obstacle. This is observably true, but hasn’t been said anywhere near often enough. Thank you, Bernie!

[tomorrowusa]

Lindsey Graham, key ally of Donald Trump, has died after sudden illness, his office says

Republican senator had served in the Senate since 2003 and was a sharp critic of Trump before becoming one of his most loyal backers

While people have been wondering about the mortality of Mitch McConnell, Senate GOP colleague Lindsey Graham beat him to the punch.

US senator Lindsey Graham, a key ally of Donald Trump, has died from a sudden illness, his office said in the early hours of Sunday. He had just turned 71. Graham’s death will send shockwaves through Washington and the Republican party. He has served in the Senate since 2003, representing South Carolina.

Keep in mind that South Carolina has a Republican governor named Henry McMaster. McMaster, 79, will appoint a replacement to serve out the remainder of Graham's term which ends soon after New Year's Day.

A more politically messy matter for South Carolina Republicans is replacing Graham on the midterm election ballot. McMaster's old boss Nikki Haley is the first SC Republican who I thought of. Though McMaster himself ran for US Senate (and lost) back in 1986.

Of course Donald Trump can't help but stick his orange nose into the succession.

[contemplatingoutlander]

Ironically, yesterday I was just looking at an old reblog from Sept. 2025 where I added a manipulated photo of John McCain's spirit asking his old friend Lindsey Graham, "What happened to you?"

Source (before edits)

I wonder if in a different realm, McCain is asking this very question now of his old friend.

It's sad that Graham died, especially after apparently leaving behind the values he supported when he was John McCain's sidekick so that he could gain better access to Trump.

[myrandomstuffpage]

[contemplatingoutlander]

It is ironic that Trump is doing some things that seem to be in line with communism.

But what he is doing with corporations is also in line with fascism.

in the article Economic Fascism, Thomas J. DiLorenzo claims that fascists attempt to control business via "corporatism," where the government forces businesses to "partner" with them. Although businesses remain private, the government controls and coordinates what they do, with the "national interest" coming before profits. Labor unions are abolished. Taxpayers pay for business failures, and the government implements protectionist policies.

Many prominent scholars (e.g., Jason Stanley, Robert Paxton, Timothy Snyder, Heather Cox Richardson, Marci Shore & Robert Reich) and some retired generals who had worked with Trump (General Mark Milley and General John Kelly) believe that Trump fits the definition of a fascist or neofascist. It seems what Trump is currently doing with some corporations might be from the fascist playbook. JS

[groanings-0f-a-dying-empire]