Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

How stupid are these people?

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Giving up is unforgivable.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Republicans do not trust women.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

The willow is too close to the house.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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Welcome to the Trump Apocalypse

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Welcome to the Trump Apocalypse

Jeez, I’m gone for a bit and all hell breaks loose.

Trump said he’s really, really going to impose tariffs and the stock market took a correction in the back bathroom that really stunk the place up.

President Elon apparently has full reign over the government, and the Census and FAA websites are apparently down right now. He’s also locked government workers out of the HR systems.

Trump is a very weak old man and it’s clear that we have a combo of Trump out front pushing his favorite hobby horses, while in the back room, Elon is running the show.

It’s chaos city out there, but remember that the masters of his universe don’t like it when the stock market goes down.  So we’ll see what happens tomorrow, if the world still exists.

Open thread.

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The DOGE Catchers (Open Thread)

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At this point, Musk and his coterie of sociopathic right-wing tech bros are probably a greater threat to American democracy than Donald Trump. I mean, Trump is pushing 80, and have you seen him lately? He looks like shit. More than usual, even!

I’m not trying to minimize the danger of Trump. He’d do a ton of damage without the broligarchy, of course — we all sat through this horrendous movie before. But with any luck, he’ll die of cheeseburgers or become incapacitated soon enough. The broligarchy will endure, and right now, they’re taking sledgehammers to the U.S. government under Trump’s auspices.

Trump is and always has been a viscous slurry of greed, grievance and wholly unearned self-regard, but I don’t think he has any native ideology. He just gloms onto that of whichever person or group is effectively manipulating his vanity at any given moment. He has no innate ideology but picks it up by contact.

As I mentioned the other day, Trump was pals with Caitlyn Jenner and said he was fine with her using any bathroom she chooses, triggering a Gays for Trump boomlet among Log Cabin types in 2016. Now, Trump 2.0 is all-in on a fascist attack on trans rights.

I suspect Musk has a lot to do with the ferocity of the attack. He’s a shitty person and worse father, so he didn’t handle it well when his daughter transitioned and subsequently announced she wanted nothing to do with him.

I don’t talk about it much, but I know something about parenting a gender fluid child. It’s challenging because the world sucks ass for anyone who doesn’t fall neatly into a pink or blue box. But if you’re a halfway decent parent, you don’t make it about yourself; you love and support your child.

That was never going to happen with Musk, obviously, so he set out to create a world where his daughter can’t exist by conquering what he and other shitty humans call the “woke mind virus.” And here we are.

The social fallout from all this bullshit is and will be devastating. But these fuckers have plans to do much more than reverse the relatively puny efforts the U.S. has made to extend equality beyond straight, Christian, white men.

They want a durable right-wing kleptocracy where the entire society is oriented around their needs and everyone exists to serve them. As the right-wing broligarchy’s chief “thinker” Curtis Yarvin says, to take the U.S. in the direction they want, they ultimately have to destroy American democracy and replace it with a dictatorship. That’s what this DOGE nonsense is all about — destroying the government.

Trump is probably too dim to understand that he’s the figurehead in all of this. And even if he were capable of comprehending it, he probably wouldn’t care as long as long as they keep the bribes flowing and he gets to act with impunity.

Meanwhile, the broligarchy knows they’d occupy the same catbird seat under JD Vance (that is, in fact, why the broligarchy put him there). So they don’t really need Trump to keep breathing for the next four years.

Anyhoo, we’ll see whether they can pull this shit off or not. The ham-handed rollout and hasty walk-back gives me hope. We, the governed, are the last line of defense. We can be the DOGE catchers.

Open thread.

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When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie, That’s DEIA

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Yesterday, during his unhinged presser (is there any other kind?), Junior NTSB investigator Donald Trump found the culprit: DEIA.

Asked why he was blaming diversity initiatives, Trump said, “because I have common sense, and unfortunately a lot of people don’t.”

Trump said air traffic controllers needed to be brilliant to ensure safety.

“They have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses,” he said. “You can’t have regular people doing their job.”

This is so fucking dumb — all respect to ATC but regular humans can do that job. And, clearly, he means “white geniuses” because that’s the only kind he recognizes.

Meanwhile, President Musk’s young Muskrats, some Project 2025 zealots, and Trump’s new cabinet appointees are dutifully scrubbing DEI from all of the government websites and laying down new (probably illegal) edicts:

Department of Transportation orders all personnel to "identify and eliminate" every order, directive, rule, regulation, policy, notice, guidance document, funding arrangement, or program that even mentions climate change, diversity, or environmental justice

www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.go…

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— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman.bsky.social) January 31, 2025 at 6:40 AM

Someone asked in the comments yesterday about who and how this is happening and the simple answer is that we don’t know. I haven’t seen clear reporting on how these people were installed, and that’s on purpose. Of course, we know Sean Duffy was another Trump appointee who sailed through the Senate with 22 Democratic votes, so there’s that.

Steve M has a view on this:

If you’re running a typically racist American police force, you operate on the assumption that most young black men are guilty of some crime or other. So when you see a black man driving with a busted taillight, that’s an opportunity to the pull the driver over, search the car, check for warrants, and subject the driver to intimidation and violence. Sure, the busted taillight is a problem for fellow drivers, but it’s also a pretext you can use to put black men in their place.

As [Duffy memo embedded above] makes clear, DEI can be used more or less the same way. If you want to fire career government employees who aren’t right-wing zealots, or if you want to withhold aid to Democratic-run cities and states, you just say, “Whoops! You’re doing DEI. As of January 20, that’s illegal according to federal law.” After that, your targets either comply with your ideological edict or they lose their jobs or are starved of funds. Either way, it’s a win.

On one hand, I think Steve M has a point. On the other hand, it’s going to become a joke when every answer from the Trumpers is “DEI did that”. It really is a flimsy dog-ate-my-homework excuse. Like everything in Trumpworld, there are things to ridicule and things to take seriously. The anti-DEIA campaign seems to be one where both are appropriate.

(I’m in and out of the house today so this and my other posts are open threads, since I can’t guarantee that there will be other posts from me or other FPers.)

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I Don’t See Canada and Mexico Backing Down

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I googled around for some clarity on Trump’s threatened 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico, which are supposed to go into effect tomorrow, and all I found was various argle-bargle from him and his minions that’s all over the place. Apparently, the excuse for tariffs is blaming Mexico and Canada for fentanyl coming into the country, and at one point Trump said that oil might be excluded. Here’s a CNN piece on tariffs which is as speculative as anything else I found.

Of course, that kind of chaos and unpredictability is part of the plan to cow our North American neighbors. I don’t think they’re going to be cowed, for a couple of reasons. Let’s start with Mexico, our biggest trading partner from the numbers I’ve seen. As recently as Wednesday, President Claudia Sheinbaum has said that she doesn’t think that tariffs will happen, and also that Mexico has a plan “that I’ll reveal in due course.” Claudia has consistently de-escalated when Trump has tried to escalate.

This is an interesting look into what kind of a leader and politician Sheinbaum is. This is one of multiple trips that she’s taken through Mexico to greet crowds. She is absolutely fearless. She travels in a SUV that doesn’t appear to be armored, wades through crowds with minimal security, travels in a motorcade of a couple of cars with no obvious military presence, hugs and kisses everyone. And the people turning out — you can’t fake this kind of a positive turnout. She’s immensely popular in her country, she just passed the 100 day mark of her Presidency with the economy doing well and the lowest unemployment rate in the world.

Does that mean tariffs won’t hurt Mexico in general and Claudia in particular? Of course not, but there’s also a matter of not being bullied by Trump, which leads us to Canada.

I Don't See Canada and Mexico Backing Down

That’s Ontario Premier (~Governor) Doug Ford, who just called snap elections in his province because “We need a mandate from the people to fight against Donald Trump’s tariffs.” Ontario is the economic powerhouse of Canada, 38% of overall GDP, and the biggest exports are cars, mechanical equipment and precious metals. Ford is being called “Captain Canada” in the media, and he’s stepped into the media spotlight after Justin Trudeau resigned and prorogued Parliament. He’s chair of the Council of the Federation, which is like the Governor’s conference in the US.

I don’t like Doug Ford, just to be clear, because he’s a Tory who is stinking up my favorite place in Canada, but the politics here are obvious. Trump’s 51st state bullshit has spawned a backlash in Canada, and the Tories there have reverted from being Trump-curious to being hard nationalists. Ford has already vowed to clear all US alcohol off of the shelves of the provincial-run liquor stores in Ontario (that’s all of them) with the specific intent to harm Kentucky’s bourbon distillers. (To be clear, I’m singling out Ford as an interesting example for the politics of this shitshow, but Trudeau’s government is still in power and they certainly will have a plan for retaliatory tariffs.)

Canada and Mexico have immense power to make Trump look bad and to inflict economic pain on the US. Those are two separate yet related things, by the way. Trump can look bad when neither Canada nor Mexico crumbles into a stance of bowing down before Daddy Donald — there’s just zero percentage in Sheinbaum, Ford and Trudeau’s government to project anything but defiance. I think Trump looking bad will precede any economic impact, because he’ll probably pull some punches on the details of the tariffs (like oil).

I’m going to refrain from high-fiving and spiking the ball the minute that Trump’s tariffs go into effect, and Canada and Mexico retaliate, because it’s going to be a mess that will be mainly reported by Fox and the complaint US media. But every Democrat should be calling this a “Trump Tax” the minute those tariffs go into effect, and I don’t see this turning out well, at all, for Trump.

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TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Non Illegitimi Carburundum

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(H/t Satby)


 

Not everyone can fight Trumpism and Trumpists directly. But remember this: kindness, decency, and fidelity to American values are defiance in the face of Trumpism.
So be kind, decent, and faithful, particularly to the many kinds of people despised and attacked by Trumpists. That’s revolutionary./1

— Domestic Enemy Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) January 20, 2025 at 2:23 PM

/2 It’s something anyone can do. Caring about whether something is true or not, and calling out lies, defies Trumpism. Treating people as humans even if Trumpists don’t think they are is defiance of Trumpism. Refusing to hate and revile Trumpists’ targets defies Trumpism. You can do that.

/3 Fidelity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and to us all being created equal and endowed with those rights, defies Trumpism. Caring about values and principles defies Trumpism (and also nihilists, but why should they care?). Affirming that how you act matters defies Trumpism.

/4 The rule of law, equality before it, and freedom of expression, conscience, and worship defy Trumpism — whether or not some people have given up on them.

/5 Openly caring about and adhering to values infuriates Trumpists. It spoils their joy. They will never be happy because of it. Keep doing it. Decency is a thumb in their eye.

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Late Night Open Thread: Gradually, Then Suddenly

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Good news: Early signs are Trump White House is so grossly incompetent that much of what they try will fail.
Bad news: Much of what we need them to do they can’t do.

— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 5:51 PM

And when the news conference ended after 36 minutes, the reporters, some with dazed expressions, filed out of the briefing room
As I navigated the crowd, I caught a glimpse of a fellow journalist’s phone and the text message he had just sent:
“WTF” www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc…

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— Jonathan Lemire (@jonlemire.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 6:54 PM

When Murphy the Trickster God loses interest in a former favorite… [Gift link]

… The sight was reminiscent of the COVID briefings of 2020: President Donald Trump gripping the sides of the lectern in the White House briefing room, pursing his lips as he looked out at the journalists yelling and jockeying for his attention.

And just like in 2020, Trump used a national calamity to try to score political points and denigrate his foes. Fourteen hours after a midair collision between an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter outside Washington last night—the first crisis of the young administration, a moment to console a stunned and grieving nation—Trump repeatedly implied that the crash was the fault of his Democratic predecessors and of DEI policies.

Trump offered no evidence to support his claims but repeatedly cast the blame on others, even as bodies were still being pulled from the frigid waters of the Potomac River just a few miles away.

“Because I have common sense, okay?” Trump said, when asked how he had concluded that diversity programs—programs that Trump claimed were put in place by the Biden and Obama administrations—were to blame. “Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.”…

When pressed today, he snapped at reporters (“I think that’s not a very smart question—I’m surprised, coming from you”) and called on friendlier faces from conservative-leaning outlets, who tossed him softballs. He admitted that the crash was still under investigation and that the cause was not yet known. But he was quick to claim that the Federal Aviation Administration had lowered its standards under President Barack Obama (“They actually came out with a directive: ‘too white’”) and that his administration was restoring them, despite the hiring and spending freezes his team has aimed to put in place.

But summarizing Trump’s remarks on air-traffic controllers doesn’t quite capture the experience of sitting through them:

Can you imagine, these are people that are, I mean, actually, their lives are shortened because of the stress that they have. Brilliant people have to be in those positions, and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened, because of the stress when you have many, many planes coming into one target, and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it.

… Trump’s eyes darted around the room. His hand, with its index figure outstretched, would move in little circles as he considered which reporter to call on. Then it would steady, and he would point deliberately, selecting one person in a sea of outstretched hands, gesturing that he or she was being granted the privilege of asking the president the next question…

And when the news conference ended after 36 minutes, the reporters, some with dazed expressions, filed out of the briefing room. As I navigated the crowd, I caught a glimpse of a fellow journalist’s phone and the text message he had just sent:

“WTF.”

I can see the fear.
He is afraid, with good reason, that he’ll be blamed.
Trump is actually very easily spooked. And when he reacts this bizarrely, and falls back on the low-hanging fruit of racism as cover, it’s because he’s scared.

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— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 8:08 PM

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War for Ukraine Day 1,072: The Butcher’s Bill in Sumy

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(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Last night I included the news that Russia had just attacked a civilian apartment building in Sumy. Tonight we have the details:

At least 4 people died, and 9 others got injured after tonight’s russian drone attack on Sumy.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 6:49 AM

Rescue efforts at the site of a russіan drone strike on a residentiall building in Sumy have been completed.

The attack killed nine civilians and wounded 13.

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 1:04 PM

And there are more drone swarms over Ukraine, and air raid alerts for northeastern, north central, and central Ukraine right now.

List of Russian drones currently over Ukraine, from Ukrainian Air Force. Tonight’s attack looks like a particularly heavy one.

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 6:23 PM

We’ll cover the other Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets after the jump.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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