chromodynamics

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/7/16/2333704/-Here-s-the-latest-random-country-where-DHS-is-illegally-shipping-immigrants?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

The Trump administration has been deporting immigrants to random countries, and they couldn’t be more proud.

On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin boasted on X that “a safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed,” with 5 immigrants aboard.

“This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” she wrote. “These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities but thanks to Trump and [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem], they are off of American soil.”

To back up the assertion, McLaughlin posted some photos of the alleged barbarians, along with their criminal convictions. Of course, their names are not provided, so as per usual, there’s no way to fact check the now-standard assertion that the people being deported are the very worst of the worst. 

Similarly, when the Trump administration deported immigrants to South Sudan, McLaughlin made an almost identical statement, saying that it was necessary because “no country on earth wanted to accept them because their crimes were so uniquely barbaric.”

Just as the Trump administration decided it was fine to deport people to South Sudan despite warning people not to travel there because it’s too dangerous, it’s also content to ignore government reports on the human rights crisis in Eswatini. 

The State Department’s 2023 report found “significant human rights issues” in Eswatini, including torture by the government, extrajudicial killings, lack of independence of the judiciary, trafficking, and child labor. Of course, neither immigrants nor their lawyers have any idea what exactly they will endure, but the report detailed overcrowding, nutrition deficiencies, lack of health services equipment, and gang violence in Eswatini’s prisons. 

A spokesperson for the Eswatini government confirmed that the 5 immigrants are imprisoned in “isolated units” and that both Eswatini and the U.S. government will work with the United Nations to “facilitate the transit” of the men to their countries of origin. 

It’s not entirely clear what that means, as it makes it sound like somehow the Trump administration deported people to Eswatini only to work jointly with that country to eventually send them home. Of course, that does not at all seem like the intent.

According to a report from The New York Times report last month, the Trump administration has explored these trafficking arrangements with dozens of countries, many beset by violence, poverty, and human rights abuses. And of the 58 countries the administration has approached, many are covered by or are being considered for President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban. 

Related | Rubio callously revokes visas for entire country over US mistake

So it’s too dangerous to allow people from those countries into the United States, but it’s totally safe and cool to send people to their prisons. And in case countries were on the fence, the State Department told diplomats that these countries could possibly evade the travel ban if they take deportees. 

We can expect much more of these blatant human rights violations, thanks to the Supreme Court blocking a lower court order requiring immigrants to have a reasonable chance to challenge their deportations. Now, people can be deported to any random country of Trump’s liking with as little as 6 hours’ notice. 

The conservatives on the Supreme Court knew full well that their decision would open the floodgates to these evil actions. They just don’t care.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/7/16/2333704/-Here-s-the-latest-random-country-where-DHS-is-illegally-shipping-immigrants?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/7/16/2333764/-Trump-makes-Coke-great-again-by-making-it-Mexican?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

President Donald Trump is celebrating an enormous win: allegedly getting Coca-Cola to switch its sweetener from high fructose corn syrup to real cane sugar in the United States. 

“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” he wrote on Truth Social Wednesday. “I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!”

The official White House X account even shared a bizarre Coke-inspired promotion of the very dumb announcement. 

Despite being a Diet Coke drinker himself—with his very own “Diet Coke button” in the Oval Office—Trump’s move of getting U.S. Coke to be made with cane sugar effectively makes it the same as Mexican Coke. 

And for a man who has touted mass deportations and a U.S.-Mexico border wall while claiming that people coming into the United States are murderers and rapists, his promotion of the Mexican drink is certainly an interesting move. 

Then again, this is the same man who celebrated Cinco de Mayo in 2016 by hunching over a taco bowl and declaring, “I love Hispanics.” 

So anything is possible.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/7/16/2333764/-Trump-makes-Coke-great-again-by-making-it-Mexican?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/7/16/2333712/-RFK-Jr-injects-more-chaos-into-the-nation-s-public-health-system?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired two of his top aides, rattling his department’s leadership team amid his broader attack on the nation’s public health apparatus.

The two ousted officials—chief of staff Heather Flick Melanson and deputy chief of staff for policy Hannah Anderson—were dismissed after only a few months on the job. CNN, which first reported the firings, said Kennedy had lost confidence in both, though it’s unclear what triggered the move.

In a statement to CNN, an HHS spokesperson confirmed the departures and said White House liaison Matt Buckham would serve as acting chief of staff effective immediately. 

“He brings valuable experience in personnel strategy and organizational management to this new role,” the spokesperson said. “Secretary Kennedy thanks the outgoing leadership for their service and looks forward to working closely with Mr. Buckham as the Department continues advancing its mission to Make America Healthy Again.”

No permanent replacements have been named.

HHS oversees the work of major federal health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health—institutions now squarely in the crosshairs of Kennedy’s largely anti-science agenda. The leadership churn hasn’t stopped with Kennedy’s own staff, either. According to The Washington Post, NIH’s chief operating officer, Eric Schnabel, was recently fired as well. 

The various shakeups come mere months into Kennedy’s tenure and leave him scrambling to fill key leadership roles amid mounting scrutiny of his radical plans to reshape health policy, gut vaccine programs, and overhaul the structure of the department itself.

Flick Melanson was one of Kennedy’s more seasoned Washington players, having previously served as acting general counsel and senior adviser to then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar during Trump’s first term. Anderson, a former GOP Hill staffer and policy adviser to Senate Republicans, had recently worked on health care at the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank.

Politico reported that Flick Melanson had been viewed by some as a steadying hand—someone who understood the functions of the department, given concerns about how aggressively Kennedy might pursue his anti-science agenda.

And yet, backed by President Donald Trump, Kennedy has charged ahead with his “Make America Healthy Again” crusade. Not only did he fire all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and replace them with loyalists, but he also published a widely criticized, error-filled report on childhood illnesses. And he’s moved to axe 20,000 HHS staffers and slash dozens of agency divisions—all while facing a wave of legal challenges.

His war on synthetic food dyes faces industry changes. And under his watch, HHS has taken a series of anti-vaccine actions that experts say have eroded public confidence in immunizations.

More chaos at HHS under Kennedy. No surprise there.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/7/16/2333712/-RFK-Jr-injects-more-chaos-into-the-nation-s-public-health-system?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/7/16/2333715/--It-s-a-hoax-Trump-continues-to-flail-over-Epstein-files-sh-tshow?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

The country, and that includes some MAGA faithfuls, aren’t letting go of the White House’s attempt to brush off the unreleased Jeffrey Epstein files and President Donald Trump is seemingly starting to squirm under the spotlight. 

“It’s a hoax, I know it’s a hoax,” he said to reporters from the Oval Office on Wednesday. And if you ask Trump, he’ll tell you that it’s time to move on because Epstein is “dead and gone.” 

Where many were left disappointed when it was announced that Epstein, a convicted sex offender charged with trafficking minors, did not have an infamous black book containing a high-profile list, Trump seems to be ready to move on. And not only is the president pushing the idea that the client list is fake, but he’s now saying that it’s all purported by the pesky Democrats. 

“It was started by Democrats, it’s been run by the Democrats for four years,” he added. “Some stupid Republicans, some foolish Republicans have fallen into the net and so they try to do the Democrat’s work.”

While Democrats currently may be the ones trying to get the files released, it wasn’t too long ago that the GOP and Trump himself ran on the platform of revealing the truth and exposing the evils behind Epstein’s work. 

Even the White House held a spoof Epstein file release meeting with right-leaning influencers—which, not unlike the current day, gave the public virtually no new information. 

MAGA and the conspiracy theorists following the Epstein story have long awaited Trump’s promised release of the files to finally expose who was also involved in the traumatic sexual dealings of the disgraced millionaire. However, when the time came for Attorney General Pam Bondi to do her job, she released a lackluster report saying that, all along, there was actually nothing there but smoke and mirrors. 

Even Epstein’s rumored suicide was reduced to a hoax as well, with the department releasing footage from the prison from the night of his death. It didn’t take long for eagle-eyed viewers to not only notice almost three missing minutes, or more, of footage, but for journalists to note the doctored metadata from the file sent by the White House. 

Known conspiracist and far-right mouthpiece Alex Jones was one to call Trump and the White House’s dismissal “beyond fu@ked up.”  

Even election denying, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is fuming over the lack of findings as he leads MAGA’s furor. 

“The fact that the U.S. government, the one that I voted for, refused to take my question seriously and instead said, ‘Case closed, shut up, conspiracy theorist,’ was too much for me,” he said during a Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on Friday.  

But as Trump’s more faithful turn away from him, he is making his stance clear. 

“They’re stupid people,” he told reporters. “All it is is the Republicans, certain Republicans, got duped by the Democrats and they’re following a Democrat playbook.”

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/7/16/2333715/--It-s-a-hoax-Trump-continues-to-flail-over-Epstein-files-sh-tshow?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/7/16/2333676/-Sure-let-the-DOGE-bros-access-another-government-database?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=

Though the so-called Department of Government Efficiency doesn’t grab as many headlines as it did in its Elon-Musk-led heyday, its workers cling like wood ticks on various agencies and continue to have access to a staggering amount of data. 

Take the Department of Agriculture. 

On Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on behalf of Wisconsin farmers, expressing the legitimate concern that letting DOGE rummage around in USDA databases of private data seems not great. Baldwin also pointed out that DOGE also has access to the National Payment System, giving it control over billions of dollars in loans and payments to farmers. 

DOGE intrusion “not only breaches [farmers’] privacy, but also raises serious concerns about the future of USDA payments, our nation’s food security, and the consolidation of farmland and processing operations,” Baldwin wrote.

This project seems to be led by a DOGE bro named Jordan Wick. Who is Jordan Wick? Surely someone with deep experience in agriculture, the intricacies of farm finances, and/or government payment systems? Oh, heavens no. He’s a 28-year-old former software engineer for Waymo, the self-driving car company. Yes, the very same Waymo that just recalled over 1,200 vehicles because they were prone to crashing into barriers, which is really not what you want in a taxi.  

Nonetheless, Wick appears to have unprecedented access to USDA data. A source provided NPR with access logs revealing that Wick can see all the private, personal, and financial information at USDA, and can change or cancel payments and loans. He has access that no one else at USDA has.

Even those tasked with the professional responsibility of explaining why Wick needs this level of access can come up with only a series of buzzwords. The “USDA Efficiency Team”—which is apparently what they’re calling the burrowed-in DOGE kids now—is reviewing “many loans, guarantees, and payments” for supposed fraud and national security concerns, per a USDA spokesperson. 

Why? Because “the abuse of USDA systems and data centers is a serious issue,” said a USDA spokesperson, and the DOGE team has been “immensely supportive due to their unmatched skillset in protecting our data and ensuring those that use their positions to access systems to defraud American taxpayers.”

It’s unclear if the spokesperson is accusing farmers or USDA employees of defrauding American taxpayers, but let’s talk about that “unmatched skillset” part. What skillset, exactly? Wick’s past experience programming self-driving cars? Or perhaps the spokesperson meant Wick is a genius at keeping data safe. Well, except for the part where he may have been a part of DOGE’s illegal exfiltration of National Labor Relations Board data. 

Letting Wick determine what contracts and payments are valid will probably go as well as when the government let a different DOGE bro review Department of Veterans’ Affairs contracts. The bro wrote an AI program—or rather, he co-wrote it with another AI. Said new AI program then was turned loose in the VA systems, where it promptly and incorrectly determined that over 1,000 contracts were worth $34 million apiece, when some of them were worth more like $35,000. 

These tech kiddies don’t have an “unmatched skillset.” They don’t even have a normal baseline skillset for the jobs they have barged into. The Trump administration's project of firing all federal workers with specialized knowledge was bad enough, but it’s just adding insult to injury that we now have to pretend that random software guys understand the inner workings of government far better.

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2025/7/16/2333676/-Sure-let-the-DOGE-bros-access-another-government-database?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=