We began a twist-and-shout Trump start with
- a memo from the Office of Management and Budget announcing
a Trump freeze on all freezable programs(veterans, food for little kids, health programs, schools, hospitals, shelters, air safety, and most anything for seniors)
- followed by a court ruling that Trump couldn’t freeze everything unilaterally
(No you can’t!!)
- followed by an administration announcement rescinding the freeze
(We didn’t mean it!)
- then another announcement saying the previous announcement only rescinded the memo announcing the freeze, not the freeze itself
(We didn’t mean we didn’t mean it, we only meant we didn’t mean to say we meant it)
- and the court ruling would be challenged
(We can too end everything)
- and the freeze was still on
(We actually did mean it)
- except now it’s a review
(We sort of sideways mean it).
Got that?
This week it turned out that the madcap Trump administration has another dark and deadly side.
Sad prediction posted by Lesley Carhart
And, of course, it was because of Black employees:
REPORTER: I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash.
TRUMP: Because I have common sense, ok? And unfortunately a lot of people don't
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 30, 2025 at 11:54 AM
And so we head to our internet wise folk to review the week:
- Disaffected and it Feels So Good tracks the sequence as Trump fires and replaces those in charge of air safety, a disastrous air crash then occurs, and Trump blames minorities for the deaths.
Earthbound Misfit adds this:
- tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has something on the new oops move in Trump’s on again, off again, on again attacks on Medicaid, Head Start, and Health.
- Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit sees Trump ordering the withholding of HIV medication, even medicine already waiting on shelves, to the afflicted in Africa, and reaches an obvious conclusion about Trump specifically and Republicans in general.
Key value:
Worse, to them, the idea that Black people will die in Africa is not a problem for them. They actually see it as a positive. It is a form of passive-aggressive mass-murder. - Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged pays attention to the Trump elimination of DEI and diversity and lets us know it also means blanking out a lot of history that should make us proud. Like these heroes:
Key disqualification:
It stays a story about American greatness if we accept that they, like the Navajo code-takers, were a part of this nation’s cherished diversity being a boon to us.So honoring American heroism might involve acknowledging an unfortunate racial past.
Can’t have that! - With an administration of Jan 6 pardons, “Gulf Of America,” Deportations, Musk, And More, Hackwhackers brings us Saturday Night Live with a dark sort of gallows humor:
- Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group podcast us through the flurry of executive orders during the tiring first week of the new administration, during which – to everyone’s shock – Trump began doing exactly what he said he would do.
- Juanita Jean shows us examples of how Trump performs instant solutions.
He causes one problem, then backs off.
He watches long-planned routine maintenance repair another problem.
Then he publicly congratulates himself for solving both.
- Brian Beutler says we can thank the Supreme Court for unlimited bribery in the Trump branch:
I think thanks to John Roberts the answer is that the president is immune from consequences for all forms of extortion and bribery that can’t later be proven without piercing the executive branch, and the only political check is impeachment and removal as a kind of no-confidence vote.
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 5:43 PM
- Tommy Christopher explains the federal anti-corruption law Trump is violating with his mass firings of Inspectors General, and the casual way Republicans are responding
- Julian Sanchez, speculates on the mutual attraction between Trump and his merry band of incompetents.
Been mulling this a lot lately. It’s not just that smart people mostly want nothing to do with Trump or Trumpism, it’s that incompetence is an actual asset, because these are folks who know with absolute certainty that Trump is their only chance of achieving anywhere near this sort of success.
— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Talented people might want to preserve their reputations for the sake of future careers independent of MAGA, and are therefore a risk.
— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 7:28 PM
- From Right Wing Watch, White supremacist antisemitic Nick Fuentes is happier than happy that new President Trump has been moving so aggressively against groups Nick hates. But now it occurs to him that, if Trump can do it to them, he can do it to anyone, including Nick and people he likes:
- Dave Columbo befuddles his virtual fictitious Republican with Trump spin cycles
View on Threads - driftglass briefly walks us through 2024 and what media pundits taught us, then untaught us, about the importance of Presidential debate performances.
- Nan’s Notebook has a frank assessment of Trump.
- In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson goes back 187 years to young Abraham Lincoln’s earnest warning about why ambitious politicians will work toward the destruction of the rule of law.
Lincoln’s Lyceum Address seems targeted to today. Whom would he have in mind?
The same historical analysis is now available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast. - Juliet in podcast at Decoding Fox News has the network glowing over all the wonderful things Trump has been doing except for those totally unmentioned, overlooked, …um… pardons.
- News Corpse reports as Trump goes beyond pardoning the Jan 6 insurrectionists, and deletes official records of what they did during the attack.
- Frances Langum brings us GOP Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee, forced by Jim Acosta into lame what‑aboutisms while trying to reconcile back‑the‑blue with Jan 6 pardons.
- @whiskeywhistle98 has the final word (sort of) on the salute Musk doesn’t bother disowning:
- Yeah, the excuses are lame:
Shamelessly stolen from Infidel753:
(infidel753.blogspot.com/2025/01/trut…)— burrland01.bsky.social (@burrland01.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 4:57 PM
- Clickbait satirist Reductress has the sad story as Barron is still uncertain of Elon’s role in the family.
- CalicoJack in The Psy of Life goes beyond doomscrolling to 10 specific things each of us can do to save democracy.
- The Propaganda Professor reprises a point by point guide consisting of 20 additional specific actions any and all of us can take to resist Trump atrocities.
- Infidel753 suggests that those of us joining in resistance to Trump may want to resist a few excesses of our own.
Key example #1:
The fact that the opposing side won an election and gets to implement its program is not inherently a threat to democracy, even if it’s a bad thing in various ways. That is how democracy works. The side that wins gets to call the shots, within Constitutional limits, until the next election comes and the voters once again choose between the two programs offered to them. The January 6 insurrection was a threat to democracy. Trump and the Republicans in Congress using their Constitutionally-assigned powers to implement policies we don’t like is not.Key example #2:
… telling us not to criticize Democratic politicians. First, this is exactly what we rightly chastise Republicans for — their refusal to criticize their own party’s leaders no matter how damaging or disgusting their actions and statements get. - Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has the numbers as Americans react to the types of cuts Republicans are pushing.
Hint: By large margins, Americans are opposed to the cuts.
- In Happiness Between Tails da-AL reveals a childhood history of abuse, and explains how hardship prepared her for, and leads her to protest, an increasing cultural trend toward plain meanness.
- The Onion studies the pros and cons of ending birthright citizenship
Key First Pro & Con:
PRO: A solid start to ending all rights
CON: Class of stateless refugees might not buy as many laundry pods - In Scotties Playtime, ICE finally releases US citizens it has detained after they were heard speaking Spanish.
- PZ Myers is undeterred about the Gulf. It will always be what it was names in the 1500s: The Gulf of Mexico. But Google Maps has decided to cave.
- M. Bouffant at Web of Evil has the links. As Israel insists that, no they are not about to ethnically cleanse Gaza, along comes say‑any‑old‑thing‑that‑pops‑into‑his‑head Trump to brainlessly advocate they do just that.
- At The Moderate Voice Trump goes to bullying tactics in an aggressively threatening phone call to Denmark premier Mette Frederiksen about taking Greenland away from Denmark.
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson points to the Trump administration aim of turning places of care, healing, and solace into places of fear and uncertainty. They cannot comprehend how anyone can see that as a violation of Christ’s teachings.
Key offense in invoking mercy and justice:
But these are words that were once alien to the president’s ears and never to be mentioned in his presence. - North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz has not exactly said that MAGA-Christianity is anti-Jesus. Neither has Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde.
But Jesus is saying precisely that.
- From The Borowitz Report has the results after Bishop Budde and Mike Johnson debate the Bible.
Some readers are skeptical of the 99% to 1% results.Key explanation:
Oh no! I pushed the wrong button! I should have waited for my first cup of coffee.
–John - Ant Farmer’s Almanac covers the MAGA call to deport the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde back to Episcopalia.
- In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, atheist Bruce is asked, if he had remained a right-wing Evangelist pastor, would he have supported Donald Trump.
Key contrast:
In 1998, President Bill Clinton faced impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. I preached several sermons about Clinton’s lack of moral and ethical values, saying, that I could never, ever vote for such an immoral man. While I knew that no politician was a pillar of virtue and morality, I had, in my mind, a line that couldn’t be crossed if a candidate wanted my vote. I concluded that it would be better not to vote than to lend my support to candidates lacking basic moral character.
Fast forward to 2016 and the messianic arrival of Republican Donald Trump. - Iron Knee at Political Irony applies the annual renaming of the Lunar New Year to current events in the US.
- SilverAppleQueen has fond memories, and delightful photos of her ice‑fishing days.
- The Journal of Improbable Research covers research at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China into the ability of cats to land on their feet and how it might be used by robots.
- Many of us have noticed the weather is not conducive to outdoor baseball, but Bill LeRoy of the Savanna Bananas stays in shape:
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