The Conversation -- February 9, 2025
David Goldman & Chris Isidore of CNN: “... Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One Sunday, said he planned on announcing a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States Monday. 'We’ll also be announcing steel tariffs on Monday,' he said, adding, 'any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff.... Aluminum, too.'... Trump also said he planned to hold a separate news conference Tuesday or Wednesday to announce massive new reciprocal tariffs, which could match other countries’ tariffs on US goods dollar-for-dollar.... He did not provide many details about how expansive the new tariffs would be or when they may go into effect. It’s not clear if the new steel and aluminum tariffs will be on top of the tariffs already in place on exports from countries like China.”
Alex Gangitano of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Sunday announced that he asked the Treasury Department to stop producing pennies, calling the one cent coin wasteful. He said in a Truth Social post that he told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to end minting the small-value coins with President Abraham Lincoln’s image on them.... The cost of making a penny was nearly 3.7 cents in Fiscal Year 2024 and the coin has cost above face value to make for 19 consecutive fiscal years, according to the U.S. Mint’s annual report. Pennies were made of copper before 1962 and are currently made majority of zinc but with copper plating. Lincoln has been on the penny since 1909 and the penny was the first coin made by the U.S. Mint, according to the Treasury Department.... Elon Musk, who has been tasked by Trump with cutting waste in the U.S., targeted the penny in a post on X last month.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trump probably can't stand the idea of honoring a person popularly known as "Honest Abe" and the president who "freed the slaves." (It was actually the Thirteenth Amendment that "freed the slaves,"; Lincoln actively supported it.)
The Emperor Trump. Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump told the largest American television audience of the year that he plans to pursue the annexation of Canada as the nation’s 51st state. In an interview on the Super Bowl LIX pregame show on Fox, Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Trump about recorded comments in a private meeting made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — in which Trudeau claimed the United States is serious about 'absorbing” Canada.... 'Is it a real thing?' Baier asked Trump. 'Yeah, it is,' Trump replied. [']I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state. Because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let that happen too much. Why are we paying $200 billion a year essentially in subsidy to Canada? Now if they are a 51st state, I don’t mind doing it.'”
Vance Hints at Self-Coup d'État. Charlie Savage & Minho Kim of the New York Times: “Vice President JD Vance declared on Sunday that 'judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,' delivering a warning shot to the federal judiciary in the face of court rulings that have, for now, stymied aspects of ... [Donald] Trump’s agenda. The statement, issued on social media, came as federal judges have temporarily barred a slew of Trump administration actions from taking effect.... Mr. Vance, a 2013 graduate of Yale Law School, has repeatedly argued in recent years that presidents like Mr. Trump can and should ignore court orders that they say infringe on their rightful executive powers. While his post did not go that far, it carried greater significance given that he is now vice president. The post may also offer a window on the administration’s thinking toward the orders against it as Mr. Trump has openly violated numerous statutes.... It also raised the question of whether the administration would stop abiding by rulings if it deemed them to be illegitimately impeding his agenda....
“Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday as he went to New Orleans for the Super Bowl, Mr. Trump said the judge [who temporarily prohibited DOGE personnel from accessing the Treasury Department's payroll systems] had overreached, calling the Treasury ruling a 'disgrace.' But he appeared to be contemplating appeals, saying the court case 'had a long way to go.' Mr. Trump added: 'No judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision.'”
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The people who are opposed to aid should realize that this is a very powerful source of strength for us.... As we do not want to send American troops to a great many areas where freedom may be under attack, we send you. -- President John F. Kennedy, to mission directors of the newly-created USAID, 1962 ~~~
~~~ The Enemy Within. Ben Rhodes in a New York Times op-ed: “... it would be wrong to dismiss Mr. Trump’s dizzying array of pronouncements and executive actions on foreign policy as simply the fulfillment of his campaign promises. He did not run on the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D., the conquest of Greenland or the occupation of Gaza. Rather than showing strength, his foreign policy betrays a loss of American self-confidence and self-respect, eliminating any pretense that the United States stands for the things it has claimed to support since fighting two world wars: freedom, self-determination and collective security.... Mr. Trump’s targets do not suggest strength. Picking on Panama and Greenland or threatening trade wars with Canada and Mexico has the feel of a schoolyard bully looking for someone smaller to push around.... Stripped of U.S.A.I.D. funding, struggling under the weight of tariffs, nations including U.S. allies may now look to China as a more predictable source of trade and investment.... When the richest man in the world can so easily undermine our place on the global stage, it is, quite simply, a harbinger of decline: a sign of a corrupted superpower so brittle that its sources of influence can be taken apart from within.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: As you read further down this page, you'll be reminded that Trump's "vision' of the U.S. is not only of a cruel, selfish, undemocratic oligarchy, but also of one that is dumbed down, one that is no longer a leader in scientific innovation or in medical advances or in higher education. Trump is opposed to every bit of positive progress in arenas in which we've excelled or done well or at least kept up.
We already know that Trump & Musk lied bigly when they claimed that Politico & other media (a/k/a LEFT WING "RAGS") took bribes from "corrupt," "criminal" USAID workers in exchange for writing positive stories about Democrats. In yesterday's Comments, Patrick wrote a revelatory post about all of the other "interesting" spending Musk & his JV Squad are supposedly finding as they comb through USAID accounts. Based on Patrick's remark, I surmise that all of accusations Team MuskyTrump has made about USAID expenditures are whoppers.
Michael Boorstein of the Washington Post: “... high-level members of the Trump administration and allies of the president are leveling attacks on religious groups, including Catholics and Lutherans, who ... help migrants. These attacks may signal a new political approach toward religion, some experts say, one comfortable belittling faith groups — despite ... Donald Trump’s self-described brand as a champion of Christians. More broadly, it has aligned some Republicans against religious groups that in some cases propelled their rise to power, Trump’s included. Several religious groups working overseas..., [including] World Relief, the country’s largest evangelical refugee resettlement program..., say they are facing a cash crisis after the Trump administration ended funding for programs to resettle refugees from around the world in the United States.... Last month, Vice President JD Vance criticized the U.S. Catholic Church’s efforts to help immigrants and refugees, suggesting the Church is motivated by money, and alleged without evidence that it works with millions of 'illegal immigrants.'... On Sunday, on the social media site X, right-wing Trump ally Mike Flynn accused Lutheran organizations that receive federal grants to help the needy of committing 'money laundering.'... Billionaire Elon Musk ... then shared Flynn’s post, calling 'illegal' multiple Lutheran organizations that work in the United States to provide health care to homeless people, run food pantries, and help migrants and refugees.” ~~~
~~~ Joe Conason in AlterNet: "For Christians here and across the world, the ongoing confrontation over the fate of USAID dramatically illustrates the moral degeneration of the politicians who most fervently profess their piety. While Donald Trump wraps himself in the mantle of the Almighty, his assault on the world’s largest relief agency is a modern passion play, with scheming malefactors of great wealth sadistically persecuting sincere people of faith who seek to serve the poor.... [USAID's] single largest contractor is Catholic Relief Services, which has provided billions of dollars in assistance to impoverished communities on every continent. Nearly every denomination is represented among the recipients of USAID funding, including major evangelical and conservative organizations...."
Gustaf Kilander of the Independent: “... Donald Trump has removed the security clearances from several more of his perceived enemies. Trump, who had already removed former President Joe Biden’s clearance this week, now added former Secretary of State Antony Blinken to that list, telling The New York Post he had said: 'Bad guy. Take away his passes.' Trump took aim at eight Democrats, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.... Other Democrats targeted by Trump include former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Biden Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who worked on the Department of Justice’s response to the attack on Congress on January 6, 2021. Andrew Weissman, the top prosecutor on former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating the Trump 2016 campaign’s connections to Russia, was also on the list, as is attorney Mark Zaid. Zaid represented a CIA analyst who was a whistleblower following Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019.... Also included in the purge was attorney Norm Eisen, who served as the special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment.” ~~~
~~~ Time to Trash Another Black Woman. Philip Nieto of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump said Saturday that the Duke of Sussex was safe from being removed from the country for the time being while slamming his wife Meghan Markle in comments to The New York Post. Prince Harry’s immigration status has become the subject of controversy as of late with organizations such as the conservative Heritage Foundation suggesting the embattled British royal previously concealed illicit drug use that should have disqualified him from receiving a US visa.... “I’ll leave him alone[,' Trump said of Harry]. 'He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.”
Ellen Nakashima & Warren Strobel of the Washington Post: “Candidates for top national security positions in the Trump administration have faced questions that appear designed to determine whether they have embraced the president’s false claims about the outcome of the 2020 election and its aftermath.... Two individuals, both former officials who were being considered for positions within the intelligence community, were asked to give 'yes' or 'no' responses to the questions: Was Jan. 6 'an inside job?' And was the 2020 presidential election 'stolen?' These individuals, who did not give the desired straight 'yes' answer, were not selected. It is not clear whether there were other factors that contributed to the decision.... Separately, at least two individuals in FBI field offices outside Washington, who were being interviewed for senior positions, were asked similar questions....”
The Enemy Within. David Sanger of the New York Times: “A federal judge’s order that Elon Musk’s team temporarily cease boring into the Treasury Department’s payment systems raises a far larger question: whether what Elon Musk has labeled the Department of Government Efficiency is creating a major cyber and national security vulnerability.... It is a risk that cybersecurity experts have been sounding alarms over in the past 10 days, as Mr. Musk’s band of young coders demanded access to the Treasury’s innermost systems. That access was ultimately granted by Scott Bessent, the newly confirmed Treasury secretary. But other than vague assurances that the new arrivals at the Treasury’s door had proper clearances, there was no description of how their work would be secured — and plenty of reason to believe that it would make it easier for Chinese and Russian intelligence services to target the Treasury’s systems.... Federal officials say that they have been shocked by the carelessness with which Mr. Musk’s workers pierced government systems, including two that are repositories of millions of sensitive records: the Treasury and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, both of which have been major targets of China’s intelligence services.... Bruce Schneier, a cybersecurity expert at Harvard..., called the entry of Mr. Musk’s force 'the most consequential security breach' in American history.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I suspect that Musk sees an upside to his carelessness: if his boys do break a system and make it vulnerable to attacks, they have created a perfect excuse for shutting down the system. Say, maybe we will go back to a federal bureaucracy where operations run on paper.
Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Elon Musk’s blitzkrieg on Washington has brought into focus his vision for a dramatically smaller and weaker government, as he and a coterie of aides move to control, automate — and substantially diminish — hundreds if not thousands of public functions.... Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service has followed the same playbook at one federal agency after another: Install loyalists in leadership. Hoover up internal data, including the sensitive and the classified. Gain control of the flow of funds. And push hard — by means legal or otherwise — to eliminate jobs and programs not ideologically aligned with Trump administration goals.... The aim is a diminished government that exerts less oversight over private business, delivers fewer services and comprises a smaller share of the U.S. economy — but is far more responsive to the directives of the president.”
David McAfee of the Raw Story: Elon "Musk ... was dealt a blow over the weekend when a judge reportedly blocked Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personal financial data from the Treasury Department, which resulted in a MAGA meltdown. Musk ... [described the courts as] 'Corrupt judges protecting corruption.'... GOP Senator Mike Lee said, 'This has the feel of a coup — not a military coup, but a judicial one.' Musk reposted that comment Saturday evening, writing simply, 'Yes.' In a separate post, Musk shared a statement from someone suggesting various reasons for defying court orders. That comment stated, 'I don’t like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but I’m just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us…[.]'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Mike Lee is confused. The real coup would come, of course, if Musk defied the court's order. Several responsible writers have suggested Musk and/or Trump would defy court orders or perhaps have already done so, as there is no mechanism in place to check up on Trump or President Musk & Crew to determine whether or not they're complying with judicial orders. ~~~
~~~ Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: “More than 40 lawsuits filed in recent days by state attorneys general, unions and nonprofits seek to erect a bulwark in the federal courts against ... [Donald] Trump’s blitzkrieg of executive actions that have upended much of the federal government and challenged the Constitution’s system of checks and balances. Unlike the opening of Mr. Trump’s first term in 2017, little significant resistance to his second term has arisen in the streets, the halls of Congress or within his own Republican Party. For now at least, lawyers say, the judicial branch may be it.... But ... the judiciary is slow by design, and the legal opposition to Mr. Trump’s opening moves may struggle to keep up with his fire hose of disruption.... [Moreover, there is a question of whether or not Mr. Trump will abide by the courts' decisions.] On Friday, Democratic attorneys general went back to court to demand that a federal judge enforce his restraining order that was meant to keep billions of dollars in federal grant funds flowing. They said that the Trump administration had not complied.”
Tom Ellison of McSweeney's publishes an essay by Elon Musk that is very upbeat! “A lot of people doubted that my Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could do what it set out to do. But I am proud to say that in just weeks, we have used the Tesla, SpaceX, and X playbook to make America’s collapse much more efficient. It’s been obvious for years that the US system was declining with great waste and sluggishness.... For too long, our authoritarianism has been 'creeping.' Our oligarchy: 'quasi.' Our Nazis: 'neo.' But now, Americans will get what they want: a stripped-down, streamlined speed run of 1920s Germany meets Ex Machina.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Still, I have a feeling Elon wrote before Andy Borowitz broke this news: “In a disastrous setback for Elon Musk, on Friday a coding error by a teenaged member of DOGE resulted in the tech titan’s entire fortune being donated to Save the Children.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Ryan Mac & Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: “Employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were instructed to cease 'all supervision and examination activity' and 'all stakeholder engagement,' effectively stopping the agency’s operations, in an email from the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, on Saturday evening. Mr. Vought, who was confirmed this week to lead the Office of Management and Budget, was on Friday named acting director of the consumer protection bureau, the federal government’s financial industry watchdog. In his email to staff on Saturday, he reaffirmed earlier instructions from the previous acting director, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who ordered last week that staff should not issue any new rules or guidance and cease all investigations. The agency, created by Congress in 2011 as a financial industry watchdog, cannot be closed without congressional action, but its director can freeze most of its actions by halting enforcement, weakening or repealing regulations and softening its supervision of banks and other lenders.” ~~~
~~~ Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette: “It’s been a rough ass three weeks, and we could all use some levity. To that point, I bring you an absolutely hilarious and delightful press release from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s union, all about a visit they received from the incels of DOGE. The entire thing straight up disappeared from the site not long after it was published — coincidentally right around the same time that the wee DOGE employees came back a second time and started screwing with everything again." Pennachhia includes the entire CFPB Union welcome to their newest colleagues, "Jeffrey Epstein confidant Elon Musk" and his "three underlings." Hilarious (and actually informative). Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I have thought for a long time that Wonkette was subscriber-firewalled, but it is not. You are welcome to make a contribution -- and you should -- but we among the churchmice are welcome, too.
Trump Welcomes Foreign Election Interference. Colby Itkowitz, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration this week eliminated much of the federal government’s front line of defense against foreign interference in U.S. elections. The move, which follows years of Trump and his allies disputing the role that Russian influence campaigns played in his first successful bid for president, alarmed state election officials and election security experts, who warned that safeguarding Americans from foreign disinformation campaigns will be difficult if no one at the federal level is doing that work. On Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi dissolved an FBI task force formed in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections that worked to uncover covert efforts by Russia, China, Iran and other foreign adversaries to manipulate U.S. voters. Separately, the Department of Homeland Security sent a letter Wednesday placing at least seven federal employees who work on teams combating foreign disinformation within the election security arm of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, on administrative leave.... 'This is an invitation for more foreign interference,' said Lawrence Norden ... of ... the Brennan Center for Justice....”
Jennifer Richards & Jodi Cohen of ProPublica: “The U.S. Department of Education told employees late Friday that it will end all programs, contracts and policies that 'fail to affirm the reality of biological sex,' carrying out ... Donald Trump’s vow to restrict transgender rights.... The order appears designed to target programs that in recent years supported transgender students — school-based mental health services and support for homeless students, for example.... Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, is still awaiting confirmation. She is co-founder with her husband of World Wrestling Entertainment and chair of the America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit that has campaigned against transgender rights in schools.” MB: Sorry, this memo is nothing short of an order to bully students our education system is supposed to be nurturing. I believe First Lady Melanie said she planned to get right back into her fake anti-bullying campaign. Won't some enterprising reporter ask her what she's going to do about this bully directive?
Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “In a striking display of the limits being placed on congressional authority in the first weeks of the new administration, several Democratic lawmakers were denied entry to the U.S. Department of Education on Friday. Similar scenes played out throughout the week at other agencies where Democratic lawmakers were locked out, including Treasury Department offices, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Environmental Protection Agency.... The clash, captured on video by multiple members, was yet another episode that became a flashpoint in the intensifying battle over the administration’s efforts to reshape the federal bureaucracy.”
Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is cutting billions of dollars in biomedical research funding, alarming academic leaders who said it would imperil their universities and medical centers and drawing swift rebukes from Democrats who predicted dire consequences for scientific research. The move, announced Friday night by the National Institutes of Health, drastically cuts its funding for 'indirect' costs related to research. These are the administrative requirements, facilities and other operations that many scientists say are essential but that some Republicans have claimed are superfluous.... The NIH policy, essentially a massive budget cut to science and medical centers across the country, was quickly denounced as devastating by universities and research organizations.... Industry leaders also questioned whether the move was legal, pointing to existing law governing NIH funding.” Politico's story is here.
Marie: I have done some biomedical research myself and determined that Donald Trump's eyes are failing. What else could explain the super-colorful tone of his makeup in recent months and the increasingly obvious line between his pasty skin and the orange-glow makeup. Like many older people, he suffers from color vision deficiency, and apparently also cannot see the sharp line he draws around his orange mask. ~~~
One Effort to Save the Nation from Trump: Preventing the Great Erasure. Alexandra O'Connell-Domenech of the Hill: “Scientists, researchers and private health organizations scrambled to preserve as much federal public health data and guidelines as possible last week after news reached them that the Trump administration planned to pull down federal agency websites. Many have taken that data and moved it to personal websites or Substack accounts, while others are still figuring out what to do with what they have gathered. These often-anonymous archivists are now facing the colossal task of connecting with one another to figure out just how much information has been saved and how to re-create a centralized network of websites where it can be easily accessed by the public again.” MB: This reminds me of movies or TV shows where the protagonists race to save essential data from evil hackers even as the images on the computer screens begin to disappear or morph into scary messages. We're all now minor characters in a real-life (if prosaic) drama in which good and bad are too clearly in evidence, and the bad guys are well-defined, powerful adversaries. The trouble with these real-life dramas is that they don't always have happy endings.
Marie: I have been thinking of this clip for the past few weeks. Masha Gessen (linked next) has a striking explanation of why it is so important now: ~~~
~~~ Masha Gessen of the New York Times on the rationalizations for "anticipatory obediance" to an autocrat. "There are many good reasons to accommodate budding dictators, and only one reason not to: Anticipatory obedience is a key building block of their power. The autocracies of the 20th century relied on mass terror. Those of the 21st often don’t need to; their subjects comply willingly. But once an autocracy gains power, it will come for many of the people who quite rationally tried to safeguard themselves and their businesses." Thanks to RAS for the lead. The link above is supposed to be a gift link, but it's one I "borrowed," so I'm not sure it will work. If you can read Gessen's whole essay, I urge you to do so as the real-life examples they gives of each "rationale" are chilling.
Susan Svrluga & Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: “Days into ... Donald Trump’s second term, colleges and universities are confronting sweeping, fast-moving challenges that touch on almost every aspect of their operations. The administration has threatened their funding, federal agencies are launching investigations, lawmakers may increase the endowment tax, and executive orders aimed at wiping out diversity, equity and inclusion efforts nationwide could transform the culture at some universities. And on Friday, the Trump administration spread alarm among universities with an announcement that the National Institutes of Health is cutting billions of dollars in 'indirect' costs for biomedical research funding.... University labs have already shut down and will continue to shut down, Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, said Saturday. He said there will be legal action early next week seeking an injunction, likely Monday from a range of institutions and organizations. Trump is calling for changes that reach every type of school and could affect almost every function of college life from financial aid and academic services for students to research funding that has long driven innovation.”
Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has moved more than 30 people described as Venezuelan gang members to the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, as U.S. forces and homeland security staff prepare a tent city for potentially thousands of migrants. About a dozen of the men were brought in from El Paso, Texas, on Friday, as Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, arrived at Guantánamo.... The Trump administration has not released any of their identities, though they are believed to all be men, nor has it said how long they might be held at the island outpost.” The article features photos by Doug Mills. MB: You know, the U.S. has what amounts to a forever lease on 45 square miles; there's some beautiful beachfront property there, Jared. ~~~
~~~ Silvia Foster-Frau of the Washington Post: “The more than three dozen immigrants being held at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba have entered what lawyers are calling a 'legal black hole.'... The American Civil Liberties Union, along with more than a dozen immigrant advocacy groups, sent a letter Friday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio requesting immediate access to the migrants, as well as information on their immigration status, which agency has custody of them, their anticipated length of stay there and what authority the government has to transfer them from the U.S. to Guantánamo.... Four lawyers who are familiar with the military prison say the Trump administration is breaking the law by denying [the detainees] access to legal counsel....”
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Ohio. Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: “The city of Springfield, Ohio, which was singled out by Donald J. Trump and JD Vance during the presidential campaign with false and outrageous claims about Haitian immigrants, has sued a neo-Nazi group that helped draw national attention to the small city in the first place. The suit, filed in federal court on Thursday, was brought by the mayor, Rob Rue, along with several city commissioners and Springfield residents. It says that Blood Tribe, a four-year-old neo-Nazi group, began a campaign of intimidation focused on Haitian immigrants in the city. It culminated last summer in 'a torrent of hateful conduct, including acts of harassment, bomb threats and death threats' against locals who spoke in support of the Haitian residents.... The suit does not mention Mr. Trump, who falsely claimed at a presidential debate in September that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating dogs and cats, nor Mr. Vance, who urged his 'fellow patriots' to 'keep the cat memes flowing.'”
News Lede
New York Times: “Sam Nujoma, the founding president of an independent Namibia, who led a Soviet-backed guerrilla army in an uneven fight against the vastly superior forces of white-ruled South Africa in a victory that owed much to the dynamics of the Cold War, died on Saturday. He was 95.”
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Sermon in this weekend's paper:
Our Virtual Reality
As crazy as dreams can be, they sometimes hint at sanity
Early the other morning, snug in my bed, I was driving along an unfamiliar road when a national park suddenly appeared on my right. I stopped, pulled out my “geezer” pass, got out of the car and approached its cave-like entry at the base of a large landform. I sensed I was somewhere in the Southwest where I’d traveled and hiked before, but I didn’t recognize the formation. I entered the park's opening only to discover that the folds of what seemed to be its rock walls were made of paper mache and concrete. Someone had built this park, I realized. It wasn’t natural at all. Who had built it? Why? As is often the case in dreams, I was on only the edge of the answers when I woke.
Days later, the image of that fake national park remained in my mind. Why was I dreaming of a fake park? And why was its entrance a cave? Like Alice, was I being invited to enter a rabbit-hole world where nothing is as it seems?
If so, it wasn’t such a strange dream after all. Rabbit holes are everywhere in the virtual world of images and words that surround us. The internet’s response to the reality of the still-burning Los Angeles fires provided countless opportunities for us to follow Alice into the mad world of Wonderland, USA.
We know why the fires, which have so far killed 28 people and destroyed or damaged more than 12,000 buildings, have been so devastating. Due to climate change, this winter's Southern California rainy season has been unusually dry. Building has become denser in formerly undeveloped areas. The one hundred mph winds that coincided with the fires’ outbreaks spread embers from one building to the next in minutes. In short, large parts of Los Angeles were struck by the stark reality of a firestorm generated by climate change and human activity (nbcnews.com).
After the massive fires broke out, the competing world of virtual reality rushed to provide alternative explanations, often with a political bent. It’s all Governor Newsome’s fault. He cut off water to southern California to save some little fish in the Sacramento River delta. According to Trump, he refused to sign a “water restoration declaration” that didn’t even exist (forbes.com), and per Elon Musk, the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives sapped its ability to respond effectively to the fires (npr.org).
With the fires came rabbit holes galore, and more were in the offing, some old, some new, and some of them large and deep enough to swallow an entire country.
In his post-inaugural comments to supporters and the press, Trump presented a potpourri of nonsense. He repeated his lies about a rigged 2020 election and the hordes of criminals coming to the United States from Venezuela and Congo. He fictitiously and amusingly claimed he was very popular among the nation’s youth, and he again got the facts about the effects of tariffs completely wrong (cnn.com).
Within hours of those comments, Trump went on to issue a flurry of executive actions, one withdrawing us again from the Paris climate agreements intended to slow the devasting effects of the climate change that Trump has repeatedly called a “hoax.” Or to define Trump’s “hoax” more realistically, these are the same changes in climate patterns scientists associate with more wildfires, hurricanes, and apparently with Trump’s desire to annex Greenland, whose ice is rapidly melting into the sea.
Does that make sense? It doesn’t have to. It’s another rabbit hole.
The last few weeks provided rabbit holes that were more like chasms. First, Trump pardoned and commuted the sentences of hundreds of the Capitol rioters from four years ago. Turns out the awfulness we saw on TV with our own eyes wasn’t real after all. A violent, illegal insurrection based on a lie about a stolen election never happened or, if it did, it was all perfectly okay.
Then, a week later our president told us that the DEI demon had also caused the Washington, D. C. aircraft collision that killed 67 people (apnews.com).
Though I’ve never seen a “Matrix” movie, my son told me about the “red pill” which allows Neo to break out of the virtual world he’s trapped in and re-enter reality.
I don’t know why Neo wanted to re-enter reality or if he ever did, but if there were such a thing as a red pill, many of America’s Neos could use one.
My comment on Rhodes:
I get his point but it's the American voters who missed the big one:
Donald Trump's impulses are simple and easily understood. He is motivated by greed, racism and pettiness. Morality and the law mean nothing to him. They never have. He ignores or breaks them at will.
I see surprise expressed today that Trump is turning on religious groups that help migrants. Why would he do that?
Simple. His relationship with religion is transactional, too. He's all for religion only when he sees an advantage in it for him.
The religious groups he's attacking now aren't racist enough to support his anti-immigrant actions, and in this petty man's mind, racism trumps religion every time.
Marie,
Nice going on your biomedical research. You must have gotten private funding for your effort since the US don’t do no medical research no more, no how, less’n it’s okayed by the Muskrat or Fat Hitler.
Only one small quibble. Rather than Colonial Maple as the fat ugly puss colorization product of choice, I’m inclined to go with Fruitcake. Oh, wait…it’s FruitWOOD? Nah. Must be Fruitcake.
We’re being informed by smarties from the Party of Traitors that the MuskRat and his Teenage Mutant Ninja Nazis are digging into the source codes of things like Treasury Department software that keep track of trillions of dollars of payments, schedules, contracts, personnel, and security to “streamline” stuff.
Right. Why wasn’t that my first thought? Oh, maybe because the pimply faced recent high school grads have locked out actual software engineers who have a deep knowledge of the underlying programming that such complex applications run on. Hmmm…how come?
If “streamlining” or “improving” the programming really were the goal, why not have experienced programmers and debuggers on your team? Why use ignorant (and racist) naïfs with zero knowledge or understanding of the applicable code? And why do it in secret?
When Musk took over Twitter, he met with senior programmers and demanded they all submit proposals for overhauling all relevant coding within 48 hours. After meeting with programmers, Twitter engineers were stunned to discover how little Musk actually knew about programming, even down to basic coding practices. After all, he bought the businesses he claimed to have founded, and was kicked out of others. He has never created anything close to the complicated software he’s no razing.
No. The goal is to fuck things up, and call it “addressing inefficient practices”. This is like setting malevolent eighth graders free to screw with NASA software so’s we can get to Mars next week.
The only place Musk and his Teenage Mutant Ninja Nazis are interested in going is Yer Anus.it’s a National colonoscopy with a rusty coat hanger.
Period.
TEST
Musk be running Squarespace.
Foreign Relations, the one guy you don't expect to get you a book as a gift.
"President Donald Trump kicked off a global press conference by presenting Prime Minister of Japan Shigeru Ishiba with a copy of his coffee table picture book Save America featuring a cover photo of his assassination attempt."
Football Expert
Acyn
"Trump: Tommy Tuberville, a great coach. You know, his quarterback was named Mahomes, he was a great college coach.
Tuberville: I recruited him.. I got to be very good friends with him
Mahomes: He did not recruit me at the time. I don't remember if I ever got to meet him or not."
FH signes an executive order just days ago,
"President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order creating a Justice Department task force to eradicate what he called "anti-Christian bias" within the federal government."
Don't worry IOKIYAR will still hold. But that was literally two days before his attacks on Christians trying to follow Christ's teachings and help their fellow mans. The only good Christian in FH's eyes is a bigoted Christian. All the love your neighbor or help those less fortunate Christians are suckers in Donald's eyes.
RAS linked Foreign Relations, about DJT's book gifting.
I checked on Amazon and there are dozens of Trump and Melania
books for sale:
Save America $94.29
Trump 45: America's Greatest President $16.69
Melania, by Melania Trump $28.00
Our Journey Together by DJT $74.99
Great Again: How To Fix Our Crippled America, by DJT $21.99
And on and on.
I will definitely not be looking for these at our library. Our library
system doesn't believe in wasting money on BS.
Looking at DiJiT's Minwax portrait above, it occurred to me that you never see a photo of him with any facial hair at all. Smooth as a baby's ass (which I guess means he uses a filler skim coat before the Minwax).
Either he shaves three or more times a day.
Or he has no facial hair.
He could have had a depilatory facial treatment (now I'm way over my depth of knowlege about skin care); or he has no testosterone pushing those little fibers out of his face.
I'm guessing it's the lack of testosterone. His other attributions show him to be unmanly, so it fits.
@Patrick: Maybe he's a transvestite. Born a female with no facial
hair. Becomes a man with no facial hair. Make sense, but I'm not a
doctor (though I once dated one) so no expertise in that field.
I want to see his birth certificate. Does it say Donald or Denise?
Couldn't resist posting the battle of songs from "Casablanca." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOeFhSzoTuc
Fine with me if the nascent autocratic regime wants to claim the current national anthem as their beer-garden rallying song. Most of us can't sing it. I'll stick with Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" or "America the Beautiful."
Per his Super Bowl interview, the Pretender says his pet Muskrat (thanks, Akhilleus) are going to find billions in fraud and abuse in the Pentagon....
No doubt fraud and abuse are there aplenty to be found.
As we well know, defrauding the government is rife. Medicare payments for services not rendered especially get this old man’s dander up..
Howsomeever, in most, if not all of the cases, it's the private contractors who are the sources of the fraud. It is private individuals and businesses, not the government that is doing the defrauding.
This from an old PBS report: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/new-federal-estimate-finds-more-than-200-billion-in-covid-19-aid-may-have-been-stolen
So couldn’t we conclude that if we want to reduce fraud, there should be more inspection, investigation and enforcement of the laws we have? More cops on the fraud beat?
Seems like most government waste should be called something else. Private sector peculation.
Blame fraud on the fraudsters, I say, not the government.
Let's look at how best to define "fraud":
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/us/russell-vought-consumer-bureau-protect-hq-close.html
This and deliberately hampering or stalling the work of agencies like the IRS, the EPA and the Labor Dept. is perpetrating massive fraud---on the American people.
Not to mention running for office on the price of eggs and saying you'd never heard of Project 2025...
@Elizabeth: Definitely another great moment in film history. It could not be more stirring.
But as to "This Land Is Your Land," I'm not so sure it is anymore. And as for the "Gulf stream waters," what Gulf are we talking about? The Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of America? This land might have been made for you and me, but Trump and his ilk are fighting that tooth & nail. That's nothing new, which was Woodie Guthrie's point.
The question is, do we have the fight in us now? If a new CBS poll is any indication, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" looks might prescient.
According to the poll, "With most describing him as 'tough,' 'energetic,' 'focused' and 'effective' — and as doing what he'd promised during his campaign — President Trump has started his term with net positive marks from Americans overall. Many say he's doing more than they expected — and of those who say this, most like what they see."
Propaganda
"Prebunking Elon Musk's Super Bowl Propaganda
Perception is reality.
Asha Rangappa
I have seen some alarming rumors that Elon Musk has purchased a $40 million Super Bowl ad in which he will expose the “fraud” and “corruption” at USAID. (See here and here.) If this is true, it is not great news: Musk’s “ad” will almost certainly be filled with mis- and disinformation, considering that he has promoted conspiracy theories regarding USAID on his own social media platform. The difference is that a Super Bowl ad will reach 120 million viewers, many of whom who might not be on social media, further expanding the reach of this propaganda and potentially shaping public opinion in support of his destructive efforts in our government."
How was I able to completely tune out the news in my younger days during Nixon and Reagan years?
Now every single day, something (multiple things) brings nausea and a tear to my eye. Musk (probably) buys a superbowl ad for 40M$, for a minute of propaganda while belittling citizens working in a public service role earning 80K$ annually.
A majority approve of the job t**** is doing.
Maybe sometime soon, Woodie Guthrie's song 'Old Man Trump' will be a national anthem.
"My money is down the drain,
And my soul is badly bent!
Beach Haven's is Trump's Tower
Where no black folks come to roam"
btw, I read something in the NYTimes that Square Space was voted as having 3rd best Superbowl ad this year! Putting their money into propaganda instead of better service.
I watched the SB and saw the horribly inaccurate Squarespace ad (fucking liars), but didn’t see a MuskRat propaganda lie-fest spot. I might have missed it, but if so, I’m glad of that. It would have ruined an otherwise great outcome (sorry, Chiefs fans).
As for the anthem smackdown in “Casablanca”, I have to agree it’s a highlight of a film with more than its share of great moments. During my college days, the Brattle Square Theater would run film festivals during reading period (just before finals) and when they showed “Casablanca”, we’d stand and sing along with the French. Fun days…
The Nazis are singing “Die Wacht am Rein”, a nasty bit of anti-French propaganda spread during the Franco-Prussian War about evil Frenchmen “invading” Germany and crossing the border illegally (sound familiar?) so the response of French citizens singing “La Marseillaise”-and beating down the Nazis—is especially powerful.
There was a similar scene in Jean Renoir’s 1937 masterpiece “La Grande Illusion”, about French soldiers imprisoned during WWI. The French officers and enlisted men are putting on a musical play for the prisoners at Christmas when word comes of the recapture of a fort near Verdun. The men stop what they’re doing, stand en masse and sing “La Marseillaise”. It’s perhaps not as Hollywood as the scene in Casablanca, but just as moving.
Today we have a Vichy government ruling the country and making a mockery of the essence of the American Experiment. The MAGAts bench out the “Star Spangled Banner” and sieg heil Fat Hitler, but they might as well be singing “Die Wacht am Rein”, or “Deutschland über alles”.