Nasty, rude, divisive, and as always, full of lies

Brother comes for a visit tomorrow. I probably won’t post again until the middle of next week. The nasty guy gave his State of the Union speech Tuesday night. Of course, I didn’t watch or listen. He set the record for the longest of such speeches, another reason not to listen. Daily Kos has several articles about the speech. Go find them there or at your favorite news source if you really need more information. I’ll stick to just three articles. The first is by Kos of Kos. His major point is Republicans really need to have something to run on for the November midterm election. And the nasty guy very much did not give them that. Kos took a few paragraphs to highlight why the nasty guy’s approval rating is so low – voters definitely do not agree that now is “the golden age of America,” the phrase the nasty guy used to open his marathon speech.

But Trump didn’t just fail to connect with voters’ economic anxiety. He was nasty, rude, divisive, and as always, full of lies. At a time when the nation is still basking in the warm sportsmanship of American athletes at the Olympic Games in Italy, Trump lashed out at his perceived enemies, taking repeated and nasty shots at the Democrats, blue states and cities, and various ethnic groups. ... If anything, Trump’s overall message was, “The country has never been better, but WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!”

In the second article Lisa Needham of Kos noted the nasty guy did not mention Minneapolis and his “success” in removing the “worst of the worst.” Could it be because the effort was so massively unpopular? He did mention Minnesota, as in accusing massive fraud by Somali-Americans in child care subsidies for low income families. Of course, he used numbers ridiculously high. I heard about this in the morning news with NPR host A Martínez talking to reporter Matt Sepic. It again left me puzzled. When Republicans accuse federal programs of fraud they move to stop the funding, not to offer help in combating the fraud. In this case Gov. Tim Walz says they are already working to minimize the fraud. But they are having difficulty because most of the experts in combating fraud in the FBI have left in protest over the nasty guy’s actions after the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. In the last article I’ll bother with, Oliver Willis of Kos discussed the sanewashing perpetrated by mainstream media. They excused his behavior by saying he “put on a show” and had a “showman’s theatricality.” His blatant lies were described as a “reframe.” The low approval rating showed voters were merely “dissatisfied.” Republicans were said to be “breathing a sigh of relief” – well, they did praise the speech. Willis described the speech, saying, “When he wasn’t lying he was being racist.”

Since 2015, the mainstream press has worked overtime to present an image of Trump that doesn’t match up with reality. They simply omit his worst offenses or summarize his statements and actions without providing context to their audiences. When he makes disastrous mistakes, they are morphed into mere “blunders” and at moments like the State of the Union this drive to clean up after Trump goes into overdrive. Fortunately, this strategy isn’t really working among the public at large.

Needham looked at the Supreme Court decision that overturned some of the nasty guy’s tariffs. The whole thing was 170 pages, though the actual ruling was rather short, no more than 44 pages. It was the side commentary and dissents that added to the page count. Needham described those extra pages. Kavanaugh took 62 pages to show how smart he is, to flatter the nasty guy, and to offer a guide on how to keep tariffs going after the rest of the justices called them unconstitutional. Gorsuch, though in the majority, wrote a concurrence that “is pure whine and snarl, lashing out at everyone for not being as amazing and smart as he is. For 46 pages.” Part of it was complaining that Congress needs to “get off their butts” as Needham paraphrased it. Odd, coming from a guy who has been giving the nasty guy all he wants so that Congress isn’t necessary. Thomas, in a brief 18 pages, explained how the nasty guy could institute tariffs without Congress. That was some mangling of definitions so Congress could give away its power. “That’s horrifying, ahistorical, and too weird even for Alito.” Walter Einenkel of Kos reported that we know the FBI and Justice Department haven’t released all the Epstein files. We know that through reporting by NPR and confirmed by MS Now. We know it because one witness, who accused the nasty guy of sexual assault when she was 15 or younger, was reportedly interviewed by the FBI four times in 2019. However, only one of those interviews appears in the files that have been released. No surprise that the one that was released doesn’t mention the nasty guy. Einenkel provided a link to the NPR story, which is here. The audio is 3 minutes (I didn’t listen), though the associated article appears to be much longer. From the article:

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have already been investigating this allegation against the president and will now open a parallel investigation into the DOJ's decision not to release these particular documents. ... In a Feb. 14 letter to members of Congress first reported by Politico, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche insist that no records were withheld or redacted "on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary."

Kos of Kos discussed the latest from the Make America Healthy Again movement headed by Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy, Jr. They want support from the full Republican Party and to do that MAHA Action president Tony Lyons is trying to find the right message to turn “a toxic brew of wellness culture and institutional distrust” into an actual winnable coalition. So far they seem to relying on polls built on...

That’s “message testing.” You write a paragraph that makes your side sound like common sense and the opponent sound reckless, strip away party labels and governing records, and then treat the results like a revelation. ... If MAHA was truly a transformative political force, Republicans wouldn’t need to tiptoe around its core message—they’d be running on it. Instead, the memo urges nuance and careful phrasing, because they know the raw version doesn’t sell. Ultimately, the things MAHA claims to champion—safer drugs, healthier food, fewer environmental toxins—aren’t partisan tenets. This is generic stuff everyone cares about. The real divide shows up when it comes to science, regulation, and who actually confronts industry power in the real world.

In today’s pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Jennifer Weiss-Wolff of The Contrarian. The quote is long so here’s my summary: When pregnant children are apprehended by immigration enforcement they are being sent to a facility in San Benito, Texas. Pregnant children were likely raped and likely have sexually transmitted diseases that make pregnancy dangerous. At San Benito they are less likely to get the care they need. Why San Benito? According to the Project 2025 playbook it is because Texas has banned abortion. Here’s another summary of a quote by Timothy Snyder writing in his “Thinking About…” Substack. “Fascism demands a chosen enemy, and victims.” But, the current attack on immigrants has produced stasis, not the jump from “competitive authoritarianism” to outright fascism. It has also produced sustained protest. So the nasty guy needs more:

To complete the fascist transition, Trump has to give the country a war it does not want, and win it, and transform the society. He has brought us to the doorstep of a major war with Iran: but in the State of the Union, speaking about war preparations, he was looking around hopelessly and waving his hands. He is happy to talk about war with Iran, and hope somehow that others will deliver it. But he cannot do it himself. Americans do not want such a war. But that is not exactly Trump’s problem. Germans did not want a war with Poland in 1939, either. But Hitler fought one anyway, and won it quickly. Trump’s problem is that he does not know how to fight a war. And he flounders.

Snyder says the nasty guy must win that war. Snyder also says he doesn’t know how to fight one. That suggests if he does start one he’s likely to lose. I guess that’s a blessing? In the comments kurious linked to two news articles about the corruption in the nasty guy administration. One is from Bloomberg, the other from Daily News. Then he has a quote box, though doesn’t say which article he is quoting. Perhaps both. The box does list the corruption and crimes and some of them have links to sources. Murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti, slandered them, and allowed their killers to go free. Violated the rights of citizens and non-citizens. Killed dozens on the high seas. Released the hundreds of Jan. 6 felons. Threatened to seize Greenland, a NATO ally. Called for the execution of members of Congress for telling military personnel of their duty to disobey illegal orders. Repeatedly violated court orders. Shaken down large universities.

Viewing the Trump administration as a massive crime syndicate allows us to be clear-eyed about what is coming down the road, and to plan accordingly. To take the most urgent example, there ought to be no question as to whether Trump will try to steal the midterm elections. Of course he will try to steal them. Criminals gonna crime. It is every patriotic American’s duty to oppose the coming effort to nullify the will of the voters.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, listed the winners of the Minnesota Department of Transportation contest to name its snowplows. Some of this year’s winning names:

Oh, for Sleet’s Sake Flurrious George K Pop Blizzard Hunter. O Brother, Where Art Plow? Minne-Snow-ta

It challenged his self-conception as an all-powerful ruler

Alysa Liu won the gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Olympics. This is the first Olympic medal for women of the US in 20 years. The talk isn’t so much that she did it, more on how she did it. Mary Louise Kelly of NPR spoke to Chris Schleichter, a former figure skater, who wrote about it. Schleichter said that much of competitive figure skating is about fear. The stakes are high. The judges are there to record every mistake. The skater has invested years of training a lots of money (coaches and ice time are expensive). One misstep can end one’s dreams, as happened to Amber Glenn in the short program. The result is skating not to lose rather than skating to win. But Liu says she has no nerves. She is joyful. She just wants to skate to show people her art. This level of mental health is rare and refreshing. This allows her to be more relaxed and her jumps are bigger and landings more beautiful. She portrayed a party on ice and the crowd was with her. Liu had retired from skating. But she missed it and came back just for the fun. She had done a quadruple jump, but on her return she decided that was too hard on her body. She was not there to earn a medal (though she got the big one). She was there for the fun. Kelly figured out what the lesson is:

Stop worrying about all these achievement yardsticks that we are constantly always measuring ourselves by. Just go out and have some fun.

Schleichter agreed:

I think, yeah. And it's healthy for so many skaters in the sport. Like, every four years, we're only going to send three women to the Olympics. Does that mean that every other girl skating out there is somehow a failure? Shoot for that Olympic goal, but have other measures of success that are healthier and achievable, and you might actually end up getting those along the way. It's really so refreshing to see someone reframe what success in the sport looks like.

I watched Liu’s performance. It was indeed joyful – she had a broad smile the whole time – and wonderful. This is quite the contrast to Ilia Malinin, the “Quad God” who tumbled in his long program. The one who was expected to win gold placed 8th. There were signs the pressure got to him. I’ve mentioned this before. What if athletes did it for the fun and not for the judging, scores, and ranking? I’m not sure how that would affect hockey. For figure skating that would definitely lessen the stress and heighten the beauty. Which will be the case in the Olympic figure skating gala tonight (I keep waiting for that to appear as I stream both NBC and Canada’s CBC – 75 minutes of prime time left). Would people come if there wasn’t a winner? For several years (perhaps 30 years ago) the prominent figure skaters from the World and Olympic competitions would go on tour as a group and put on well attended (as in filling ice arenas) displays. No pressure, fun encouraged. I attended as many as I could and enjoyed them very much. I had written that I thought the first meeting of the nasty guy’s Board of Peace might have been secret. But it wasn’t. Now that I think about it, of course it wasn’t. The nasty guy wanted as much press coverage as possible to demonstrate how wonderful he is. Oliver Willis of Daily Kos wrote about the meeting. The nasty guy’s pals were there, including a few autocrats. France and Britain were not. Cardinal Pietro Parolin of the Vatican said the topic of the meeting – Gaza – should be discussed at the United Nations. Beyond that Willis had little to say, though he concluded:

The “Board of Peace” is a vehicle for Trump to avoid the United Nations, where he has consistently given poorly received speeches that failed to rally international support to his positions. Trump’s most notable U.N.-related moments have had more to do with ranting about malfunctioning escalators than achieving international cooperation. Trump cannot even work alongside regional partners like Canada and Mexico—but he thinks his joke of a “Board of Peace” can supplant the U.N.

The nasty guy’s tariffs – well, one category of tariffs – were struck down by the Supreme Court. I don’t have a full news article about it, though I do have excerpts and some commentary from today’s pundit roundup by Greg Dworkin for Kos. From the Associated Press:

The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs on Friday, handing him a significant loss on an issue crucial to his economic agenda. The 6-3 decision centers on tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law, including the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs he levied on nearly every other country. The high court ruled his use of an emergency powers law to set import duties without Congress was illegal. It’s the first major piece of Trump’s broad agenda to come squarely before the nation’s highest court, which he helped shape with the appointments of three conservative jurists in his first term.

From the Wall Street Journal editorial board:

This is ugly even by Mr. Trump’s standards. He’s accusing them of betraying the U.S. at the behest of nefarious interests he didn’t identify, no doubt because they don’t exist. Asked about Justices Gorsuch and Barrett, whom he appointed, Mr. Trump called them “an embarrassment to their families.” This is rhetoric that could cause some deranged Trump acolyte to turn to violence against a Justice.

A tweet by Jonathan Karl:

Wow. President Trump just accused the Supreme Court majority in the tariffs case as "fools and lapdogs" to "RINOs" and the "radical left" and calls the Justices "very unpatriotic and disloyal to the Constitution." He suggests "foreign" influences drove the decision

A tweet by Dan Pfeiffer:

I keep seeing people say that the SCOTUS ruling on tariffs will help Trump by taking economic matches from the baby. That's wrong. It's almost certainly going to make his political problems worse, because the ruling shines a light on the tariffs, and he is going to use other authorities to raise people's prices.

A tweet by Kyle Cheney highlighted a section of Gorsuch’s concurrence:

...our system of separate powers and checks-and-balances threatens to give way to the continual and permanent accretion of power in the hands of one man. That is no recipe for a republic.

And Cheney added:

It's hard to imagine a ruling that cuts more deeply to the heart of Trump's identity in public life — he has linked his presidency to the ability to use tariffs as a deal-making cudgel and bend other global powers to his will.

In the comments a tweet from David Frum:

Trump could have written and submitted a tariff bill for enactment by Congress. It happened often in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He didn't do that, because the point of the exercise was arbitrary presidential power - and the corruption possibilities that flow from arbitrary power. I suspect the above point is the reason Trump erupted so ferociously today. The Supreme Court did not merely strike down Trump's lawless tariffs. It challenged Trump's self-conception as an all-powerful ruler, who can do as he pleases, answerable to no one.

A tweet by Tim Miller:

It brings me no joy to say this but given the presidents shocking announcement that the Supreme Court is compromised by foreign interests, the next president will have no choice but to replace all 9 members with new justices who have no foreign entanglements.

The news today is the nasty guy imposed a 10% tariff for every country using a different law, which means they can last only five months. Then, because he was still angry, he bumped it to 15%. A cartoon posted by Wolfpack and created by MacKinnon shows Andrew sitting in prison writing a note that says, “Dear Donald, Wish you were here. – Andrew” A cartoon by John Auchter shows a conversation between an elephant and a woman:

Elephant: Good news! As part of $38.3 billion in new federal spending, your government is going to develop a detention center in Romulus, Michigan! Woman: Wait, wait, wait, wait. You’ve been telling me for years there’s no money for heealthcare, education, transportation, energy infrastructure, food – but now there’s plenty for a concentration camp?! Elephant: Look, you gotta understand – government spending is good! It creates jobs! It stimulates the economy! Deficit spending helps pick winners in the marketplace of ... of the ... Woman: Who are you anymore?! Elephant: I ... I don’t know...”

The New York Post tweeted a video of dancers at the Lincoln Memorial protesting by enacting the shootings by ICE of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The video is less than 2 minutes.

Joy is not a reward for success, but a way of living

Kos of Daily Kos discussed Latino culture and how it compares to American conservatism. Latino communities still put the church at the religious, social, and moral center. It is where they participate in community. Family is a lived reality and cultural expectation is a deep obligation to parents. There are still strong traditional gender roles (so stop with that “Latinx” nonsense). That is a part of why the nasty guy got 46% of the Latino vote in 2024. There was cultural alignment and many could assume his bigotry was aimed elsewhere and not at them. Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show depicted sugar cane fields to demonstrate Latinos are hard workers. The several small businesses showed their hustle culture. It showed extended families with children everywhere – when they party they don’t leave their children at home. Many images were highly masculine and highly feminine, but they were not sexualized. This was the only halftime show to feature an actual wedding. Even the moments of queer imagery showed them as belonging, part of the family. All of that (well, not the last one) depict conservative values promoted by American conservatives.

Where Latinos fundamentally break from American conservatism is joy. Joy is not a byproduct of success for Latinos. Unlike cultures that treat professional status or financial achievement as prerequisites for a meaningful life, Latino culture has long defined success more relationally than materially. To our occasional economic detriment, joy is not deferred until we have the house or the fancy car. It has nothing to do with bank balances. Joy is integrated into daily life and shared whether or not circumstances cooperate. That joy is not abstract or intellectual. It is physical. It lives in the body. It shows up in dancing that starts early and never really stops—children learning complex salsa steps, being twirled by grandparents right alongside them. Movement is not performance; it is participation. Joy is learned somatically, taught through rhythm, proximity, and repetition, embedded before it can ever be articulated.

Joy also shows up in touch – “affection is public and unembarrassed” – and in the music.

You did not need to speak Spanish to feel any of that radiating from that stage. The music, the movement, and the intimacy were the message. Joy was not a reward for success, but a way of living: collective, embodied, and freely offered to anyone willing to feel it. Even many MAGA conservatives begrudgingly admitted it spoke to them. Conservatism, by contrast, is dour, punitive, and obsessed with control. It treats pleasure with suspicion, happiness as frivolous, and celebration as weakness.

The joy on the stage was defiant and incompatible with American conservatism. I had written about AG Pam Bondi’s infuriating performance before the House Judiciary Committee that wanted answers about the Department of Justice’s obstructive release of the Epstein files. Walter Einenkel of Kos wrote about a couple bad moments. One of them was Bondi saying:

The Dow is over 50,000 right now. The S&P [500] at almost 7,000, and the Nasdaq smashing records. … That's what we should be talking about.

A record-setting stock market is terrible reason to not investigate pedophiles. Emily Singer of Kos wrote that Bondi’s performance was the “most dreadful” by any Cabinet-level official before Congress. She ranted and hurled personal insults at Democrats rather than answering fair questions. Anyone who tuned in to watch would have thought her antics embarrassing and wondered why she was doing it. Singer said Bondi was performing for an audience of one – the nasty guy. He gets pleasure when his enemies are insulted. Also, the nasty guy has dropped hints that she hasn’t been wielding her power as quickly as he would like, so this performance may have been an effort to save her job. The moment that proves the point was when Bondi demanded the Judiciary Committee apologize to the nasty guy for impeaching him. Jeff Danziger posted a cartoon of showing a cat labeled Bondi having spilled the trash, scattered papers, clawed up the furniture, and was now puling down the curtains. A guy in the doorway says to the nasty guy, “Sir... She’s getting more publicity than you!” He replies, “She must be stopped!” The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases job data monthly to get a quick, though maybe not so accurate, look at what the economy is doing. After the end of the year, they take time to go through more reliable statistics and revise the year’s numbers. Singer reported that on Wednesday the BLS announced their updated numbers for 2025. The estimates made during the year came up with 584,000 added jobs. The revised numbers say only 181,000 jobs were added in the year. That’s close to a 70% drop and a mighty small number. And tiny compared to 2024’s job gains of nearly 1.5 million. Yeah, the BLS is the agency that the nasty guy accused of lowering the numbers to make him look worse than Biden. So were these numbers falsified and the real numbers are worse? Singer also included statistics that show private education and health care added jobs and the entire rest of the economy lost jobs. Republicans are trying to save face by saying 130,000 jobs were added in January. That’s still low compared to the Biden years. And jobs haven’t really grown since April, when the nasty guy announced his tariff Liberation Day. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported that the House voted on a resolution to end the emergency that the nasty guy declared to justify tariffs against Canada. This was brought by Democrats and enough Republicans voted for it that it passed 219-211. This is a symbolic rebuke of the nasty guy. Of course, speaker Johnson didn’t want it to come to a vote. But enough Republicans were worried about the high prices their constituents are paying. The measure goes to the Senate and the nasty guy will surely veto it. Besides, it’s a resolution, not a bill. In Friday’s pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Ali Breland of The Atlantic talking about how Jeffry Epstein helped revive the idea of “race-science” or the false idea that there is a genetic reason why non-while people are supposedly inferior. I’ll bypass that discussion for Kev’s comments on the article.

~35% of the world’s population is either Indian or Chinese and I think that official number has been over the 30% mark for at least decades (and probably centuries). When you think about it, “white people” have always been a minority of the world’s population. If “non-whites” wanted to “slaughter” white people, we have the numbers to do so.

Óscar Gutiérrez of El País in English:

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, founded in Germany more than a century ago, has been monitoring aid flows since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In its latest assessment, published Wednesday, the think tank states that “Europe has almost offset the collapse in U.S. support.” Specifically, U.S. contributions plummeted by almost 99% last year; those from European partners increased by 59% in financial and humanitarian assistance, and by 67% in military aid. “As a result, total aid in 2025 remained close to previous years,” the institute notes. [...] With the numbers in hand, it’s clear that Trump has achieved his goal. The Republican leader reiterated in the first months of his presidency that it was Europe’s responsibility to defend Ukraine. He even demanded that Zelenskiy reimburse the money the United States had spent during the first three years of the Russian occupation, a demand he softened with the signing of the minerals trade agreement. […] The distribution... is uneven. The Kiel Institute points out that Scandinavian and Western European countries, with Germany and the United Kingdom leading the way, account for almost 95% of military aid, far ahead of the southern region where Spain is located — the Spanish government pledged €817 million ($970 million) last November, 75% of which was for military equipment — and Ukraine’s eastern neighbors.

In the comments Jimmy Margulies posted a cartoon of two workmen adding to the side of the Kennedy Center a sign that says “ICE Detention Facility.” One workman says, “Trump remains confident he can fill the seats here.” The nasty guy held up money for another tunnel under the Hudson River into New York, then said he would release it if Chuck Schumer would rename Penn Station as Trump Station and Dulles Airport near Washington as Trump Airport. RJ Matson of e pluribus cartoonum created a cartoon of “Chuck Schumer’s The Art of the Counteroffer.” It shows “The Donald J. Trump Memorial Long Term Parking Lot” at Dulles Airport and the “Donald J. Trump Taxi Stand at Penn Station.” A cartoon posted by paulpro and created by Jeffrey Koterba shows Bondi with a smile on her face at the doctor’s office as a nurse show her chest x-ray to the doctor. The nurse explains, “She redacted hear heart x-ray... So we don’t actually know if she has one...” Daniel Boris posted a cartoon of Bad Bunny saying, “Release the Epstein files in Spanish. Maybe then MAGA will get upset about them.” In today’s roundup Greg Dworkin included a pair of tweets about the six Democrats who recorded a video telling military personnel they had a duty to refuse to obey orders that were illegal. A grand jury refused to indict them. Kyle Griffin tweeted:

*None* of the D.C. grand jurors who heard the Trump admin's pitch on why they should indict the Democratic lawmakers who recorded that illegal orders video believed the Justice Department had met the low threshold of probable cause, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC.

Joyce Alene added:

I have never heard of a situation where every single grand juror rejected an indictment. Every single one.

Singer reported that Tom Homan, the “border czar” who was put in charge of ICE in Minnesota, said federal agents are already leaving the state and the rest will leave through next week. Homan said the reason was the operation was a “success.” Others say this was an admission the thuggish methods were hurting the popularity of the nasty guy and Republicans. Many people in this administration are very good at lying. Are they doing that now? Elliott Payne, the president of the Minneapolis City Council, said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Meanwhile the community will keep up their patrols. Perhaps this is a way to get headlines to get people to think the problem is over so they look away. That way ICE can continue to violate people’s rights with less public attention. They did that kind of thing before when Homan took on oversight in Minnesota, giving the impression the brutality was ending, but nothing changed. Bill of Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted late night commentary:

"This whole culture war [against Bad Bunny] last weekend has demonstrated one thing: for all of MAGA's triumphalism, it's not a movement that seems confident in its position. These people, who control every branch of government, are so triggered by someone singing in Spanish for 20 minutes that they need to create their own 'safe space' alternative halftime show, where 'Trad Bunny' over here is singing songs about how he can't even enjoy sitting in his truck and drinking beer because knows that somewhere out there is a trans person. It's actually f---ing pathetic. The gap between the power you all wield, and the victimhood you all claim, is the real offense. If you didn’t actually have the power to do so much damage in our country, I think we'd all dismiss it as a weak and pathetic pity party." —Jon Stewart, on the fake MAGA tantrum over the Big Bunny halftime show

Randy Essex, retired journalist, wrote an opinion piece for last Sunday’s Detroit Free Press. Alas, the online version is for subscribers only. In it Essex described the vice nasty’s view of manhood is sad and absurd. The vice nasty called on white men to call the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to report incidents where they were passed over for a job that went to a minority person. Yes men face challenges – see the suicide rate. We tell boys highly mixed messages to be both tough and sensitive. Essex (a white guy) wrote that DEI made him better and appreciate a variety of experiences and perspectives, critical to complete news stories and being an empathetic human. He also grew up poor as the vice nasty claims to have done. There were jobs he wanted and didn’t get. He was told to get over it.

Diverse voices simply are needed for organizations to cope effectively with our dynamic society. Diversity of leadership is an even greater need to challenge institutional bias. ... To my fellow white men, I say that not getting a particular opportunity isn’t discrimination. It’s both a part of life and a chance to be better next time. Man up.

Drew Sheneman posted a cartoon on Kos showing a man looking at another man labeled Corporations sitting in piles of money. The corporation man says, “Congress let your Obamacare subsidies lapse? That’s odd, my subsidies came as scheduled.”

Rich guys installed loyalists in agencies that regulate them

Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos reported that on Friday the nasty guy threatened 50% tariffs on the European Union, then on Sunday had a call from Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission on Sunday and backed off. And on Tuesday he boasted what he had done was a successful negotiating tactic to speed things along. The article doesn’t say the nasty guy got anything through this negotiation, other than avoiding tariffs the EU would impose on the US. He also changed the deadline (by one day) for I’m not sure what, probably the date for trying to reimpose tariffs again. Market analysts have a new phrase for this tariff dance: TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out. In the comments of a pundit roundup on Kos there are a lot of cartoons about the nasty guy, chickens, and tacos. Also in the comments Shelly Kirchoff posted a meme:

Jake Tapper is now calling Joe Biden’s mental decline “Worse than Watergate.” If he was an actual journalist he would be reporting how Trump is committing crimes worse than Watergate every single day.

For those interested in the details James Fallows, writing for his own Substack, posted an account of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem telling Harvard University that she was canceling all the visas of their international students. That is followed by Harvard’s response and lawsuit, followed by a court issuing a temporary restraining order saying the visas must remain valid while the case goes through the courts. Kos celebrated that Daily Kos is now 23 years old. That’s geriatric in internet years. And the site has lasted because it created a community. He wrote:

That spirit is alive and well. In the past year alone: You published over 40,600 stories More than 4,500 different writers contributed The community submitted 1.9 million comments And logged-in users viewed community-authored stories 17.5 million times On an average day, 21,000 of you log in to read, write, recommend, and respond. On Election Day last year, nearly 45,000 of you showed up. You’re not background noise. You’re the engine.

Kos also noted the site changed its revenue stream (I think more than a year ago, though he doesn’t say) from ads, political campaigns, and advocacy groups. The members were the product. Not any more. Now 80% of revenue comes from members. Ten days ago Lisa Needham of Kos wrote about four Silicon Valley tycoons who were able to install loyalists in the government agencies that regulate their industries. The big one is, of course, Musk who through DOGE has people planted in over a dozen agencies, including the ones regulating his industries. Those industries include the FAA, NASA, NOAA, the departments of Transportation, Labor, and Energy. Peter Thiel got friends in the Department of Health and Human Services. The Wall Street Journal reported that HHS has given Thiel’s data company Palantir almost $376 million since 2010, meaning already a long term relationship. Palmer Lucky got a director of his company Anduril nominated to a high position in the Department of Defense. Anduril, Palantir, and SpaceX are all courting the DoD. This director has said he’ll keep his Anduril stock as he works for the company that has the power to give contracts to Anduril. The fourth is Marc Andreessen, whose role, at the moment, is a moneyman investing in his pals’ companies. Needham detailed more corruption between these four and the government, then concluded:

None of these technocrats will do the right thing and put the interests of the taxpayers and the country above their own. Indeed, they’re valuable to Trump precisely because of that. People who actually value the work of government and its role in regulating companies pose a problem for Trump, as he sees the presidency only as a vehicle for personal profit and a means for revenge. Now, he has four incredibly rich and terrifyingly amoral friends to help.

Almost two weeks ago Alix Breeden of Kos discussed the latest issues with AI systems. This was prompted by Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protections Agency saying he has plans to make the US the “AI capital of the world.” He didn’t say what that has to do with the EPA. Here are those issues: Americans fear that AI will take away jobs. It looks like AI is also making hiring decisions. Those decisions are likely to be as biased, or biased in new and unknowable ways (AI doesn’t say how it decides things) based on the biased data it was trained on or the biased connections it came up with. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is promoting a bill that proposed a ten year moratorium on state and local restrictions on AI. That means AI companies will have a decade to do what they please. More people are reporting the environmental harm of AI. That includes the huge amount of water AI computers will need, perhaps equivalent of half the water needs of Britain. And researchers are just beginning to look at the public health burden of AI needs. Maybe this is where the EPA comes in (as in an EPA that looks out for polluters, not the environment in its name). Zeldin likes that AI centers like huge amounts of energy. So Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is fast tracking uranium mines for nuclear power and signing new coal leases while delaying a new rule that would protect miners from black lung disease. Two weeks ago Needham reported that Russell Vought, in his side job as acting director of what’s left of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, tossed out a proposed rule that would have limited what data brokers could do with private data, like credit history. Needham wrote this seems to be a part of the nasty guy’s assault on privacy. Needham then discussed several ways this is taking place or is planned. An autism database, supposedly to learn the “real” cause of autism. A massive government database, a terrible idea in many ways, one of which would be to make deportations easier. Hacks into and thefts from government databases even before they’re combined. Government used to strive to protect privacy. Now it is assaulting privacy. Also two weeks ago Needham discussed goodies for AI companies going into the budget bill the House has passed. A half billion so the Department of Commerce can adopt AI. The ban on AI restrictions at the state and local levels as mentioned above – free of restrictions AI companies can spew a lot of pollution. Permission to train AIs on copyrighted data without compensating the copyright holder (the reason why the U.S. Copyright Office Director was fired).

Protecting AI companies from spending their own money or obeying pesky regulations is just the latest iteration of the Trump administration’s AI fever dreams. AI is supposed to increase government efficiency by ferreting out fraud and replacing government workers. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency has already deployed AI at the Environmental Protection Agency to spy on employees, including looking for anti-Trump sentiments. It’s not clear how that sort of witch hunt increases efficiency, but at least it will cost a lot of money and line the pockets of some already stupendously wealthy people. And, really, isn’t that what the Trump administration is all about?

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted G Elliott Morris of Strength in Numbers. I’ll summarize. There is a debate among Democratic strategists. One side says to read the polls and move to the middle on key issues (such as immigration) to win back the pivotal center. The other side says Democrats should shape public opinion, not just follow it, then lead on what is right. This side says the party lacks leadership, especially on corruption, democracy, and civil rights. There are plenty of examples to work with, such as the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Democrats need the courage and conviction on these issues to create mass support. Yeah, I’m looking for Democrats to take the second side. In the comments are a couple cartoons posted by paulpro. The first is by an author whose name I can’t make out. The caption is “Innovations in Medicaid” and shows a woman with an ice pack on her head, her left arm bandaged and in a sling, and with an IV pole behind her. She is on her knees mopping the floor with a bucket and sponge. The administrator standing over her says, “Good news, Beth! You’ve earned almost enough work-credit points for your pain killer!” The second is much further down in the comments. It is based on the King Charles visiting Canada to give the throne speech on the opening of the new parliament. The cartoon, created by deAdder, has the caption “How things have changed since 1776:” the king and the nasty guy are shown at podiums. The king’s podium says, “The King defends democracy.” The other says, “The President defends autocracy.”

He caved on Chinese tariffs, got nothing but drama

Since my last major update on Friday I accumulated 28 browser tabs of things I want to share. I will get to only a few of them today and some I may decide to close. Mariel Padilla of The 19th, in an article posted on Daily Kos, wrote about Pope Leo’s views on a few topics. We don’t yet know how he feels about these things as pope. Padilla had to work with the most recent comments, usually years old.

In speaking to bishops in 2012, he criticized Western news media for cultivating “sympathy” at odds with gospel including “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”

He has not endorsed or opposed rules to bless same-sex unions within the Catholic Church. Leo seems to be aligned with Francis on migrant rights. Leo has not made clear his views on fertility issues – abortion, contraception, in vitro fertilization, or surrogacy. The church has opposed them. Francis was critical of surrogacy, voiced concerns about IVF, and otherwise avoided the topic. On climate change Leo said we needed to move from words to action. The pundit roundup for May 10, complied by Greg Dworkin for Kos, quoted EJ Dionne of the Washington Post, which essentially said that with the election Leo, there is no going back from the progressive views of Francis. A ways into the comments are a few cartoons about Leo. One by Rod Emmerson shows white smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Inside two cardinals are at the stove that produced that smoke. They’re burning a MAGA hat. One says, “If they think Leo is too woke, wait until they find out about Jesus.” From what I’ve seen the MAGA people are working really hard not to find out about Jesus. An Associated Press article posted on Kos mentioned that Louis DeStroy, postmaster since 2021 resigned in March. Yay! And why didn’t I hear about it back then? But the cheering won’t be very loud. His replacement isn’t any better. Maybe worse. Not with the nasty guy where he is. The new guy is David Steiner. He had been the CEO of the nation’s largest waste management company and is currently on the board of FedEx. Yeah, that right there is a conflict of interest and a strong indication the goal is to privatize the Postal Service (now a mostly self-funded public institution). And a likely outcome of that move is to end “universal service” in which the USPS is obligated to deliver to every address, even in costly remote areas (of course, in some remote areas the closest they get is the local post office, and some of those are in jeopardy). The postal union is, of course, protesting the appointment. Emily Singer of Kos wrote that the nasty guy caved on his tariffs with China, lowering them from 145% to 30%. China also reduced its tariffs on the US, though I don’t see that the nasty guy got anything more from the Chinese. He did it to appease the stock market. But 30% is still high and will still raise prices. Saying the high rates are paused for only 90 days doesn’t ended the dreaded economic “uncertainty” – already proposed as the economic word of the year. Since so many companies waited to ship anything while the 145% rate was in effect and wanting to get orders shipped before rates rise again in 90 days there is now be a big demand for shipping, leading to snarls in supply chains (see what happened in 2021), and increased shipping costs. And all that drama was unnecessary.

Amazing return on investment for buying a president

Ales Samuels of Daily Kos reported that Kari Lake struck a deal for One America News to have its propaganda broadcast through Voice of America and other networks that are a part of the US Agency for Global Media. Lake is currently a “senior presidential advisor.” Twice she lost major elections in Arizona. By major I think it was governor, then senator. Both time she made a pest of herself by not conceding, claiming the vote was somehow rigged, and filing lawsuits that she lost. She’s definitely part of the MAGA crowd and a resume like that would definitely please the nasty guy. Who Lake negotiated with to make this deal is not reported. It seems she is not on the staff or board of VOA, USAGM, or has any role beyond “senior advisor.” Voice of America was created during the Soviet years so that countries behind the Iron Curtain could hear some truthful news. That’s why the nasty guy gutted it and it is currently off the air. He also gutted USAGM. The fates of both are in the courts. One America News was founded in 2013 because Fox News wasn’t sufficiently far-right. It produces only propaganda, including the false claims by the nasty guy after the 2020 election. It has been dropped by nearly every major cable and satellite provider and has quietly settled defamation cases. This deal is likely to go before the courts as well. Steve Herman, chief national correspondent for VOA, told The Washington Post that laws prevent VOA from being the voice of the left or the voice of the right and that USAGM cannot dictate VOA content. The nasty guy has taken over The Kennedy Center. He has appointed the vice nasty to whitewash the Smithsonian museums (though that work appears to still be in the planning stages and I don’t want to know his plans for the Museum of African American History and Culture). Bill Addis of the Kos community reported what’s next in his sights is the Holocaust Museum in Washington. The museum’s board has 68 members, 55 of them appointed by the president. The nasty guy has now fired 14 of them, all of them closely associated with Biden and appointed by him. The top name of those fired is Doug Emhoff, a Jewish man and husband to Kamala Harris. You can guess the type of people the nasty guy appointed as replacements. A week ago, when there were lots of media people talking about the nasty guy’s first hundred days, Lisa Needham of Kos talked about what Musk got out of those hundred days. Most of us feel we are getting screwed. Musk did quite well, amazing payback for buying a president. Nice to be able twist the government in your favor. Needham has a tally of his return on investment. + Biden dedicated $42 billion for Broadband Equity Access and Deployment. The intended method is fiber-optic internet. The government is rewriting the rules to eliminate the “bias in favor of fiber” so that Musk’s Starlink could be considered, even though it is slower, more expensive than fiber, and Musk has a reputation of underdelivering. + Starlink appears to have bumped Verizon aside to upgrade the communications platform of the Federal Aviation Administration. The contract is $2.4 billion. + There is talk of a Golden Dome for the US, similar to the Patriot missile defense system in Israel. Musk’s SpaceX wants to be a part of it. Yeah, this idea has been kicking around since Reagan’s Star Wars plan, and no one has been able to get it to work for a country of our size. The contract size is unknown but in the billions. + Telescope launch services for NASA might be something SpaceX can actually do well. But since Musk is in the government this is a conflict of interest. Contract size a mere $100 million. + Launch services for the military, again a conflict of interest. Contract size is close to $6 billion. + Shutting down government investigations into his businesses. There are “at least 65 actual or potential actions by 11 different federal agencies,” according to estimates by Sen. Richard Blumenthal. An example of an action is an investigation into Tesla’s shoddy self-driving technology. Potential savings is $2.37 billion. + Free advertising, though it didn’t pan out. Having the nasty guy promote Teslas in front of the White House didn’t help sinking sales. + The news has been full of DOGE gaining access to various government data systems. Some stories also talk of data being sent out of government offices. Government data: priceless. Pretty good payback for buying the president for the low prices of a quarter billion. Yesterday Oliver Willis of Kos worked from a WaPo to report the nasty guy is using leverage when a country wants to negotiate a reduction in tariffs (which I think are the “reciprocal” tariffs that haven’t gone into effect yet). That leverage appears to be a demand the country purchase goods and services from Musk in exchange for a reduction in tariffs. The example is the small African nation of Lesotho. It has a population of 2.2 million and its economy is ranked 164th in the world, a tiny economy. It has little to offer the nasty guy. He announced a 50% tariff against it. Lesotho agreed to sign a contract to license Starlink. Willis did not report what effect the contract had on Lesotho’s tariffs.

Several other countries facing tariff pressure also signed deals with Starlink: India, Vietnam, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Other nations may also be facing pressure from Team Trump to hand off money to Musk while their economies suffer. ... The public disgust with Musk’s influence—he is the richest person in the world—is unlikely to dissipate with the revelation that his wealth is being increased as part of the tariff process.

The corruption is thick and sticking to everything. The nasty guy froze more than $2 billion in federal funding for Harvard University. That prompted A Martínez of NPR to talk to Teddy Schleifer, a New York Times reporter of philanthropy and political power, about whether billionaires’ checkbooks can fill in the gap. The discussion was a week ago. Short answer: Billionaires and their foundations simply do not have enough money to cover all the money the nasty guy is freezing. That’s especially true when other government expenditures, such as USAID, are also frozen. Schleifer added that though places like Harvard are private and not accountable to the public, they take plenty of public funding. And that gives the nasty guy leverage to make them beg or bend the knee. Since a great number of colleges and universities take federal money he has a lot of leverage. Another problem with billionaires covering the gap is if they said much in public about it their gifts would turn the nasty guy’s ire from the schools to them. A third problem is replacing federal money with billionaire money replaces federal meddling (which didn’t use to be much of a bad thing) with billionaire meddling. Is that better or worse than letting the educational institution wither away? This question has been around for a long time. For a while in America we have been making higher education and the better jobs that come from it available to all. I see a big effort (which has been going on for a few decades) to restrict higher ed (and in some cases K-12 ed) and the better jobs to the children of those already rich. The College of Cardinals took less than 24 hours and (if I heard about all smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney) only three ballots. There are a lot of news sources with lots of stories about Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who has become Pope Leo XIV. There is also a great deal of speculation about why he was chosen and how much he’ll follow the example Pope Francis set out. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted some of those takes. One is by Jack Jenkins of Religion News Service:

As Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost walked out on the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday (May 8) and took the name Pope Leo XIV, Steven P. Millies’ initial reaction was a mixture of elation and disbelief. A professor at Catholic Theological Union — a seminary Prevost, a Chicago native, attended — Millies was overjoyed at the idea of a pontiff from so close to home. “It’s incredible to me that we have a Southsider who’s the pope,” Millies said of the first U.S.-born bishop of Rome. But Millies also had another thought: By electing Leo, the College of Cardinals was, as Millies put it, “taking a side” in global politics — including U.S. politics.

On a different topic Dworkin quoted Bloomberg Politics:

President Donald Trump’s expansive use of executive power faced at least 328 lawsuits as of May 1 — with judges halting his policies far more often than they allowed them. Courts entered more than 200 orders stopping the administration’s actions in 128 cases, with judges sometimes ruling at multiple stages of the legal fights. Judges had allowed contested policies to go ahead in 43 cases, and hadn’t ruled yet in more than 140 others. Most cases are in the early stages, and new ones are being filed daily. The court battles are testing the balance of power at the heart of American democracy. Trump and his supporters have attacked judges as biased, and his administration has been accused of failing to fully comply with orders. Bloomberg found that his court losses — and wins — came from a mix of appointees of Democratic and Republican presidents, including some nominated by Trump during his first term.

What if they weren’t mistakes, but intentional?

When NPR interviews a Republican or conservative I usually turn my radio off for the duration of the segment. For example, yesterday (I think) they talked to Steve Bannon. I turned it off. But today I kept the radio on the whole six minutes while host Michel Martin talked to Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, which makes her the top spokesperson. Perhaps I wanted to tally McLaughlin’s lies and exaggerations. First, McLaughlin said they were doing what they do because of the “mandate the American people gave him.” The word “mandate” is said a lot. But that tiny margin of victory in last November’s election is not a mandate. And her usage implies that a large majority of Americans are behind that mandate while polls show less than half of Americans agree with their immigration/deportation policies. It brings to mind the Shakespeare line from Hamlet that she “doth protest too much.” Yeah, I had to verify where it came from. Second, she blamed Biden – the ICE agents have been “hamstrung for the last four years.” That dismisses Biden’s efforts to lower the number of migrants attempting to cross the border. Yeah, the numbers have gone down since Biden left office. But he also brought them down while in office. Of course, that assumes stopping migration into the US is a good thing, and I doubt it is. Third, she talked about getting “criminal illegal aliens off of our streets.” Of which there are very few. Most crime in America is committed by Americans. The statement is just to make us fear immigrants. Fourth, she played games with the meaning of “due process,” which deportees are supposed to get before being deported. She said if the detainee is a member of a terrorist organization what is “due” in “due process” “is going to look different.” That implies less than what our Constitution and traditions require. Fifth, she said they knew they would have to “battle” activist judges. So they will use every tool they have to execute the mandate of the American people, implying one of those tools is defying judicial orders. Sixth, she said when they mistakenly arrest the wrong people they do an internal investigation to make sure they don’t make that mistake again. She did not say they release those wrongfully detained or return those already deported. She also didn’t define “wrong people” or “mistake.” I’m sure a careful reader could come up with several more ways she lied or clouded the issue. McLaughlin is very good at sticking to the propaganda script. Alas, NPR didn’t follow this segment with a Democrat giving a rebuttal. Steve Inskeep of NPR discussed with Democratic Rep. Adam Smith what the House Republicans are doing about Signalgate. That’s the scandal where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed a military attack on the unsecured Signal app. Then did it again. Smith has a lot to say on the topic, too much for me to quote. So I’ll summarize. Smith filed a resolution of inquiry, to force an investigation. Republicans responded by disallowing resolutions of inquiry. That frustrates the democratic process by not allowing an open public discussion. Republicans can’t defend Hegseth so won’t talk about it and will prevent Congress from doing its oversight of the Pentagon and over a dangerous person. Democrats haven’t welcomed demands for investigation by Republicans but they recognized the minority needs to be heard. True even if it is Democrats losing the later vote. But Republicans are shutting of debate. A representative government is supposed to have debates. Lisa Needham of Daily Kos wrote about some of the mistakes made by the nasty guy administration. Kilmar Abrego Garcia sent to the El Salvador gulag by a mistake and not brought back. Children who are citizens deported with a parent being deported (one two years old, another a four-year-old with late stage cancer). They deservedly get negative attention. We believe they must be mistakes (and in the Abrego Garcia case the mistake was admitted) because they are so awful. Needham posed the questions: But what if they weren’t mistakes? What if they were intentional decisions that have become policy? Needham answered by saying if they were mistakes they would have been fixed. Also, when a similar situation arises and the same “mistake” is repeated. In the case of the children the administration said the parent being deported wanted their citizen child to be deported with them. By the time a judge was able to issue instructions to interview the parent to verify that is what they wanted the government said, “Whoopsie, too late” – the plane deporting the parent and child has already departed and out of US airspace. Yep, that’s the same excuse given for why the first batch of deportees sent to El Salvador weren’t given a chance to challenge their deportation and why the government is saying they can’t get Abrego Garcia back. This isn’t a mistake. There was no mistake when they arrested the judge accused of protecting an immigrant from deportation. It wasn’t a one-time goof. They plan to repeat.

It isn’t an accident that the administration has harmed people with sympathetic stories. Making 4-year-olds with cancer the antagonist of your immigration crackdown isn’t just morally repugnant. It also looks terrible and sparks immediate and widespread disapproval. Telling the world you’ve got no problem arresting judges doesn’t land super well, either. But that’s the point. The administration wants everyone to know that nothing will protect you. There’s no bridge too far, no line they won’t cross. If they’ll deport 2-year-olds and not give it a second thought, if they’ll leave someone in a violent prison overseas, if they’ll roll up on a judge and arrest her at the courthouse, they’ll do anything. The fear is absolutely the point.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Nadine Yousif of BBC News who noted that in the recent election in Canada the overall election went the liberals the youth vote went to the conservatives. They were more concerned about housing not being affordable, the cost of living, and crime and hadn’t seen improvement under the liberals. Kev added that youth voting for the far right is an issue in more than Canada. It was also a factor in recent elections in South Korea, Japan, Argentina, across Africa, and across Europe (though not in Mexico and India). Kev next quoted the Harvard Youth Poll done by the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. This year they surveyed 2,096 Americans between ages 18 and 29 during March 14-25.

"From significant economic concerns to dramatic feelings of social isolation, and from growing mental health challenges to mounting distrust in the government and both parties, young Americans have apprehensions about what would have seemed unimaginable just a few short years ago," said IOP Director Setti Warren. "These findings are a stark reality check and leaders across the country would be wise to pay close attention." "This is a generation that's weathered pandemic isolation during formative years, entered an unstable economy, and faced skyrocketing housing and education costs—all while being told they're not resilient enough," said John Della Volpe, Director of Polling at the Institute of Politics. "What Gen Z needs isn't another lecture, but genuine recognition of their struggles and leaders willing to listen before they speak." "Amid financial hardship and a devastating crisis of community, young Americans are increasingly disillusioned with the world as they struggle to find their place in it," said Jordan Schwartz, Student Chair of the Harvard Public Opinion Project. "This generation doesn't expect politics to solve their problems, but as young Americans continue to lose faith in government institutions, the need for politicians to listen to and learn from young people has never been greater."

Down in the comments is a tweet by Garry Kasparov, who quotes Aaron Rupar. Rupar included a video of the nasty guy presiding over a cabinet meeting. At ever cabinet position around the table is a red MAGA hat. Rupar quotes AG Pam Bondi saying: “President, you first 100 days has far exceeded that of ANY other presidency in this country. Ever. Ever. Never seen anything like it. Thank you.” I heard elsewhere that every cabinet secretary said something similar. Kasparov wrote:

If you are competent, or even know anyone who is competent, you know how impossible it is to perform a real job competently when this is the type of feedback you must provide to your boss. Nepotism and sycophancy turn autocracies into corrupt, failed regimes and economies.

And exlrrp posted a meme of Sen. Ted Lieu saying:

The fact that we even have to introduce an amendment that says ICE cannot deport U.S. citizens is bats--- crazy. This should not even be a discussion.

Further down Todd Alcott posted a Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon by Ruben Bolling. This uses Peanuts characters to reinterpret the Halloween story in which Linus wishes the Great Pumpkin to come. This version shows the Great Pumpkin has arrived and is fascist, making Linus quite happy. Yesterday, I included a meme about Jeff Bezos: “Trump bullied me. Now I’m afraid to show what you will pay for tariffs.” Demonstrating how far behind I am in my reading of news... On Tuesday Emily Singer of Kos reported that Amazon will show the tariff costs beside the cost of each item so consumers can see how much more they are paying because of the nasty guy’s trade policy. And, yep, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went into attack mode saying the move is “a hostile and political act by Amazon.” And, citing a story by Reuters, she said “Amazon has recently partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm, so this is another reason why Americans should buy American.” Nice way to treat a guy who donated to and attended the inauguration. Singer wrote that a big reason for the attack is that showing the “import fees” proves the nasty guy’s claim that the tariffs are paid by China is a lie. Though Amazon was just testing the waters other companies are already listing “import fees.” A big one is the China-based online retailer Temu. Yeah, that’s not an example of an American company listing fees. Big box stores warned the White House that tariffs will lead to big price spikes and product shortages. And UPS announced cutting 20,000 jobs because tariffs will reduce the volume of packages being shipped.

Big lies move like viruses in the culture

Kos of Daily Kos discussed why the nasty guy, the vice nasty, Musk, and many of their associates are calling for white women to produce more babies. Musk is even using the term “population collapse.” To keep the population steady, the fertility rate needs to be about 2.1 children per woman. But the fertility rate for every ethnic group in America except Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (2.24) ranges from 1.97 for Hispanic to white at 1.57 to Asian at 1.35. There are reasons why a declining population is a problem: A shrinking workforce leads to economic stagnation and a smaller tax base cuts into the needs of an aging population such as Social Security and Medicare. Innovation is done mainly by the young before they get stuck in “It’s always been done this way.” Smaller population lowers rural property values now and will soon affect cities. The population decline could be fixed by immigration – the solution that conservatives hate the most because most immigrants aren’t white. Immigration is also best for the world population that is way too high. Fertility rates are low because of Republican policies that care about babies only before they are born. The policies they oppose include: Day care support. Health care support, including Medicaid. Abortion care. Paid maternity leave. Promoting vaccines. School lunches. Help to pay for college. Livable wages. Kos says liberals oppose a piece too, that being affordable housing, to which liberals say Not In My Back Yard. All of those are reasons why fertile adults choose to have one or no children. Instead of addressing those issues the nasty guy and friends are proposing: Scholarship support for the parents. $5,000 cash “baby bonus” paid to mothers after delivery. Programs to teach women the best time to conceive. A “National Medal of Motherhood” to women with six or more children. They’re not serious about addressing the problem. Oliver Willis of Kos discussed why Republicans love torture. Yes, Willis establishes the premise. Two planeloads of deportees, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, were sent to the CECOT prison in El Salvador known for its violence. And Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem went there in late March to be photographed in front of prisoners to show what a badass she pretends to be. In 2017 the nasty guy joked to police officers in New York they should abuse people they arrest. Bush II is known for the “enhanced interrogation” in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Willis asks, if torture has been proven to be ineffective in fighting crime and terrorism, why do conservatives still embrace the barbaric techniques? Willis answers:

Conservatism is weak. Problems like immigration, terrorism, and crime are complex. There is no magical button to make the fallout from these issues disappear. These are systemic issues that have to be addressed from multiple angles, which sometimes involves diplomacy, science, study, and reason. Conservatism would rather tell the public that the bad people will go away as long as they act “tough” instead of addressing root causes, which sometimes can indicate that the United States’ actions created the problem or made the problem worse. The right would rather just back torture and abuse—particularly if the subjects in question have brown skin.

Conservatives love to use strong solutions to show liberal weakness, even though the liberal approach has made progress on many big issues

It’s weak to resort to abuse and torture and posing in front of incarcerated people to get clout with the in-crowd. What is stronger is standing up against abuse and championing human rights.

I feel Willis doesn’t get to the real issue. Republicans claim a higher level in the social hierarchy. People who are obsessed with their position in the hierarchy oppress the levels below them. And torture is very useful in that. Getting to a browser tab that’s been there a while. In a pundit roundup for Kos posted on April 1, Chitown Kev quoted Ian Bogost of The Atlantic discussing the ways the nasty guy has cut billions in federal grants to universities. That has prompted universities to cut staff or freeze hiring and cut back on graduate admissions. Deportations have made international students and faculty scared, lowering foreign admissions which tend to pay full price.

Yes, academic freedom is at stake, along with scientific progress. But the government’s attacks also threaten something far more tangible to future college students and their parents. The entire undergraduate experience at residential four-year schools—the brochure-ready college life that you may once have experienced yourself, and to which your children may aspire—is itself at risk of ruination. Few administrators have talked about this risk in public, but they take a different tone in private as they try to figure out how broken budgets can be fixed. I’ve spent the past month discussing the government’s campaign to weaken higher learning with current and former college presidents, provosts, deans, faculty, and staff. And in the course of these informal, sometimes panicked text exchanges, emails, and phone calls, I’ve come to understand that the damage to our educational system could be worse than the public comprehends—and that calamity could arrive sooner than people expect.

Historian David Blight wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times about the executive order demanding the Smithsonian Institution make some changes. I heard about these demands when they were issued and mentioned them in passing. Now I have a way to share a bit more.

The order’s repeated invocation of the Smithsonian Institution echoes now-familiar right-wing goals outlined in Project 2025 and elsewhere: ending the alleged “woke” agendas on race and gender, creating “parents’ rights” and school choices and promoting history aligned with founders’ “values.” According to the president, “objective facts” have been replaced with a “distorted narrative driven by ideology.” And then comes that penetrating epithet, the order’s organizing logic: the desire to end the “revisionist movement” carried out by unnamed historians. [...] The order is nothing less than a declaration of political war on the historians’ profession, our training and integrity, as well as on the freedom — in the form of curious minds — of anyone who seeks to understand our country by visiting museums or historic sites. [...] Big lies move like viruses in the culture, and though we do have evidence, facts and ethics on our side, there are no vaccines. The crude intent of this order is to further break institutions and to silence historians.

That paragraph about “objective facts” being replaced by “distorted narrative driven by ideology” sounds very much like projection – accusing opponents of doing what they are doing. This is a day for pundit roundups. This second one is from last Saturday and is by Greg Dworkin. He quoted EJ Dionne of The New Republic:

The most conspicuous moment of truth has been for Trump’s supporters in big business and other advocates of a loosely regulated free market. They thought they could get what they wanted out of Trump, mainly lower taxes and less regulation, without having to worry about his very explicit campaign promises to impose tariffs, let alone to do so in a madcap way that now threatens their own wealth. They couldn’t imagine that Trump would happily wreak such havoc in the national and global economies or demolish the entire post–World War II economic system. Why did they miss this? The fact that Trump lies regularly and has few fixed principles has, perversely perhaps, been a source of his political strength. Those who rally to him fool themselves into thinking they can have Trump à la carte. They assume he really means his pledges to policies they like and that he’s lying to the masses when he promises policies they don’t like. All the old nonsense about taking Trump “seriously but not literally” was a way for his apologists to assume he couldn’t really mean the more outlandish things he said. His supporters in business and among the wealthy like to view themselves as gimlet-eyed realists, so the ease with which they were bamboozled is quite remarkable—and is easily measured.

A Ukraine peace deal, though stalled, is still in the news. So this tweet by Ruth Deyermond from last Friday is still appropriate:

Trump admin threats to abandon "peace deal" negotiations would be more worrying if they'd ever shown the slightest interest in actually helping to achieve peace in Ukraine, instead of trying to compel a ceasefire on Russia's terms while grabbing Ukrainian assets.

Paul Offit of Beyond the Noise:

RFK Jr. believes many weird things about the causes, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases. These false beliefs might seem disparate and unrelated, but they’re not. They’re all rooted in a single belief described on pages 285-288 of his book, The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health. In short, RFK Jr. doesn’t believe in the germ theory. He believes in something called the miasma theory. The miasma theory is a long-abandoned medical theory that holds that diseases are caused by poisonous vapors (i.e., miasmata) that are generated by rotting organic matter, such as trash sitting out on the street. According to the miasmists, diseases aren’t passed from one person to another; rather, they are the product of poor hygiene and sanitation.

I first heard about the miasma theory way back in November of 2009 when I read and discussed the book The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. It is about how physician John Snow and cleric Henry Whitehead figured out the cause of the 1854 London cholera outbreak. At the time the miasma theory was used to explain disease outbreak. The sleuthing of Snow and Whitehead to trace the source of the outbreak to a water pump contaminated by bacteria was quite remarkable for the day. That prompted London to create an adequate sewer system, though that took about a decade. Dworkin also quoted a tweet by Craig Fuller:

Many truckers I've spoken with don't realize how quickly container volumes have collapsed. Starting in May, port freight out of California will be almost eliminated. Its going to be a bloodbath in dray, followed by intermodal, and then a collapse in I-20 & I-40 trucking.

The pundit roundup for Sunday was assembled by Kev, who quoted Rosemary (Marah) Al-Kire, Clara L. Wilkins, and Michael Pasek writing for The Conversation.

Our 2024 research, as well as other scholars’ work, suggests that people’s beliefs about anti-Christian discrimination are tied with their attitudes about race. These studies suggest that when politicians talk about anti-Christian bias, it does more than signal a concern and commitment to Christians – it can also serve as a signal of white solidarity. Even though they remain the largest religious and racial groups, white Americans and Christian Americans have both declined as a proportion of the U.S. population. Over the past two decades, the percentage of Christian Americans has decreased from 78% to 63%, and the percentage of white Americans has decreased from 69% to 60%. White Christians now account for less than 50% of the country. Many scholars have argued that, at the root, some white and Christian Americans feel threatened by these demographic shifts. Increasing secularization and other cultural changes have added to some white Christians’ sense that their identity is under attack. According to FBI data, however, only 3% of hate crimes over the past five years targeted Christians. In comparison, 14% targeted Jews, Muslims or Sikhs – groups that make up just 3% of the population. The Public Religion Research Institute found that 55% of white Americans believe discrimination against white people is as much of a problem as discrimination against minority groups. Meanwhile, 60% of white evangelicals say that Christians in the U.S. face discrimination.

Timothy Snyder writing for his “Thinking About...” Substack on the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

In just three months, the Trump people have made the unthinkable much more likely. They have created the conditions for terrorism, and thus for terror management. This is true at several levels. Most obviously, they have debilitated the services that detect terrorist threats and prevent attacks: [the CIA, FBI, DHS, and NSA]. The Musk-Trump people run national security, intelligence, and law enforcement like a television show. The entire operation of forcible rendition of migrants to a Salvadoran concentration camp was based upon lies. It is not just that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistakenly apprehended. The entire thing was made for television. Its point was the creation of the fascist videos. But this is a media strategy, meant to frighten Americans. And a media strategy does not stop actual terrorists. It summons them. Terrorism is a real risk in the real world. The constant use of the word to denote unreal threats creates unreality. And unreality inside ket (sic) institutions degrades capability. Security agencies that have been trained to follow political instructions about imaginary threats do not investigate actual threats. Fiction is dangerous. Treating the administration’s abduction of a legal permanent resident as a heroic defense against terror is not only mendacious and unconstitutional but also dangerous.

In the comments of Wednesday’s roundup are several more cartoons commemorating the death of Pope Francis. One by Steve Greenberg and posted by paulpro shows a smiling Francis and the words, “Pope Francis was really a DEI hire. Devotion, Empathy, Inclusion.” Also posted by paulpro is a cartoon by Antonio Rodriguez Garcia showing Francis on his way to heaven. In one hand is a soccer ball and the other hand is pulling a carryon bag with the Palestinian and LGBTQ rainbow flags. Way down in the comments Sotto Voce posted a cartoon by B. Smaller that had been printed in the New Yorker. It shows a woman talking to a young man. “Just remember, Mr. Big Fancy Libertarian, no one is a self-made man to their mother.” I’ve been a fan of the amazing videos put out by the band OK GO, though I’m not much of a fan of their music. I discussed their videos five times between 2010 and 2016 (sorry, I didn’t spend time finding the links). Just recently I heard an interview of a new video. And I may have missed one or two in the meantime. The video “Love” has a lot of fun with mirrors, both with robots holding mirrors and bigger mirrors used as big kaleidoscopes. At the end the singer puts on a mirrored suit. As usual, the video is amazing. I watched the video about making the Love music video. They used robots because they wanted the mirrors to be moved and held in precise ways that a human wouldn’t be able to do. And each of those robots had to be precisely programmed. Then they had to fit it all together to shoot in one take, though they needed 39 tries. Tomorrow I’m off to a handbell event, returning home late Saturday. So with a movie on Sunday and bell stuff on Monday and Tuesday I probably won’t post again until Wednesday.

Resistance begins in the everyday

The story of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, the man the nasty guy administration is refusing to bring back to the US, continues. Yesterday I reported that Sen. Chris Van Hollen went to El Salvador, but was turned away before getting to the prison. Oliver Willis of Daily Kos reported that the nasty guy administration is freaking out over Democrats attempting a rescue. AG Pam Bondi increased the rhetoric that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist (he’s not). Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened Comcast because their subsidiary MSNBC did not air a briefing that was more propaganda than news (I’m not sure who was briefing who). There were also a few more. Willis concluded:

Democrats are pushing to restore due process, and Republicans have responded by being overly defensive and reflexively dishonest—all while losing more and more public trust.

This morning Willis reported that Sen. Van Hollen did get a chance to meet and talk to Abrego Garcia. Willis does not say what Van Hollen had to do to make it happen. Of course, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele turned the meeting into a photo-op for his own purposes, tweeting that Abrego Garcia “miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen.” That’s a bid to claim his notorious prison is actually pretty nice. “The New York Times reported that an aide to Bukele placed margarita glasses on the table before the men in order to stage the photo.” The photos show Van Hollen, Abrego Garcia (in a civilian shirt), and a third guy (the guard? – he’s in a suit) sitting at a restaurant table. The article and all other news source I’ve heard today do not say that Abrego Garcia returned to the US with Van Hollen. In today’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted USA Today:

The meeting appeared to occur at the hotel Van Hollen had been staying at in San Salvador. Van Hollen’s office declined to release additional information and indicated the senator would hold a news briefing on April 18.

I had written about the deals big law firms were making with the nasty guy, agreeing to offer up millions of dollars worth of legal aid. I quoted someone who noted these agreements appear to not be on paper. The New York Times reported they may now wish that paper existed (and I’m surprised that a law firm wouldn't do that as a matter of procedure). Or maybe it is on paper but left in too vague terms.

It is also not clear how hard and how far Mr. Trump will push the notion that those deals now leave many of the nation’s biggest, most prestigious and best-resourced firms at his beck and call. There is no indication yet that he has sought to deploy any of them on a particular issue. But the emerging gap between what the firms initially thought they agreed to and what Mr. Trump says they can be used for shows how the deals did little to insulate them from his whims. Further demands on the firms from Mr. Trump could raise the potential for conflicts with paying clients and could further fuel internal dissension.

The UnPopulist is keeping track of abuses of power by the executive branch:

We've divided presidential abuses of power into five categories: the 5 Ps. Personal Grift Political Corruption Presidential Retribution Power Consolidation Policy Illegality

This Executive Watch is here. Derek Thompson tweeted:

We really did it. We took a growing US manufacturing economy, declared it broken, started a trade war, and ... broke US manufacturing.

Thompson included details and charts. Alex Samuels of Kos reported last Monday:

Harvard University just became the first school to push back against President Donald Trump’s crusade against higher education—and it’s setting up one hell of a showdown. On Monday, Harvard formally rejected the White House’s sweeping demands to ban masks, eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs—including for admissions and hiring—and implement ideological screenings for international students, among other things. ... But [Harvard attorneys] made one thing clear: Harvard is not “prepared to agree to demands that go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.”

In a message to the university Garber wrote:

No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.

Part of the nasty guy’s demands were to cut programs that “fuel antisemitic harassment.” I’ve already discussed how phony this is considering how antisemitic the nasty guy is. Samuels says this is about raw power, threatening federal funding to bring Harvard under his control. This dispute is likely headed to the courts. On Tuesday Samuels reported on the nasty guy’s response to Harvard. He froze $2.3 billion in federal funds and is “reviewing” another $7 billion in federal contracts and grants. He threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax exempt status because he claims it is now a political entity.

And while the White House keeps claiming this is about antisemitism, the actual demands tell a different story: Trump wants to use the federal purse to control what’s taught on college campuses and who gets to be there. Harvard was told to crack down on student groups, encourage anonymous tip lines, and cooperate with federal law enforcement. And while the Trump administration says the alleged violations are mostly tied to the university, the fallout could hit local hospitals the hardest.

Of course, Republican members of Congress support this attack on universities. The nasty guy won’t get any pushback from them. Universities need to band together to resist. This doesn’t stop at Harvard. In Thursday’s pundit roundup Chitown Kev quoted Matthew Tobin of the Harvard Crimson who wrote that while he praised University President Alan Garber for standing up to the nasty guy, Garber didn’t go far enough.

The University was the face of defending affirmative action in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case; it allocated $100 million to the Legacy of Slavery initiative; Harvard’s presidents, including Drew G. Faust and Lawrence S. Bacow, weren’t afraid to stand up to the political powers that be. Harvard was, for a time, higher education’s champion. Basically, DEI was in vogue. [...] Disappointedly, Harvard hasn’t met the bar. Garber’s letter, while undoubtedly brave, also seems to appease Trump in several instances. At no point did Garber defend the value of diversity, equity, or inclusion — except to say that Harvard will expand “intellectual and viewpoint diversity,” in line with Trump’s demands. Furthermore, Garber implicitly acquiesced to the Trump Administration’s interpretation of SFFA v. Harvard, agreeing that the University will not “make decisions ‘on the basis of race.’” Importantly, the interpretation propagated by Trump’s Administration is a dubious extrapolation of the original decision, which concerned only college admissions. Rather than agreeing with this new and larger limitation, Garber could have reiterated that the University’s DEI programs serve all students — the same argument made by the Dean of Students Office. If the University wants to show that it cares about diversity, it needs to do more than just say no to Trump.

Molson Hart of Ars Technica wrote 14 reasons why high tariffs won’t bring back manufacturing to the US. Here’s a bit from reason #3.

Apple knows how to build an iPhone but may not know how to make the individual components. It may seem trivial to make that glass that separates your finger from the electronic engineering that powers your ability to access the Internet, but it’s difficult. ... People trivialize the complexity and difficulty of manufacturing when it’s really hard. And if we don’t know how to make something, it doesn’t matter what the tariff is. It won’t get made in America.

Deborah Brown of Just Security has big concerns of the DOGE idea of collapsing all of the government’s departmental database into one gigantic and centralize database.

A massive centralized government database could easily be used for a range of abusive purposes, like to discriminate against current federal employees and future job applicants on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, or to facilitate the deportation of immigrants. It could result in people forgoing public services out of fear that their data will be weaponized against them by another federal agency. ... Information silos exist for a reason. Personal data should be collected for a determined, specific, and legitimate purpose, and not used for another purpose without notice or justification, according to the key internationally recognized data protection principle, “purpose limitation.” Sharing data seamlessly across federal or even state agencies in the name of an undefined and unmeasurable goal of efficiency is incompatible with this core data protection principle.

Natalia Viana of Agência Pública (courtesy of World Crunch with a translation by Irene Caselli):

For those living there, it’s an exasperating realization — one we incorporated generations ago in Latin America — that an authoritarian regime isn’t upheld only by decisions made at the top, but by how that authoritarianism seeps into the fabric of society. This is how the hunger for power goes to the head of the policeman around the corner, or to the so-called good citizen next door, who under a far-right government, suddenly decide to keep an eye on you. Although the neo-fascists in the White House want the world to believe they wield absolute power — not just over the United States but over the globe — the truth is, politics doesn’t play out solely in palaces. Americans are about to learn that resistance begins in the everyday; that surrendering your liberties out of fear is the first step toward total defeat

In the comments exlrrp posted a meme by Adam Parkhomenko, a Democratic strategist expanding on the idea that if the nasty guy can send immigrants to a prison in El Salvador without due process he can also send citizens without due process.

I guess it’s good to know that the next Democratic president can ship Trump and his cabinet off to a Central American prison without a trial and we won’t ever have to worry about them coming back!

Farther down exlrrp posted another meme: “The man who ran a fake university wants to lecture Harvard. The irony is wearing a MAGA hat.” Jon Ostrove created a cartoon of the vice nasty standing in front of his Yale Law School diploma. He imagines the vice nasty’s words:

There are so many criminals!! Who could possibly expect that every single one of them gets “due process?!” This is nothing but a liberal hand-wringing to slow down our best fascist initiatives with “fake legal process.” And I know all about this stuff. I have a JD from Yale hanging on my wall! I’m so JD they even call me that!”

A footnote says the “fake legal process” is from the Constitution’s Amendments 5 and 14. Emily Singer of Kos wrote that the nasty guy is turning the White House into Mar-a-Lago on the taxpayer’s expense.

Trump has gilded the furniture, affixed gold ornaments to the Oval Office fireplace, added gold sculptures and picture frames, and reportedly installed a gold Trump crest over the doorway into the White House. He even ordered his and Vice President JD Vance’s portraits to be reprinted with a gold border because he wanted the pictures to “catch the light,” the WSJ reported. “It’s the Golden Office for the Golden Age,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the WSJ.

He also wants to add a gilded ballroom to the White House and has a plan to pave over the rose garden. Yeah, that much gold is tacky. And while he’s doing that he’s directing departments and agencies to cut services to the poor. It reminds me of touring the estates of German princes, built back before the country was unified and there were some 300 different princely territories. One goal in each of these grand homes is to impress fellow princes – my place is more expensive than yours! Previous presidents had the attitude we’re not kings. We don’t need to and shouldn’t dress up the office to look like a throne room.