I don’t know what the observances of these events were in the past but I can’t for the life of me see what the harm was in doing it. It just seems like benign celebrations of our pluralistic society, like St Patrick’s day parades or Mardi Gras. Why is this a problem? But I guess the white guys are upset so they have to stop doing it. Many companies in the private sector are ending their DEI programs as well which I have to assume is being done just to make their MAGA customers happy. And I suppose they’re probably happy to abandon all their anti-discrimination policies as well. But take a look at this: Republican attorneys general from 19 states want Costco Wholesale to ditch its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, making the call days after the retailer successfully defended its DEI policies as good for business to shareholders.
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They don’t sprout from thin air The roll-out of Trump 2.0’s “shock and awe” effort has been pretty rocky. This week’s attempt by Trump to “pause” billions in spending on Donald’s whim caused mass chaos across the land. There was enough backlash and a court order pausing the pause that the administration covered up its backtracking by announcing it had rescinded the memo announcing the pause but not the executive commands behind it. (Never admit mistakes.) Yet already one sees critics taking solace in the apparent inability of the Project 2025 team to implement it’s 900-page vision for remaking America as a white-Christian-nationalist dictatorship. But they won’t stop. Ideologues like these are relentless and committed. Wired reports that “the highest ranks of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)—essentially the human resources function for the entire federal government—are now controlled by people with connections to Musk” and to tech industry movers like JD Vance mentor, billionaire Peter Thiel.
Because they are evil, we must stand up to them. But because that are also stupid, we needn’t be afraid to. Dan Pfeiffer has some ideas about that. This is one of them: Here’s a useful heuristic for Democrats — if something makes Trump more popular, don’t do it. Confirming Trump’s nominees with substantial bipartisan majorities could make Trump more popular. Allowing him to sign a border security bill that Democrats only supported because they didn’t want to seem soft on the border (in an election that takes place in November of 2026?)seems like a bad idea. It’s not hard. Trump should be at the apex of his popularity and he is substantially less popular than any newly elected President in history. Here’s one way to think about making Trump and the Republicans less popular: Donald Trump and the Republicans control all three branches of government. They are the only ones with the power to solve pressing problems or address people’s needs. Trump declared that he can fix everything and that America is in a “Golden Age.” He is responsible for all outcomes. Trump will take credit for anything good.
Nominating this freak as HHS Secretary The RFK Jr hearing today was unbelievable. I have concluded that Trump is so angry about the attempts to hold him accountable for his crimes that he just wants to hurt Americans. I also think that he’s showing some serious signs of dementia now. This stuff about the “valve” and sending Elon to space is weird even for him. It’s possible that he’s just owning the libs but I have a sense that it may be more than that. Choosing a conspiracy theorist like Bobby Jr. covers all those bases. He is an insult to all Americans. If the Republicans let him go through despite knowing what a monstrous freak he is, we’re truly in Mad King territory.
The WSJ has the story of Trump’s latest grift: Serious talks about the suit, which had seen little activity since the fall of 2023, began after Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg flew to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to dine with him in November, according to the people familiar with the discussions. The dinner was one of several efforts by Zuckerberg and Meta to soften the relationship with Trump and the incoming administration. Meta also donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Last year, Trump warned that Zuckerberg could go to prison if he tried to rig the election against him. Toward the end of the November dinner, Trump raised the matter of the lawsuit, the people said. The president signaled that the litigation had to be resolved before Zuckerberg could be “brought into the tent,” one of the people said. Weeks later, in early January, Zuckerberg returned to Mar-a-Lago for a full day of mediation. Trump was present for part of the session, though he stepped out at one point to be sentenced—appearing virtually—for covering up hush money paid to a porn star, one of the people said.
But this represents millions of our fellow Americans: Philip Bump discusses how COVID lies ended up helping Trump and how it’s affecting the way Republicans see the health institutions today: After insisting with crossed fingers that the coronavirus wouldn’t pose a significant risk to the United States, Trump in early 2020 endorsed broad restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of the virus. The economy stumbled. His reelection bid looming, Trump reverted to trying to wish the whole thing away. He turned government officials such as Anthony S. Fauci into scapegoats, casting them as hyperventilating scolds. The politics of Trump’s base are heavily predicated on rejecting authority, so the play worked like a charm. In fact, it outran Trump, whose support for the rapid development of vaccines targeting the virus became something of an albatross among Republicans who viewed the inoculations as left-wing nonsense.
As Tim Miller points out in this video,(warning, it’s on X) this indicates that one of the best line of attack against Trump is this oligarchy he’s assembled and which he personally adores. As that 12% approval indicates, there’s a split somewhere in the Trump coalition and it’s pretty clear that it’s between the Wall Street types and the MAGA populists, many of whom are listening to the likes of Steve Bannon. This is a very rich political vein to mine.
He’s obviously nuts. I can’t even imagine what that’s all about. But get a load of this. Trump has apparently frozen all federal grants and loans, domestically and internationally—hitting the pause button on what may potentially amount to hundreds of billions of dollars of money appropriated by Congress for a dizzying array of specific, pre-ordained purposes. From constitutional lawyer Steve Vladek tonight. I’m sharing the whole thing because I suspect you may need a thorough explainer. I know I did: The move was announced in a cryptic and thinly reasoned two-page memo that went out over the signature of Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. And the consequences are potentially cataclysmic—for virtually all foreign aid (including the distribution of HIV drugs in poor countries); for medical and other scientific research in the United States; for tons of different pools of support for educational institutions; and for virtually every other entity that receives federal financial assistance.
And not in a good way This oligarch cover of “All Over the World” won’t be spawning flash mobs. At least not the dancing kind. Anne Applebaum writes in The Atlantic: During an American election, a rich man can hand out $1 million checks to prospective voters. Companies and people can use secretly funded “dark money” nonprofits to donate unlimited money, anonymously, to super PACs, which can then spend it on advertising campaigns. Podcasters, partisans, or anyone, really, can tell outrageous, incendiary lies about a candidate. They can boost those falsehoods through targeted online advertising. No special courts or election rules can stop the disinformation from spreading before voters see it. The court of public opinion, which over the past decade has seen and heard everything, no longer cares. U.S. elections are now a political Las Vegas: Anything goes. That is not how it works in other countries, Applebaum explains. Campaign spending in European countries is limited by law, and such barricades against the influence of Big Money exist elsewhere.
In the face of a massive assault on the basic functions of the federal government, the Democrats have decided they are going to ignore it and talk about kitchen table issues, crime and the border. Less than 48 hours after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries held a closed-door meeting with Democratic lawmakers to issue a warning and a clarion call. The new administration was going to “flood the zone,” and Democrats couldn’t afford to chase every single outrage — or nothing was going to sink in for the American people, Jeffries told them, according to a person in the room who requested anonymity to discuss the private meeting. Jeffries, D-N.Y., urged members to focus their message on the cost of living, along with border security and community safety. “The House Republican Contract Against America is an extreme plan that will not lower costs for everyday Americans,” Jeffries told reporters the next day, referring to the GOP agenda and spending cuts it is weighing.