The Conversation -- March 10, 2025
Little Marco Vows to Reward Russia for Invading Ukraine. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Ukraine would have to make concessions over land that Russia had taken since 2014 as part of any agreement to end the war.... 'I think both sides need to come to an understanding that there's no military solution to this situation,' Mr. Rubio said. 'The Russians can't conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it'll be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014.'" Might makes right. We in the U.S. are so over respecting national sovereignty & promoting democracy.
So here's a short reading assignment:
(1) Akhilleus' comment at the top of today's thread.
(2) An essay by political scientist Don Moynihan: "... we live in a foreign country now. Our idea of America -- the one you grew up with if you were born here, or that drew you to this country if you were an immigrant -- and the reality of America today, well, these are different places. We might get back there. But first we have to map the distance between that America and where we are now." Moynihan then runs down bullet points of "where we are now," each point chilling. Thanks to RAS for the link.
Andrew Duehren of the New York Times: "Firing probationary employees ... was just the beginning of ... [Donald] Trumps far-reaching agenda for the I.R.S. The administration is preparing budget cuts and further layoffs that could ultimately force the I.R.S. to shed as much as half of its 100,000-person work force -- a drastic reduction that could mean many Americans face less scrutiny, and receive less help, on their taxes. At the same time, Mr. Trump is asserting more political control over an agency that has historically been insulated from changes in leadership at the White House.... The presence of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is growing at the I.R.S., where [Elon] Musk's allies are preparing to cancel scores of contracts with outside technology vendors."
~~~~~~~~~~
Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump declined in an interview aired Sunday to rule out the possibility that his economic policies, including aggressive tariffs against America's trade partners, would cause a recession. In the interview with Maria Bartiromo, the host of 'Sunday Morning Futures' on Fox News, Mr. Trump also said that he was considering increasing tariffs against Mexico and Canada. The interview took place on Thursday at the White House.... 'I hate to predict things like [a recession],' Mr. Trump [said]. 'There is a period of transition, because what we're doing is very big. We're bringing wealth back to America. That's a big thing, and there are always periods of, it takes a little time. It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.'... Speaking on Meet the Press on Sunday, Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said..., 'I would never bet on recession.... No chance.' Economists have turned gloomier on the economic outlook amid Mr. Trump's dizzying approach to tariffs, which has fueled considerable uncertainty and hamstrung businesses considering new investments and hiring." Here's the Huffington Post story. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I would translate Trump's remarkably honest forecast this way: "Yes, we're bound to go into recession, but I don't care. We're bringing extraordinary wealth back to the oligarchs & me, Donald J. Trump, and it should be great for us." ~~~
~~~ Will Weissert of the AP: "In ... Donald Trump's idealized framing, the United States was at its zenith in the 1890s, when ... typhoid fever often killed more soldiers than combat. It was the Gilded Age, a time of rapid population growth and transformation from an agricultural economy toward a sprawling industrial system, when poverty was widespread while barons of phenomenal wealth, like John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan, held tremendous sway over politicians who often helped boost their financial empires. 'We were at our richest from 1870 to 1913. That';s when we were a tariff country. And then they went to an income tax concept,' Trump said days after taking office.... Experts on the era say Trump is idealizing a time rife with government and business corruption, social turmoil and inequality. They argue he's also dramatically overestimating the role tariffs played in stimulating an economy that grew mostly due to factors other than the U.S. raising taxes on imported goods." Read on. ~~~
~~~ Christian Shepherd & Lily Kuo of the Washington Post: "Chinese tariffs on a wide array of U.S. agricultural products took effect Monday as Beijing remains defiant in the face of U.S. pressure -- while urging Washington to come to the negotiating table. China's decision to impose tariffs of up to 15 percent on products including corn, soybeans and beef starting Monday targets some of the United States' most important exports to the world's second-largest economy. The retaliation against ... Donald Trump's move to raise tariffs on all Chinese goods to at least 20 percent marks another escalation in a mounting trade battle that has no end in sight.... Unlike the leaders of Canada and Mexico -- [President] Xi [Jinping] has not had a conversation with Trump in his second term..., [and] 'Neither side has really ascertained a go-to person for working-level conversations,' Zha [Daojiong of Peking University] said."
Paul Krugman: "... I am surprised at how quickly the backlash [against the Trump/Musk presidency] has developed.... As the economy stumbles and the stock market tanks, consumer confidence lags, and even some Trump voters are losing faith..., the Trump cabal ... [has] instantly descended into a pit of insane conspiracy theories.... It's the kind of rhetoric you expect from an authoritarian regime that attributes every setback to sabotage by rootless cosmopolitan enemies of the state.... Two specific reasons [this is] bad[:]... it means that the people in charge won't learn from failure.... There will be a search for scapegoats."
"Vanishing Words." Karen Yourish, et al., of the New York Times: "As ... [Donald] Trump seeks to purge the federal government of 'woke' initiatives, agencies have flagged hundreds of words to limit or avoid, according to a compilation of government documents.... The list [the Times compiles here] is most likely incomplete. More agency memos may exist than those seen by New York Times reporters, and some directives are vague or suggest what language might be impermissible without flatly stating it.... A New York Times analysis of pages on federal agency websites, before and after Mr. Trump took office, found that more than 250 contained evidence of deletions or amendments to words included in the above list....
"The president and some of his closest advisers ... have frequently portrayed themselves as champions of free speech. One of the executive orders Mr. Trump signed on his first day back in office decried what it described as a pressure campaign by the Biden administration to stifle First Amendment rights 'in a manner that advanced the Government's preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.... Government censorship of is intolerable in a free society.'... But the pattern of vanishing words established here suggests Mr. Trump and his administration may be more interested in chilling the national conversation -- at least when it comes to their own disfavored topics -- than in expanding it."
Marie: This is a gift link, because besides the list of banned words, the examples of doctored docs published here is illuminating. If the gift link doesn't work, digby republishes the list of banished words here, along with a copy of a memo from the National Cancer Institute advising employees on topics that employees may not cover without first sending their proposed publications for review by the NCI Censorship Clearance Team. Thanks to RAS for the link to digby's post. Do scan the list of words; it's a remarkable effort to squelch any reference to anyone who isn't a white male. (Indeed, one of the banned words is "women." So are these terms: female, gender (singular AND plural), sex, Black, Native American, LatinXtribal, minority (singular AND plural), race (noun, adjective & adverbial forms) LGBT, they/them, pollution, climate science, clean energy.
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "... a sweeping declaration..., written under oath..., filed as part of a federal lawsuit Friday from Tiffany Flick, the [Social Security Administrations]'s acting chief of staff until she was forced out in mid-February, [contains allegations of how recklessly DOGE employees took over the agency]. They came in aggressively..., demanding access to sensitive taxpayer data and refusing briefings on how the agency ensures the accuracy of its benefit systems. They recklessly exposed data in unsecured areas outside Social Security offices..., potentially disclosing personally identifiable information on almost every American to people not authorized to see it. And representatives sent by the U.S. DOGE Service refused to explain why they needed taxpayer information that is protected by law.... Despite their status as political appointees, the secretive members of the cost-cutting group overseen by [Elon] Musk ignored the normal chain of command, instead communicating directly with DOGE." This is a gift link.
Anna Betts of the Guardian: "The United States has been added to the Civicus Monitor Watchlist, which identifies countries that the global civil rights watchdog believes are currently experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms. Civicus, an international non-profit organization dedicated to 'strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world', announced the inclusion of the US on the non-profit's first watchlist of 2025 on Monday, alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia.... Mandeep Tiwana, co-secretary general of Civicus, said that the watchlist 'looks at countries where we remain concerned about deteriorating civic space conditions, in relation to freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and expression'." So then this ~~~
~~~ Jake Offenhartz of the AP: "Federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian activist Saturday who played a prominent role in Columbia University's protests against Israel, a significant escalation in the Trump administration's pledge to detain and deport student activists. Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia until this past December, was inside his university-owned apartment Saturday night when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told The Associated Press. Greer said she spoke by phone with one of the ICE agents during the arrest, who said they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil's student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that instead, according to the lawyer.... The detention of a legal permanent resident who has not been charged with a crime marked an extraordinary move with an uncertain legal foundation, according to immigration experts.... ICE agents ... also threatened to arrest Khalil's wife, an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, Greer said." The New York Times story is here. ~~~
~~~ New Rule: Your alleged, unindicted criminals bad; my violent, convicted criminals, good ~~~
It turns out Trump's pardons of January 6 traitors constituted more than a get-out-of-jail-free card to some insurrectionists. Rather, the pardons were more than one get-out-of-jail card. ~~~
~~~ Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "In seven cases around the country, the Justice Department has argued that separate criminal actions uncovered by the Jan. 6 investigation are covered by Trump's pardon, and the unrelated charges -- usually for illegal gun possession -- should be dismissed.... After Trump's executive order on Jan. 20, the Office of the Pardon Attorney issued individual certificates to almost all of the roughly 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants, which stated that 'The pardon applies only to convictions for offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.' When courts have pressed the Justice Department for legal reasoning or precedent on why the Jan. 6-adjacent cases should be thrown out, their lawyers have said only that this was Trump's intent, and courts should defer to 'the Executive's reasonable interpretation of the pardon language.'... Some judges, however, have resisted."
Doing Stupid Stuff Because Trump. Scott Dance & Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post (March 7): "The Army Corps of Engineers colonel responsible for releasing water from two California reservoirs at ... Donald Trump's direction in January knew that it was unlikely to reach the southern part of the state as Trump had promised, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post.... A [CYA] memo written four days after the release ... shows how federal officials rushed ahead with the plan to release irrigation water despite objections from the state's elected officials and some local farmers.... The release was done to satisfy Trump's executive order, [Col. Chad] Caldwell [of the Army Corps] wrote.... But the episode, a week and a half into Trump's second term, drew criticism from farmers and officials from both parties in the Central Valley. It also angered many California water officials, who charge that the Trump administration squandered local water supplies in a part of the state where every drop counts, to score quick political points."
Marie: Minho Kim of the New York Times: in a story headlined "Democrats voice regret on scattered responses to Trump's speech," cites Democrats mostly "regretting" Al Green's protest, not the party's general failure to raise any response to a thoroughly objectionable rant. They can't even organize their own "regrets." You could ask Tim Walz why Democrats keep losing to some of the worst people in the world: Democrats don't really try. My own Congresswoman, a lovely young lady, is busy giving 19th-century style tea parties & posing for photos with various presumably good citizens. I write to her often and politely tell her to get off the dime, a protest which has no effect whatsoever. Yikes! Bernie Sanders is 83 years old. We are on our own, people. (In the meantime, I really did purchase a cane that looks like the one Green shook at the Stupid Fascist, the one Lauren Boebert called a "pimp cane.") ~~~
~~~ Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "The Democrats showed last week that presidential addresses to Congress are no place to formulate a resistance. Almost everything they did during ... Donald Trump's appearance highlighted weakness rather than strength. They had not one strategy but several. The sum was less than the parts.... The state of the Democrats is made worse by the absence of a leader who enjoys national reach and recognition." MB: Things are bad when Balz is right. I'll admit that Trump is a moving target, but he is still an easy target. He says and does things almost every day that are offensive to many Americans and/or dangerous (and obvious) signs of his corrupt intentions. We are witnessing an astounding display of political malpractice in a party that won't get it together and figuratively slap Trump down every day. ~~~
~~~ Steve Peoples of the AP: "... [Sen. Bernie] Sanders ... has emerged as a leader of the resistance to Donald Trump's second presidency. In tearing into Trump's seizure of power and warning about the consequences of firing tens of thousands of government workers, Sanders is bucking the wishes of those who want Democrats to focus on the price of eggs or 'roll over and play dead.' For now, at least, Sanders stands alone as the only elected progressive willing to mount a national campaign to harness the fear and anger of the sprawling anti-Trump movement. He drew a crowd of 4,000 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Friday night. He faced another 2,600 or so the next morning a few hours away in Altoona, Wisconsin, a town of less than 10,000 residents. And his crowd of 9,000 in suburban Detroit exceeded his own team's expectations. By design, each stop was in a swing U.S. House district represented by a Republican."
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Canada. Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: "Amid a generational crisis in Canada's relationship with the United States, the Liberal Party of Canada on Sunday chose an unelected technocrat with deep experience in financial markets to replace Justin Trudeau as party leader and the country's prime minister, and to take on ... [Donald] Trump. Mark Carney, 59, who steered the Bank of Canada through the 2008 global financial crisis and the Bank of England through Brexit, but who has never been elected to office, won a leadership race on Sunday against his friend and former finance minister, Chrystia Freeland. He won a stunning 85.9 percent of the votes cast by Liberal Party members. More than 150,000 people voted, according to the party's leaders. 'America is not Canada. And Canada never, ever, will be part of America in any way, shape or form,' Mr. Carney said in his acceptance speech on Sunday evening to an electric crowd of party faithful, directly addressing Mr. Trump's constant threat that he wants to make Canada the 51st state. 'We didn't ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves.'... Because Mr. Carney does not hold a seat in Parliament, he is expected to call federal elections soon after being sworn in as prime minister." (Also linked yesterday.) The Guardian's story is here.
Israel's Wars. Melanie Lidman & Samy Magdy of the AP: "Israel cut off the electricity supply to Gaza, officials said Sunday, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water for part of the arid territory. Hamas called it part of Israel's 'starvation policy.' Israel last week suspended supplies of goods to the territory of more than 2 million Palestinians, an echo of the siege it imposed in the earliest days of the war. Israel is pressing the militant group to accept an extension of the first phase of their ceasefire. That phase ended last weekend. Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas instead wants to start negotiations on the ceasefires more difficult second phase, which would see the release of remaining hostages from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and a lasting peace. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others."
South Africa. Bruce Weber of the New York Times: "Athol Fugard, the South African playwright whose portrayals of intimate relationships burdened by oppressive racial separatism exposed the psychological torment of apartheid to an international audience, died on Saturday night at his home in Stellenbosch, a town near Cape Town. He was 92."
South Korea. Choe Sang-Hun & Pablo Robles of the New York Times on "how South Korea's president [Yoon Suk Yeol] planned a military takeover, then blew it.... Those involved [in the plot] hatched bold plans, often over meals at a safe house inside a heavily guarded government compound and at a burger chain outlet, to incapacitate the National Assembly and arrest Mr. Yoon's critics, according to some of the people involved in the discussions and prosecutors. They would cut off electricity and water to unfriendly newspapers and TV stations, seize a YouTube channel highly critical of Mr. Yoon and raid the National Election Commission (which right-wing conspiracy theorists claimed had manipulated parliamentary election results against Mr. Yoon's party). Few saw it coming, and Mr. Yoon and his allies came close to achieving the unthinkable. Soldiers swiftly took over the election commission, while elite troops and police officers laid siege to the Assembly. But when they met a wall of ordinary South Koreans who had raced there to block them, the soldiers relented. Rather than dragging people away or preparing for combat, they left their weapons unloaded. Some bowed in apology and even hugged angry citizens. Mr. Yoon's plan collapsed...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Something for Trump, Hegseth, Gabbard, et al., to study so they won't make the same mistakes. One thing they are doing right now is purging as many honorable top brass as they can. The trick might be to quietly assemble enough "loyal" rank-and-file troops to carry out a coup.
U.K. Anna Mikhailova of the Daily Mail: "Britain must develop a 'Four Eyes' intelligence sharing alliance in response to Donald Trump's actions over Ukraine, defence sources have said. The US President's 'unprecedented' decision to block allies, including the UK, from giving Ukraine US-generated classified material that could benefit the eastern European country has sparked calls for a breakaway group. Mr Trump used his powers as part of the 'Five Eyes' alliance of the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to suspend intelligence to Kyiv.... Former British ambassador to Washington Sir David Manning ... told MPs last week: 'Clearly, if you have some Trump supporters in these key jobs who have very strange track records and have said very strange things about Nato allies and the Nato alliance and you have people in the administration who seem to be looking for ways of appeasing Russia, then you have a problem on the intelligence front. That is a big question mark against how the special relationship is sustained during the Trump administration.'" MB: Remember, it's the Daily Mail.
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Reader Comments (17)
No one should complain about hyperbolic overstatement or chicken little scare mongering when it comes to the current state of this once great nation. We are presented every day, sometimes hourly, with “Can’t make this shit up” horrors. In fact, “sky is falling” alarmism might not be alarmist enough.
All the signs are there of a total collapse of democratic, legal, and economic systems.
The courts are being quickly neutered. Trump and Musk have talked openly of hunting down judges and law firms who insist on rule of law and either booting them or investigating and possibly jailing do-gooders who refuse to either quit or submit to the bad intentions of authoritarian control. Vance has declared that the Trump Wrecking Crew can and should ignore court orders it doesn’t like.
Voting rights are teetering on the edge of the fascist cliff. The stock market is in chaos. Traitors on the Supreme Court are chomping at the bit to stamp their seal of approval on the dismemberment of the American Experiment.
None of this is accidental.
Oligarchs and billionaire tech bros are cheering on economic mayhem. When stocks lose value and businesses start tanking, they will be among the few with enough money to start vacuuming up what’s left for a pittance.
Heritage and Federalist schemers who have been plotting the demise of the government are looking forward to the day, very soon now, where the three useful stooges now in charge will have served their purpose. Democracy will be what they say it is, meaning full and unassailable control.
Outside forces like Russia, that have long hated the United States are beside themselves that the current dictator is not just waving the white flag of abject surrender, but is flying Russian colors from the White House flag poles.
Armed forces are being hollowed out to ensure that only sycophantic loyalists can command the military might of the United States.
Now a drug addled, vindictive, room temperature IQ nepo baby, the idiot spawn Don Junior is being groomed to be Baby Doc once Papa Doc steps down or croaks. No voting will be necessary. Trump has already promised the MAGA boot lickers that they won’t ever have to vote again.
None of this is wild hypothetical chicken little talk.
This is all taking place, real time.
What are Democrats doing (besides Bernie Sanders and one or two others)? Hakeem Jeffries sez he has Republicans on the run. Wow. He’s smoking the good stuff.
What’s worse? Things are much worse than they seem.
And that’s the truth. Words are now being vetted for Trumpy validation. Reporters have been fired to appease the dictator. They’re chloroforming education.
And still we have idiots telling pollsters all is well.
….Resistance is not futile. We better fight back before all the lights are extinguished.
Alarms
"Real chilling effects
A extraordinary pattern of government censorship and threats to speech"
Don Moynihan
Since the masks have been ripped aside and our government by oligarchs has come out from the behind the transparent curtain it's been hiding behind since the 1980's, the only question I have (building on Akhilleus' comment above) is how many of the oligarchs will be willing to live through the period of pain the Pretender has now promised.
I'd hate to think I'm depending on oligarchs to come to my rescue.
And as Marie suggests ( in my words, not hers) the heritage the Heritage Foundation has in mind is exclusively white and male.
On Saturday, I listened to Elizabeth Warren, my congressman, Lloyd Doggett, and the congressman from an adjoining district, Greg Casar speak on the state capitol grounds. Greg was recently elected as Chair of the Progressive caucus.
His district includes the Tesla factory, so he has some experience tangling with elon. Gave me a glimmer of hope that he will have a bright future rallying Ds.
We're not going to quit until Elon is fired
@Ken Winkes: If all goes according to plan, it is not going to be the oligarchs who suffer. See Will Weissert of the AP (linked above) on Trump's dream of returning to the Gilded Age. At least 10 years ago, I (and others) argued that we were on the path to a Gilded-Age-style regression. Now Trump is touting it outright.
It isn't only about the money. As Krugman pointed out (linked above), the HHS secretary is telling us to drink cod liver oil to ward off the measles and the Ag secretary is telling us to raise chickens in our back yards to combat the high price of eggs. These are the sorts of "solutions" that were available in the 1890s.
When you see Trump listing the words and phrases that are unacceptable for the government to use, he is also telling us that these are the words & phrases that he means us to see as unacceptable. And what is he trying to erase here? All of the civil rights progress made in the 20th century. He wants us to go back to an age when the only people who mattered were rich white men. Wait till we see what is going to pass for "culture" in The Trump-Kennedy Center for the Farts. Cutting-edge comics and edgy satirists? I don't think so.
Oh, about getting rid of all those federal workers. Don't think that's going to ultimately reduce the number of people who work for the government. Many of the positions will likely be re-filled in patronage jobs. You know who's heading the Food & Drug Administration now? Who's making sure there's no Listeria in your frozen peans and your shaving cream isn't going to skin you alive? Donald Trump Junior's hunting buddy. That's who. That young man is a high-profile case, but there are likely to be thousands of low-profile cases: somebody's ne'er-do-well son at the VA; a hundred J-6 alum as TSA guards & meat inspectors, and so on.
Marie,
Hadn't read it then but had this in mind when I made my comment.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/10/donald-trump-popularity-rating/
Bump reflects my opinion (or I, his). The mass of Republican voters don't care about the carnage. They're on top and that's all that matters to them. Just as there is no bottom to the Pretender, there's no bottom to their support.
Hence, I said I was relying on the oligarchs whose portfolios and businesses are being trashed, because I have to assume they do care about their money, and they are the ones who have it.
Likely a vain hope, but a hope nonetheless.
Is Kari Lake now a cabinet head? I saw something inferring that, and of course I thought, naaaaw, but as usual, the extraordinary idiocy of this administration might actually provide her with her dream job...
No real comments can be made on the current state of the government. Every time I hear Mr. Whiney Pants delivering some aspect of how the economy will do going forward, I spring to my mute button-- it is simply amazing that he can't put three intelligent words together, make any sense of the "answer" he is giving to whatever silly question he has just been asked, speak without making it all up or sound like he passed any class he ever took. I think it is indicative of his dementia gaining hold and his utter unfitness for the job he has decided is his for life, and which he pointedly does not do. Too bad Reagan disappeared the mental health facilities-- he certainly needed them at the end, and so will Fat Hitler. The upside for him is that he will have the money to hire nurses from Central America or Floriduh while his vicious little namesake lounges in the White House pretending to have daddy's job. The downside is that the oblivious idiots who voted for him to reduce the egg prices will be in the workhouses/nursing homes and shanties quietly living on beans and changing their own diapers. Once Diaper Don II has the job, it will never be reliquished, colleges will be a thing of the past, and jobs will be all minimum wage and there won't be any food or water one can trust. Vive les oligarchs...
I no longer think I am writing fiction.
Ken,
Unfortunately the oligarchs are already insanely rich and when they tank the economy they will still be insanely rich. Even if they lose some of their wealth the rest of us will be hurt much worse. Their percentage of the wealth will go up even if the economy slows down. And we can't afford the losses like they can. The recession and Trump's antilabor and antiworker's rights policies will allow the oligarchs to gain or regain even greater control over the workers that they have always looked down upon. The pandemic and the Biden-Harris administration helped the working men and women start to claw back a little power and influence. That will all be rolled back by this administration that hates workers and unions. The noncompetes for sandwich artists will be back and when your prospects for changing jobs is limited and there are more people out there desperate for the few available jobs then the CEOs can force the rest of us to fight it out for the opportunity to be taken advantage of by the rich assholes. Amazon workers don't need to be worked so hard that they are hurt at a rate three times the norm, but they can get away with it because of the power their company has and the desperation of people to have a reliable paycheck. Amazon will probably become the norm as companies can push their workers will very little oversight or worker protections. And they can always just pay someone off in this administration. Cheaper and easier than paying for a happy and productive workforce.
RAS,
An eloquent expression of my deepest fears.
Jeanne: Kari Lake is sort of in limbo now. Trump wants her to head up (and possibly demolish) the Voice of America, but the appointment to that post takes several steps (explained in this NPR story), so in the meantime, she a "special advisor" to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which is the parent company for VOA.
Meanwhile, as the NPR story (published today) lays out, DOGE is busy firing essential VOA staff.
Is the cult going to stick with him as they lose their meager safety net?
What a horrid nightmare this is.
Jonathan Chait, in The Atlantic, writes Trump Drops the Mask (on support for Russia
"The president’s latest positions on the war reveal that he is indifferent to ongoing slaughter—indeed, he is willing to increase it—and that his opposition to Ukraine’s independence has nothing to do with saving American tax dollars. Trump simply wants Russia to win.
In recent days, Trump has said he is “looking at” a plan to revoke the temporary legal status of Ukrainians who fled to the United States. After Ukraine expressed willingness to sign away a large share of the proceeds from its natural-resource sales (in return for nothing), Trump said that might not be enough to restore support. Trump is now pushing Ukraine’s president to step down and hold elections, according to NBC. Volodymyr Zelensky’s domestic approval rating sits at 67 percent, and his most viable opponents have said that they oppose elections at the present time. The notion that Trump actually cares about democracy, and would downgrade his relations with a foreign country over its failure to meet his high governance standards, is so laughable that even a Trump loyalist like Sean Hannity would have trouble saying it with a straight face."
Here is Canadians actually taking our money.
"Ontario’s premier, the leader of Canada’s most populous province, announced that effective Monday it is charging 25% more for electricity to 1.5 million Americans in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war.
Ontario provides electricity to Minnesota, New York and Michigan."
" What do politics have to do with me?"
What a sniveling, ass licking quisling piece of stinking garbage Rubio is. I usually detest Fat Hitler’s schoolyard bully nicknames, but “little Marco” doesn’t come close to what an unprincipled, depraved, groveling toady this boot licker is.
You can easily Google videos of this detestable weasel attacking Fat Hitler for the lying sack of shit he is. But now, in order to gain a position of Potemkin power in the Fatty Reich, he is willing to let thousands of innocents in an allied country die in order to keep his place of dishonor as one of Fat Hitler’s tiny testicle lappers.
It’s one thing to be a true believer in the ranks of the satanic MAGAts, it’s far worse to know what a fucking evil disgrace you are and keep at it.
I cannot even begin to say how brutally disgusting these Party of Traitors quislings are.
Lookin at you too, Aunt Pittypat, you subservient sewer rat.
Feeling a bit of despair today, I read
Virginia Heffernan, on substack, who reminds us that there are
801 billionaires. 346,689,001 of us
It’s true that 801 American billionaires think billionaires deserve special powers and above-the-law status. But no one else does. This time we are the 99.9998 percent.
WE THE PEOPLE made headlines like this: 'Elon Musk Is Officially $121 Billion Poorer Than His Peak—As Tesla Stock Erases All Of Its Election Rally.'
Musk’s absurd claim to the throne is predicated entirely on the myth of his 'net worth' — which is NOT a net worth. It’s just a perception of the value of his partially-owned companies.
A human being giving up power.
Thanks, Marie. This is one day I did not walk with NPR because someone (me) forgot to plug in the phone and I walked "naked" (Without the phone--)and I did not hear about this. Will read it tomorrow-- They have been trying to kill NPR for years and this time they may make it. That will be the end of radio, if it happens. End of an era. (I used to think that was "End of the ERA--" and so far, it is.)
Anyhow, thanks. My eyes are done for the day, so tomorrow it is...