Politics & Rule
- More people have lived under despots of some kind than have not. Life still finds a way. So do freedom and justice.
- Despotism has played a large role in this country’s history, too, and the oppressed didn’t quit, even sharing their light. Recall the histories of Black Americans and of other othered groups.
- Hate the hubristic orange oaf and rocket oligarch for their abuses, if you want, but look for ways to leverage your emotions. Don’t let an understandable sense of powerlessness control you. Don’t allow the president and his helpmates to continue their assault unopposed.
- Start with the basics: Stay informed, but use your attention mindfully; protect your loved ones; rediscover the power of community.
- Remind yourself that this administration is no monolith. Neither are the Republican caucuses in the House and Senate, never mind the states.
- Every action the administration undertakes will challenge the unity that the GOP enjoys among its own. Overreach will make the coalition that is intent on destroying our government more vulnerable to fracture.
- Bide your time, if need be, but look for opportunities to raise awareness of specific problems. Look for ways to push back. Trust that your representatives are doing the same, but also verify.
- Get over your disgust at all people who elected this president. Most of these people share many of your values. Some are potential allies. Saying, “Told you so!” might feel good, but there’s no more time for that.
- Even the president’s supporters can be persuaded to protest against specific policies, including by calling their representatives. Look for the issues that people care about. With time, you might help them to see connections to other issues, but take baby steps, show humility.
- The corruptibility of people will favor the current presidency in parts of the government and in civil society, but the presidency’s actions in this regard will make it vulnerable to infighting.
- Find strength in how weak the administration’s actions reveal it to be. It does not trust normal legislative processes, not even when its party controls both houses of Congress.
- These people do not trust the FBI, the military, the government they head, or the people who elected them, but they trust in their own ability to purge and to lead the first three against as many of the people as they think necessary. They are wrong. Reliance on force without justice and public support on their side makes them weak.
- They think inciting the mob through social media posts is an effective mode of governance. While dangerous, this behavior is another sign of their weakness.
- They think threats of primaries are a viable long-term alternative to cooperation with members of their own party in Congress. The rich doners who make these threats viable strengthen neither their party nor the administration over the long term. Skilled cabals might exact high prices, but they do not last.
- They know that their rhetoric about trans and other queer people is favored by only a minority, and then largely in the abstract. The same goes for the racist, anti-DEIA cover they employ to discriminate while pretending that they are all about merit.
- Having only terrible arguments in their quiver, they rely on epistemic violence and memory erasure—lies, disinformation, public attacks on those who call them out, bullying teachers, strong-arming universities and schools, crying “censorship” in spaces they haven’t managed to dominate, deleting vital data from government websites, and more.
- Their attack against us and our government has been expanded to include our allies, too. Don’t get indignant when people in theses countries call all of us out on our tariffs and worse. Look for ways to show solidarity instead.
- We’re feeling exhausted by the assault on all fronts, but this assault takes people, and they are consuming their own at an alarming rate.
- “Making Tariffs Great Again: Does President Trump Have Legal Authority to Implement New Tariffs on U.S. Trading Partners and China?” by Warren Maruyama, Lyric Galvin, and William Alan Reinsch, Center for Strategic & International Studies, October 10, 2024.
- “Trump could impose tariffs on day one, with few checks on that power” by Adam Looney and Elena Patel, Brookings Institute, January 15, 2025.
I don’t understand how tariffs are supposed to foster American industry. How is investing in a country led by a criminal lunatic a sound plan?
Xi Jinping must be feeling really good. Putin’s worn down his army in a bid to end Ukrainian state- and nationhood. Felonious Husk is gutting the U.S. federal government from within, snuffing out crucial expertise. And Hegseth is leading the Pentagon—enough said.
Ethnic cleansing as daring do—if Orange Donald’s own country doesn’t move to try him and his collaborators in the end, other countries will.
King Donald as nation builder in the Middle East. It’ll be a snap with the U.S. armed forces at his command. He just needs a few more weeks to undermine everything that once made America a great power.
This will not end well for Felonious Husk. I just wish he wasn’t so intent on taking the rest of us with him.
Felonious Musk
is having a ball,
while Donald Dingus
performs for us all.
Presidenting is
the biggliest shit.
Don’t steal my show
or you’ll have to go.
The fighting spirit and actions announced here are a breath of fresh air: “Congressional Democrats on Trump Admin. Closing USAID HQ”.
Eighteen Points toward Strength and Solidarity in a Time of Fear and Despair
I wrote these to steady myself, but maybe they will be of interest and possible use to others.
Unsexy Tariffs Matter
I know tariffs aren’t a sexy topic, but they matter, now more than ever—for commerce, for our household budgets, for the stability of international relations, and for our constitutional order.
Over the years, Congress largely delegated its authority to the executive branch. The following two pieces offer insight on this authority. The second also underlines the destabilizing effect this power can have on the international system. Americans need to increase their awareness of what tariffs do. Those who care little about checks on the president’s power or about international relations should should still care about their household budgets, which are going to be paying the bill.
The problem of unchecked presidential power is particularly accute at this moment, as the president attacks critical government institutions and capabilities while flouting Congressional oversight and its power of the purse. Given moves against the treasury last week, the president’s latest tariff announcements require strong pushback. The president loves tariffs. We need to make the topic of tariffs sexy again in order to fight back.
Great remarks by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last night on the unconscionable tariffs announced by President Man Baby: https://youtu.be…. 🇲🇽🇺🇸🇨🇦
Just now reading a bit about the student protests in Serbia against government corruption. Inspiring stuff, both the students' actions and the trust people are putting in them (AP News report yesterday). Solidarity (Bluesky post this evening).
📽️ I rewatched “Amsterdam,” dir. David Russell (New Regency, 2022) because machinations in and around the current administration give the story fresh relevance. Set in 1933, with flashbacks to the World War and postwar, there is cruelty, but also defiance, friendship, love, music, and dance.
Shit is Getting Conspiratorially Dark
“Senior U.S. Official to Exit After Rift With Musk Allies Over Payment System” (Wasington Post) https://archive.ph/omS67
Typically only a small number of career officials control Treasury’s payment systems. Run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the sensitive systems control the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses and more nationwide.… The clash reflects an intensifying battle between Musk and the federal bureaucracy as the Trump administration nears the conclusion of its second week. Musk has sought to exert sweeping control over the inner workings of the U.S. government, installing longtime surrogates at several agencies…
This Musk business is getting increasingly dark. Democrats and Republicans should fight this, except there aren’t any Republicans in government anymore.
The AHA’s members and their colleagues teach students how to think, not what to think. Preparing future generations to read, think, and analyze provides a much stronger foundation for informed patriotism and civic participation. This executive order does just the opposite, providing a blueprint for widespread historical illiteracy.…
– James Grossman, “On the K–12 Education Executive Order,” American Historical Association.
I’m terrible at memes, but poking fun at the oaf is never not fun.
If you choose not to continue in your current role in the cult, we thank you for your service to your Dead God, and you will be provided with an unsummoning spell from the Gore Palace utilizing a deferred immolation program.
– “Deferred Culling Email to President Nyarlathotep’s Workforce” by Andrew Paul, www.mcsweeneys.net…, January 29, 2025.
If Merz thinks he can control the AfD, he should remember that parliamentary elections have consequences, and political predictions are worth as much as Orange Oaf’s word, diddly-squat. Merz should also consider the American grifter-in-chief’s takeover of the Republican party, which is no longer recognizable. This path was made easier by the Tea Party nuts of the mid-1990s and early aughts (think debt ceiling and endless obstructionism), but Orange Oaf, who believes nothing, co-opted the party completely. If Merz has learned from Trump that norms need not constrain him, what does he think the AfD has learned?
Where is big pharma on a Sec RFK Jr for HHS? Do they really want to work with dozens of different health departments because there are no more common national standards? Or will lobbying only begin after a monster takes over HHS?
Orange Ogre’s economic warfare on poor people and blue states undermines the rationale for a federally administered income tax. Why should rich states send money to Washington if there is no ethos or practice of solidarity?