Bill to rename Greenland to ‘Red, White and Blueland’ introduced by Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter
Seriously?
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Dear Buddy Carter
Year: 2025
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We’re the news, now
Yesterday, four longtime and faithful employees of the federal government were fired SOLELY because they were doing the job they were delegated to do, paying out funds specifically allocated by Congress.
And the funds that were distributed—funds allocated to New York City to help pay for the thousands of migrants bused to the city by Texas governor Abbott—were illegally, removed from the city’s accounts.
Yet today, the media is full of the “win” that the Trump administration had, because a lawsuit challenging the ‘fork in the road’ payout was tossed—not because there wasn’t a problem with what Trump/Musk are doing, but because the harm hasn’t yet happened. Courts are reactive, not anticipatory. The plaintiffs (union) lacked standing because they couldn’t show direct harm to the union, itself. Yet.
In addition, Judge O’Toole also noted he lacked jurisdiction over the case. To support his decision, he referenced a previous court decision written by current SCOTUS Kustice Jackson, that constrains the interaction between union and the federal government, including designating the National Labor Relations Board as the body to hear disputes between union and government.
It is only after the NLRB holds hearings, investigates, and makes a decision can the union then, and only then, challenge the NLRB decision in the DC district court. Because this lawsuit fell outside this process, Judge O’Toole lacked jurisdiction over the case.
This isn’t a win based on whether what Musk is doing is legal or not. This is one avenue to stop Musk closed while others are still open. In addition, real harm is now occurring with the firings of the four employees for doing their Congressionally mandated job. Real harm is occurring with the firings at the CFPB and USAID. And real harm will also happen once other federal employees with federals protections are fired—not for cause, but because Trump/Musk are trying to kill entire federal departments using attrition.
But none of what I just mentioned easily falls into a single social media post does it? There is no easily defined impact to the citizen sitting at home glancing through the headlines, or reading the chyrons scrolling across the bottom of their TV.
Clickbait.
There is a level of wonkiness required for understanding how the federal government works, as well as how it fits within our system of checks and balances. It’s not easy explaining how today’s fired employee means that the price of corn will go up and you’ll pay more in the store next year, because you have to walk through much of the guts of federal activity to get from point A to point Z. And this isn’t a sexy walk.
On the one hand, Trump and Musk have no problem with lying about their actions, or lying about the results because they know the only thing that matters is what appears in headlines or fits within an X-witter twip. Whatever you may think of these two men, they are masters at manipulating the press.
On the other hand, those of us fighting Trump/Musk to salvage as much of our government as we can, must take time to explain why the actions Trump/Musk are taking are both illegal and harmful—using concepts and referencing laws that can be both obscure and complex, all to a nation of folks who seemingly have a strongly adverse reaction to civics.
Not clickbait.
So, while the larger news organizations follow whatever crumbs dropped by Trump/Musk, smaller news organizations and people on the street, like you and me, are going to have to pick up the slack. We’re the news now.
No matter how big or small our audiences, we have to write about what’s happening in our current administration. Wonky? Sure. Complex? OK. Not Pulitzer Prise winning? Well, I wouldn’t count out Wired’s coverage of what’s happening to boots on the ground in the federal government, but yeah, no gold star for the rest of us.
And whether you write or not, it’s up to all of us to ensure that the spotlight hits on what needs to be covered—not on the sparkly, eye-catching clickbait that comes out at both the White House and X-witter.
It’s simple. Make noise. Make a lot of noise. Continue making noise.
And make sure folks hear it.
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Dear Buddy Carter
Messages to my House Representative
Disregarding law, disregarding Congressional oversight, and disregarding just plain common sense, Trump is allowing Elon Musk and his kids to decimate our working government. Last night it was the CFPB.
This is the same organization that has helped consumers recover billions from financial services that have harmed us. This is also the same organization that would oversee Musk’s own entry into payment systems, which is likely why it was targeted.
Why does Musk have such power? Because the United States has been bought for a mere $280 million dollars by Musk, while Trump sits in the White House, trying to remember why he’s there. And Musk wants his money’s worth.
You, in Congress, could stop all this nonsense. You could, as a group, show a little bit of courage, as well as responsibility to the people who elected you to office. No, instead, you put your party over the people. You put Trump and Musk over the people.
All that matters now, to you, is what Trump/Musk want, they get. No matter how harmful to the people, no matter the lasting damage.
Instead of celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country, we get to watch it be destroyed.
More lawsuits will come from these actions, and the judges—appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents—recognize what’s happening and are doing their best to enforce the rule of law…the same rule of law you just don’t give a damn about.
What did you say in your Sunday newsletter?
Together with Elon Musk, a business mastermind, President Trump is delivering on his promise to the American people that he will remove unnecessary government spending and save taxpayers money.
Save us money? The billions of dollars recovered for US taxpayers, that kind of money? The money to ensure our water is clean, our air breathable, that people aren’t harmed by defective products, to help farmers and small businesses, to ensure corporations don’t harm people, to help in disasters, to help kids go to school, to provide healthcare and financial stability for the nation’s retired community.
That money?
No, that money won’t be saved. The only money ‘saved’ will be tax cuts for you and your other rich friends.
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A bell that cannot be unrung
Among the many lawsuits against the Trump/Musk actions is one filed by the AFL/CIO and other labor organizations and unions against the Department of Labor for DOGE access to what should be confidential and private data.
In response, the government attempted to blow off the concerns by stating that DOGE folk are now employed by the DOL, but this is cold comfort when it’s obvious these people have an original allegiance to DOGE/Musk, and only a tenuous at best connection to the requirements of federal employment.
In the reply to the government response, the lawyers for the AFL/CIO highlight the real problem with the continue DOGE access at federal agencies.
Moreover, Defendants’ reassurance that all is well because DOGE1
personnel who have been granted broad access to the Department of Labor’s systems have been detailed to that agency is both cold comfort and legally insufficient. As a consequence of DOGE’s establishment as a free-floating component within the Executive Office of the President, it lacks the requisite authority to detail its personnel to federal agencies and, for the same reason, agencies may not receive those detailees.
Accordingly, the violations causing Plaintiffs irreparable harm, including under the Privacy Act, will persist, absent intervention from the Court.
These faux employees that Musk bullied into each department with Trump’s willing compliance have not undergone the regular reviews, with its checks and balances, for federal employment. They have also not demonstrated a respect for law, particularly the stringent laws that guard the privacy and confidentiality of government systems.
And what harm is it to give DOGE this access?
Many of Plaintiffs’ members will be chilled from reporting legal violations by their employers and prevented from exercising their rights to seek the Department’s protections if they know that records memorializing their complaints may no longer be secure on Department servers (and, indeed, may be made freely available to individuals concurrently serving as executives of companies subject to Department enforcement).
Executives, such as Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, which had over 600 workplace injuries unconvered by a Reuters’ investigation, as reported to OSHA, an organization contained within the Department of Labor.
The response also notes another item of importance: that DOGE has no authority to employ people within the federal government. And federal departments have no authority to accept these people as employees.
Defendants argue that, because DOGE personnel at the Department have been “detailed” from DOGE to the Department, those individuals are functioning as employees of the Department and, accordingly, may lawfully perform Department functions and access Department systems. … But DOGE is not authorized to detail its personnel to the Department, or any federal agency, and the Department was not authorized to accept their services
So the employment of people such as Thomas Shedd, who I have written about previously, is inherently illegal, as is allowing them unlimited access to our data and our data systems.
As was noted in the response, once data has been exposed the damage is done and can’t be undone, “a bell that cannot be unrung.”
We shouldn’t have to sue to stop these people. The President’s first duty is to have a care for the American people. And Congress should be stepping up to prevent such atrocities, but evidently, it’s more concerned about $15 million dollars in condoms for the Taliban per Buddy Carter, my own Republican representative to the House.
Now that Georgia Republicans no longer have abortion as their ‘moral cause’ they’re attacking trans people. The same people who they’ve ignored for decades but—all of a sudden!—have become the seeming greatest need and threat to Georgians!
Not the price of eggs any more, is it?
According to the Georgia Recorder, the GOP-controlled Senate just passed a bill banning trans girls and women from playing in any women’s sporting team. But more than that, they’re going after trans kids healthcare:
Savannah Republican Sen. Ben Watson has filed a bill that would ban the use of puberty blockers or hormone therapy on minors.
So, something that Republicans didn’t care about for decades now is an immediate problem, so much so that they insert themselves not only between patients and doctors but between parents of the kids and the doctors…solely to have some ‘moral cause’.
Without that ‘moral cause’, they don’t have something to drive hysteria—some made-up threat to distract and to deflect from the very real harms being inflicted on you by the state, by Congressional Republicans, and by Trump and Musk.
Georgia GOP-controlled Senate passes ban on trans girls from school sports teams