#getting shit done

[biria8]

And then he watched him convince a group of people, including local vampire expert Estelle Laurent, that it was a Bansky. A SECOND TIME

Literally every behavior of HJ was so reasonable like WHO EVEN NEEDS SHIRTS??? It's LaVonte Worthy😩

[socialbutterfly19]

Still a lot to get done

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Trump’s Tiktok two-step is a lesson for future presidents

I'm about to leave for a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me on Feb 14 in BOSTON for FREE at BOSKONE , and on Feb 15 for a virtual event with YANIS VAROUFAKIS. More tour dates here.

Remember the Tiktok ban? I know, it was ten million years ago (in Musk years, anyway), so it may have slipped your mind, but let me remind you: Congress passed a law saying Tiktok was banned. Trump said he wouldn't enforce the law. The end.

No, really. I mean, sure, there's a bunch of bullshit about whether Trump will pick up the ban again after Tiktok's grace period ends, depending on whether they sell themselves to his creepy wax museum pal Larry Ellison. Maybe he will. Maybe Tiktok'll buy so many trumpcoins that he forgets about. Whatevs.

The important thing here is: Congress passed a (stupid) law and Trump said, "I've decided not to enforce that law" and then that was it:

https://prospect.org/justice/2025-01-31-trump-administration-test-supreme-court-tiktok/

Sure, there's some big rule of law/checks and balances/separation of powers problems here, and there are plenty of laws I'm mad about Trump not enforcing (like the law that says corporations can't bribe foreign governments, say). But this one? Sure, it's fine. The problem with Tiktok is that it invades our privacy in creepy ways, not that it is owned by a Chinese company. I don't want Zuck or Musk or (especially) Trump invading my privacy.

Congress hasn't passed a consumer privacy law since 1988, when they banned video store clerks from telling newspapers about your VHS viewing habits. That's why Tiktok is a problem. Pass that law, and if any president decides not to enforce it, I'll be mad as hell and I'll be right there in the streets next to you, in head-to-toe CV dazzle, with all my distraction rectangles in Faraday pouches, shlepping a placard bearing the Social Security Numbers of every Cabinet member in giant writing.

But the point is, the president defied Congress, which is a thing that Very Serious Grownups told us radicals Joe Biden mustn't do under any circumstances, lest the resulting constitutional crisis tear the country apart, or, at the very least, alienate so many voters that Donald Trump would become the next president.

We let Very Serious Grownups call the shots, and Donald Trump is president. Maybe we should stop listening to Very Serious Grownups?

Look, presidents ignore Congress's laws all the time. The Comstock Act (which effectively bans transporting pornography and contraception) is almost entirely ignored, and has been for generations (though Trump's creepy Heritage Foundation puppetmasters have promised to bring it back). The Robinson-Patman Act hasn't been enforced since the Reagan years, which is a damned shame, because Robinson-Patman would put Walmart, Amazon, Dollartree and Dollar General out of business (Biden started to enforce Robinson-Patman again during his last year in office):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/14/the-price-is-wright/#enforcement-priorities

I'm not trying to say that enforcing (or ignoring) the Comstock Act is the same as ignoring (or enforcing) the Robinson-Patman Act. The Comstock Act is bad, and the Robinson-Patman Act is good. I am capable of making that moral judgment, and I would like to have a president who does the same.

The fear about Trump ignoring the laws and procedures is justified, but not because of the damage he's doing to laws and procedures – it's because of the damage he's doing to the people of this country and the world.

Take the records that Trump has destroyed – vital data about public health and other subjects (thankfully, most of this was saved from destruction by the Internet Archive). The most important fact about that act of destruction is the harm that will result from it, not the failure to follow procedure.

There are plenty of times in which I am OK with people ignoring the law and destroying records. In 1943, Dutch guerrillas bombed the civil registry building in Amsterdam, to keep the records of where Jews and other disfavored minorities lived out of the hands of occupying Nazis. The firefighters on the scene kept their hoses running until any paper that hadn't been burned was reduced to slurry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_Amsterdam_civil_registry_office_bombing

I'm fine with destroying records that wicked, vicious authoritarians would use to harm my neighbors.

Remember when Biden tried to cancel student debt? He could have started off by destroying the records of who owed what, so when the courts overturned his administrative action, it would have been hard or impossible to collect on the debts that were still held on federal books, or whose records the feds had (no, I'm not suggesting that Nazi death camp deportations are equivalent to unjust student debt collections, but if you agree that sometimes it's OK to illegally destroy records, then all we're left with is haggling over the specifics).

Sure, this would have been a constitutional crisis, but, as Ryan Grim says, "It is apparently unconstitutional for the president to instruct the Department of Education to restructure and forgive some student loan debt but it is ok for DOGE chair Elon Musk to just get rid of the whole department. Anywho."

https://twitter.com/ryangrim/status/1888973174819164663?t=Cd8fl4FWjY5zsOlQWZGv4g

Canceling debt isn't forgiving debt. Student borrowers have been preyed upon by colleges and lenders. People who borrowed $79.000 and paid back $190,000 can somehow still owe $236,000 do not need to be forgiven, because (unlike Trump) they haven't sinned. Rather, their debts need to be canceled (like Trump):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/04/kawaski-trawick/#strike-debt

Trump's shown us what a president should do when the courts get in their way: fight back. Worst case scenario is the court prevails, and a bunch of Fedsoc judges (up to and including the Supreme Court) set binding precedent that reduces the power of the president, which would be, you know, great. Best case scenario: Americans are freed from these crippling, fraudulent debts and, you know, vote for Democrats and against Trump, instead of staying home because they don't feel like the Democrats have their back.

Defying unjust court decisions isn't Trumpian – it's Rooseveltian. Roosevelt (following in Lincoln's footsteps) spent years discrediting and weakening the Supreme Court's power, using his bully pulpit to rob them of authority and build the political will to pack the court, which he was on the brink of doing when the Supreme Court surrendered:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/20/judicial-equilibria/#pack-the-court

Democrats developed an online organizing playbook, and it worked, so Republicans took it, improved on it, and won elections. Republicans have developed a devastatingly effective constitutional hardball playbook. Democrats should steal that playbook and run with it:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/18/states-rights/#cold-civil-war

I rang doorbells, made phone calls, and shelled out money for Democrats in the last cycle because I wanted them to do stuff that helps Americans, not because I wanted them to follow procedures. The fact that Trump is building offshore concentration camps and has deported our neighbors to them (to name just one of many cheap dystopian fanfics that Trump is LARPing) should be the kind of five-alarm fire that sent South Korean lawmakers scaling the barricades last month.

This is the kind of crisis where I'd expect Democrats on the Hill, at a minimum, to be refusing to give Trump and the GOP anything. Call quorum on every vote. Debate every amendment. Raise every objection. Vote against everyting. Do not confirm a single appointee. And any elected Dem that refuses to play along? Kick 'em out of the caucus. Oh, we can't afford to do that because we can't afford to lose a single lawmaker? How did that work out with Kirsten Synema and Joe Manchin? Shoulda kicked them out after the first vote, shoulda raised money for any real Dem willing to primary them. Should have shunned them in the hallways and refused to invite them to the Christmas parties. We should do that to Fetterman. Party unity got us nothing under Biden. Party unity got us Trump. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome isn't actually the formal definition of insanity, but it is nevertheless very, very stupid.

For the past four years, Very Serious Grownups in the Democratic machine kept telling us that we couldn't expect the president to do anything, or Congress to do anything, or the Senate to do anything, because the Republicans would stop them. Or the courts would stop them. Why fight when you know you're gonna lose? Because sometimes, you'll win. And even if you lose, you'll go down fighting.

Better yet, if you lose in just the right way, you'll force Trump's judges to take away powers from the President and the administrative agencies – take away the powers Trump is now wielding like a sledgehammer.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/11/you-and-what-army/#student-debt

[tgirl-tamag0tchi]

It’s a cyborg coyote boy day.

I suppose I’ll write the research write up we need to complete, and I’ll see about getting us allergy meds from the health center if we can leave class early.

[cletusthurstonbeauregard]

oh no :(

[thealdersgateoffice]

Catherine Standish in every episode of Slow Horses

1.05 Fiasco 🐌🐎

[nymsley]

Today’s todo list

you all have been given permission to heckle me for not following the todo list

I’ll keep yall updated on the progress

[beenjen]

I have adulted over here. For a couple hours a day, for several consecutive days.

It feels pretty strong, not going to lie. I’m feeling a pretty spiffy pep in my step. Pride comes before a smashing of one’s face whilst face planting, so of course, I’ll be on the lookout for any erstwhile sidewalk cracks, rest assured 👍

By adulting, and feeling accomplished, what I mean is that I’ve successfully picked the kids up from school as I’ve been released to drive, folded all the linen, in our linen closet, (for us a pioneer age armoire) and boxed up any non-perishables we have that we just aren’t going to use/need (my privilege is that we [in my home], can have a preferred spaghetti sauce brand, or cheese sauce mix, or cereal, and we have a fucking surplus, of these left over, several dollar cost items, everyday things, In our home. We have a deodorant we don’t like the scent of; or a soap, while people are hungry and don’t have clean water to drink and bathe with), for scouts collection and our local mission.

It’s not even a grand gesture list lol it’s laundry, sorting groceries and childcare. Recovery is humbling in that way.

1) started driving post op, so 2 weeks out, I’m cleared, I picked up kids (we are ignoring that the kids were out, today, Tuesday, because it’s a holiday and only went one day this week. Also, tomorrow, Wednesday, I have training scheduled for a new skill set, and won’t be picking up the kids, my first week to offload C 👍). Hey though, Monday, it was me, and also Thursday and Friday it will be. More than the last several weeks. Positive mark on this category.

2) the pantry. Let me just, we don’t have a ‘pantry.’ We have a lazy Susan corner cabinet with canned goods on one side of the kitchen, and across the kitchen, next to the stove, I have a ‘dry goods’ cabinet - think pasta, cake mixes, corn meal, cooking oils. There’s a spice rack pull out. I also have a ‘pull out’ other drawer with beans/onions/potatoes stored. So, when I ‘sorted that’ I pulled out jars of pasta sauces, side noodle packs everyone laments me picking up, packaged soaps, shampoos/conditioners/lotions that are still sealed, etc.

It’s been a couple weeks process really, of our bathroom, the kids bathroom - I am sending extra boxed meds (I’ll buy a couple on sales; etc), packaged tooth flossers, toothpaste, the like - the kitchen spots, getting extra and sorting it into where it may best be utilized.

What a time to be alive, and have paid time off, where I can slowly carry a jar of cheese sauce my son hates, a tube of toothpaste my daughter swears was created because it hates her, the extra ibuprofen liquid sealed packs, hotel soaps, a box of soap we don’t need, and placing it all in a box, which C will then load for me, and I’ll take to the mission. They come to the car and take the loaded boxes/packages, send it to where it’s most needed. I can slowly pace these activities as I recover, get in my steps, hydrate, stay active, win/win.

Turns out, one of my yogi teacher training attendees works for one of our local missions, and I was able to get ahold of him and source what is really needed, so, some food for the drive, check. Some hygiene and famine products I’ll not be using? Check. It’s a small thing, it feels like something. A kindness. A well wish. A hope, sent to someone who is down on their luck. May it find who it needs too 😘

Plus it’s a cleanse of our home and space. Getting what we no longer need, or is no longer serving us, and moving it where it might. Amen.

3) in the midst of linen and laundry - which I have an 8 week hiatus from - I went through all the sheets, storage, folding, etc. so it all fits where it was outgrowing its space, we refined the mass of linens we feel is needed for us, and have that to pass on, it’s all good, forward, momentum, passing on. Doing this with the kids has been a good thing. It’s hopefully enriching them.

Noted J had a pile of clothes wadded in the middle Of the floor and we figured that lots he’s outgrown so we sorted his clothes for the handmedown box, did same for sister. We have cousins older/younger/both Sexes and we get/give clothes/toys/books and it’s brilliant.

There are 5 boxes of clothes/shoes/goods to go - delivery imminent. 1 box of jars - it’s a canning thing, my family does it and we swap cans different season for whomever is putting a certain food up at a harvest /time - ready for my uncle, box and bags of non perishables for my pal, and it’s all flowing to where it will serve. We in kind, received the quote for the house work/insurance/financing and it’s going in our favor so it’s a symbiotic vibe. The project will most likely start after I’m back at work, also, frankly, I prefer that. I didn’t want my peaceful convalescence to be jackhammers and loud bangs.

4) I have, in this time off, been able to participate in a school wide event for both kids and supported the cultural project (I posted pics that were held up and pending post) for J and a field trip chaperone for L’s where I ‘walk’ with 4 kids through a museum.

It sounds small but it’s such a boon to be able to support the kids in this way. I’m on the PTO for the school and also room parent for both classes. Having had this time off, I’ve coordinated for holiday parties, it’s all getting planned, and I was able to do/participate in an activity for each kid and a school one. So much it feels #momguilt when I can’t be everywhere at once. This time/season though, we are able to spread a little all over that is abundance we typically don’t have. All via email and one coffee date.

5) I’m learning that it really can all be done when you take your time. Space it out/share the load. Communicate it all around - wow, what a time; email/text/flier/website.

Much positive - had posted about a friends wedding and it’s under review, so, I’ll not ref it, just, good stuff to Everyone yeah?

Xx