The Daily Reid: The Purge

Whither the Enola Gay…

Happy Friday, prayer warriors. Hope your souls remain intact as the maga overthrow of our democracy continues.

In the latest episode of of Our Little Kakistocracy, we discover that in Magamerica, Black people and women don't exit (and never have). From the still Gulf of Mexico realist Associated Press:

References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content, according to a database obtained by The Associated Press.

The database, which was confirmed by U.S. officials and published by AP, includes more than 26,000 images that have been flagged for removal across every military branch. But the eventual total could be much higher.

One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that have not been made public, said the purge could delete as many as 100,000 images or posts in total, when considering social media pages and other websites that are also being culled for DEI content. The official said it’s not clear if the database has been finalized.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given the military until Wednesday to remove content that highlights diversity efforts in its ranks following President Donald Trump’s executive order ending those programs across the federal government.

The vast majority of the Pentagon purge targets women and minorities, including notable milestones made in the military. And it also removes a large number of posts that mention various commemorative months — such as those for Black and Hispanic people and women.

So to summarize: if a researcher, student or just plain citizen decides to try to understand the contributions of Black people, gay people or women to the United States military, they may be hard pressed to find visual or documentary evidence in federal government online records that such contributions exist. Just as has happened in other agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, where scientific research, including cancer research, is disappearing into the doge hole, the maga government is literally white male-washing the history of the U.S. military, Soviet Union style: making Black, female, gay and trans service members disappear from history. It’s almost as if the goal is to ensure that anyone seeking to understand American heroism and achievement will find only the faces and stories of white men.

Unfortunately, this classic Hogan’s Heroes clip will probably be illegal soon, as it likely violates Trump’s anti DEI executive order for having a Black guy in it… sad.

But here’s where the purge gets just plain stupid:

In some cases, photos seemed to be flagged for removal simply because their file included the word ”gay,” including service members with that last name and an image of the B-29 aircraft Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.

Several photos of an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project in California were marked for deletion, apparently because a local engineer in the photo had the last name Gay. And a photo of Army Corps biologists was on the list, seemingly because it mentioned they were recording data about fish — including their weight, size, hatchery and gender.

Seems our maga meritocracy is coming along just fine.

Rep. Al Green protests Donald Trump joint session address to congress. AP digital license.

Meanwhile, these ten Democrats voted to censure Texas Rep. (and people’s champ) Al Green for standing, shouting out for the protection of Medicaid and shaking his cane at Donald Trump during his long and loopy joint address to congress:

Reps. Ami Bera (Calif.), Ed Case (Hawaii), Jim Costa (Calif.), Laura Gillen (N.Y.), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), Jim Himes (Conn.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), Jared Moskowitz (Fla.) and Tom Suozzi (N.Y.).

The group is composed of centrists, members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and front-liners.

Green and Rep. Shomari Figures (D-Ala.) voted “present.”

The centrists’ explanations seem pretty silly, if I’m being honest…

Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he backed the censure resolution because he supported a similar, but diluted, effort in 2009 to disapprove of Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) when he yelled out “you lie!” during then-President Obama’s address to Congress.

“I voted to disapprove of Joe Wilson’s actions when he shouted at a different president, and I revere this institution, which I understand is a very unpopular position today,” Himes told The Hill. “But I’m sure I could construct a fairly elaborate argument that Trump is different than Barack Obama, but at the end of the day I think we need to stand up for the things that we believe regardless of which party benefits or loses.”

Suozzi — a centrist Democrat who flipped a red seat during a special election last year — lamented that instead of concentrating on the details in Trump’s speech, Americans are talking about Green’s protest.

“Instead of focusing on protecting Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, and instead of addressing rising costs, fixing immigration, and Ukraine, too many Americans are talking about a member of Congress being removed from the chamber,” Suozzi wrote on social platform X. “This is not helpful.”

Right … so unhelpful to speak up for Medicaid right to Trump’s face rather than … politely focusing on protecting … Medicaid. Also, the idea of normalizing Trump to the point where you’re likening him to Barack Obama seems rather insane for a Democrat to be doing at a time when Trump, Elon and the technofascist doge gang are bypassing congress and dismantling the federal government brick by brick, and when no one bothered to censure Margery and the feely lady for stunts like this:

Sadly, it doesn’t seem like Democratic Party writ large is built for this fight or prepared to meet the moment. You can’t combat fascism with appeasement and neoliberal politics as usual.

Someone apparently got that memo to Hakeem Jeffies, thankfully, as he is standing by his members who Republicans, led by Rep. Andy Ogles (who of course is from Tennessee, where censuring, expelling and silencing “uppity” Black and woman legislators is par for the course) are threatening to kick protesting Democrats off their committee assignments, not for following Green out of the chamber immediately as they should have IMHO, but for silently holding up signs (and eventually walking out).

Cue Opposition Leader Jeffies, in Brooklyn mode:

More of that energy, please and thanks. This change of vibe is a necessary correction after word leaked yesterday that Democratic leadership, presumably including Jeffries, rebuked the protesting Dems in a private session. The rebukes came at the behest of those frontline members (meaning members in swingy districts, whose go to move is to appease the other side). This Axelrod strategy of bitching at protests and yelping for “decorum” instead of focusing on the fascism seems profoundly insane to me, given that the opposition in this country, both Democratic voters, independents and non-voters, but particularly young voters despise what Trump, Elon and doge are doing to the country, and want to see the opposition fight, not shrink.

Even Trump and Elon know that what they are doing is unpopular — and if they didn’t, the town halls Republicans are now being advised by their leadership to avoid should have told them — which is why the latter is trying to suddenly distance himself from the doge cuts — a strategy Trump also deployed yesterday, to try to help Musk avoid the consequences of the many, many lawsuits under way, having oopsied and admitted that Musk does indeed head the fictional doge “agency.”

Wake up, Dems.

Oh and never ever do this again. Like … ever. Jesus…

In other news:

Trump is gambling America’s fiscal future on bitcoin … were magic beans unavailable???

And while doge is likely signing Elon up for more government contracts, yet another SpaceX flight goes up in flames, causing airports in Florida to shut down as the exploding rocket rains down debris. Can’t wait for SpaceX to be in control of our shiny new doged up privatized Air Traffic Control system!

Wired nails it again: doge IS the deep state now…

The “deep state” is a top-tier conservative bogeyman, right up there with DEI and George Soros. But it seems fair to ask: If a bunch of shadowy, unelected figures, many with shared business interests and connections, took over government functions at the highest levels and directly contravened the will of Congress, what might you call that? How about … DOGE?

After years of alarm over unelected bureaucrats pulling the strings, what better example can you find than this moment the US government is in? DOGE is the thing it claims to fear the most. Elon Musk is the problem he purportedly wants to solve.

Secretive? The so-called Department of Government Efficiency has never provided an org chart, did not have a publicly documented leader until last week, and refused to reveal the identities of its young staffers in early internal meetings. Check.

Unelected? Self-evidently so. Check.

A web of connected interests outside of government? DOGE is inarguably the Elon Musk extended universe. Current and former employees from X, SpaceX, the Boring Company, and Tesla currently control or are deeply embedded in countless government agencies, including the ones they’re ostensibly regulated by. (How many of them? Hard to say exactly, so score another point for “secretive.”) In fairness, some DOGE staffers appear to have no prior affiliation beyond an apparent zeal for dismantling the US government. But otherwise … Check.

And this is all in service of an agenda set not by Congress but by the world’s richest man. Look no further than DOGE’s deep freeze of the legally mandated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the unilateral canceling of around 10,000 humanitarian aid contracts apportioned by Congress, or the firing of thousands of probationary workers and others—without apparent cause—for evidence that it is executing an agenda outside of any legislative framework. Check, check, check.

And our new technofascist youth overlords are even censoring what government workers can read …

…while also mucking around in child support databases full of personal information.

Maybe email Elon, since his email addy was leaked? Just a thought!

Amy agonistes

She has lots of kids … is a handmaid in her conservative Christian church … and generally votes along with Trump’s and big corporate America’s desires, and yet … Magaworld has turned on Amy Coney Barrett. Apparently now she too, is a DEI hire (that their godhead, Donald Trump … hired.)

Appointed by Trump in 2020, Barrett is a staunch conservative who has joined major rulings in which the court has moved U.S. law to the right, including on abortion and affirmative action.

But that's not enough for some of Trump's most aggressive supporters, who think the former Notre Dame Law School professor has been a disappointment. MAGA supporters see what some call an independent streak as a sign she isn't sufficiently aligned with or loyal to Trump.

"She is a rattled law professor with her head up her a--," said Mike Davis, who once clerked at the Supreme Court for Justice Neil Gorsuch and described Barrett as "weak and timid."

Barrett defenders have dismissed the attacks, scoffing at the idea that the justice’s conservatism is defined by how her decisions align with Trump and insisting Barrett won’t be affected by outside criticism. Barrett, reached via the Supreme Court, did not respond to a request for comment.

The anger from Davis and other right-wing personalities with large online followings stems mostly from a couple of recent high-profile, 5-4 decisions in which Barrett has been the deciding vote against Trump's side.

Swift and vicious reviews poured in from right-wing, Trump-allied figures this week when Barrett and other justices rejected a Trump administration attempt to avoid paying U.S. Agency for International Development contractors as ordered to by a federal judge.

"DEI judge," influencer Jack Posobiec posted on X, suggesting that Barrett was a "diversity, equity and inclusion" hire, presumably because she is a woman.

Trump at the time promised to pick a woman to replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

"Amy Coney Barrett was a DEI appointee," another far-right influencer, Laura Loomer, wrote.

Her X post featured a photo of Barrett's family. Barrett and her husband have seven children, including two they adopted from Haiti, who are Black.

I’ll just let you imagine what the Xmagas had to say about her two adopted Black children…

And lastly:

Donald Trump has chickened out on tariffs … again … while his treasury secretary admits the economy is hitting the skids. The whole tariff back and forth is now being described using a new and unfortunate word: psychodrama.

Perfect.