Your government has chosen to do this to you

A win for the good guys from this conservative Supreme Court. Emily Singer of Daily Kos reported that in a 5-4 order the high court let stand a ruling from a lower court saying the administration must pay the nearly $2 billion for work done by USAID. Yeah, that means there were four justices who thought the government should not pay for work apparently already done. The only one identified was Alito. Alas, this order says nothing about whether DOGE is allowed to close USAID. Under this squatter in the Oval Office news can change quickly. For example, on Tuesday Oliver Willis of Kos reported that tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico were a go. On Wednesday Walter Einenkel of Kos reported those tariffs had been paused. Maybe tumbling stocks prompted the nasty guy to rethink things. Or maybe not – the tariffs are only paused for a month. Then there was that big speech on Tuesday. I didn’t listen. On Tuesday before the speech Morgan Stephens of Kos wrote about what some Democrats will be doing instead of attending. Several said they would sit with constituents as they provided real-time commentary. Others planned to attend so they could make a show of walking out. If you really need it (and why would you?) Einenkel gathered together the worst moments of the speech. Willis discussed mainstream media saying everything is normal, the nasty guy (not their words) was great. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted a tweet by Catherine Rampell:

This is exactly what Trump did last month too, on the same tariff issue. But to be clear we're actually worse off than the prior status quo -- tariffs are off again, but we've now alienated important allies.

A quote from Sarah Longwell of The Atlantic:

In his first term, a significant number of voters felt that Trump was a bad person who was good at managing the economy, which gave them a mixed view of him. But the past decade has functioned like exposure therapy for Trump: Many people have become desensitized to his character defects, so that what remains is the vague sense that “Trump = good economy.” These voters no longer look at his social-media posts, and they don’t read past headlines as they scroll. So his bad character—which hasn’t gone away—no longer registers. But voters in this group are noticing that the job they elected him to do—fix the economy—is not getting done.

I could say that fixing the economy can take a while. But I’m sure these voters see the nasty guy isn’t even trying. A tweet by Andy Craig:

One of the reasons to have laws and taxes set by a legislature is it provides relative stability and predictability, rather than the economically destructive regime uncertainty of switches being flipped on and off day to day based on one man's erratic whim. Nobody can plan anything like this.

And from Charlie Sykes of To The Contrary:

Let’s not pretend that the speech was presidential. Despite the trappings, Trump did not give a speech that any other president would have given to an anxious nation. What we got instead was the MAGA id, a fetid stew of culture war, name calling, cock-splaining, Fox News cliches, insults, threats, and… oh for chrissakes you’ve heard all this before… It was, quipped Anne Applebaum, “90-plus minutes of bad moments — a typical Trump medley of fabrications, provocations and insults.” And we are all dumber for it.

In a second roundup Chitown Kev quoted Mike Masonic of Techdirt

One of the craziest bits about covering the systematic dismantling of democracy is this: the people doing the dismantling frequently tell you exactly what they’re going to do. They’re almost proud of it. They just wrap it in language that makes it sound like the opposite. (Remember when Musk said he was buying Twitter to protect free speech? And then banned journalists and sued researchers for calling out his nonsense? Same playbook.) Good reporters can parse that. Bad reporters fail at it time and time again. But what’s happening now is even more extreme and more terrifying. Something that even experts in democratic collapse didn’t see coming. Normally when democracies fall apart, there’s also a playbook. A series of predictable steps involving the military, or the courts, or sometimes both. [...] The destruction is far more systematic and dangerous than many seem to realize. Even Steven Levitsky, the author of How Democracies Die — who has literally written the book on how democracies collapse — admits the speed and scope of America’s institutional collapse has exceeded his worst predictions. And his analysis points to something we’ve been specifically warning about: the unprecedented concentration of political, economic, and technological power in the hands of Elon Musk and his circle of loyal hatchet men as they dismantle democratic guardrails.

Way down in the comments exlrrp posted a meme of Musk holding a sign that says:

My businesses have received $40 billion in government subsidies, but I’m gutting the Veteran’s Suicide Hotline at the VA because we can’t afford it.

In a third roundup Dworkin included a tweet by Thomas Zimmer:

We need to trust our eyes. Nazi salutes, racist purges, an ambush on the Ukrainian president by a far-right regime. If what we see aligns with what we know and is also in line with an established track record, our default assumption should be that what is happening is actually what it looks like.

And a thread by Cliston Brown:

2026: Voters, upset by the Trump recession, vote blue in the midterms. 2028: Angry at the economic collapse, voters give Democrats the White House and Congress and swear they’ll never vote GOP again. 2030: Voters put Republicans back in charge in Congress. Wash, rinse, repeat. This, if you’re wondering, is why Republicans never course-correct. They don’t have to. They pull the same s--- every time, voters punish them for a midterm and maybe the next presidential election. Then, like an amnesiac, they hand the keys right back to them two years later.

Politico writing about and quoting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:

“Canadians are reasonable and we are polite, but we will not back down from a fight, not when our country and the well being of everyone in it is at stake.” Trudeau pledged relief to Canadian workers caught in the trade war’s crosshairs, and told the American people that his quarrel was not with them. “We don’t want this. We want to work with you as a friend and ally, and we don’t want to see you hurt either, but your government has chosen to do this to you,” he said.

In the comments Rambler797 included a tweet from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene with a response from Kareen Rifai. First, Greene:

Have you ever noticed how for decades now Hollywood always made Russia the bad guy in their movies? It’s like Americans have been programmed to believe Russia must be the enemy at all times.

And Rifai:

I think it’s because Russia has been the actual bad guy in real life for several centuries, Marge.

A meme by Sen. Chris Murphy posted by exlrrp:

Donald Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine and affection for Russia is part of the bigger story. Trump is trying to end the rule of law in America so that the billionaire ruling class can get away with stealing from us. And normalizing dictatorships like Russia helps him get there.

Singer reported:

President Donald Trump on Monday once again came to the aid of murderous Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, cutting off over $1 billion in military aid the United States was set to provide Ukraine to help the country beat back Russia's violent invasion. Trump halted the aid even though the money had been appropriated by Congress—adding to the trend of him ignoring Congress' power of the purse.

I also heard the nasty guy has stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine. Kos of Kos wrote that CEOs are getting a bad return on investment for their donations to the nasty guy. He has damaged relations with trading partners and appears he will send the American economy into recession. I’ve seen several articles similar to the next two. A week ago Singer reported that because of the angry voters showing up at constituent meetings of Republican members of Congress Republican leadership is now advising their caucus to not hold such meetings. Meaning: hide. A few days later Singer reported another Republican tactic is to spin (lie) about who those angry constituents are. Some of the claims: Democrats came early and filled the seats. They’re paid agitators. They’re people happy with bloated government. In a fourth roundup, Dworkin quoted a tweet from Tom Malinowski:

Whoops, I accidentally cancelled Ebola prevention! Doh, I fired the bird flu experts! Oops-a-daisy, I stopped the Lutheran Charities foster care and adoption services! My bad, I sacked the nuclear weapons workers! Now can I have access to your tax returns?

Down in the comments Fiona Webster posted a cartoon by Ann Telnaes, who had left the Washington Post because it refused to run one one of her cartoons. This cartoon is from 2019.

So if you see a country without editorial cartoonists or one where they are not creating tough, pointed satire against politicians and policies, be aware. A silenced cartoonist is an indicator of an unhealthy environment for freedom of expression. Editorial cartoonists are democracy’s canary in a coal mine.