Zero interest in refugees starving and dying

Detroit Film Theater is doing an end-of-year silent film festival with live music. Last evening I saw a couple Charlie Chaplin films. Today I skipped Mary Pickford’s Sparrows and I plan to see the end of the festival tomorrow afternoon. Last evening started with three short films with a Christmas theme. There wasn’t much to the first and second. The third was interesting because it was made in Russia. St. Nicholas, as a Christmas tree ornament, comes to life, goes out into the snow, and conjures to wake bugs and a frog to come to his Christmas party. The first of the Chaplin films was The Rink from 1916 where Chaplin as the Tramp is both a waiter at a restaurant and a skater at the adjacent roller skating ring. He’s not good at all at being a waiter, but on wheels he is quite good and can do a great comedic tumble (one wonders about the skill of the others he tumbled). The simple plot is to keep Mr. Stout away from the young Edna. I saw in the credits and confirmed in Wikipedia that Mrs. Stout was played by a man, Henry Bergman. Put a guy in the right costume and have no way to record the voice and only the credits will give him away. This film’s Wikipedia page includes the entire 25 minutes. The second Chaplin film was A Night in the Show from 1915. This time Chaplin didn’t play the Tramp. The movie is about all the things that go wrong in the audience during a vaudeville show – Chaplin is on the main floor as the gentleman Mr. Pest and also in the balcony with the common people as Mr. Rowdy. Again, Wikipedia includes the whole 24 minute film. I actually got tired of these two because the humor seems rather juvenile. That prompted me to look up Chaplin and his filmography. For 1914 it lists three dozen movies, about three a month. Chaplin’s famous movies are from the 1920s, when he successfully mixed comedy and pathos. Maybe for a Sunday movie sometime soon I should peruse this filmography page and watch some of the more famous movies. These will have the score that Chaplin composed for them. Nick Licata of the Daily Kos community discussed the nasty guy’s most serious illness. There has been lots of speculation about his health, mostly because he is obviously deteriorating and his released medical reports are not credible. However, the most serious is not physical, it’s mental. There are nine symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder. The only previous president accused of being a narcissist was Nixon and he exhibited only two: a willingness to exploit others and fantasies about deserving success. The nasty guy exhibits those two plus belief in superiority (“the most dangerous trait that the leader of a democratic republic could exhibit”), grandiose sense of self-importance as in exaggerating achievements, frequent envy as in belittling the achievements of others, entitlement as in anger when people don’t appease him, lack of empathy, arrogance, and a need for admiration as in cabinet meetings where each member gushes with adulation. Yup, that’s all nine. Licata is not the first to see the nasty guy suffers from NPS, though he post is the first time I’ve seen a list of symptoms. When a person has NPS they refuse treatment because they don’t believe they are ill. Friends must intervene (and I’ve heard elsewhere even that won’t lead to healing because the patient won’t cooperate with treatment). The only ones who can intervene are Republicans. And they aren’t. About all they are doing now is trying to distance themselves from him. What they should be doing is removing him from office. Republicans may like the nasty guy undermining the country’s democratic institutions. But he is also undermining the integrity and popularity of their party. That will affect future elections. Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester with photography by Brian Otieno, in an article for ProPublica posted on Kos, wrote about the effect of killing off USAID in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwest Kenya. The refugees are mostly people who fled the wars in Sudan. At the start of 2025 there were about 720,000 refugees in the camp and it is the third largest camp in the world. In 2024 USAID provided $112 million to feed the people there and had done so for many years. The 2025 assistance was canceled in January. The rest of the article is mostly about two things. The first is the cut in the food for the camp’s residents. An adult should get 2,100 calories a day according to humanitarians. But with the cut in aid about a fifth of the residents will receive 840 calories (about 40% of what is needed), another third will get 400 calories (less than 20% of what is need), and the rest, almost half, will get nothing.

[Dragica] Pajevic ended her presentation by relaying a truism that she said a government official in Liberia had once told her: The only difference between life and death during a famine is WFP [World Food Program] and the U.S. government, its largest donor. “The one who’s not hungry cannot understand the beastly pain of hunger,” Pajevic said, “and what a person is willing to do just to tame that beastly pain.”

That presentation involves the second thing. The presentation was made at a luxury hotel in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital in July. In attendance were American officials on a world tour “to conduct exit interviews with USAID’s top experts, who were being forced out of the agency amid the administration’s stated commitment to austerity.” They had a hefty expense account to travel first class. When the US embassy in Nairobi heard the tour would stop there they set up the face-to-face meeting with Pajevic. And here’s the second thing: WFP officials had been getting a runaround but at the meeting the US officials showed complete indifference to refugees starving and dying. “There was just zero interest in the subject matter,” said a USAID official.

This was something different: an American-made hunger crisis. So far this year, community health workers have referred almost 12,000 malnourished children for immediate medical attention. “What has come with Trump, I’ve never experienced anything like it,” said one aid worker who has been in Kakuma for decades. “It’s huge and brutal and traumatizing.”

Some of the refugees are trying to leave the camp. But they don’t have a good way to do that and don’t have a place to go. An American-made hunger crisis. In today’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a pair of tweets. The first was by Stephen Miller, the guy pushing the deportation of anyone not white.

Watched the Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra Family Christmas with my kids. Imagine watching that and thinking America needed infinity migrants from the third world.

Catherine Rampell responded:

Some people will commit human rights violations rather than go to therapy.

Others pointed out Martin and Sinatra were the sons of immigrants from Italy, a despised country at the time. Paul Waldman of The Cross Section discussed comments by the vice nasty at the annual Turning Point USA conference.

“I refuse to apologize for being white” has long been a mantra of segregationists and Klansmen, an outgrowth of the fear that any sort of equality for racial minorities — legal, economic, educational — by definition meant putting whites in a subservient position, forced to hang their heads and apologize. Equality is perceived to be a reversal of the racial hierarchy: If we’re not in a state of privilege, free to abuse our lessers, then it can only mean we are being abused. So who exactly has been demanding that JD Vance apologize for being white? Has that ever happened to him, a single time? Of course not. But this is a key element of Trumpism, of which Vance would like to be the heir: You have been humiliated, it says, but I will let you stand tall again. You, white people — and especially white men — have been hounded and oppressed, but those days are finally over.

Note the bit about equality and the reversal of the racial hierarchy. Those high in the hierarchy can’t conceive of a world without a hierarchy. So talk of improving the lives of one race implies the loss of status, being made subservient, of another race and they are convinced those they abused will then abuse them. Also this strange idea: Not being allowed to abuse is itself abuse. In the comments is a cartoon by Randy Bish. It says, “It’s a sad day when your government can afford to zip tie children... but can’t afford to feed them.” In response to renewed talk of acquiring Greenland, this time appointing some government official to go there Anne Applebaum tweeted:

They have never explained what they need Greenland FOR. There is no possible use of the territory that has not already been negotiated with the Danes. This can only be an attempt to align the US with Russia, China and other predator states

In response to a tweet by the nasty guy discussing the possibility of marble armrests for the Kennedy Center, which he sullied with his name, Turnbull tweeted:

Listen up, peasants, there is no affordability crisis and if you can’t afford healthcare, blame it on the Democrats. Now, congratulate me on the marble armrests I’m installing, at great expense to the taxpayers, in the cultural arts center that I’ve named after myself.

Brian Allen tweeted:

Trump is literally selling pardons. According to the WSJ, there’s an “official track” and a faster one where you corner him at Mar-a-Lago, say the magic words “unjust persecution,” and walk away clean. Lobbyists quote prices up to $6M. No process. No ethics. Just cash and proximity. This is raw corruption in plain sight.

They can’t contain the fury of the people

A break in my schedule allows me to post today. My next post will likely be in another week. I finished the book The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune. This is the story of Nick. He’s 16, gay, has ADHD, lost his mother two years before, and has a cop for a father. He has a great group of friends – Seth, who has been his bestie since first grade, and lesbian couple Gibby and Jazz. He also has a crush on Shadow Star, an Extraordinary, also known as a superhero, battling his archnemesis Pyro Storm. The crush is strong enough that Nick wants to become an extraordinary, to better attract Shadow Star’s attention and to protect his father from bad guys. But his ADHD gets in the way of sense and logic. As the story moves to the ultimate battle (of course, there is one) and goes through a few twists, there are discussions about good and evil and whether the life of an extraordinary is something to be desired. There is also, of course, Nick generally being 16 with ADHD and gaining a bit of maturity. In addition to the fun there are moments that are quite touching. Klune is a very good writer. I enjoyed the book. Now the question is whether I enjoyed it enough to read the two sequels and the answer isn’t obvious. Lisa Needham of Daily Kos reported that in response to the Missouri legislature gerrymandering their US House districts to squeeze out another Republican seat, the group People Not Politicians submitted over 300,000 signatures demanding a voter referendum on the new map. Those 300K signatures are almost three times the number required to force a vote. The new map cannot take effect while the referendum is pending, blocking it from being used in the 2026 election. So, of course, Republicans are looking for ways to nullify the signatures, or at least enough of them to get below the threshold. About 90K signatures were collected before the referendum paperwork was certified and will be the first to be challenged. Republicans are challenging the constitutionality of the referendum in court. They’ll also try to have the Secretary of State make that declaration without the court. They claim signatures were gathered by illegal aliens (no, not the starship kind, the border-crossing kind).

The GOP will do its damnedest to prevent Missouri voters from voting. But the campaigns will keep pushing, the people of Missouri will keep pushing, and while GOP elected officials might eventually kill this particular referendum, they can’t contain the fury people have over this.

A couple days ago Needham reported that while the nasty guy is killing people in boats in the Caribbean because he claims they are transporting drugs to the US he gave a pardon to Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández who was convicted of taking bribes to move 400 tons of cocaine.

When confronted with this contradiction—lethal strikes on defenseless boaters versus mercy for well-heeled drug traffickers—White House press secretary Karolilne Leavitt responded with a typical word salad.

I’ll leave it there. Kos of Kos noted a few things about the pardon for Hernández: “That 400 tons amounted to 4.5 billion individual doses of cocaine.” In addition to attacking boats in the Caribbean the nasty guy has also used drug trafficking to justify tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China. When asked about the pardon the nasty guy said, “Well I don’t know him.” Then blamed Obama and Biden, as in Biden was president when Hernández was convicted so that must have been a setup.

It takes a certain kind of callous incompetence to hand out a pardon and then claim, “I don’t know him” and “I know very little about him.” Someone told him Hernández was “set up” by Obama and Biden? How about maybe you have your staff investigate the matter, talk to prosecutors, read the f’n Wikipedia entry—anything!

Kos included a photo of Honduran farmers protesting the pardon of Hernández. Last week Needham reported the nasty guy had gotten an MRI as part of a medical exam, but couldn’t remember what part of his body was scanned.

This, of course, raises not one, but two, health concerns: Which health condition is the president hiding that required a magnetic resonance imaging test, and which health condition is the president unwittingly revealing when he can’t seem to recall why he even had an MRI?

That hasn’t stopped him from bragging about how smart he is and from insulting female reporters who ask about the MRI. Needham listed other things the nasty guy has done recently that question his mental fitness. One of them is the frequency he falls asleep in meetings. Now that the process of releasing the Epstein files is supposedly underway, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has started a new campaign, “Release the MRI results.” Kos community member xaxnar posted a video of Robert Reich discussing the nasty guy’s health. He is also annoyed at the way the media is not covering it, especially compared to the way the media covered and gloated over Biden’s “every verbal slip, stumble, or momentary lapse.” Wrote xaxnar, emphasizing a point Reich made:

Granted he’s a monster, but he doesn’t have the energy, the focus, and the knowledge to perpetrate the cruelties in the detail now being carried out in his name. The press is willing to credit people around Trump — Miller, Vought, Vance et. al. — for instituting these policies, but they are reluctant to ask if Trump is just rubber stamping what gets put in front of him.

Reich’s six minute video documents some of those mental issues. That includes dementia increasing a person’s paranoia. He adds:

Stephen Miller, Russel Vought, JD Vance, and RFK Jr. seem to be feeding into Trump’s paranoid delusions to increase their own power and advance their own fanatical agendas. ... [People with dementia] can be manipulated and taken advantage of by unscrupulous relatives or caretakers. Is this what’s happening in the White House?

Reich encourages us to spread his video and its content because mainstream media isn’t. I’m doing my part. At the bottom of the post xaxnar includes a link to a more complete discussion of mental health issues created by Dan Rather. I’ll repeat the link here. It’s worth a read. Alex Samuels of Kos reported one of the nasty guy pardons went to Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar. At the end of the article Samuels discussed Cuellar’s crime. Now with pardon in hand Cuellar decided to run for reelection – as the Democrat he has always been. And the nasty guy accused him of a lack of loyalty. He assumed the gift of a pardon would prompt Cuellar to switch parties.

In short, Trump all but acknowledged that he viewed the pardon as a political transaction. And when the transaction failed, he reacted as if he’d been swindled. ... A pardon cannot force gratitude or obedience. And once issued, it cannot be revoked when the beneficiary declines to play along. Trump expected a Republican seat in exchange for his presidential largesse. Instead, he got a Democrat who thanked him politely and then went right back to being who he has always been. And Trump, as ever, took it personally.

Needham reported last Friday that the nasty guy has fired McCrery Architects, the ones to design the huge ballroom for which the White House East Wing was demolished. The new firm is Shalom Baranes. Good luck guys. Shalom Baranes might be better suited than the previous firm, but the nasty guy is very hands-on with is building projects and difficult to please. This leads to speculation (including by me) that the East Wing was torn down way before construction on its replacement was ready to begin. Also possible is that the ballroom never gets built even after a slew of architects, or if it is built it will be such a national disgrace a part of the 2029 inauguration ceremony will be its implosion.

Building loyalty from militias and domestic terrorists

Kos of Daily Kos reviewed the nasty guy’s inaugural address and added comments that show how wrong he is or just laughing at the absurdity of his words. The basic question: is the nasty guy evil or stupid? As an example, the nasty guy said:

As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and, seemingly, in complete disrepair.

Kos responded:

Imagine the gall of saying that when the front row of your inauguration audience—in front of your Cabinet picks—is the modern American oligarchy.

After discussing and laughing over the nasty guys claims to be “unifier” and a “peacemaker” yet talking about invading Greenland and Panama Kos concluded

So … is his vision of “unity” and “peace” actually more like “world conquest”? Sure seems that way. Because nothing says “angry, violent, and totally unpredictable” like Trump himself and his MAGA movement. Indeed, if there’s anything we are sure to see over the next four years it’s more anger, violence, and unpredictability, courtesy of Trump. That is already his legacy, and everything he is pushing for—deportations, inflationary tariffs, anti-trans hate, and imperialism—will only further cement that legacy.

Oliver Willis of Kos showed several examples of how the mainstream media is congratulating the nasty guy because they say he showed how great of a president he will be. Emily Singer of Kos discussed how many Republicans are playing dumb after the nasty guy issued over 1500 pardons for the Capitol attackers. Strange that so many say they didn’t know about it or have no opinion on it. Alex Samuels of Kos discussed several of those nasty guy executive orders and how much the public disagrees with them. The topics include mass deportations, ending birthright citizenship, pardoning the Capitol rioters, imposing tariffs, withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, and mandating federal employees must return to the office and not work remotely. Singer reported that the ACLU, Democratic state attorneys general, and various other groups are quickly filing lawsuits to block the executive orders the nasty guy has been signing. The big one is, of course, banning birthright citizenship, which is in the Constitution. There are lawsuits against DOGE and the order that the nasty guy says will allow him to more easily fire federal employees. Morgan Stephens of Kos has more on the people filing those lawsuits. At an inaugural event Musk stood at a podium, talked for a while, and then gave a Nazi salute. Then, in case one didn’t catch it the first time, he saluted again. Stephens reported on that, on the people condemning it, and on the way too many people who are trying to dismiss, justify, or celebrate it. Alix Breeden of Kos reported that while Mark Zuckerberg was with the oligarchs at the inauguration Instagram, one of his products, started giving strange results when a user searched for Democrats. First they were told the results were hidden. Later they were given results that were far more Republican and MAGA than Democrat. Breeden concluded:

Ultimately, it’s unclear if Instagram’s algorithm is laden with MAGA content because of string pulling behind the scenes or if content from right-leaning creators is just simply more popular. One thing, however, is clear: Owners of the social media platforms that connect people, shape opinions, and keep people informed are eating out of Trump’s hand going into his second term. What they do with this newfound power remains to be seen.

There was so much for me to write about this last week I wasn’t able to include Biden’s last address to the country. An Associated Press article posted on Kos discussed it. A couple excerpts:

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead," Biden said, drawing attention to "a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy people. Dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.” Invoking President Dwight Eisenhower’s warnings about the military-industrial complex when he left office, he added, “I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers to our country as well.” ... Biden also called for a constitutional amendment to end immunity for sitting presidents, after the Supreme Court granted Trump sweeping protections last year from criminal liability over his role in trying to undermine his 2020 defeat to Biden.

Last Friday Bill in Portland, Maine, in a Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted late night commentary. One example:

"This Monday the three richest men in the history of mankind will attend the inauguration, where they will be seated together on the platform with Trump's cabinet nominees and elected officials. Sweet Jesus in a sky box, that is the most corrupt-appearing thing I have ever heard. If we’re gonna go complete Roman Empire then at least throw Denzel Washington in there.” —Stephen Colbert

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a few quotes worth repeating. From Olga Lautman, who studies authoritarians wrote:

Just in case people don’t fully grasp it. The pardoning of insurrectionists is Trump’s way of building loyalty from militias and domestic terrorists to carry out unofficial acts for him.

A question: Weren’t they already loyal? They had already attacked the Capitol for him, which is why they were in jail. Lautman is correct in that they will happily carry out unofficial acts for him. From Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

This was the true meaning of Inauguration Weekend 2025: the kickoff of America’s Second Republic as an unregulated and utterly unrepentant oligarchy.

I wish I knew what prompted Jack Jenkins to tweet this:

Kinda seems like a whole lotta people found out for the first time today that there's a very large, very vibrant progressive wing of Christianity (and religion in general).

Moira Donegan of The Guardian wrote:

Here is another prediction: these men will not succeed in all their schemes. They will not deport as many people as they say they will; he will not change the law as much as they pledge to; they will not, cannot, capture the institutions as completely, or bury dissent as successfully. They cannot do everything they aim to do. Because politics is not over; because our institutions are not all collapsed; and because the existing institutions are not the only methods of resistance and refusal.

While I agree with Donegan there is still a problem. While not as many will be deported as they say they will, many, likely thousands, will be deported, many more and in much more traumatic fashion that if a Democrat was president. They may not change they law as much as they pledge, but they will change the law that hurts many in the middle class, in the working class, and those in poverty. They may not capture institutions, but institutions will be damaged. They may not bury all dissent, but many will be harmed in the dissent they bury. American democracy may survive, but the cost will be high and the damage unnecessary. Down in the comments is a meme posted by exlrrp showing a farmer kneeling in his field saying:

Dear God, please send us a rapist bigot grifter so we can have cheap groceries and say the N word.

And the Tennessee Holler posted a cartoon (creator unknown) showing two men in a book lined room. The older one says:

Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it.

Prairiecrat of the Kos community quoted a bit from an article posted on the New Republic:

Fear of increased ICE raids have already negatively affected the nation’s agricultural sector, causing alarm that food prices could skyrocket in the near future as a result of Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies. Bakersfield, California, saw a massive drop-off in the number of field workers showing up for work Tuesday while ICE agents in unmarked Chevy Suburbans rounded up and detained immigrants in the area, profiling individuals they believed to be field workers, reported CalMatters. The end result: acres of unpicked oranges roasting in the California sun at the height of the season.

I note this first action happened in California, definitely a blue state that has a governor vowing to protect his undocumented workers. Ruben Bolling posted a Tom the Dancing Bug comic on Kos showing the Constitutional Convention talking about a fourth branch of government, which will naturally arise. That will be the Dumbass Billionaires. They won’t be geniuses, but obnoxious idiots who will gain great political power. But don’t revise the new Constitution to prevent their rise. “These dunbass billionaires will be totally epic! They’ll want to live on Mars!” Bolling has a couple Questions for Classroom Discussion:

What if the Founding Fathers knew that the Dumbass Billionaires would also be racist? Would they have been less or more in favor of the Dumbass Billionaire branch? Did the Founding Fathers even consider the possibility that the elected president could himself be a Dumbass Lesser-Billionaire?

No interest in cultivating an image of responsible manhood

During the months my performing group rehearses I rarely post to this blog on Tuesdays. I am today because rehearsal was called off because of the cold weather. At the time of posting the temperature was 2F and is expected to go down to -5F overnight. That’s about -20C and colder than a household freezer. Add a wind chill to that and there are plenty of reasons to call off events and close schools. I finished the book The Star That Stays by Anna Rose Johnson, that star being the North Star that is motionless in the night sky. This is a young adult novel about Norvia Nelson. Most of the story takes place when she is 14 in 1914. Norvia was born on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan to a mother with Ojibwa and French-Acadian ancestry and a Swedish father. She has three brothers, Herman, Elton, and Caspar and a sister Dicta, short of Benedicta. When she is about twelve the family moves to Boyne City, Michigan. Her parents divorce and her Pa moves to Flint. As the major part of the story opens Ma announces she is about to marry Virgil Ward. He has two grown daughters and son Vernon, who is a few months younger than Norvia and of poor health. He is home schooled. Norvia doesn’t like the idea of Ma marrying again and is afraid that Virgil will be too much like Pa. Virgil turns out to be quite nice. She also wants to go to high school, an idea that Pa was against. Norvia is delighted that Virgil’s house has many of the 19th century books featuring strong girls, such as Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. She wants to be fun and popular as these girls are. She wants a Dashing Young Man as her beau. Shortly after Ma and Virgil are married he is dismissed from his church’s leadership because he married a divorced woman. So Norvie is afraid people won’t let her become popular if they find out she has a divorced mother and has Ojibwa heritage. Over the year nothing profound happens to Norvia. This is just a lot of normal stuff teenagers go through. She eventually figures out what her book heroines are really teaching her and she begins to appreciate her step family. I enjoyed the story, though I saw it really wasn’t written for me. I was originally attracted to the story because its idea of a girl dealing with having to hide her Native ancestry. However, her mother being divorced is a bigger concern. The author states that the skeleton of this story is based on her actual ancestors and even included a few photos, though the names in the novel and on the photos were changed. I did not watch or listen to the inauguration yesterday. I had better things to do with my time. Of course, a lot of the important things were in NPR’s news reports, which confirmed I didn’t miss anything. Oliver Willis of Daily Kos listed some strange things that happened at the inauguration yesterday. I’ll mention just a couple. Though Melania held a Bible, the nasty guy did not put his hand on it as he repeated the oath of office. That has some Evangelicals quite perturbed. In the front row were not Congressional leaders, but billionaires. Emily Singer of Kos wrote of nine promises the nasty guy included in his speech that won’t lower the price of eggs. Some of them: He’s sending troops to the border. He said of oil production, “drill baby drill” – but while he can open more land to drilling he can’t require oil companies to drill more. Oil companies don’t want the price to go much lower. He said he will “bring back free speech in America.” The First Amendment already does that. Does he mean free speech for himself and none for his opponents? He declared the official policy of the US government will be that there are only two genders. Nope, no help in egg prices, but a great deal of hurt for transgender people. He’ll change Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. Hillary Clinton had a good laugh. He’ll take the Panama Canal back from China. China doesn’t own or operate it. He’ll put American astronauts on Mars. Musk had a big smile after that one. NPR reported the nasty guy signed dozens, maybe hundreds, of executive orders yesterday. That’s all about fulfilling his promises of doing certain things “on day one.” I haven’t kept a link to a list of them, so maybe I’ll write about them in the future. One item not in all those signed orders is tariffs. The auto industry is quite concerned with tariffs since their supply chain loops over the Canada and Mexico borders many times. Tom Allen, the midday classical music host on CBC Music (that’s the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), had a bit of fun with the idea of tariffs. Early in today’s program he played music performed by an American. He interrupted it three quarters of the way through so the last 25% could be played by a Canadian performer. At the end of the program he did something similar, playing a four movement piece by an American orchestra and interrupting it after three movements to play the last by an orchestra in Finland. Willis reported that one of the things the nasty guy signed is a pardon for those who attacked the Capitol four years ago. This is a pardon for more than 1500 people and included the dangerous leaders of the attack. One of them said now that he’s free and his conviction cleared he will go buy some guns. The Republican Party is no longer the party of Law and Order (if they ever truly were). In a tweet on Bluesky Willis included a photo showing the temperatures at noon at some previous inaugurations. Ronald Reagan's second was 7F and deserved to be indoors. John Kennedy’s was 22F, Barack Obama’s first was at 28F, and Jimmy Carter’s was 28F. Others were warmer than that. So the nasty guy’s second at 22 was not too cold. I had written about speculation that it was moved indoors to avoid him having to see small crowds (definitely smaller than Obama’s and Biden’s). Another excuse I heard was the move was prompted by the invited billionaires who didn’t want to sit in the cold (and with the ceremony in the Rotunda they had exclusive seats in a more exclusive crowd). In contrast to the nasty guy issuing pardons for violent insurrectionists, on the last day Biden issued preemptive pardons to people who upheld the law and earned the nasty guy’s wrath. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported they include Dr. Anthony Fauci who had guided us through the pandemic, retired Gen. Mark Milley who had called the nasty guy fascist, and to members, staff, and testifying police of the House January 6 Committee that investigated the Capitol attack. This last group included chairs Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson. Biden’s pardons said this should not be taken that these people committed crimes, rather that to protect them from threats of prosecution by the nasty guy. Emily Singer of Kos reported that DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency tasked with proposing cuts to the federal government, is likely making it’s first cut – co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy. He’s accused of being lazy and spending too much time trying to get himself elected or appointed to office. He failed at being a candidate for president. He didn’t get appointed to the Ohio senate seat vacated by the new vice nasty. He will now likely run for governor of Ohio. Does he like losing? As for DOGE, it is being sued. The lawsuit says it meets the requirements for being a “federal advisory committee.” As such it needs to be regulated so the government receives “transparent and balanced advice.” And that means it must file a charter with Congress, keep regular minutes, and allow the public to attend. In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker of The Atlantic.

Like nearly every entity that has tried and failed to bend Trump to its will—his party, his former rivals, his partners in Congress, and his former aides among them—the tech elites largely seem to have decided that they’re better off seeking Trump’s favor. ... The sheer quantity of money flowing to, and surrounding, Trump has increased. In his first term, he assembled the wealthiest Cabinet in history; this time, his would-be Cabinet includes more than a dozen billionaires. Sixteen of his appointees come not just from the top one percent, but from the top one-ten-thousandth percent, according to the Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer-advocacy organization. Democrats, too, have long kept their wealthiest donors close, inviting them in on policy discussions and providing special access, but never before have the nation’s wealthiest played such a central role in the formation of a new administration.

Down in the comments greg posted a photo in honor of Martin Luther King day of a young black man holding a sign that says:

Dear White People: Stop using Dr. King as an example of a peaceful protest... You shot him too.

In the comments of another pundit roundup Nick Anderson posted a cartoon:

Over a package of candy: Red Dye No. 3 has been banned in the U.S. due to widespread health concerns. Over a MAGA hat: Red Dye No. 47 will be widely available despite concerns about the health effects on democracy.

And way down in the comments Captain Frogbert posted a meme:

Just so everyone is clear Los Angeles is under duress Mexico sends help Canada sends help Ukraine sends help Americans send help Trump elect sends insults Republicans send threats MAGA sends conspiracies Who loves America? Who is the enemy of the people? -- Russ Fraley

In a third roundup Chitown Kev quoted Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times discussing Mark Zuckerberg’s use of the term “masculine energy.”

When Zuckerberg speaks of “masculine energy” and “aggression,” he seems to be imagining the “masculinity” of an older teenager or a younger adult. The masculinity of someone unburdened by duty, obligation or real responsibility. More Jordan Belfort in “Wolf of Wall Street” than Ed Tom Bell in “No Country for Old Men.” There is no apparent interest, from either Zuckerberg or Elon Musk or anyone else bemoaning the current cultural cachet of masculinity, in cultivating an image of responsible manhood. We have a clique of powerful middle-aged men who want nothing more than to be boys. But then this is exactly what you would expect in a country where the standard-bearer for the “return” of masculinity to the political and cultural world is Donald Trump, a selfish, petulant and narcissistic man-child who celebrates his rejection of the traditional masculine virtues of duty and restraint and who has done so for his entire career on the public stage. Trump stands for masculinity as misogyny, dominance, exploitation and — as per Zuckerberg — aggression. More concretely, Zuckerberg and like-minded tech moguls have direct material interests in cultivating Trump’s good favor by performing his brand of manhood. Meta, for instance, wants to undermine its competitors, suppress regulation and free itself from the threat of antitrust enforcement. Other tech billionaires want to leverage state power to secure their investments in artificial intelligence, ahead of a potential collapse in the value of A.I. stocks. If the bubble pops, they want Uncle Sam — and thus the American taxpayer — to be the one holding the bag. Their pose and presentation, then, are all obviously strategic.

Over the last few days I’ve heard news about plans for raids on businesses in blue states to look for illegal immigrants. I’ve heard that executive orders have been signed for mass deportations, beginning with criminal illegals (watch out for their definition of “criminal”). Yet Kos of Kos says Tom Homan, the new “Border Czar” is walking back his promise of mass deportations. CNN reported this week Homan has been telling Republican lawmakers that deporting millions of immigrants might be impossible. There just isn’t the manpower and funding to do it. To deport 20 million people would cost $1 trillion over a decade. Getting $88 billion from Congress to get it started this year is highly unlikely. Also, the current staffing of the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not anywhere near enough to round up and deport millions. There aren’t enough agents to pull off big raids in sanctuary cities where local police would refuse to help. While some Republicans claim that spending $1 trillion to deport 20 million will be a net benefit (based on false assumptions), others are going to look at the loss of the rural labor force and related hit to the economy and decide not to authorize the money. Raids in red states will prompt immigrants to flee to blue states. That will worsen the economies of red states and the shift in population will perhaps shift Congressional seats back to blue states. Lisa Needham of Kos reported on a judge issuing a strange ruling. This is another by Texas judge Reed O’Connor, who is trying to destroy the Affordable Care Act. The case was brought against American Airlines that offered 401(k) retirement plans that included funds that invested in corporations

with environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) goals. [The case is] the newest—and dumbest—front in the war on “woke.” ... What O’Connor’s decision functionally does is say that investments that factor in ESG concerns are a breach of a fund manager’s duty, regardless of whether there’s a financial loss. The mere whiff of displaying a vague consciousness about the planet is simply too much to bear.

O’Connor’s efforts may not be necessary. Since the nasty guy won in November fund managers are fleeing a commitment to supporting net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Companies took on ESG and DEI actions to attempt to be more attractive in a free market. But conservatives are no longer interested in a free market. They want to get rid of “woke” wherever it may be. An Epic Maps post shows maps of Alabama. There is a band of sediments from where the coastline was 100 million years ago that created a band of fertile soil. That maps to a higher slave population in 1860, a higher black population in 2010, and a blue band in a red state from the 2020 election results.

Giving a pardon to avoid a corrupt, incompetent freakshow

Dana Nessel, attorney general for Michigan, wrote an opinion piece in last Sunday’s Detroit Free Press. Her main point is that the nasty guy staffing his cabinet with people accused of sexual assault will mean two things. Assault survivors will be less likely to report the crime because they feel it won’t bring justice and reliving the trauma will be useless. And assault perpetrators will feel they have permission to attack again. Those who have been accused are Pete Hegseth, nominated for Defense, Robert Kennedy Jr, nominated for Health and Human Services, Matt Gaetz, nominated for Justice (yeah, he withdrew, but he was still nominated), and Linda McMahon, nominated for Education. McMahon isn’t accused of committing assault, but is accused of enabling abuse of children by employees of her organization. That got me thinking that in the mind of the nasty guy a sexual assault accusation is a bonus. As I’ve discussed several times the nasty guy is highly invested in the social hierarchy. He wants to be top dog and have no rivals. He wants there to be a huge difference between himself and the teeming masses and will oppress them to make that difference greater. The only people he will tolerate in his presence are those who profess their adoration. He has been convicted of sexual assault. In his mind being accused of sexual assault is a bright sign to say that person is also one highly invested in the hierarchy (otherwise they would not have committed assault). That makes them a strong candidate for his regime. It’s going to be a dreary future. Following similar logic... Oliver Willis of Daily Kos reported:

Donald Trump ran for president by selling the notion that he would be a fighter for working-class, blue-collar values. But he has selected a slew of obscenely wealthy people to help him run the government when he takes control in January—and their net worths are nowhere near the average American family’s.

The median family net worth in America is $192,700 and a lot own much less than that. Several of these nominees are billionaires. They are clueless about the issues most Americans face. This will be government by the billionaires, of the billionaires, and for the billionaires. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reports that Biden has pardoned his son Hunter for his conviction in a case of lying on a gun permit application and his guilty plea for tax charges. A lot of talking heads are saying but Biden said he wouldn’t pardon his son. Yeah, he did. Circumstances changed. A second AP article on Kos explains the pardon in more detail. It also mentions Biden’s reasoning:

In his statement Sunday, Biden said that his son had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.” Biden has been concerned—as Hunter Biden was—about his political adversaries. ... “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son—and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter—who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me—and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

Put another way Biden saw who the nasty guy was nominating to various Department of Justice jobs He knew the attacks on Hunter would continue. Better for Hunter and the rest of the family to stop it all now. In particular Biden saw, as Oliver Willis of Kos reported, that the nasty guy nominated Kash Patel to head the FBI. For Patel to take that spot the nasty guy would have to fire the current director Christopher Wray, whom the nasty guy installed in 2017 and whose ten year term is supposed to protect the agency for political meddling. The nasty guy has complained that Wray has followed the law too closely, authorizing investigations into the nasty guy and his minions. There are two big reasons why Patel got the nomination. The first reason is the statements Patel has been making.

Patel authored a memo arguing that it was disloyal for then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper to oppose a request by Trump to deploy military troops against American citizens protesting police violence against Black people. After Trump lost to President Joe Biden in 2020, Patel pushed lies about the election being stolen and argued that reporters debunking Trump’s election lies should be targeted by the government.

Yeah, he wants to go after reporters debunking Trump’s election lies. And he’s big on loyalty. The second reason is that Patel wrote a trilogy of children’s books that are nasty guy fan fiction. The first is The Plot Against the King with the plotter being Hillary Clinton. The second was the battle against Sleepy Joe and the third was against “Comma-la-la-la.” These books are definitely propaganda. Patel would definitely find reasons to continue prosecution and persecution of Hunter. As for actually running the FBI, who said anything about qualifications? There was lots of commentary that Biden pardoning his son gave permission for the nasty guy to pardon the insurrectionists. But he is going to do that anyway. In the comments of a pundit roundup exlrrp posted couple memes about Hunter and Patel. The first is by Keith Boykin:

President Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, and I would have done the same thing under the circumstances. If Trump can be elected as a convicted felon, I’d be damned if I let my own son go to prison for the sake of a principle that only one side believes in.

The other meme:

Biden did not pardon Hunter until he saw the corrupt, incompetent, conspiracy driven, freakshow that Trump was nominating for the DOJ. The media might want to mention that.

Lisa Needham of Kos discussed what would happen if Republicans succeeded in dismantling the Department of Education. To answer that Needham lists what the DoE does. Republicans don’t like the DoE believing the federal government shouldn’t tell states what to teach. Surprise, it doesn’t. The DoE hands out Title I funding for lower-income families, which pays for teacher salaries. Some of that goes to urban districts in blue states. More of it goes to rural districts in red states, with Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Arizona most dependent on Title I funding. So will Title I funding be eliminated or go to a department that doesn’t know what to do with it? Also in the DoE is the agency that delivers federal funding for students with special needs. That about 15% of all K-12 students, or 7.5 million students. Federal money is supposed to pay 40% of the cost for special education, but has always fallen short. And many states don’t cover as much as they should. What will happen to this? The DoE also oversees student civil rights. That includes the rights of LGBTQ students and students of color but much more goes for the rights of students with disabilities. These are not things other departments could easily pick up. Project 2025 calls for turning all that DoE money into block grants without strings. Then the states could do what they wanted with it – including shifting all of it to private schools. Republicans have a lot of angst over the DoE’s 4% of the federal budget. Which implies this isn’t about the money.

What gutting federal education funding and oversight will do, however, is widen the gaps between well-off and low-income families, between well-funded and struggling public schools, and between blue states and red states. Trump voters may have believed they were casting a vote to hurt woke liberals, but they likely hurt themselves and their children much more.

There’s that social hierarchy again with the desire to oppress those lower down. Gutting the DoE also means the oppressed are more open to the claim that in the natural order of the world they’re supposed to be oppressed. Prairiecrat of the Kos community discussed an article in Baptist News in which a gay ex-pastor of a Baptist church surveyed people who had left the Baptist denomination. Most of the reasons were related to a distaste for conservative politics and the accompanying attitudes. Another big reason was the nasty guy. Those who left saw the vast contradiction between what the nasty guy and conservative Christians said and did compared to what Jesus said and did. They saw Jesus showed love and these people showed racism, sexism, and greed.

Indeed, according to the 2023 PRRI Census of American Religion, in 2006, white Evangelical Protestants outnumbered white Mainline Protestants among the population by 23% to 17.8% — a gap of more than 5 points. As of last year the gap is down to 13.4% to 12.2% — just over 1 point. It’s true that non-white Evangelicals are making up for some of the decline in white Evangelicals, but Evangelical populations are still declining nonetheless. Expect that with 4 more years of Trumpism, this trend will accelerate.

Peter Twinklage posted a thread that he thinks explains why some Democrats outperformed Harris and won their seats. They championed progressive policies while using conservative cultural coding.

Ryan campaigned with AOC in the Hudson Valley but made a point to highlight his military service in every campaign ad. Gluesenkamp Perez co-sponsored a bill to protect medication abortion while constantly talking about her history as a flannel-clad car mechanic. Gallego never apologized for his tenure in the House Progressive Caucus but aggressively pursued male voters with soccer and boxing match watch parties. All of them spoke proudly in defense of queer Americans while also never condemning constituents who lacked the language to voice their concerns about certain issues in a politically correct fashion. Having grown up on a farm with a Fox News family, I think this is the way.

Concert season begins tomorrow. I’ll be posting much less over the next two weeks. I’ve already deleted a few browser tabs of things I know I won’t get to or will be out of date by the time I can write about them.

Oh, you want a less offensive autocrat?

I read through the transcript of another Gaslit Nation podcast, hosted by Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa. This episode is titled The Purge, Accelerated, week four in the attempted coup. They talk again about the need to get the two Democratic candidates for the Senate elected in Georgia. Together the two could flip the power in the Senate. Without that flip, will the GOP in the Senate confirm any of Joe Biden’s picks for his cabinet? If they’re not, what happens? Many of the departments have already been gutted so there could be less oversight into possible crimes. Kendzior said:

We haven't had this situation before. We haven't had a transition that is so fractured by a GOP that seeks to be not a government serving the people, but a one party autocrat state, that they would engage in this kind of activity. Their goal is not to govern, but to rule.

Kendzior discussed Neera Tanden, nominted for the Office of Management and Budget. Already, the GOP is describing her as a “sacrifice to the confirmation gods” and the worst nominee. They’re objecting to her tweets, though the nasty guy has tweeted much worse. Yeah, there is no integrity, though it shows they’ll try any excuse to strike down all nominees. Kendzior said:

That's what I'm worried about, is that this will push the U.S. closer and closer to a failed state. We are not out of this situation. We are still in the midst of an ongoing attempted coup and they are still going to try to leave all of these institutions—all of these departments—as bereft of oversight and of actual people in there to try to do something to serve the American public as possible, because that is how they maintain their power. It's through chaos. It's through destruction. It's through the American public feeling desperate, having very little leverage, and the Democratic Party having very little leverage as well.

Chalupa said that Biden had worked with people in the Senate for decades. He’ll manage to get a cabinet he will be happy with. However, getting those two Senate seats will allow Biden to get his cabinet and to make headway on reviving the nation. Kendzior turned to the nasty guy’s attempts to strip civil service protections from federal employees. This is a step towards executive autocracy. I’ve discussed this in previous posts. Though Kendzior adds one more thing: If the nasty guy fires 88% of government employees on January 19th. Biden can hire them back on the 21st only if he wants to be as autocratic as the nasty guy. Otherwise, these are open positions, subject to the traditional hiring process. So while this reclassification of employees started as a way for the nasty guy to replace everyone with loyalists, it will work just fine in leaving all departments without a functioning staff. Even if Biden recovers from all this the exercise is teaching future GOP tyrants (nicely cleaned up) what they need to do to quickly grab power. Chalupa has been calling this cleaned up version “posh Trump.” She noted that many of the House seats that flipped to GOP were won by women and people of color. She said:

So, Republicans are learning and they're positioning themselves stronger, and they're weaponizing the power of gaslighting by hiding behind what the public wants. Oh, you want women, you want minorities? Okay, we'll give you that. Oh, you want a less offensive autocrat, somebody that cleans up nice and can string sentences together? We'll give you that. You can't stand Trump's tweets, you find him tiring? All right, we'll give you somebody that doesn't do that. But it's going to be the same vicious policies, the same war on the poor, the same war on minorities and the same war on our fight for fairness and equality and sustainability and the environment. I just want everybody to understand this to the core and know that democracy is fragile, and we're not out of the woods by any means.

As for that gaslighting, the GOP is brilliant at it. The discussion turned to Iran and the murder of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Israel is being blamed for wanting to wound Iran and inflame the entire region. Remember that Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu is deeply connected to the worst parts of the nasty guy administration, especially the pandemic prince. Kendzior read from her 2019 book Hiding in Plain Sight, saying the prince’s massive debt and tax manipulation schemes should have disqualified him from getting a security clearance. And the long-term Kushner – Netanyahu family relationships should have also disqualified him on the basis of political, financial, and humanitarian conflicts of interest – the Kushner family are investors in illegal West Bank settlements. The pandemic prince is headed to the Middle East again to visit some of the autocrats there. The purpose isn’t peace, but money, personal favors, and, likely, war. The Gulf states set their sights on Iran. Russia, Iran’s partner, which has been made happy with deals from the nasty guy, will look the other way. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has reportedly been given permission to do whatever he wants to stir up the conflict as long as they don’t risk World War III. Kendzior doesn’t doubt the nasty guy said that last part. But she’s sure he means it only to the point he doesn’t want to be blamed for starting WWIII. But once it is raging he would have “no choice” but to strike back, creating chaos all around. Perhaps he could use that to stay in office under an emergency decree. And if Iran tried a cyber attack, the nasty guy rewrote the Nuclear Posture Review to say that a nuclear weapon was an appropriate response to a cyber attack. The nasty guy has wanted to use a nuclear bomb for a long time. Yeah, this is a worse-case scenario we hope doesn’t happen. But how many worse-case scenarios have happened since 2016? Kendzior talked about how much better the world would be without Netanyahu. It looks like there will be elections again, sometime early in 2020. Then Kendzior turned to one of the reasons why the pandemic prince should not have been given security clearance, been allowed to learn the inner workings of our government. That information is extremely valuable and the pandemic prince would gladly sell it for profit or for favors. But it isn’t just him. All the bureaucrats who have lost their positions with this election, including the nasty guy, would want to profit from what they know. Chalupa, however, doesn’t see the prince’s actions all that much different from all the former members of Congress or former administration officials who become lobbyists. But that doesn’t make it right. That revolving door has weakened our democracy. Which was done to the point that a Russian asset was able to enter the White House in 2016. This is part of what draining the swamp was supposed to be about. It is time for candidates who understand how the cesspool works so laws can be passed to close the loopholes, to stop allowing corruption to flourish. Investigating and prosecuting these people isn’t about revenge. It’s about survival of the nation. A memorandum came out of the EU looking at the last twenty years of American politics (a link in the show notes, somewhere on the Patreon webiste). It shows the GOP has been increasingly autocratic. Twenty years ago was when Fox News and its disease of disinformation got started. Far right propaganda created a far right GOP. The nasty guy just finished the job. The report of twenty years is important, but I’m reminded of two other important events that made the far right GOP possible. One was the 1981 Reagan tax cuts. That’s a big contributor for why the income for the top 1% soared and the income for those at the bottom stagnated. The other was the Powell Memorandum in 1971, which gave the GOP a plan for how to concentrate the wealth of the country. One might also include Nixon’s Southern Strategy, which showed how to use racism to gain power. Back to the current situation. America needs a big reset to be able to get a government that will attend to the interests of its own citizens. The current GOP has no interest in that. To do that the grassroots must strengthen. It’s a big job, but not a big job for one person. Go to the Gaslit Nation Action Guide and do what you can. That means staying engaged. All the ways one can fight fascism are the things a citizen of a democracy should be doing anyway. On to Michael Flynn and the broad pardon he received – even a pardon for future crimes. Kendzior lists his crimes, and it is a long list. Flynn is a danger. One aspect I wrote about a few days ago is Flynn has been calling for sedition, an overthrow of a properly elected government. Chalupa points out another – Flynn is “really, really good at leveraging the weapon of conspiracy theories.” He can brainwash people to become violent. Watch for that as the vaccine is rolled out. Kendzior described a couple of Flynn’s crimes and followed a couple threads. One of them was a request for Democrats to look into a case, but it was dropped when a record donation was given to the Democratic Party, the DCCC. Which means the Dems haven’t been, and maybe won’t, root out corruption. Flynn will take on another task. With the nasty guy’s loss, the GOP won’t want him to run in 2024. They’ll want posh Trump. Flynn will be working with the nasty guy against the GOP establishment. With a pardon Flynn now has an air of legitimacy. And Flynn can keep pushing the idea of election corruption. Those lawsuits have been going on for more than a month. They’re developing the culture of getting used to them. Flynn is also obsessed with Iran. Kendzior finds it curious and troubling that Flynn was pardoned just before the Iranian scientist was assassinated. Finally, a pardoned Flynn is someone who can keep committing crimes. Between now and Inauguration Day it will be raining pardons. Chalupa suggests the book Big Dirty Money: The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime by Jennifer Taub. These pardons are another reason why we need to remain engaged.

In court you can be punished for lying

The fun and games related to the Michigan election a month ago are not over, even though the election has been certified. Laina Stebbins of Michigan Advance reported that on Tuesday the Senate Oversight Committee held 7 hours of testimony from people who wanted to show up in person and declare any false, misleading, or conspiracy theory they wanted. Those wishing to speak waited in an enclosed room too close together, and many not wearing masks. I’m sure the only reason why these people were given this platform was because the state senate has a GOP majority. Stebbins wrote:

None of the claims were backed up with evidence showing fraudulent behavior or misconduct. After being pushed on why some speakers didn’t go to law enforcement with their claims, many stated their distrust in the government. In response, Attorney General Dana Nessel made it clear on Twitter that “any and all credible claims of election/voter fraud” are investigated by her department. Nessel questioned why none of the speakers alleging fraud went to the many law enforcement outlets available throughout the state.

Democrats on the committee showed their annoyance. Sen. Sylvia Santana of Detriot said:

The election is over. The voters have decided, and investigations have repeatedly revealed that we had a safe and secure voting process. … Just imagine how many lives could have been saved by now had this same amount of effort been put into a pandemic response. It is past time we move on and work to make sure our families get the care and support they need so that, together, we can tackle the alarming spike of COVID cases and casualties.

Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos also discussed the hearings. He added several tweets from TepidButterASMR that include a hefty amount of sarcasm. One of the speakers was Matt. I’ll explain later why I mentioned him specifically. Here’s the text of the tweet showing him.

Here's Matt, he loves FREEDOM. He was at the stop the steal rally. He wasn't a poll watcher. He is saying Obama’s reign of destruction was caused by dominion voting machines. His testimony is about signs he saw at a rally.

The circus, this time with a ringleader, reformed on Wednesday before a Michigan House panel. The ringleader was Rudy Giuliani, the nasty guy’s personal lawyer. Stebbins reported this circus included such things as: * Democrats on the panel insisted speakers must testify under oath (as Michigan law permits, especially when there are allegations of wrongdoing) and Republicans refused to do so and ruled Democrats out of order. * Democrats ruled out of order when they tried to question witnesses or cross examine. * Giuliani essentially became chair of the panel as he questioned witnesses with leading questions – such as: were you expecting “that much crookedness and dishonesty?” * Giuliani saying he was not there to tell lawmakers to choose their own slate of electors, followed by him pointing to a particular section and paragraph in the Constitution that gives legislators that specific power. While the Constitution says the legislature chooses the electors, Michigan law says they don’t have that power. Instead, state law says the Secretary of State and the Governor do. The hearing was scheduled for three hours and lasted nearly five. There’s a big reason why Giuliani was before a House panel and not a court. In court you can be punished for lying. Before a state legislature not only can one lie, one can be encouraged to do so. They may still be stirring up trouble for this year’s election. They are most definitely stirring up distrust for the 2022 and 2024 elections. I asked you to remember what Matt said above. In particular, he said: “Obama’s reign of destruction was caused by dominion voting machines.” Dominion voting machines? What’s with that? Jennifer Cohn, election security advocate, put it this way: ES&S voting machines are easier to hack and make black votes disappear. Thus, Dominion voting machines, by the understanding of the GOP, are bad. Kerry Eleveld of Kos expanded on that a bit.

Trump and Co. have been railing against Dominion Voting Systems machines for weeks, falsely claiming they allotted extra votes to Democrat Joe Biden. There continues to be zero evidence for this lie, and Trump's campaign has now logged an unprecedented string of 40 post-election legal losses to 1 win in the courts, where they've proven to be uniquely incompetent.

They’re railing against Dominion machines because they don’t make black votes disappear, so those votes are declared “extra” votes for Biden. The rest of Eleveld’s post is about the current state of Georgia Senate races. The GOP candidates appear to be insufficiently loyal to the nasty guy, which might boost the chances of Democrats getting elected. The nasty guy is handing out pardons to protect various of his minions from prosecution. As several pointed out, pardons aren’t needed unless they’re guilty. Eleveld discussed one group that is likely to get pardons – the nasty guy’s kids. They know where Daddy has buried the bodies (I’d like to say that expression is figurative, but we’ve passed a quarter million dead from COVID). And in pursuit of Daddy’s goals they’ve likely committed several crimes themselves. If prosecuted they could spill Daddy’s secrets to protect themselves. The White House is, of course, spinning pardons as a way to protect against “retribution” by Biden and the Democrats. “The kids have been through enough,” an advisor told ABC News. Yeah, investigation into their crimes is seen as victimization. One person who has gotten a pardon already is Michael Flynn. A feature of his pardon has raised a lot of legal eyebrows – it includes a blanket pardon for crimes not yet committed. And Flynn, now free from any legal consequences, is taking advantage of it. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that Flynn is testing whether his pardon includes sedition. Flynn is publicly calling for a limited form of martial law, the suspension of the constitution, and civilian control of elections with the military in charge of a do-over. He declared rules for who is allowed to vote. To finish off he threatened violence if the nasty guy doesn’t come through with a coup. Flynn is no longer calling for somehow jiggering the election results so the nasty guy wins. Sumner wrote:

Flynn isn’t court shopping for someone who will ignore his nonsense long enough to issue a stay or at least provide another platform for pounding the podium. Flynn is calling for Trump and the military to overthrow the legitimate civilian government of the United States.

That’s sedition. And that’s what a blanket pardon allows you to say. Meteor Blades, in his Earth Matters column for Kos, wrote that 28 companies have joined to form the Zero Emission Transportation Association to get vehicle sales to 100% electric by 2030. This is all vehicles, not just cars. It is also much more ambitious than what Gavin Newsom, Governor of California is calling for. Good for them.

You want schools to open? Close the bars.

Arizona is one of the current virus hot spots. Bill Scheel tweeted that “regular people are starting to boil over.” He included a photo of the obituary for Mark Anthony Urquiza and circled this part:

Mark, like so many others, should not have died from COVID-19. His death is due to the carelessness of the politicians who continue to jeopardize the health of brown bodies through a clear lack of leadership, refusal to acknowledge the severity of the crisis, and inability and unwillingness to have clear and decisive direction on how to minimize risk.

It goes on from there. His daughter also wrote a letter inviting Arizona Gov. Ducey to the burial.

One guy tweeted, “Shame to actually politicise someone's death.” To which Alam Morlock replied:

Man, it's almost as if political decisions created a systemic failure that contributed to his death or something.

Matt Zollerseitz added:

“Don’t politicize this death” is a phrase always spoken by people who know the politicians on their side are either incompetent or treacherous/corrupt, yet lack the moral courage to admit what’s actually happening.

Further down the thread Peter Conley responded:

My parents and I have different ideas on how we want our funerals held. My dad wants a traditional burial. My mom wants to be cremated. I want my lifeless corpse flung via catapult directly into the Rose Garden.

Political operative Roger Stone was given clemency just before going to prison. Justin Miller tweeted an explanation:

This is really simple: Trump ordered Roger Stone to work with Wikileaks. Stone lied to Congress about it, Trump lied to Mueller about it, and Stone protected Trump's lie by choosing prison over flipping. Now Trump has repaid him.

If you need more details Mark Sumner of Daily Kos provides it. The nasty guy wrote a statement justifying his actions. Sumner describes it this way:

Even for the most casual observer, the statement makes clear that Stone isn’t being given a pass because he didn’t commit what Trump calls “process-based crimes,” or even because Stone and Trump have known each other for decades.

Roger Stone’s sentence was commuted directly and openly as a finger in the eye to those who even attempted to investigate Trump, which the statement calls “out-of-control Mueller prosecutors.” The statement makes it astoundingly clear that Trump regards lying to investigators and obstructing justice as just part of the game. After all, if Mueller hadn’t been trying to find something on Stone, Stone wouldn’t have needed to lie. And yes, it says that.

Beau Willimon tweeted a thread about opening schools:

My brother is a 3rd grade teacher at Title I school serving a low-income community of color in a red state. Many of his students have serious pre-existing conditions. As do their parents. So does his wife. The notion that districts like his will be able to open safely is B.S....

Many state guidelines are suggested rather than required. Why only suggested? Because states facing severe deficits due to covid don’t have the budget to fund proper safety protocols. This would require MORE money at a time when they are cutting education budgets...
...
Returning to work at a school where there is no proper funding for safety protocols means placing himself, his wife, his students & their families at risk to keep a job for which he is getting paid less & less. This is the awful position Trump & DeVos are putting teachers in....

The threat of withholding federal funding is even more nefarious because it endangers Title I schools that need such funding most. It’s targeting the poor and it’s targeting people of color. These are communities that are MOST at risk during the pandemic...

Schools where rich kids attend have the means (or can get the means from their communities) to make schools in the time of the coronavirus work. Schools where poor (and mostly black) kids attend do not have the means. Forcing them back into classrooms would be a feast for the virus. Which sounds exactly what the nasty guy wants.

Andy Slavitt, a former Obama health care head, tweeted a thread:

COVID Update July 9: Donald Trump is insisting schools open or he’s threatening withhold federal money.

Forgive me if I’m not convinced of his commitment to kids.

Being pro-child should be a lay-up for a president. I mean, you can start a war but still call yourself the “education president.”

Until Trump it would have seemed you’d have to try pretty hard not to be pro-kid. Not anymore.

Slavitt notes the nasty guy wants to get rid of the ACA (Obamacare) which ensures millions of kids. Under his watch the kids get excellent training in hiding in closets. He has also put kids in cages. He’s definitely not pro-kid.

He (& his sidekick Betsy “3Rs” Devos) are aiming to strawman the other side into being reflexively anti-back to school.

Don’t think he can do that? Here goes.

You want to remove a Civil War stature? WELL, YOU’RE ANTI-HISTORY!

You want to look at the data before you send kids back to school? WELL, YOU’RE ANTI SCHOOL!

It’s a cynical ploy that no one should fall for.
...
One thing I’ve noticed is that while everyone wants kids in schools I don’t hear anyone close to the topic— administrators, teachers, mayors— say they have a plan.

The president and a few governors want this to be a political wedge regardless of who’s at risk.

You want schools to open? Close the bars. Get cases down in RIGHT NOW so August can be manageable. Catch up on testing. Look at the data. Come up with a plan. Stop using kids as pawns.

Nate Cohn tweeted:

If you're struggling to make sense of how Trump has fallen so far, and how he could fall further, then take this analogy further: imagine that this was the president's handling of an actual armed conflict?

COVID is *not* WW2. But the comparison is illuminating. His early comments read like Chamberlain. His fights with govs are like haggling over whether Hawaii should buy defenses for Pearl Harbor. His economy position is like being worried that rationing will hurt civilian economy.

And as in WW2, the inaction positions work against their intent. The do nothing/live with it view is basically appeasement that ensures COVID spreads to an extent we can't live with. Dealing with COVID helps the economy, just as war production helped the economy despite rationing.

Twitter user Nah replied:

It's not that dissimilar. I think folks arguing for the economy to re-open, schools to re-open, etc., are all treating this as like a bad hurricane or earthquake. But if I told you on NYE 2019 that 100K more would die in the US in '20 than '19, what would you think occurred?

It is well known the nasty guy is anti-immigration. And it isn’t just immigrants from Central and South America. He and his minions have found a way to mess up immigration without having to change the law. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post tweeted a link to an article in that paper with:

How the Trump administration is turning legal immigrants into undocumented ones -- by, uhh, literally turning off the printers that print the documents.

There are 100k+ immigrants here legally, whom USCIS approved for new green cards/work authorizations (or replacements of recently expired documents), and they can't get their "papers" because USCIS literally turned off the printers without telling anyone.

From Bill in Portland, Maine’s collection of late night commentary:

Remember that movie I Know What You Did Last Summer? They should make one about this summer. Only this time the killer is the one not wearing the mask…and he doesn’t use a hook to kill people, he kills people by sneezing on them at a Costco.
—Anthony Anderson, guest hosting on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Black people are asking for equality, not charity. They're not asking companies to hire black people just because they're black. They asking companies to stop not hiring black people just because they're black.
-Trevor Noah

Hug your kids. Learn from Fred Trump’s mistakes.
—Samantha Bee

Why bother with Bush?

A couple days ago I wrote wondering what Obama should do about Bush and his perhaps criminal administration. Investigations? Truth Commission? Immunity to underlings to testify against the big players?

My sister replied:

Why should he do anything??? Just start fresh and keep going. Bush will be history in 5 weeks, can't the whole mess be ignored after he and his kind are gone???

I can think of a few reasons.

* The Bush administration has been the most secretive since Nixon. There is intense curiosity of what went on behind the public façade.
* A simple and complete historical accounting of what Bush did and its consequences. And with Bush consequences were world-wide, both through his War on Terror and economic deregulation.
* While a historical accounting, in itself, is a good thing we might learn things to prevent future presidents from doing the same. We may also want to attempt to undo the consequences and will need to understand what happened.
* An accurate assessment of what Bush did wrong may help mend relations with other countries who were hurt or offended by Bush's actions.
* Some people were hurt through his actions -- dead soldiers and their families, Gitmo detainees improperly detained -- and may want to claim restitution.
* We Americans tend to think criminals should be punished and many crimes do not have a statute of limitations, meaning no matter how long ago the crime occurred the perpetrator should face justice. Did Bush commit crimes?

Not all of these reasons would prompt investigations that would result in criminal charges against Bush. And pursuing those criminal charges are a separate question of uncovering what Bush did as president.

Adding insult to injury?

A lot of people (including me) are convinced that Bush committed crimes while in office. Many are disappointed he was not impeached and tried in the Senate. That leads to the question of what Obama should do about Bush? Open investigations and risk a partisan fight when there are so many issues that demand attention? Attempt a truth commission similar to what South Africa did after Apartheid? Offer immunity to the underlings to get at the major players?

Faced with that what might Bush do on his way out the door? There are rumors that he might issue preemptive pardons for Cheney and large numbers of staffers, appointees, and military officials -- anyone who might have been involved in torture or other of Bush's notorious programs. That may be done even if it comes with the political cost of admitting there is a crime to cover up and be guilty of.

Blanket pardons have been used before, such as Carter pardoning draft dodgers. However, all pardons so far have named either the crime or the perpetrator. The rumor is Bush will mention neither.

There are organizations (such as Democracy in Action and American Freedom Campaign) urging contact of lawmakers to support a Pardon Disclosure Act:

"Any pardon issued by the President under Article II, section 2, clause 1, of the Constitution of the United States, if granted to the President, the Vice-President or any political appointees in the President's own administration, shall specifically identify each individual to whom a pardon is being granted along with the crimes committed or acts taken in the course of his or her official duties for which that person is being pardoned."

I note this preserves such things as blanket pardons of draft dodgers, something significant to my generation. It does address the case of a president directing his staff to commit all sorts of crimes and pardoning them on his way out the door.

You should be able to access webpages of representatives and senators to leave a message saying you are in favor of the Pardon Disclosure Act.