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William Lindsey :toad:

"It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them."

~ Heather Cox Richardson


/1

heathercoxrichardson.substack.

Letters from an American · March 20, 2025By Heather Cox Richardson
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William Lindsey :toad:

"Today, members of the 'Department of Government Efficiency' team showed up at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which helps to fund libraries and museums across the country and whose elimination Trump called for in an executive order last week. They sent employees home, swore in a new acting director in the lobby, and proceeded to cancel contracts and grants."


/2

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William Lindsey :toad:

"The attack of Trump and his MAGA supporters on the courts and the rule of law has illustrated how quickly the United States is sliding from democracy to authoritarianism. “'Honest to god, I’ve never seen anything like it,' Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky told Amanda Taub of the New York Times."


/3

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William Lindsey :toad:

"Along with his colleague Daniel Ziblatt, Levitsky wrote How Democracies Die. 'We look at these comparative cases in the 21st century, like Hungary and Poland and Turkey. And in a lot of respects, this is worse,' Levitsky said. 'These first two months have been much more aggressively authoritarian than almost any other comparable case I know of democratic backsliding.'”


/5

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William Lindsey :toad:

"The toxic brew of irresponsible pseudo-news outlets and the successors of the Tea Party movement radicalized the electorate to a fever pitch. The result was a collective desire to smash the existing order to smithereens and allow Donald Trump to replace it with chaos."

~ Mark Mansour


/6

mmansour.substack.com/p/the-de

America’s Fractured Politics · The Demise of the Old Republican PartyBy Mark Mansour
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William Lindsey :toad:

"There is a myth harbored by some that Trump turned the Republican Party into a cynical, unprincipled institution that preyed on the poor, on minorities and on working people. In fact, Trump was elected precisely because those characteristics preceded his rise. He was the perfect vessel for a large sector of the Republican constituency."


/7

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William Lindsey :toad:

"Most people in this country, most of them are unaware of what’s happening right now. They do not know the direness of the threat that we’re under. They just don’t, people don’t understand what’s happening. Plenty of people do, for sure. And plenty of people are also for it; you know—they love Trump, they love MAGA, they think Elon Musk is a genius, they’re just fascists, whatever."

~ Greg Olear


/8

gregolear.substack.com/p/rambl

PREVAIL by Greg Olear · Ramble On: "This Is All Totally Normal," Legacy Media Wants You to Know (video)By Greg Olear
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William Lindsey :toad:

"There was a time when people collectively agreed on what constituted 'the news.' Walter Cronkite would sign off with “And that’s the way it is,” and most Americans nodded along. The New York Times was the 'paper of record,' and if something appeared in its pages, it existed as fact in our shared reality.

That world is dead. And we should stop pretending otherwise."

~ Parker Molloy


/10

damemagazine.com/2025/03/19/is

Dame Magazine - · Is Legacy Media Dead? - Dame MagazineThere was a time when people collectively agreed on what constituted "the news." Walter Cronkite would sign off with "And that's the way it is," and most Americans nodded along. The New York Times was the "paper of record," and if something appeared in its pages, it existed as fact in our shared reality. That
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William Lindsey :toad:

"When the New York Times was treating Trump’s Tesla stunt on the White House lawn like a car show instead of corruption, independent outlets were the ones pointing out that having a president use the people’s house to promote his billionaire donor’s private company is, in fact, a serious ethical breach."


/11

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William Lindsey :toad:

"What independent journalism offers that legacy media increasingly doesn’t is transparency about where it’s coming from. There’s no pretense of objectivity that masks institutional biases and billionaire influence."


/12

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William Lindsey :toad:

"The Administration is taking a wrecking ball to services and institutions Americans rely on for essentials, as well as the fundamentals of American civic life. For example, this week:

• An Executive Order directed at the evisceration of the Department of Education"

~ Joshua Kolb


/13

contrarian.substack.com/p/the-

The Contrarian · The Democracy IndexBy Joshua Kolb
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William Lindsey :toad:

"• The Trump Administration targeted private universities — canceling $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University; pausing $175 million for the University of Pennsylvania; and Johns Hopkins cut research after losing $800 million in USAID grants

• Trump began dismantling Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia"


/14

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William Lindsey :toad:

"• The Administration is implementing policies at the Social Security Administration — no longer verifying identities over the phone, but instead requiring online verification or in-person identity checks for new and existing recipients — that, contrary to their claims, will make this system less efficient, and actually serve the purpose of dismantling the program"


/15

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William Lindsey :toad:

As Dan Rather reports, with Trump's blessing, Elon Musk continues to go after Social Security, and,

"Trump and Musk must be betting that Americans care more about possible waste, fraud, and abuse at the Social Security Administration (SSA) than they do about getting their monthly benefit checks.

That’s a bad bet."


/16

steady.substack.com/p/elon-mus

Steady · Elon Musk Made No PromisesBy Dan Rather
Public
valOrie_p'O

@wdlindsy
Just now received this (2nd) email from Dudek/SocSec Admn:

William Lindsey :toad:

@valOrie Thanks for sharing this. I'm glad Dudek is standing up.

Mar 21, 2025, 11:39 PM·Public·Web
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