1/26: “‘Struggle does not always lead to victory, but without struggle not only can there be no victory, but there cannot even be elementary self-respect,’ the Russian activist and sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky reflected in 2005.
“ … the individuals and organizations that want to destroy our democracy and make us feel powerless have been at this game for a long time. But now far more of us are onto them. We are familiar with their scams, their distraction and deflection rhetoric, their conversion of violence into patriotism, and their bargains with unscrupulous religious leaders who praise them as instruments of divine will. And we can translate that experience into anti-authoritarian action.” – Ruth Ben-Ghiat of Lucid on Substack
1/24: "Trump Supports the Police, Just as Long as They Support Him
“President Trump’s flurry of pardons this week sent a message to law enforcement: He will ‘back the blue’ if they back him.
“On Monday, the Washington police union was decrying President Trump’s use of pardons when he let off rioters who attacked more than 150 officers on Jan. 6, 2021. By Wednesday, the same union was praising Mr. Trump after he pardoned two of their own who had been convicted in connection with the death of a young Black man." — By Luke Broadwater and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, NYT
1/23: For the past two days, the new Trump administration has been demonstrating that it is far easier to break things than it is to build them.
Heather Thomas wrote: “So when all was said and done, the only country that opened [its] prisons and sent crazy murderous criminals to prey upon innocent American citizens, was us.”
DDT: In an even more dramatic reworking of American history, though, the Trump administration has frozen all civil rights cases currently being handled by the Department of Justice and has ordered Trump’s new supervisor of the civil rights division, Kathleen Wolfe, to make sure that none of the civil rights attorneys file any new complaints or other legal documents.
DDT: Trump’s team has told the staff at Department of Health and Human Services—including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—to stop issuing health advisories, scientific reports, and updates to their websites and social media posts.
1/22: Observation: All that ice and snow in the south is a sign that God is not happy with the new administration. Is that Heavenly Revenge?
Signs of DDT: Destroy Democracy Threat
Remember the 1962 “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson? It awakened and motivated a whole nation to eradicate the destructions DDT was causing. Well silent spring is back with a more ominous threat.
I have begun monitoring what I will call The Orbanic threats.
* Spy (A more ominous word might be “monitor” when used in a context implying constant, intrusive oversight or control, often invoking feelings of unease or authoritarianism.) ‘The Trump administration on Wednesday threatened federal employees with “adverse consequences” if they fail to report on colleagues who defy orders to purge diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from their agencies.’ – NYT
* Subjugate (An ominous word for forcing compliance by a government could be “subjugate.” It conveys a sense of domination and control, often with a heavy or oppressive connotation.) ‘The memo commands state and local officials to cooperate with the department under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, or face criminal prosecution or civil penalties if they fail to comply. … and instructed the Justice Department’s civil lawyers to “identify state and local laws, policies and activities” that flout Mr. Trump’s executive orders and, “where appropriate, to take legal action to challenge such laws.”’ – NYT ‘The unusual memo doubled as a warning shot to department employees who slow-walk or refuse to aggressively enact “the president’s actions” or federal law.’ – NYT
GOD HATH SPOKEN: At a moment when conservative Christians are poised to gain even more power through Mr. Trump’s second term, Bishop Budde of the Washington Cathedral tried something different at the interfaith service with POTUS (or is it POTASH?), VPOTUS, and their wives plus many congressmen in the congregation plus most of America watching on TV or in the media.
‘For everyone watching, the vastness of Washington National Cathedral compressed, in one stunning moment, into a sudden intimacy. And with it, all the existential fights not simply of politics but of morality itself. In a flash, the war over spiritual authority in America burst into a rare public showdown.
The Canterbury Pulpit confronted the bully pulpit on the greatest possible stage.
Let the fireworks begin: On Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump retorted on his social media platform Truth Social, demanding an apology from the “so-called Bishop” and “Radical Left hard line Trump hater.” “She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way,” Mr. Trump declared on Wednesday. “She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”
Over 14,000 people signed an online petition thanking Bishop Budde within four hours. Episcopalians around Washington proudly posted online in gratitude that Bishop Budde was their spiritual leader, representing their Christianity.
Bishop Budde does not believe she was speaking directly for God. “I’m saying, this is the best that I can do to understand and interpret what I believe our teachings and our scriptures and what the Holy Spirit might be wanting us to hear,” she said.
Bishop Budde WAS speaking for God because God is within us all if we allow it to surface.
1/21: Walter Schaub, former head of the Office of Government Ethics under Trump in his first administration, who left after criticizing Trump’s unwillingness to divest himself of his businesses, wrote to CNN: “America voted for corruption, and that’s what Trump is delivering…. Trump’s corruption and naked profiteering is so open, extreme and pervasive this time around that to comment on any one aspect of it would be to lose the forest for the trees. The very idea of government ethics is now a smoldering crater.”
1/20: “The day many could not imagine has arrived. Donald Trump will be sworn into office for the second time. Voters don’t have the excuses they did in 2016. They knew who he was, what he believed in, and what he was capable of doing. Now all of us will experience the consequences of electing an autocrat surrounded by a flock of flunkies who are as devoid of ethics, decency, empathy, and expertise as Trump is. We did not simply elect an autocrat; we chose, as a nation, to usher in an oligarchy—the likes of which we have not seen since the Gilded Age.” — The Contrarian "
"I was saved by God to make America great again.” — Trump
1/19: Moving Trump’s inauguration indoors: People who have spent thousands of dollars to travel to the capital to see his inauguration are now unhappy to discover they will be limited to watching his motorcade drive by them. On social media, one user posted: “MAGA doesn’t realize the symbolism of [Trump] moving the inauguration inside: The billionaires, millionaires and oligarchs will be at his side, while his loyal followers are left outside in the cold. Welcome to the next 4+ years.”
1/18: “History has its eyes on you,” they repeat to each other. Today’s liberals often worry about being “on the right side of history,” which is a kind of moral and teleological replacement for the judgment of God." — Ezekiel Kweku, NYT
MAGA believes “that America should be a homeland for “heritage Americans” of Northern European extraction." — James Pogue, NYT
"Trump … is entering office with a majority of the vote," is misleading! He entered office with a majority vote of the Electoral College!
1/17: We need a daily report, let’s call it the Bullytin, that will keep us alert to the shenanigans of this new administration.
Trump will follow his mentor, Viktor Orban, ’s battle plan for autocracy. We should follow that plan to be one step ahead.
Someone ought to create a superfund similar to a PAC that incorporates Go Fund Me-style funding. The goal is to provide legal defense aid, especially in support of media defense, and campaign funding for politicians threatened with primary defeat.
1/13: In exactly one week America will loose a president and gain a chief destroyer.
1/12: Is Musk a billionaire or a hallucionaire?
1/6: It looks like, in the future, businesses will be ‘outsourcing’ office work back to humans: “OpenAI’s most powerful model recently matched the average human on a set of problems designed to measure general intelligence but used more than $1,000 of computing power per task. The problem setters noted they paid a human roughly $5 per task to complete the same set.”
1/1: I resolve to no longer make resolutions but to enjoy life unencumbered by artificial guidelines 🥹
How about you?
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