The Conversation -- April 6, 2025
digby has much more on the protests. Thanks to RAS for the link. Gotta love the West Virginia White lady with the sign that reads, "What Cory Said." It's hard to give up when you see that kind of spunk and solidarity.
"We'll Be the Ones Eating the Cats and the Dogs": ~~~
Erik Uebelacker of Courthouse News: “A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Trump administration had violated his order to halt sweeping freezes to federal funding by withholding Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to at least 19 states. It seemed to be a 'covert' effort to punish states with so-called sanctuary laws for immigrants, the judge said. In March, U.S. District Judge John McConnell issued a preliminary injunction in favor of 23 states that sued the government over its plan to implement a broad pause to state aid. The Barack Obama appointee ruled that the plan 'fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government,' and ordered the Trump administration to 'immediately end any funding pause' until further notice. But on Friday, McConnell found the Trump administration in breach of the court’s order. At least 19 states — all with Democratic attorney generals, and all of which had sued to stop the funding cuts — 'presented undisputed evidence' that they were not receiving congressionally approved FEMA funding from the federal government, the judge ruled.” Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Do bear in mind that the failure to follow the court's order is not just as oopsie! Rather, it's part of "a full-scale attack on democracy" and move toward autocracy, as Paul Blumenthal lays out in his HuffPost column linked below.
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Shaila Dewan, et al., of the New York Times: “Demonstrators had no shortage of causes as they gathered in towns and cities across the country on Saturday to protest ... [Donald] Trump’s agenda. Rallies were planned in all 50 states, and images posted on social media showed dense crowds in places as diverse as St. Augustine, Fla.; Salt Lake City and rainy Frankfort, Ky.... While crowd sizes are difficult to estimate, organizers said that more than 600,000 people had signed up to participate and that events also took place in U.S. territories and a dozen locations across the globe. On Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the protest stretched for nearly 20 blocks. In Chicago, thousands flooded Daley Plaza and adjacent streets, while, in the nation’s capital, tens of thousands surrounded the Washington Monument. In Atlanta, the police estimated the crowd marching to the gold-domed statehouse at over 20,000. Mr. Trump, who was playing golf in Florida on Saturday, appeared to be largely ignoring the protests.” ~~~
~~~ Here's the Washington Post's story. The NPR report is here. The Guardian's story is here. The AP report is here. All reports include multiple photos. ~~~
~~~ Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: “You Can Stop Asking Where the Mass Opposition Is. It’s Everywhere.... You could meet a dozen people and hear at least a dozen different existential threats. Hands off Social Security. Hands off public health grants. Hands off student visas. Hands off women. Hands off trans people. Hands off our tax dollars. Hands off Greenland. Hands off books. Hands off 401ks. Hands off immigrants. Hands off Mahmoud Khalil. Hands off grocery prices. Hands off unions. I even talked to a woman clutching a sign that said 'Hands off Libby' — the popular e-reader for public library systems which is now in jeopardy thanks to massive cuts to the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. This barrage of grievances offered a snapshot of the new Trump administration’s multi-front war on modernity. But it also got at something essential about the current anti-Trump movement. People weren’t taking action just to protest what the president and his movement represented, but because of visceral fear ... of what he had already done, and that once impossible things were now very much possible.”
This is in my mind a culmination of what he has already started, which is a methodical effort to destabilize and undermine our democracy so that he can assume much greater power. A lot of people are not talking about it because it’s not the most pressing issue of that particular day. [But an attack on democracy] is actually in motion and people need to recognize that it is not hypothetical or speculative anymore. -- Rep. Daniel Goldman [D-N.Y.] & lead counsel during Trump’s first impeachment, in an interview. ~~~
Peter Baker of the New York Times: Donald Trump “is saying that he may try to hold onto power even after the Constitution stipulates that he must give it up, and ... he insists he is not joking.... The fact that Mr. Trump has inserted the idea into the national conversation illustrates the uncertainty about the future of America’s constitutional system, nearly 250 years after the country gained independence.... After all, Mr. Trump already tried once to hold onto power in defiance of the Constitution when he sought to overturn the 2020 election despite losing. He later called for 'termination' of the Constitution to return himself to the White House without a new election.... In the Trump era, the journey from unthinkable to reality has been remarkably short. Mr. Trump’s autocratic tendencies and disregard for constitutional norms are well documented. In this second term alone, he has already sought to overrule birthright citizenship embedded in the 14th Amendment, effectively co-opted the power of Congress to determine what money will be spent or agencies closed, purged the uniformed leadership of the armed forces to enforce greater personal loyalty and punished dissent in academia, the news media, the legal profession and the federal bureaucracy.”
Paul Blumenthal of the Huffington Post: “In his first 2 1/2 months in office..., Donald Trump has embraced sweeping arbitrary executive power in a manner not previously seen in American history. He is circumventing Congress, ignoring the courts and using the power of the state to crush any opposition to his agenda. This is a turn away from liberal democracy and toward autocracy.... This turn toward autocracy is not coming from the point of a gun ... but instead through assertions of law.... What we are seeing at the outset of the second Trump administration is a full-scale attack on democracy, liberal principles, and the rule of law that have been enshrined in legal precedents and the Constitution.... A peacetime assault of this scale and national scope directed from the White House has no historical analogue in this country.... From Hungary to Turkey to Poland to Russia to India, democracies collapse into autocracy not after a strongman seizes control of the military or through violent coups but through legal machinations that cement their control and neuter their opposition. They don’t necessarily end elections or entirely eliminate their opponents. Instead, they put their thumb on the scale to ensure elections go their way and that their opponents are weak.”
New York Times Editors: “... the most likely path to American autocracy depends on not only a power-hungry president but also the voluntary capitulation of a cowed civil society.... Anybody who has dealt with a schoolyard bully should recognize [that] the illusion of invincibility is often his greatest asset.... Taking on the president of the United States requires courage.... A crucial fact about ... agreements [lawfirms have made with Mr. Trump] is that they include no binding promises from the White House. Mr. Trump can threaten the firms again whenever he chooses and demand further concessions.... Their meekness is ultimately self-defeating.... The firms have just signaled their willingness to abandon clients that have fallen into disfavor with the federal government. That does not seem like a quality one would want in an attorney.... The three law firms that have filed suits to block Mr. Trump’s executive orders — Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie and WilmerHale — provide a model [of correct responses to Mr. Trump's bullying]. So far, they are winning in court... [Victory over the Trump autocracy] calls for solidarity, especially for institutions that Mr. Trump has not (yet) targeted.”
“A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH.” Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: “The financial market meltdown was underway when ... [Donald] Trump boarded Air Force One on his way to Florida on Thursday for a doubleheader of sorts: a Saudi-backed golf tournament at his family’s Miami resort and a weekend of fund-raisers attracting hundreds of donors to his Palm Beach club. It was a fresh reminder that in his second term, Mr. Trump has continued to find ways to drive business to his family-owned real-estate ventures, a practice he has sustained even when his work in Washington has caused worldwide financial turmoil.... The Trump family monetization weekend started Thursday night.... Every room at the 643-room Trump Doral, including the $13,000-a-night presidential suite, was sold out through the weekend. Not a seat could be found at the BLT Prime steakhouse bar, where a porterhouse steak cost $130. 'This is the perfect venue,' Eric Trump said as he strolled the golf course Friday.... The president spent much of Friday at yet another Trump family venue, Trump International Golf Club, not far from Mar-a-Lago, sending out social media messages during the day, including, 'THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE.'”
Trump's One-Two Punch on Older Americans' Financial Security. Pamela Herd & Don Moynihan on Substack: "Many Americans are watching their retirement savings melt away because of ... [Donald] Trump’s disastrous trade policies.... Social Security is also under attack. Think of it as a two-pronged assault on Americans’ financial stability." The writers go on to describe how Social Security is already beginning to crash under the Trumpian concentration on fake concern about barely-existent waste, fraud & abuse.
David Sanger & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: “When ... [Donald] Trump abruptly fired the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command on Thursday, it was the latest in a series of moves that have torn away at the country’s cyberdefenses just as they are confronting the most sophisticated and sustained attacks in the nation’s history. The commander, General Timothy D. Haugh..., had been among the American officials most deeply involved in pushing back on Russia, dating to his work countering Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election. His dismissal came after weeks in which the Trump administration swept away nearly all of the government’s election-related cyberdefenses beyond the secure N.S.A. command centers at Fort Meade, Md. At the same time, the administration has shrunk much of the nation’s complex early-warning system for cyberattacks, a web through which tech firms work with the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies to protect the power grid, pipelines and telecommunications networks. Cybersecurity experts, election officials and lawmakers — mostly Democrats but a few Republicans — have begun to raise alarms that the United States is knocking down a system that, while still full of holes, has taken a decade to build. It has pushed out some of its most experienced cyberdefenders and fired younger talent brought in to design defenses against a wave of ransomware, Chinese intrusions and vulnerabilities created by artificial intelligence.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Julian Barnes of the New York Times: “General Haugh was ousted because Laura Loomer, a far-right wing conspiracy theorist and Trump adviser, had accused him and his deputy of disloyalty, according to U.S. officials and Ms. Loomer’s social media post early Friday. He was one of several national security officials fired this past week on her advice.... 'If decades of experience in uniform isn’t enough to lead the N.S.A. but amateur isolationists can hold senior policy jobs at the Pentagon, then what exactly are the criteria for working on this administration’s national security staff?' [Sen. Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.] said.... 'I fear this is just the hourly installment in the Laura Loomer clown car aspect of this administration,' [Rep. James] Himes [D-Conn.] said.... 'In many cases [the administration is firing] some of our most valuable people. And this very directly makes us less safe.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Washington Post Editors: “If not for ... Donald Trump’s self-inflicted wounds from the tariffs he unveiled on Wednesday, the biggest White House story this past week might have been his purge of six National Security Council staffers and the top two officials at the National Security Agency.... Trump says he wants to be known as the most transparent president in U.S. history. In that case, he should explain to Americans why so many political appointees whom he placed in critical security jobs only three months ago needed to be fired so soon. [Far-right conspiracy theorist Laura] Loomer[, who took credit for the firings,] suggested there had been a 'vetting failure.'” Trump needs to answer how firing Gen. Timothy Haugh makes the U.S. safer.
Marie: The New York Times, which until this year hovered near the top of both-sider journalism purity, is finally doing its job. Since Trump took office, reporters -- both when doing straight reporting and when doing what the Times labels as "analysis" -- have called out Trump and his flunkies for their unwise, unlawful, unconstitutional, cruel and incompetent actions.
Oh My! Ben Berkowitz of Axios: "Elon Musk blasted top Trump administration trade adviser Peter Navarro and told an Italian political gathering he wants more free trade, not less.... The two-day rout in the stock market this week, after Trump announced sweeping new tariffs backed by Navarro, cost Musk nearly $18 billion just on his Tesla stock. By wading into the tariff debate, a subject he's mostly stayed away from, Musk could inject more uncertainty into U.S. efforts to re-order the global economy.... Friday morning, a user on Musk's social media platform X defended the controversial Navarro as a skilled voice on tariffs, citing his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard. Musk, in a reply in the early hours of Saturday morning, disagreed. 'A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,' he wrote, suggesting it resulted in having more ego than brains. Another user stepped in to defend Navarro as right on trade, to which Musk replied 'He ain't built s--t.'" (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. More on Elon in Europe linked below.
⭐Anthony Ha of TechCrunch: "DOGE reportedly [is] planning a hackathon to build ‘mega API’ for IRS data. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plans to host a hackathon next week focused on the creation of a 'mega API' that will provide access to taxpayer data, according to Wired. Wired says the hackathon is being organized by two DOGE staffers at the Internal Revenue Service — Gavin Kliger and Sam Corcos, who’s also CEO at healthtech startup Levels. Corcos has reportedly been telling others at DOGE that his goal is to build 'one new API to rule them all.' This would make it easy for cloud providers to access IRS data including taxpayer names, addresses, social security numbers, tax returns, and employment information, which could all be exported to external systems. According to Wired, a third-party party vendor would manage parts of the project, with Palantir [MB: founded by Peter Thiel] 'consistently' brought up as a candidate.”
Edward Wong & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that he was revoking the visas of all South Sudan passport holders because the country’s transitional government had refused to accept in a 'timely manner' citizens who were being deported by the Trump administration. Mr. Rubio also said in a social media post that he would 'restrict any further issuance to prevent entry' of South Sudanese, blaming the 'failure of South Sudan’s transitional government' to accept the repatriations.... Mr. Rubio’s action is similar to one that ... [Donald] Trump announced in late January, when he threatened Colombian officials with revocation of their visas and tariffs on the country’s exports because they were refusing to accept U.S. military flights with Colombian deportees. In that case, Colombia reversed its decision quickly.” The AP's report is here.
Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: “Government attorneys slammed a judge’s order to return a Salvadoran immigrant to the United States, arguing in a Saturday filing that the judge’s directive was 'indefensible' and that the United States has 'no authority' to make a sovereign nation release the man. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis directed the administration to arrange the return of Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran immigrant married to a U.S. citizen, by no later than 11:59 p.m. Monday. The Justice Department’s response asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to step in and immediately pause Xinis’s order.... The appeal argues at length that the government has no power to return Abrego García because he is in the custody of the Salvadoran government, though the Trump administration says it is paying El Salvador about $6 million for the detention of deportees.” MB: Oh, let me think: how could the U.S. possibly persuade El Salvador to release one of the prisoners in its “custody”?
~~~ The AP report is here. MB: BTW, it's so embarrassing when a government lawyer does the right thing ~~~
~~~ Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “A senior Justice Department immigration lawyer was put on indefinite leave Saturday after questioning the Trump administration’s decision to deport a Maryland man to El Salvador — one day after representing the government in court. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche suspended Erez Reuveni, the acting deputy director of the department’s immigration litigation division, for failing to 'follow a directive from your superiors.'... Mr. Reuveni — who was praised as a 'top-notched' prosecutor by his superiors in an email announcing his promotion two weeks ago — is the latest career official to be suspended, demoted, transferred or fired for refusing to comply with a directive from ... [Donald] Trump’s appointees to take actions they deem improper or unethical....
“Under questioning by a federal judge on Friday, Mr. Reuveni conceded that the deportation last month of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who had a court order allowing him to stay in the United States, should never have taken place. Mr. Reuveni also said he had been frustrated when the case landed on his desk. Mr. Reuveni, a respected 15-year veteran of the immigration division, asked the judge for 24 hours to persuade his 'client,' the Trump administration, to begin the process of retrieving and repatriating Mr. Abrego Garcia. Less than 24 hours later, Mr. Blanche..., [Mr.] Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer, accused Mr. Reuveni of 'engaging in conduct prejudicial to your client.' Mr. Blanche suspended Mr. Reuveni with pay, cut off access to his work email and blocked him from performing any duties related to his job.” ~~~
~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: DOJ attorney Erez “Reuveni was noticeably unenthusiastic about the government’s position in the case, telling U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis that he had urged his 'clients' to take steps to bring Abrego Garcia back. The lawyer also said he’d been rebuffed in his attempts to get more information to offer the court about why officials deemed him to be a member of MS-13.... Toward the end of Friday’s hearing, Reuveni pleaded with Xinis to hold off her ruling for 24 hours so he could beseech the government to change its position.”
Unfuckingbelievable! Edward Wong & Hannah Beech of the New York Times: “Trump administration officials have fired workers for the main American aid agency who were sent to Myanmar to assess how the United States could help with earthquake relief efforts, three people with knowledge of the actions said. The firings, done Friday while the workers were in the rubble-strewn city of Mandalay, raise doubts about Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s stated commitment to continuing some humanitarian and crisis aid even as the aid organization, the U.S. Agency for International Development, is dismantled by the Trump administration.... Trump appointees continue to cut humanitarian aid contracts, say employees.... When asked by a reporter on Friday in Brussels about the inability of the United States to provide substantial aid to Myanmar, Mr. Rubio said that other large countries, including China and India, should step up in global foreign aid as the United States cuts back.... [He said] 'we already have people there.'” MB: Yeah, but he didn't say it was only three people and he just fired them. (Also linked yesterday.)
Lives are at risk. -- Mary Glackin, a top NOAA official during the Bush II & Obama administrations ~~~
~~~ Dan Diamond & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: “... FDA inspectors['] ... jobs have been mostly preserved amid the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the federal government. But the people who help support those inspections haven’t fared so well. More than 150 people in the FDA’s Office of Inspections and Investigations — the staff responsible for purchasing supplies, managing trips and coordinating other administrative functions — were laid off last week.... So were staff dedicated to food-safety policies and regulations, including an entire office that partnered with foreign countries to handle food-related disease outbreaks. Meanwhile, the FDA’s top food safety official — a position created after the infant formula crisis — resigned in February, citing 'indiscriminate' staffing cuts to his office.... Across the government..., Donald Trump and his allies have sliced billions of dollars and tens of thousands of staff from agencies focused on health and safety, such as the FDA..., [FEMA and NOAA] — cuts that are hollowing out longtime federal offices, shedding expertise, and appear to go against Trump’s repeated campaign promises to make Americans healthier and safer.
“The chorus of experts issuing warnings about the cuts include career civil servants who worked under both GOP and Democratic presidents, Republican lawmakers and former Trump officials who held top positions in the president’s first term. Many said that the moves reflect a shifting of risk from the federal government to states and cities that have more limited resources to prepare for natural disasters, public health crises and other threats. They also predicted the cuts would place new burdens on average Americans....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: As I wrote yesterday, the costs of covering the "savings" the Musk/Trump administration claims will have to come from somewhere else. Now I see experts are backing me up. BTW, in some cases, those "savings" could ultimately cost Americans much more than they saved in their federal tax payments; case on point: ~~~
~~~ Anna Phillips, et al., of the Washington Post: “As Trump’s second administration looks to slash federal spending, money given to states by the federal government after disasters strike could also be in jeopardy. The president has said he wants to eliminate FEMA and shift responsibility for disaster response to the states — which experts said are unprepared to respond to catastrophic disasters without federal assistance. The preparedness grant program, known as Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities [BRIC], had made more than $5 billion available since 2020 to help local projects that reduce the impact of disasters. The agency plans to review earlier grants and claw back funding for those that have not yet been paid out.... 'BRIC was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program,' [a FEMA spokeswoman] said in a statement. 'It was more concerned with climate change than helping Americans effected by natural disasters.'” MB: Right: because it's much better to incur billions of dollars in natural disaster damage -- not to mention the heartbreak, loss of life and property destruction -- than to spend millions preventing disasters.
Time for Some Clear-cutting! Angie Hernandez of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration has removed environmental protections covering more than half of the land managed by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the president’s aim to significantly bolster the U.S. logging industry. In a memo issued Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said 'heavy-handed federal policies' have prevented the United States from making use of its 'abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs.' The directive ... comes a month after ... Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking changes to forest management to increase timber production by 25 percent. Rollins added that, of the land that fell under the directive, almost 67 million acres were determined to be at a 'very high' or 'high' wildfire risk, and almost 79 million acres were experiencing 'declining forest health' from insects and disease.... Rollins’s memo, which does not make a reference to climate change, instructed Forest Service field leadership to fast-track timber production by removing National Environmental Policy Act regulations....
“But forestry experts ... warned during similar efforts in Trump’s first term that you can’t log your way out of fire danger, The Washington Post reported. Removing large, fire-resistant trees also gives way to young trees that are more susceptible to fires.” MB: Huh. I guess the loggers aren't planning to sweep the forest floors while they're there. The AP's report is here.
Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: “Soon after the new administration arrived, things began to go missing from the White House website. They weren’t just the partisan policy platforms that typically disappear during a presidential transition. Informational pages about the Constitution and past presidents, up in various forms since President George W. Bush was in office, all vanished. Thousands of other government web pages had also been taken down or modified, including content about vaccines, hate crimes, low-income children, opioid addiction and veterans, before a court order temporarily blocked part of the sweeping erasure.... As data and resources are deleted or altered, something foundational is also at risk: Americans’ ability to access and evaluate their past, and with it, their already shaky trust in facts. 'This is not a cost-cutting mechanism,' said Kenny Evans ... [of] Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.... 'This slide toward secrecy and lack of transparency is an erosion of democratic norms.'
“The casualties are not just digital. The head of the National Archives..., 'the custodian of America’s collective memory,' was fired by Mr. Trump in February.... The Institute of Museum and Library Services, was named in an executive order calling for its elimination ... (its acting director said he planned to 'restore focus on patriotism').... As senior [U.S.A.I.D.] official told employees to shred or burn classified documents and personnel files.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Now, Here Is Some Whitewashing! Jon Swaine & Jeremy Merrill of the Washington Post: “For years, a National Park Service webpage introduced the Underground Railroad with a large photograph of its most famous 'conductor,' Harriet Tubman.... Tubman’s photograph is now gone. In its place are images of Postal Service stamps that highlight 'Black/White cooperation' in the secret network and that feature Tubman among abolitionists of both races.... 'The Underground Railroad — the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight, through the end of the Civil War — refers to the efforts of enslaved African Americans to gain their freedom by escaping bondage,' the page [once] began.... The introductory sentence ... has been replaced by a line that makes no mention of slavery and that describes the Underground Railroad as 'one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement.' The effort 'bridged the divides of race,' the page now says. The executive order that ... Donald Trump issued late last month directing the Smithsonian Institution to eliminate 'divisive narratives' stirred fears that the president aimed to whitewash the stories the nation tells about itself. But a Washington Post review of websites operated by the National Park Service ... found that edits on dozens of pages ... have already softened descriptions of some of the most shameful moments of the nation’s past.”
James Poniewozik of the New York Times: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's “social feed is one example of the administration’s turn to reality-TV tactics — slick, showy, sometimes cruel — as a means of government.... Since she took office in January, the secretary’s online video presence has been helping a media-minded administration broadcast images of unsparing domination with a telegenic face.... [Her] videos take care to make her look the part, dress the part and play the part against scenic backdrops.... As the face of [the administration's] immigration-enforcement project, she wears and is framed by accouterments of inviolable authority. She goes out with ICE, wearing a police vest and declaring, like Andy Sipowicz in 'NYPD Blue,' 'We are getting the dirt bags off these streets.'[Meanwhile,] The secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, a former Fox TV host, loads his X feed with images of himself working out in the gym and meeting with the mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor, underscoring his feed’s recurrent theme of politicized hypermasculinity. The official White House account is rife with boasting and taunting posts, many drawing on meme formats from the dank corners of the internet.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: They really have no idea that they come across to normal people as the most foolish of cartoon villains. See Akhilleus' commentary in Saturday's thread.
Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Last March, when Rob Bresnahan, Jr., a wealthy business executive, was running to represent a competitive House district in northeastern Pennsylvania, he published a letter to the editor in a local newspaper demanding an end to stock trading by members of Congress.... If elected, Mr. Bresnahan told voters, he would co-sponsor legislation to ban stock trading by members of Congress, a practice he said 'needs to come to an end immediately.' More than two months after being sworn in, Mr. Bresnahan, who defeated a Democratic incumbent last November in one of the most expensive House races in the country, has not introduced or co-sponsored such a bill. Over that time, he has emerged as one of the most active stock traders in the freshman class, according to Capitol Trades.... Since he took office in January, Mr. Bresnahan has reported 264 stock trades, according to the site. He has purchased up to $1.7 million in stock since taking office, according to his periodic transaction report, and has sold up to $3.03 million.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Congratulations, Rob! You made the front page of the New York Times! Putz.
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U.K. Bus Stop Ad: “Tesla. The Swasticar. Goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds.” Michael Shear of the New York Times: “Across [London] and in several European cities, [Elon] Musk’s signature business has become the target of the same kind of political anger that has fueled vandalism of Tesla cars in the United States and sometimes violent protests at his dealerships. There have been some instances of unruly protests and vandalism in Europe. But much of the anti-Musk sentiment has taken the form of political satire, of the kind that has flourished in Britain since at least the 18th century.... 'Nobody who is that rich and powerful has behaved that outrageously,' [said] John Gorenfeld..., who helped start a London-based group called 'Takedown Tesla.' 'There’s something campy and ridiculous about Musk’s brand of toxicity. And it opens up a real space to ridicule.'... The small anti-Musk groups that have popped up around Europe have the same basic goal: Tank Tesla’s stock price and sales as a way of sending a message to Mr. Musk and other super-wealthy people who are thinking of promoting far-right politics around the world.”
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Biweekly weekend sermon:
THINKING IS CRITICAL
Years ago on my university class Facebook page, someone I didn’t know responded to a letter I had written to the Skagit Valley Herald by telling me to move to Venezuela. It took me a bit aback. Not only did I not know this person, but he had not attended my university. A total stranger, in other words, who decided the best way to counter my opinion was to banish me to what he thought was a communist country.
I remember that moment for two reasons. It taught me the internet is open to everyone and everything. It also reminded me of how often people deal with things that they don’t like by ignoring the message and attacking the messenger.
My critic had no interest in doing the hard work that critical thinking demands. He didn’t say why I was wrong. He didn’t dispute either my logic or my facts. He just told me to go away.
I recalled the times I’d tried to instill critical thinking skills in my students. Good thinking is active thinking, I’d say. When you hear or read something, don’t just accept it. Engage with the material. Ask questions as you read or listen. Is it reasonable? Is it fact-based? Should it make you question what you already know and believe? Is it worthy of further study and reflection?
As I said, critical thinking is a lot of work. It can also cause a lot of trouble.
Because society expects and enforces compliance, it frequently views unfavorably those who think outside some of its assigned boxes. That’s true when as children we ask “why” one too many times and prompt the parental “because I told you so” that ends the discussion. As we age, we often meet the same answer from society’s authorities. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, when both World War II and the Korean Conflict were still fresh in memory, many disturbed by the growing anti-Vietnam War sentiment had the same response. The Vietnam War was not to be questioned. Even the critical thinking the government did about it was suppressed. Four years elapsed between the time Defense Secretary Robert McNamara commissioned the Pentagon Papers study in 1967 and their partial publication in The New York Times in 1971. Those who didn’t want the study made public knew the Pentagon Papers did not make a strong case for the war, so they hid the facts.
Put another way, courage is fundamental to thinking critically. It requires we set our ego aside and question our assumptions and emotions. It requires we welcome, yet question other points of view. Most of all, it relies on a lively curiosity about our world, our culture, and ourselves.
But curiosity prompts questions, and while curiosity may not have killed the cat, it is the arch enemy of complacency. Those who ask questions soon learn that many don’t want their comfortable worlds examined too closely.
To make critical thinking even more difficult, we now face a well-funded army of foreign and domestic political operatives misleading us with “alternative facts,” revised history, or propaganda disguised as news.
In February, in its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion purge, Jackie Robinson was initially erased from the Defense Department’s website, as was Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian, one of the Marines in the famous WWII photo of American soldiers raising the flag on Iwo Jima (reuters.com). Following significant online backlash, the Robinson entry was restored. Ira Hayes was, too, but edited to downplay his ethnicity (snopes.com) .
Under Robert Kennedy, Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services is moving to cast doubt on the proven effectiveness and safety of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine while it downplays measles outbreaks in multiple states that together now report over 500 cases (forbes.com; nbcnews.com).
The administration is threatening universities it says have countenanced campus antisemitism, deliberately blurring the distinction between antisemitism and legitimate questions about Israel’s actions in Gaza that have killed over 50,000 Palestinians (apnews.com). Like many “either/or” propositions which ignore “both,” this one, too, is flawed.
Asked about the revelation that national security leaders used an unsecured app shared with the editor of The Atlantic to discuss an impending air and missile strike on the Houthis in Yemen, the president said he knew nothing about it and attacked both the reporter and his magazine as “failures.” (newrepublic.com)
And in Seattle, amusing as it is outrageous, are new signs on a federally funded construction project that credit the Trump administration for Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure and Jobs Act (seattletimes.com).
Though Abraham Lincoln told us, “You can’t fool all of the people all of the time,” the current administration is sure trying.
I hope America’s critical thinkers prove Lincoln was right.
No real surprise that Laura Loomer is calling our national security shots.
After all, we have a vaccine denier in charge of the nation's health.
An enemy of the environment protecting it.
An injustice department dispensing justice.
And a proud barbarian chairing the Kennedy Center.
A confederacy of dunces? No doubt. But more disturbing to me: We have a collection of cranks in charge. Not just stupid, but wrong about everything.
As a lifelong member of the 'comfort class' - some years poor but never financially insecure - this piece by Xochitl Gonzalez, in The Atlantic clicked as an explanation of the ways democrats have lost a segment of voters.
What the Comfort Class Doesn’t Get
"America is not just suffering from a wealth gap; America has the equivalent of a class apartheid. Our systems—of education, credentialing, hiring, housing, and electing officials—are dominated and managed by members of a 'comfort class.' These are people who were born into lives of financial stability. They graduate from college with little to no debt, which enables them to advance in influential but relatively low-wage fields—academia, media, government, or policy work. Many of them rarely interact or engage in a meaningful way with people living in different socioeconomic strata than their own. And their disconnect from the lives of the majority has expanded to such a chasm that their perspective—and authority—may no longer be relevant."
----
Of course, the rejection of the teaching of critical thinking skills, as in Texas, surely is a factor too.
Hands Off
FEMA Funds
"A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Trump administration had violated his order to halt sweeping freezes to federal funding by withholding Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to at least 19 states. It seemed to be a “covert” effort to punish states with so-called sanctuary laws for immigrants, the judge said.
But on Friday, McConnell found the Trump administration in breach of the court’s order. At least 19 states — all with Democratic attorney generals, and all of which had sued to stop the funding cuts — “presented undisputed evidence” that they were not receiving congressionally approved FEMA funding from the federal government, the judge ruled."
@laura hunter: Good point, but I think Trump just gave a rude awakening to many people in the "comfort class" as they watched their net worth tumble this past week. Those who escaped major losses in the 2008 financial crash probably have been assuring themselves as they listened to people crying about various devastating financial losses that "It could never happen to me." They are now seeing it happen to them.
Since I got married in the early 1990s and became more financially secure (but definitely not well-to-do!), I have not paid a lot of attention to my personal finances. During the 2008 meltdown, there was many a day when I would go into our media room to tell my husband dinner was ready, and he would say, "We lost $20,000 today," or some figure like that. Once or twice I asked him, "Will we lose the roof over our heads," and when he said, "No," I was over it.
I don't dare try to figure out how badly I fared Thursday & Friday. Will I still have a roof over my head? Not sure. There's a good chance Trump just priced me out of even a pretense of belonging to the "comfort class."
Ken,
Critical thinking has been under attack for a long time. Perhaps the most important observation Socrates made was that the unexamined life is not worth living, in other words, turning off one’s critical thinking faculty and walking blindly through the world, accepting without question the diktats of those in charge and the superstitions of everyone else was a wasteful and sorry way to live.
Seeing this as a bad thing, Socrates preached his message of the examined life to pretty much everyone he met. The habit of questioning things rather than simply accepting what we think is the truth is still called the Socratic Method of teaching. It was a great gift he was giving to his fellow Athenians. They, in turn, gave him a cup of hemlock and told him to drop dead.
At least they didn’t tell him to move to Venezuela.
I was watching a German-language TV drama yesterday in which a German and a Pole needed to exchange some information. The story is set in contemporary Usedom, a Baltic Island divided between Germany and Poland. Since these people are neighbors who move relatively freely between countries, you might have expected them to speak to each other in German or Polish. But they didn't. They spoke in English.
In fact, you'll find that is true in many European TV shows. Where characters don't speak the same language, they communicate in English, even when English is not the native language of either. It's true in real life, too. In many parts of the world, in almost all of Europe, and particularly in Northern & Eastern Europe, you'll find people who are not native English speakers holding conversations in English because the speakers don't know each other's language, but they know or can get by in English.
It dawned on me as I watched that teevee show that Trump is about to destroy the dominance of English as an international language -- not because Trump himself lacks a mastery of the language (as he does) but because as U.S. prestige falls, so does the importance of knowing English.
Of all of the harms Trump is causing, this is hardly the greatest, but -- particularly for those of us who don't speak whatever the new dominant international language will be -- it is indeed a loss.
@Ken Winkes: Very nice essay on critical thinking. I don't think critical thinking itself takes courage. For me, it's the only way to (possibly) understand what is going on. What takes courage is to share the thinking that ends up being outside the box.
However, there is sometimes an upside to that outside-the-box thinking. As you, too, discovered, it doesn't always show up right away, and it definitely can rattle some cages close to home. When I was in a senior in high-school in Southeast Florida in 1962, somehow it fit into a conversation we were having in our supposedly "honors" English class, that I said I thought it would be a good idea if our schools were racially integrated. (Bear in mind this was about eight years after the Supremes decided Brown v. Board of Education.) My best friend responded by saying I should get psychological help.
That did surprise me. But I also decided that it was often worth speaking up, even when I knew what I was about to say would be unpopular. This may have been harder for young women of my generation because we were supposed to be "sweet" and "compliant." But I could see that was so against my nature that I was bound to fail at any attempt to fit into my expected role.
With some reluctance, in maybe 2009, I started writing reader responses to New York Times opinion columns. Since my ideas were out-of-step with the mainstream, I expected to be lambasted by other commenters, and sometimes I was. But it also turned out that many readers supported and agreed with my comments. The anthropologist Ruth Benedict wrote that what one culture considers "aberrant" may be considered "normal" by other cultures. Apparently that's true. Most of our out-of-step theories developed through critical thinking have a receptive audience -- somewhere. We may or may not (see @Akhilleus re: hemlock) find that audience, but the fact that we've been using our very good brains in the meantime is an upside in itself.
Marie -
Believe me, I have always been grateful that a public university education in the 70's could be had for only $200 a semester - an amount that felt inexpensive even at the time. I am grateful I received enough in a paycheck and tips while waiting tables working the breakfast shift at the Holiday Inn in the 70's to pay rent and meals. I'm grateful that I had parents to call on for help in those young adult years if I absolutely had to, allowing me to take on fulfilling, entry-level jobs with future potential. I always took for granted being able to find a job that paid *enough* to pay essentials. In 2008, I watched in shock as my growing retirement savings lost half the value (but retirement was still a long ways off so it was only depressing, not scary). All those experiences shaped how I voted (which was never republican), and placed me in 'comfort class'. I can sort of understand why the Democrat's messaging fell flat for folks who have never experienced that basic economic security.
Dismayed and saddened that those aspects of life can no longer be taken for granted and a little frightened for the children and adults who will have to find their way in the t**** world.
(I haven't determined how badly I fared last - and fully expect it to continue downward as long as the republicans are in charge - but feeling grateful for the roof over my head and the pantry stocked with good things to eat)
Marie,
Your recounting of strangers of different nationalities conversing in English reminded me that this has been going on for many years.
Jean Renoir (the painter’s son), in his 1937 masterpiece “La Grand Illusion” (a desert island film), set in a German prison camp during WWI, depicts a French officer de Boldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and a German officer, the commandant of the prison, von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim) conversing in the commandant’s office. At one point, Rauffenstein switches to English, inquiring about a mutual acquaintance. The Frenchman easily slips into English as well. At first it seems like some kind of test, but then it becomes clear that both had come from upper class backgrounds before the war and a knowledge of English was taken for granted. They go back to English at the end as well.
The ability to find some common ground for communicating is a simple human necessity, at least if one thinks communication is important. Some years ago, while visiting Armenia, I met a woman who wanted to ask me some questions. I knew only a few words of Armenian and she had no English, but once we settled on French, everything went smoothly for us both. Which reminds me that French, for many years, was considered the language of diplomacy, at least until the American Century when English took over.
Now, as Donald Trump, who values communication as much as he does decency and kindness, runs roughshod over everyone, it’s likely that English will lose its place of importance just as America is diminished by an ignorant buffoon.
Who knows what will become the next universal language, but it likely won’t be that spoken (badly) by the idiot with “all the best words”.
A regular contributor to the conversation here, PD, was a big fan of Stephen Sondheim. This morning, while walking Rocket (in the rain…yuck), I amused myself by singing one of his songs (Sondheim’s, not Rocket’s), the very fun opening of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”. “Comedy Tonight” (“…no royal curse, no Trojan Horse, and a happy ending, of course”), which then reminded me that Fat Hitler has something in common with one of the more ridiculous characters in this ridiculously funny musical, the eternally self-regarding idiot of a general, Miles Gloriosus (who was a regular character of comedic abuse in the plays of Plautus).
Anyway, so here’s how Fatty sees himself (I’m 100% sure).
And here’s how he really is.
Critical thinking/examined life turned OFF. Mirrors banished.
So here we are today, like millions of other Americans, concerned that retirement funds have been seriously diminished (or disappeared, in some cases) by the Orange Monster and his temper tantrum tariffs which he based on the work of a fantasy character’s advice (sort of like making investment decisions by listening to Homer Simpson).
And here is billionaire Scott Bessent, Fatty’s Treasury Absconder, er, Secretary, saying “Pshaw, no one cares and only idiots are worried about losing their hard earned savings.
“During an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Bessent called it a “false narrative” that Americans who are close to retiring may be reticent to do so after their retirement savings may have dropped this week due to the stock market downturn.”
Sure. If you’re a fucking billionaire. This is the same clueless bunt who said anyone complaining about not getting their SS check was a fraudster.
The Party of the Average American Worker.
@Akhilleus: New book: How Sondheim Can Change Your Life,
written by Richard Schoch.
Don't know if it's banned or not, but our library had it.
Forrest,
He’s changed a lot of lives. Amazing guy. I’ll check out that book. Thanks for the tip.
DiJiT is such an idjit he'll probably take up the Viet offer:
(From NYT: "...Vietnam, facing a 46 percent tariff rate that would be among the highest faced by any U.S. trading partner, is seeking a 45-day delay and proposed dropping its own tariffs to zero."
So China will have a (34% ?) tariff against the US? So ... after "the deal" and 0% tariffs in US and VN, the Hanoi Chicken Foot Co LLC imports $100 of US chicken feet ( a real US big export to Asia) for $100, zero tariff, and smuggles it into S. China to sell for $120, and splits the $20 with the customs on both sides of the China/VN border. !0% right there, even before mark-ups. Underselling the market.
Without DiJiT's trade war, the US chicken foot exporter would have taken that profit, which now goes to the VN middleman.
World's Greatest Negotiator strikes again.