More evidence that the #Libs’ strategy is not about policies but about pictures, sountbites & vibes. We should be used to this by now.
They do this because it works. Same as circus Donald: it’s not about economics or governance, it’s about #distraction as cover for accelerating #plunder in times of crisis. 
On the plus side, more Americans are now #learning the fundamentals about how not to govern — especially how not to craft & impose economic #policies.
#civics #cautionaryLessons #silverLinings #policyFailure #impoverishment #plunder #dismantlement #disruption
"Maybe they won't remember our #plundering of their life savings," the kakistocrats are likely thinking.
Current administration priorities, to be nuanced, might not be intended *specifically* to kill a huge number of us and our families, but that is absolutely the consequence of MAGA. #dismantlement #disruption #plunder #privatization #democide #publichealth #health #healthNews #kakistocracy #plutocracy #publicResourcesArePublicGoods #publicGoods #theftOfPublicGoods #theftOfPublicGoodsIsTheirPoint
A message posted Monday to the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) website exhibits the Trump administration’s ongoing disregard for basic #cybersecurity protections. Recently-fired CISA staff are told to get in touch so they can be rehired and then immediately placed on leave -- and to send their SSN or DOB in a password-protected attachment with the password needed in order to view it INCLUDED IN THE EMAIL BODY.
#infosec #dismantlement #DOGE #plunder #kakistocracy
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/03/doge-to-fired-cisa-staff-email-us-your-personal-data/
#Coup #MuskRat #Plunder #Corruption #Fascism #ChinaWins
Elon Musk has to fill out a public financial disclosure, legal experts say. Where is it?
Administering #welfare payments would be so much more cost effective if the rules were simple. For example, providing a base level of support to anyone earning less than a given amount & adding to it as needed using income data provided through employers’ payg systems. By default, err on the side of paying vulnerable people too much rather than too little.
Why does this not happen? Bc #Labor governments are not willing to face a media onslaught about undeserving bludgers. #DemonisingThePoor is a political strategy bc it works.
Far better to have people who are working hard & struggling to stay afloat blame others who are worse off then themselves, than blame the #oligarchs who continue to accelerate #plunder to maximise their #profit before the whole planetary system goes belly up.
And we, as voters, fall for it. Surely we can do better. #AusPol
Services Australia chasing billions in unpaid debt – including some which may have been unlawfully calculated https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/20/services-australia-debts-income-apportionment?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
HOME UNSETTLED
Settlers are detached from the land and mostly mistake "Little boxes made of ticky tacky" as 'home.' But now
"Climate change is forcing us to rethink our sense of ‘home’ – and what it means to lose it."
Val Plumwood ... "argues that, under capitalism, the idea of personal belonging to a particular place or dwelling is often framed as being more important than many other vital attachments to place, such as connection to land. She uses the term “shadow places” to describe the ecosystems we exclude and exploit – including our forests and waterways – even though they are fundamental to our existence. These places provide essential labour, nourishment and the conditions we need to survive and flourish. For Plumwood, an expanded sense of “home” would encompass the broader ecological context we exist within."
" Indigenous Australian law scholar Irene Watson explains colonisers were already alienated from a sense of connection to land when they came to “Australia”. This disconnection led them to plunder the land, treating it as a commodity rather than a living, complex ecosystem that nurtures and is nurtured by First Nations peoples."
>>
https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-forcing-us-to-rethink-our-sense-of-home-and-what-it-means-to-lose-it-247234
Malvina Reynolds - Little boxes on the hillside, Full Version with Lyrics >>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoXtddNPAM
#Country #IndigenousPeoples #care #displacement #land #privatisation #commodification #LandSpeculation #landlordism #rentierisation #SettlerSociety #suburbia #housing #sprawl #homeplace #ClimateBreakdown #values #australia #NativeForests #plunder #ecosystems #biodiversity #ExtinctionCrisis #FossilFuels #extractivism #loss #home
#plunder : to take the goods of by force, or without right
- French: piller
- German: plündern
- Portuguese: saquear
- Spanish: saquea
------------
See previous words @ https://wordofthehour.org/r/past
Here is what will happen on day one of Trump’s presidency, according to Project 2025
With Republicans now holding bare majorities in both chambers of Congress, the gloves come off.
As Trump utters the last phrase of the oath of office
– “so help me God”
– the first phase of what #Project2025’s authors call
“the playbook” begins.
Thousands of federal, non-partisan civil servants
–environmental and food safety regulators;
authorities in disaster relief coordination;
attorneys overseeing anti-discrimination policies in housing, education and employment;
medical and scientific researchers
– receive #immediate #layoff notices. 
The new personnel that do arrive come from conservative thinktanks, or are 
As drafted by the Maga nativist-in-chief #Stephen #Miller,
a broad range of law enforcement, from the national guard to state and local police are deputized
for a new #deportation #army.
Sweeps of neighborhoods and businesses take aim at blue states and cities,
but general terror is their intended goal.
#Detention #centers are established on military bases and federal facilities with quick access to airfields to execute #mass #removals.
Nearly a million lawfully present immigrants are stripped of their legal protections, subjecting them to immediate deportation. 
In the following months other parts of the agenda unfold.
An end to federal funding for public television and radio that forces many local stations to shutter.
The termination of Head Start programs leaves hundreds of thousands of parents and guardians without preschool or childcare.
The elimination of the Department of Education and programs like Title I halt funding and many protections for students with disabilities, English learners and students from low-income households.
Pornography is criminalized.
Ditto for abortion rights, emergency contraception and many reproductive health programs.
Adiós also to most public sector unions, labor organizing rights and anti-poverty programs.
“Build the wall” was always more of a campaign performance and fundraising stunt than a policy blueprint.
But after attending several rightwing conferences and rallies for research in the last year, I have little reason to doubt their intentions this time around.
I heard speaker after speaker at a Turning Point USA conference promise #violence and #retribution against political opponents,
the dismantling of nearly all public goods,
and plans to bring a shrill #Christian #nationalism to the center of governance and civic life.
And perhaps most frighteningly, I’ve observed growing numbers of
young people,
people of color and others outside of the traditional conservative base
join the #Maga faithful and embrace the #cynicism and #demonization that is the heartbeat of the contemporary right.
Conservatives often celebrate the unity of their governing philosophy, rooted in small government, entrepreneurship, faith and family.
But there is nothing coherent or rational about these policies.
#Plunder is the prevailing principle.
And these ideas are 
Stuff the British stole series 2
Episode 3: World's Biggest Diamond
Bling Thing For the King
South Africa's largest gem-quality diamond is in the British Plundering Royal family crown.
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/stuff-the-british-stole
Covering Up Colonial Crimes
https://theconversation.com/operation-legacy-how-britain-covered-up-its-colonial-crimes-225330
Operation Legacy
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/apr/18/britain-destroyed-records-colonial-crimes
Bonfire
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/29/revealed-bonfire-papers-empire
#CruelBritannia #History
#BritishEmpire #Colonialism #OperationLegacy #StolenWealth aka #CommonWealth #Plunder #Theft
#Ireland #Kenya #Cyprus #Guyana #Malaya #Uganda #Caribbean
Nobel Laureate economist #Angus #Deaton has delivered a ferocious rebuke to his own profession, saying economists have failed to understand that
Deaton lobs a series of truth bombs at his own profession, the result, he says, of “changing my mind, a discomfiting process for someone who has been a practising economist for more than half a century”.
These include:
— frequently though not inevitably
— our recommendations become little more than a #license for #plunder”.
But Deaton’s main point is a recognition of how #power distorts #policy:
“Our emphasis on the virtues of free, competitive markets and exogenous technical change can distract us from the importance of power in setting prices and wages, in choosing the direction of technical change, and in influencing politics to change the rules of the game.”
https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/03/12/nobel-laureate-economist-angus-deaton-capitalism-power/
