77-Year-Old Woman Shows GOP How to Tell Trump No

Like other women Trump tries to bully into submission, Maine's governor is taking him to court

Feb. 22 BONUS TFN: Maine tells Trump to take a long walk off a short, picturesque but somewhat chilly pier … Supreme Court also tells Trump no … DOGE misses billions in wasted funds (stolen by capitalism) … Kennedy drops flu-vaccine campaign amid unusually deadly flu season …

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The overwhelmingly male congressional Republicans finally have a role model for how to say no to the man they keep claiming — in off-the-record conversations — they disagree with.

She’s Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME). And yesterday, she joined the unfathomably vast legions of women who have told Pres. Donald Trump: No.

In public.
To his face.
Repeatedly.
In his house.
Despite his threats.
Despite the craven cowardly silence of every other governor in the room.
And on television.

It happened during an event for governors at the White House yesterday. Trump was discussing his executive order banning transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports.

Then he asked whether Maine was in the house. And whether Maine would comply.

Mills responded that her state would comply with federal and state law, the latter of which conflicts with Trump’s executive order. (Fun fact: Powers not given to the president by the Constitution are reserved to the states!)

Trump responded as if his reading list consists only of Supreme Court rulings and not the Constitution. He said, “We are the federal law,” outing himself as a user of the royal we and the secret identity of Mega-City One’s Judge Dredd.

Not surprisingly, Trump was attempting to bully a younger woman. (Mills is 77.)

So, of course, Trump threatened her, the way he usually waits to do until the second date, when Melania’s out with friends. But this time, Trump also threatened the children of Maine. And the Constitution.

And Mills didn’t flinch.

Trump: “You better do it, because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't.”

Mills: “See you in court.”

It didn’t stop there. Mills released this statement afterward:

"If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides. The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the President's threats."

Here at the politically correct Fucking News, the editorial we and the royal we prefer to avoid using gender-based metaphors for integrity and fortitude. That said, it appears we now know where all the balls went.

Of course, without a shred of integrity, the Education Department Trump almost instantly announced it had discovered cause to investigate Maine without even having a single victim come forward!

The Education Department said that the allegations — by it — included letting “male [sic]” athletes compete in school sports and denying female athletes “female-only intimate facilities.”

But the joke’s on Trump, because civil-rights laws are so weak, advocates have trouble winning civil rights for actual victims. Here’s Politico:

“…the bar for being found guilty of a civil rights violation is high and cutting off federal education funding is a lever of power Washington has not used in decades.”

Plus, Maine’s lawyers must be pooping themselves laughing at the fact that Trump just handed them evidence that the prosecution is malicious and political rather than on the merits.

And, unlike the Education Department, Maine is not laying off its lawyers and support staff. Plus, it’s not even clear how the Education Department will do its investigation considering it probably just laid off its investigators and/or is supposed to stop existing.

And Mills wasn’t even the only woman to tell Trump no yesterday…

Supreme Court to Trump: Also No

For the first time since Pres. Donald Trump rebecame president, the Supreme Court that he one-thirdedly appointed has weighed in on something regarding his administration.

And the answer to his request was “No.”

The Supreme Court yesterday denied Trump’s request to keep Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger from resuming his job, which Trump tried to fire him from because the job involves shielding people from presidential corruption.

Dellinger runs the Office of Special Counsel — not to be confused with the Justice Department’s special prosecutors — protecting federal-employee whistleblowers who are currently training all their whistles on Trump and his Boy Commandbros.

Trump, not known for his self-discipline, wanted Dellinger gone yesterday. But Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Dellinger can stay until at least Feb. 26, Wednesday, and may issue a more long-term ruling by then.

Only two of the Supreme Court justices — Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — said they would’ve let Trump fire Dellinger.

Gorsuch said Jackon’s order was the work of Satan because it forced Trump “to recognize and work with someone whom the President sought to remove from office.”

Welcome to the real world, privilege kids, where all the rest of us have to learn to work and get along with people we wouldn’t choose, either.

Oh, Look, We Found a MedicareFraud and It’s UnitedHealth

Here’s one that the mostly-white-boy geniuses at the Department [sic] of Government [sic] Efficiency [sic] somehow missed because it was buried in The Wall Street Journal…

…Across a five-part series.

…Despite the fact that it identified billions of dollars in taxpayer funds that we shouldn’t have been funding.

…Despite the fact that one of the ringleaders was taken out by a vigilante who really didn’t like waste, fraud, and abuse.

…Despite the fact that DOGE could have learned about it through methods such as asking the Justice Department: Yo bro, what’s the goss on people ripping off the U.S. government?

Because, as we learned yesterday, the Justice Department is in fact investigating billions of dollars in wasteful spending. Only this spending isn’t because of “big government” but wasteful because big government (aka “us”) has been victimized by big capitalism. Really big capitalism. UnitedHealth capitalism.

When people victims in the noxious Medicare Advantage [sic] program are diagnosed with new sickness shit, the private insurer gets additional payments from the government/us.

And surprise, surprise, it turns out that when you own both physician groups and the insurance company, the number of new-shit diagnoses fuckin’ skyrockets!

For instance, the number of UnitedHealth plan participants who came down with HIV rivaled the number that got HIV after Pres. Donald Trump cut off U.S. medical funding for Africa.

And — well, this is odd! — only 17% of UnitedHealth’s HIV patients were being treated for HIV, because you know how cavalier HIV patients are about maybe getting AIDS.

In fact, belonging to a UnitedHealth Medicare Advantage [sic] plan is so bad for your health that UnitedHealth claimed government payments for plan participants who had come down with diseases that are scientifically impossible.

For instance, patients were diagnosed with diabetic cataracts … after their cataracts had been removed. Some were diagnosed with hepatitis C after being cured of hepatitis C.

That’s right, UnitedHealth invented the negative miracle. The immaculate cataract. And now Big Government wants to punish them for this medical/magical breakthrough? For all we know, UnitedHealth was about to create hepatitis F-Q!

Other potential diseases and conditions believed to have shown up on UnitedHealth’s ledgers include Face Hemorrhoids, Brain Cooties, and Third Elbow.

UnitedHealth’s stock fell seven percent Friday. That wiped out $30 billion in value for investors who’ve made a shit-ton more than that thanks to UnitedHealth’s decades of innovations.

Boy, what kind of evil does it take to target a healthcare company that’s just helping people?!?

Health Department Scores Major Victory for The Other Side

The flu has rarely been stronger than it is right now, so the Department of Health and Human Services just forfeited.

This week, the department’s Centers for Disease Control-ishness and Prevenit’sinGod’shandstion (CDC) killed its successful flu-vaccine campaign, according to a report by NPR. The news means that hundreds of thousands of people could be more susceptible to the flu and NPR could be much more susceptible to funding cuts. (h/t)

The flu had already killed 19,000 people before the vaccine campaign died. More than 50,000 people were hospitalized with the flu in the week ending Feb. 8, before Secretary Robert are you effing kidding me Kennedy, Jr., took office.

The public-awareness campaign came after flu vaccination rates plummeted thanks to the first time that Pres. Fucknose McDwindlestick was president and super-charged anti-intellectualism because his base didn’t like his Covid vaccines.

Ominous Development in Ominous North Carolina Bench Battle

Judge Jefferson Griffin is challenging some 65,000 votes cast in November’s race for a seat on the state Supreme Court. He’s hoping to oust incumbent Justice Allison Riggs. Even though he lost.

After two recounts, Riggs still has a lead of 734 votes. So Griffin is asking judges who aren’t him or Griffin to throw out 65,000 votes, apparently hoping that’ll shift the result. Here’s a picture of Griffin, as portrayed by Andy Samberg:

Here’s where it gets complicateder. If this gets to the state Supreme Court, Riggs will recuse herself, because she belongs to the party that still recuses itselves.

That leaves six judges — and if they split 3-3, that will mean whichever lower court ruling they were weighing will stand. Not enough votes to kill it means it stands.

So, the outcome could be determined by nothing more than which court gets to send its ruling to the Supremes. Make sense?

Well, Riggs and the state elections board just asked the state Supreme Court to take up the most recent ruling, which favored her. Meaning, she’d win even if the Supreme Court splits on it.

But Griffin asked the state Supreme Court to let it go instead to the appeals court — which has 12 Republicans and three Democrats. A ruling for Griffin there would mean that he’d win even if the Supreme Court splits on it.

Then, on Thursday, the Supreme Court approved Griffin’s request and sent the case to an appeals court.

Griffin is arguing to have votes thrown out for lack of voter-ID pictures from overseas voters and alleged registration errors — not for any actual alleged fraudulent voting!

This is how this shit works: Measures implemented in the name of fighting non-existent threats become the tool for denying you your rights, because you can’t prove they’re yours.

1975 France Calling

This is the kind of stupid nitpicky shit that your protective TFN usually tries to shield Newsfuckers from, but is currently failing to. The Verge’s Sarah Jeong valiantly attempted to convey the profound weirdness of Elon Musk’s appearance this week at CPAC, interviewed by Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt. I’m hoping to do a deeper dive into those befouled waters, but one thing leapt out at me about Schmitt’s “journalism,” “history,” and “brain.”

Musk complained that people have been imprisoned in Europe for memes — which, duh, memes can be used to commit crimes like threats or violence incitement just like words can, billionaire-brain. But Schmitt responded that imprisoning people for memes represents “a collapsing society,” saying, “France was nicer 50 years ago than this. [Musk: Yeah] I don’t think you can question it.”

Well, Schmitty, apparently you’re in the presence of a miracle, because your question-everything TFN is questioning the fuck out of it. Just because the past is automatically better to reactionaries doesn’t mean it actually was.

In fact — wait, hold on, Schmitty, I’m getting a call from 1975 France.

“What’s that, 1975 France? You say terrorists blowing up a newspaper office and Carlos the Jackal attacking Israeli passenger jets with rocket-propelled grenades in two separate attacks — leading to a police gunfight and a 17-hour hostage deal — is not nice and you can’t wait for 2025? You want me to tell Schmitty what? Sacre bleu, you know we can’t use that kind of language in The Fucking News!”

Two Quickies

• After 50 years in prison, Native American activist Leonard Peltier walked free from federal prison this week. Which means, even though Pres. Joe Biden commuted his sentence for killing two FBI agents (which Peltier denies), it was Pres. Donald Trump who let him go free. It’s unclear why Biden bothered letting Peltier out, since we all knew Trump was going to pardon hundreds of convicts who attacked federal law enforcement

• Didja know the U.S. military is in Mexico? Like, not on “vacation”? There’s nothing to worry about, though; they have the Mexican government’s permission and they’re only there as trainers and military advisors, a status that only led to the Vietnam War once. The New Republic’s Ben Makuch has a good deep dive on the perils at play here, a dive so deep that he buries the news that he got the Pentagon to confirm the presence of U.S. Special Operations Command soldiers in Mexico.

Taking Action

Former prosecutor Susan Crawford is running for an open seat on Wisconin’s state Supreme Court. Whichever party wins will control the court and then get to redraw the maps to favor Republicans or protect the maps to favor Democrats democracy.

Elon Musk’s dark-money group Building [sic] America’s [sic] Future [sic] has spent a reported $1.5 million against Crawford.

You can find out more about Crawford here.

Upcoming Actions (Some unconfirmed, for pencil-planning only!)

• Feb. 28: “Hit Them In their Profits” — a day not to buy things.

• March 7-14: Amazon — A week of buying nothing from Amazon. We can do this!

• March 14: National Strike — If you can, and if you need an excuse to skip work, this is the day. (Not sure whether it was intentional to schedule it on the funding/government shutdown deadline, but seems that might risk muddying the impact?)

Resources

• Chop Wood, Carry Water

• Sister District Project (h/t)

• Postcards to Voters (h/t)

• How to pursue change at home with your local officials (h/t)

TCB

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Go get ‘em, kids! Oh, wait, it’s Saturday. Don’t go get ‘em, kids!

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TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with John Stewart and The Young Turks.