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Yet another thing you couldn’t make up

Saturday, February 22, 2025

This is getting bizarre:

Federal workers began receiving emails Saturday asking them to explain what work they did last week, as Elon Musk announced that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager. Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments,” reads the email, which has no signature. CNN has obtained copies of emails sent to multiple federal employees.

“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted Saturday on X, hours after President Donald Trump suggested he be more “aggressive.” “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.

Looking on the bright side, this is affecting a lot of people. They may not lose their jobs as a result of this, but they’re not going to like it, and Fox will have a tough time getting them to think it’s okay. They have family as well. Lots of them voted for the genius, but this can’t help but give them thoughts. I won’t say second thoughts because I won’t give the Trumpers among them credit for thinking in the first place.

As the title to the post says, if you had accused Trump of planning to do something like this during the campaign you would have been ridiculed. Certainly the media, not just Fox, would have dismissed it out of hand.

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Still a genius!

Thursday, February 20, 2025

I realize that documenting the inanities is getting tiresome, but here’s one that really struck me:

REPORTER: Doge and SpaceX employees are now working directly at the Federal Aviation Administration and the Defense Department agencies that have billions of dollars in contracts with Musk’s companies or that directly regulate his companies.

How is that not a conflict of interest?

[TRUMP:}Well, I mean, I’m just hearing about it.

And if there is, and he told me before I told him, but obviously, I will not let there be any conflict of interest.

I won’t say a word about the fact that if Biden, or any Democrat, had said such a thing the press would have been all over it, accusing them of lying and/or incompetence and/or senility. I also won’t say a word about the fact that the press, of course, simply let this pass because, after all, it’s just Trump being Trump. He lies all the time so why is that news?

But let’s pick this one apart.

There are a couple of alternatives. Let’s start with the least likely first. He could be telling the truth. I’m not talking about the statement to the effect that he won’t allow a conflict of interest, because he’s never seen such a conflict that he didn’t join. I’m talking about his assertion that he was “just hearing about it”. If we accept this statement as true, how do we not conclude that the man is either a total incompetent or mentally unfit for the job. Musk’s conflict of interest has been obvious to anyone with a functioning synapse. You don’t need a whole brain to figure it out.

The second alternative is that he is and was totally aware of the conflict, and has absolutely no problem with it. After all, he himself has made an art form out of cashing in on his presidencies. He has been a criminal all his life and he’s got no problem with other criminals so long as they’re white, rich, and willing to share the goods if circumstances require it. So long as Musk cuts him in on some of the take I’m sure he’ll be fine with it.

While I consider the second alternative the more likely, I am not dismissing the fact that he is also not half there, mentally. Consider again this sentence he produced in response to the reporter’s question:

And if there is, and he told me before I told him, but obviously, I will not let there be any conflict of interest.

I confess that despite being rigoursly trained by the nuns at Our Lady of Sorrows (we even had a nun who specialized!) I would be unable to diagram that sentence, or give a definitive explanation of what he is saying. It is total gibberish. Now again, this may not be evidence of a mental defect. He may be counting on the fact that if he issues such gibberish the press will simply go on to the next question and the absurdity of his utterance will go unremarked while the criminality in question goes on unhindered.

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Moscow Mitch having second thoughts?

Saturday, February 15, 2025

Mitch McConnell has now distinguished himself as being, possibly, the Republican Senator who has voted against more of Trump’s nominees than any other Republican. It goes without saying that he deserves no accolades for this accomplishment, given that 1) not one of the nominees was remotely qualified for the position for which he or she was nominated, and 2) if any one person in Congress is more responsible than McConnell for bringing this country to the brink of fascism that person has kept him or herself far under the radar.

One might wonder why McConnell, of all people, has cast so many negative votes. I’m not buying that his vote against RFK, Jr., was simply because of the probability that RFK, Jr., will bring back polio. That was merely a handy rationale.

It was an open secret that McConnell never liked Trump. My guess is that McConnell has faced the fact that he would have been pushed aside had he not stepped aside from his position as Majority Leader. His time in the Senate is drawing to a close so he’s got nothing to lose by casting these negative votes. Who knows, maybe buried deep within him is a conscience that has, after years of trying, finally made itself somewhat felt.

If you want to give him some measure of credit, you must wonder if he has faced the fact that he bears responsibility for the fact that we now have an openly corrupt, openly fascist government whose leaders, among other things, have asked Europeans to make Nazis feel welcomed in their countries. In the olden days had he come to such a conclusion he would have had to wear sackcloth and do public penance. I don’t expect to see that.

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Friday Night Music, a brief return

Friday, February 7, 2025

Haven’t done this for awhile. I played an old Randy Newman album recently and when this song came up my wife observed that it’s a little too close to official policy these days. When Randy wrote it I’m sure he thought he was targeting a small segment of the population, but nowadays it bids fair to become the new national anthem.

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The dictator(s) steps up

Thursday, February 6, 2025

I just read that Trump has signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s and girl’s sports. It goes without saying that there is no legal basis for such an order. It is possible that a state legislature and/or Congress could pass a bill that would pass constitutional muster but any reasonable court would have to rule that the president of the United States does not make the laws, he is supposed to enforce them.

This president, and here I’ll switch to President Musk for this paragraph, but it also applies to President-in-Name Trump, rather than enforcing the laws has apparently determined that his job is to break as many laws as he can as quickly as possible.

It will be interesting to see if even this Supreme Court will bend the knee and uphold this and other executive orders which are nothing more than abrogations of the legislature’s powers by a would be (or should that be “will be”) dictator.

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The lesser of two evils

Monday, February 3, 2025

One of the bloggers over at the Palmer Report has pleaded for an invocation of the 25th Amendment to get rid of Trump. Now, I agree that in a sane world it would be the right thing to do, but this is not a sane world, or at least a sane country.

First of all, there isn’t a person in a position to invoke the amendment who would invoke the amendment, and there’s not a single Republican, other than perhaps Murkowski and a concerned Susan Collins (don’t bet on the latter) that would go along with the invocation at this point.

I have speculated in previous posts that sooner or later Vance might in fact invoke the amendment at a time when Trump’s mental illness becomes even more advanced. But I certainly wouldn’t support it if he tried now, or later for that matter.

What the writer at the Palmer Report ignores is the fact that if the amendment were successfully invoked, we’d end up with JD Vance as president. There is no way that would be an improvement over Trump. He is, as are all those around the genius, a fascist. But he’s a far smarter fascist than Trump, which would make it all the more impossible for us to defeat them while there is still a chance that there might be fair elections. Trump is now in the process of blowing up the economy with his tariffs. While that will certainly inconvenience all of us, it will also help bring about a swing in the electorate, such that the Democrats, should they learn how to communicate with that electorate, can once again have majorities in both Houses. Were Vance in office he would no doubt reverse the harmful economic policies, while, of course, claiming they were the right thing to do at the time, and he would quite likely take a more active role in making sure that the results of future elections are fixed in advance.

The only advantage Vance offers is the fact that he doesn’t have Trump’s ability to scam so effectively. If he were to inherit the office in 2027 he’d likely be unable to reverse Trumps damage and he’d have no ability to attract voters like Trump could, although I have to admit I am still at a loss to understand how anyone other than self interested billionaires can be stupid enough to vote for Trump, but I do think a fair number of those people wouldn’t be stupid enough to vote for Vance, assuming he was unable to fix the results beforehand.

So it’s hard to believe that Trump could ever be the lesser of two evils, but I think between him and Vance, his penchant for screwing things up so badly gives him the right to that honorific.

UPDATE: I actually wrote this post yesterday, but delayed putting it up. It is now clear that Trump has chickened out on the tariffs, while declaring victory. The press will cover it that way, even though all Mexico agreed to do was to continue to do what it was already doing. In any event, I still maintain that we should prefer the mentally failing fascist to the intelligent one.

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A theory

Friday, January 31, 2025

The recent controversy about the Trump administration’s impoundment of federal funds, the quick judicial injunction against it, and the quick backtrack by the Trumpers is evidence for a theory of mine. Or maybe call it speculation.

First, a couple of axioms before I attempt my proof.

  • Trump does not care about policy. He only cares about himself.
  • He is motivated by a desire to strike at those who have failed to massage his ego by playing up to him.
  • He has surrounded himself with people who have a right wing agenda and are perfectly comfortable with kissing his ass if it helps them advance those agendas.
  • Trump is an essentially lazy person and is perfectly willing to let those ass kissers implement their agendas so long as he gets no blowback.
  • Trump is not a very intelligent person, except that he has an advanced ability to scam other people who also aren’t very intelligent. That has been his one talent his entire life.

So here’s my theory. As noted above the people who are now surrounding him are far right wing ideologues. You know, Nazis. During his first term he surrounded himself with more or less establishment figures, probably taking suggestions from other Republicans. About 99% of those people have now turned against him in one form or another. But, while they were doing Republican dirty work on his watch they knew to avoid doing things that would provoke a reaction such as occurred with the impoundment order. Better to do things, as we lawyers would say, sub silentio. That’s the Republican playbook because, as the Wicked Witch said “these things must be done delicately”, inch by inch, step by step. The people around Trump now don’t see it that way.

So the theory is that one of his lackeys had the idea to defund these programs. He or she may have run it by Trump, but in a way that would assure he’d have no idea of the reaction it would cause. After all, as I said, he’s not really very smart except for that one talent, so it’s unlikely he would have seen through whatever bullshit they ran by him, assuming they ran anything by him.

I think we can look forward to more of this kind of stuff. It is to be hoped that the Democrats will learn how to call it for what it is, and mount an endless and coordinated attack on the perpetrators and on Trump. I realize that’s unlikely, but you never know, they may learn.

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The madness continues

Sunday, January 26, 2025

It’s getting harder and harder to think up anything to write about that isn’t already obvious to anyone who might stumble across this blog. The madness continues, but has been entirely predictable. It hardly seems necessary to document the atrocities, since they are so obvious.

I do think I have to say a word about the recent vote on the confirmation of Pete Hegseth to be the Secretary of Defense. I should note that I was right that Lisa Murkowski was the likeliest person to vote against any of the nominees, but I was wrong about Susan Collins, who apparently couldn’t overcome her concern, and Mitch McConnell, who actually cast a vote against Hegseth. I wonder if either McConnell or Collins would have cast those votes if they would in fact have sunk the nominee.

In McConnell’s case, one must wonder if he ever loses any sleep at night over the fact that there are few people on this earth who are more responsible for the present state of our nation than he. We’ll never know if he could have convinced enough of his fellow Senators to vote to convict the insurrectionist, but we do know that he didn’t try, using the laughable excuse that the criminal process could take care of Trump, a possibility that the Supreme Court for which he is responsible flushed down the toilet with what is perhaps the most absurd opinion in its history.

In Collins case, it’s my understanding that she intends to run for re-election, continuing the process by which the Senate is increasingly looking like an old age home. She may figure that she has to prove to the people of Maine that she truly is an independent thinker. It is to be hoped that they will finally see through her and send her to a proper retirement home.

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Biden reflect on his mistakes

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Joe Biden now realizes he made some mistakes during his time in office:

President Joe Biden — in an interview with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell that aired Thursday and which was Biden’s last TV sit-down as POTUS ? reflected on his failure to hype up his and Democratic accomplishments when in office.

“The mistake we made was, I think I made, was not getting our allies to acknowledge that ‘the Democrats did this,‘” Biden said. “So, for example, build a new billion-dollar bridge over a river. Well, call it the ‘Democratic bridge,’ figuratively speaking. Talk about who put it together. Let people know that this is something the Democrats did. That it was done by the party.”

“I’m not a very good huckster,” Biden acknowledged.

Maybe Biden or his aides should have read any of the left wing blogs, where this point has been made again and again. I doubt that I could count the number of pieces I’ve posted (Yes, I know this blog is too obscure to expect them to read) complaining about the inability of Democrats to message. Biden got a lot accomplished during his presidency, but thanks to the Democrats’ failure to pound away at the press for failing to report it, very few people in this country were aware of it.

Sadly, it appears they still have not learned their lesson. What, for instance, has been their response to the Republicans’ claims that the California fires were caused by Democratic policies. The idea is absurd on its face, but heaven forbid that the Democrats should engage in any coordinated pushback. And how would the Republicans be reacting if Zuckerberg had abolished his fact checking policy in order to kiss the ass of a Democrat? Along these lines, bear in mind that the Democrats deprived AOC of a committee assignment that would have enabled her to more effectively message on their behalf, in deference to a geezer from whom we will hear nothing for the next four years.

UPDATE: Look for the Republicans to blame the Democrats for the demise of TikTok, even though Trump encouraged it and it was passed in a Congress controlled by Republicans. Look for the Democrats to have no response. (It was a stupid thing to do, but both parties are responsible.)

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What about Connecticut!

Saturday, January 11, 2025

A Canadian MP has graciously offered to take several states off of Donald Trump’s hands, pointing out that it would relieve the Orange Felon of states that vote rationally. Well, she said states that vote Democratic, but it’s pretty much the same thing.

She offered to take California, Oregon, and Washington, and then upped the offer to include Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire. It would be a good deal for those states, as she points out:

Because this is what you deal with. We’ve got a deal for you. This is what you get. Free health care. Universal free health care. No more one-year-olds who suddenly fall off the Medicaid list and their parents are in the news. news, because they’re trying to do a GoFundMe so they can get their daughter to a doctor. Universal, free healthcare.

Guess what? Those gun laws that your Congress is too afraid to pass because of the national gun lobby? We already got our strict gun laws. That’s why we have the safest streets around the world, or at least in the United States. By the way, the most recent stats, 5.9 out of every 100,000 people is killed in a fatal gun incident, versus 0.88 per 100,000 in Canada. That’s because we have strict gun laws. California, citizens, Oregon, Washington, safer streets, here we already have good gun laws.

And women have a right to an abortion under our universal healthcare system. But you know, we don’t have to stop there. Donald, think about it. You could get rid of all these states that always vote Democrat.

Okay, all well and good. But there’s a major problem with her offer.

WHAT ABOUT CONNECTICUT?

For that matter, what about the other states in Southern New England? Take us too!

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