Could Anything Be More American Today?

So when I got home from my jog early yesterday morning, this newspaper was waiting for me. Could anything say “Trump’s America” than these headlines? Even if you discount the “Deportation” part of it, you have on one side the story of Texas arresting a midwife for “abortion” and on the other, the report of how our legislature is making it more difficult for shareholders and ordinary people to restrain the actions of corporations and CEOs.

In other words, meet the dystopian future…where people are regulated and Corporations are protected.

An Explanation of the Cybertruck

So here’s something amusing (sort of)  from Slate magazine, “Elon Musk Wanted the Cybertruck to Look Like “the Future.” But It Reminds Us of One Particular Past: The story of the Casspir, which patrolled townships in South Africa when the Tesla CEO was a boy” by Vivian Chenxue Lu and Nana Osei-Opare. In it, the authors note that the much loathed Cybertruck, widely described as a hunch-backed dumpster (with just about as much likelihood of catching fire), closely resembles the Casspir, an armored vehicle used in the Bad Old Days of Apartheid and the Boers’ dirty war against the liberation movement.

That may or may not be true. But, it is certainly fascinating, and you wonder a bit about what other holdovers from that complicated period in history might exist in Musk’s philosophy, Horatio.

From the department of the blindingly obvious

So I saw an article the other day that said the Democrats, as a group, now have a lower opinion of their party, and of the party's leadership, than at any time in history. The reason? Democrats are disgusted the party isn’t doing more to stand up to Trump and his billionaires

If that were all there was to the story, you’d have to say something like No Sh1t Sherlock and move it along. But, unfortunately, there’s more.

Specifically, the poll seems to be an awful surprise to some of the Democrats’ leaders–particularly Big Names in the Senate. They just can’t imagine why anyone would be displeased with their performance. 

Which is tragic, when you think about that. Somehow, they have convinced themselves that the Trump administration is just another GOP turn at the wheel, and that in two years or four, they’ll have another shot at Congress and the White House.

The reality, of course, is that nothing could be further from the truth, and we’ll be very lucky indeed if there are any elections at all, ever again, in ten years, or a hundred.  

A Private ICE?

 Disturbing article in the Guardian, “Pro-Israel group says it has ‘deportation list’ and has sent ‘thousands’ of names to Trump officials: Betar US is among far-right groups supporting Trump effort to deport students involved in pro-Palestinian protests,” by Anna Betts. In it, Ms. Betts writes that the organization “Betar,” a right-wing pro-Israel group has submitted “thousands” of names of individuals who it feels are supporting the Palestinian cause. Among them is Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia student who was arrested and accused of ““pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.” He now faces being deported.

This is distressing for any number of reasons, not the least of them being that it seems to indicate a surrender into private hands of America’s immigration policy. Suddenly, it is not the border patrol or ICE or any other government agency determining who setting and enforcing immigration policy. Rather, it is an informal group with a strong political agenda and uncertain membership that is deciding whether or not a specific individual represents a danger.

That’s not a good thing. It is the kind of arrangement that leads eventually to witch hunts. And lynch mobs.

Both of which are all too likely at the moment. 

He's A Robot

 One thing I don’t understand is why no one among the tinfoil hat crew has come up with a particularly bonkers theory to explain why Trump the Candidate is so very different from Trump the President. Back in 2024, he was promising the moon and more to everyone. Lower prices. Jobs galore. The Middle Class protected. White people respected instead of mocked by full professors of Advanced Postmodernist Studies. 

Now, in office, he’s done none of those things and is, in fact, taking measures that actively harm a good many of his supporters – for example, cutting back on affordable health care and imposing tariffs on industries that can’t afford them. 

You would think, then, that the MAGA and the QAnon crew (not much difference between them) would be searching for an explanation. Yet, they haven’t seemed to come up with anything yet.

So, let me see if I can lend a hand. Now, what could we say? Ah, I’ve got it! Donald Trump has been removed. He has been replaced by a humanoid robot by Musk and his billionaire buddies. That works. Rather well in fact.

So, to all the MAGAnons out there, start spreading the news. Your hero has been replaced by an automation, as synthetic and soulless as a Visit With Abe Lincoln in Disneyland.

Now they get it?

 Now they get it?

Interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal, “How Wall Street and Business Got Trump Wrong:

They thought his second term would be like the first, giving priority to economic growth and the stock market. He had other ideas by Greg Ip. In it, Mr. Ip notes that the Overlords of Stock Exchanges and Hedge Funds assumed that Trump would be a cheerful advocate for Free Enterprise everywhere. They thought he’d take their side against loonie lefties who wanted them to, you know, actually pay taxes and not dump toxic waste in people’s drinking water and other pinko-commie stuff like that.

In fact, he’s done nothing of the sort. Instead, he has pursued policies that are not in the best interest of ordinary people…and aren’t much better for the Rich and Powerful. Tariffs, for example, which are pushing up costs even for the most potent monopoly, and trade wars with Canada, Mexico, China, Europe and on and on…which make international business vastly more difficult. 

One wonders, though, why the Oligarchs believed that anything else would happen. Trump more or less said openly what he was going to do if he got back into the White House. Perhaps they thought he was “just kidding.” Except that if Trump is a joke, he has a dreadfully unfunny punchline.

So, let’s have a cheer for the Rich & Powerful…the Oligarchs…the people Who Know Best…

Even if their “best” looks pretty damn dumb to the rest of us.

Human Sacrifice?

So I read the other day in The Guardian that Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, has accused Mexican and other immigrants of being virtually inhuman. In “‘They worship death’: Trump’s ‘border czar’ reveals extremist views in interview” by Jason Wilson, we learn that in a recent interview Homan has said that “They Worship Death” and come from cultures that practice “human sacrifice.” 

Oh, and he also says they’re part of the “great replacement theory.”

While the man is purely nuts, it is comforting to know there is a certain consistency in the Trump Administration. They’re all nuts. You don’t have to worry about a few sane ones slipping in when the door’s unlocked.

One final thing. I’m not sure that any Administration that’s throwing seniors and children and Ukrainians under the bus has any business accusing anyone else of human sacrifice.

No business throwing stones

And RFK Jr. Flops Again

 The problem with doing this blog is that I write the entries in advance. I did the piece on RFK Confounding His Friends on March 4. But, now I learn that he has again flip flopped and is saying that maybe we should trust in vitamins and crunchy cures rather than vaccinations.

Argh.

Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. That’s his nature. Of course he’d eventually abandon common sense for “medical care” that is based instead on herbs, weeds, and wishful thinking.

And the tragedy is that we all, and particularly children, will pay the price for his madness. 

RFK Jr. Confounds His Friends

So I read the other day that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., famous antivaxxer and brain worm supporter, has riled the antivaxx community by turning around and advocating the measles vaccine. Which comes under the heading of a little too late, given the fact that we’ve now got an outbreak of that insidious disease, but, well, maybe better late than never.

But it seems that anti-vaccine activists (a.k.a. “Enemies of Good Health and Humanity everywhere”) are appalled by his change of viruses in midstream. They’re now calling him a turncoat.

While, of course, I think the anti-vaccine movement is utterly wrong, and indeed a real threat to human life, still…I can understand, if not sympathize, with the anti-vaxxers’ reaction here.

It must be dreadful to be in the forefront of a lunatic movement, only to discover that your chief loonie has had an attack of sanity.

How dare you be sane?

His Majesty Musk, First Shogun

Speaking of the Trump/Musk relationship, the power of the latter seems enormously more real than the power of the former. It does feel like a Monarch/Prime Minister relationship. Or, as I’ve said before, if you want to use a chess metaphor, then a stationary king and an all-powerful Queen.

Actually, I suppose we’ve been working toward that…at least with GOP presidents…for quite some time. Reagan, by the end of his term, was largely a symbolic figure, wheeled out to make pronouncements, and then wheeled back in to resume his nap. Real governing was done by the powers behind the throne. Similarly, George W. Bush was more a head of state than a head of government, and genuine power devolved to Dick Cheney. Now, with the second Trump Administration, we’ve gone all the way to golfer-in-chief (Trump) and a national Corporate CEO (Musk).

But I wonder how comfortable Trump should be with that. Yes, it gives him lots of time to work on his birdie, but the position of do-nothing-king is not a long term profession.

One will recall that shoguns and majordomos and others have the interesting habit of deposing and replacing their kings.

And sometimes removing a royal head in the process. 

Like a (failing) business…

For decades, maybe for centuries, the American business elite has called for the American government to be run “like a business.” Well, by golly, in (powerless) President Trump and (all powerful) Prime Minister Musk, they’re finally getting their wish. They’ve got a Chief Executive who thinks like a CEO.

The kicker? A country isn’t a corporation. A corporation needs to think in quarters…three months is about as far out as it can see into the future. It needs to satisfy its stockholders and Wall Street, but not necessarily its “population,” i.e. employees. It doesn’t have citizens, each of whom have a vote and none of whose votes count more than others because they own more of the company. It can consider, if need be, going gracefully bankrupt. 

None of that is true for a country. 

There is thus a terrible possibility that running a country “like a business” is a disaster in the making and we will all suffer for it sometime soon.

If there is a straw to pluck at, maybe it is that after all is said, and we’re very lucky, the egotists of the corporate elite will be regarded with something less than adoration, and will never again be trusted to run the nation.

Will Business People Wake Up?

So by the time you read this, it may be out of date. However, last month, the online publication Semafor ran an article entitled, “American business leaders are turning on Trump — fast,” by

Liz Hoffman and Rohan Goswami. In it, Hoffman and Goswami reported on American business people becoming increasingly disillusioned by Trump and his ever more destructive impact on the economy. 

True? False? Well, hard to say. These are the same people who heartily supported Trump on the theory that he would run the government “like a business.” It is hard to see them abandoning him now, just when he is acting most like a predatory raider conducting a hostile takeover.

Still, it would be interesting (and helpful) if they did wake up and notice that the Trump Administration is a total disaster causing no end of harm to no end of people.

But…the question remains. Even if they are convinced of Trump’s fundamental evil, will they do anything about it? I must confess, I kind of doubt it.

Getting Their Attention

Now here’s a useful piece in The Guardian. My $30,000 health insurance claim was denied. Then I tweeted about it,” by Miranda Yaver, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Pittsburgh. In it, Professor Yaver writes about how her claim was unfairly denied for no other reason than that the company wanted to save money. She finally used social media to actually get the company to take her, and her claim, seriously. 

This is the kind of thing we all need to know about…unfortunately. The fact that consumers have to use social media to get the attention of their insurance providers is not a good thing. It means, as Professor Yaver points out, that the health care system is broken…maybe beyond repair.

What frightens me is that increasingly social media platforms are owned by the same large corporations that own so much else in the United States. Would, say, a Twitter/X have allowed Professor Yaver a place to state her problems under its current management?

A head full of mush…

It’s always weird when you find yourself agreeing with people you detest. Case in point: John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser and arch-enemy of pinko-liberals everywhere. Like I say, I’ve got very little love for the man. As in none.

Yet…late last month he said bluntly that his former boss was basically dumb as a brick (okay, dumber) and has, in effect, a “mind…full of mush.”

Colorful. I like it.

Okay, I still don’t care for him much. But, well, just this once, I’m willing to make an exception. He does have a good turn of phrase.

Heads Exploding

 There was an encouraging article in Politico a while back, “Congressional Republicans start backing away from Musk: The tech mogul hinted he might wade into spending negotiations again ahead of the next government funding deadline” by Lisa Kashinsky and Mia McCarthy.  In it, Kashinsky and McCarthy say that Republicans in the Senate and the House are getting enough pushback from their constituents that they may be, finally, slowly losing their patience with Musk and DOGE. In fact, they could…at last!...discover the courage to oppose him.

I hope this is true, but…well…I’ve not seen a lot of evidence for it on the ground. I’m very much afraid that the GOP will continue to be cowed by Trump’s MAGA and Musk’s money. I’m guessing that they’ll make a few vaguely defiant gestures, and then kiss the whip as they’ve done before.

Still…it would be wonderful if something like that did happen…and if the Congressmen and -women somehow found that they had a spinal column after all.

I mean, really, it would be worth it…just to watch while heads in the White House, the House, the Senate, and the Republican National Committee exploded with all the force and color of an outtake from a cheapjack ripoff of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

Follow Up to RFK Jr.

So now, I read, RFK Jr. is calling the measles outbreak a “priority” and is actually going to do something about it. What actions he might take are, at least at the moment, unclear. But at least he says he’s going to take some kind of action.

The problem is that this is far too late. The trick in public health is to stay ahead of pandemics, not to catch up with them.

And, frankly, anti-vaccine Robert is already way late to the game. The terrifying question is what will he do, or not do, if something worse…and quicker…comes along. 

They Can Change

Here’s one encouraging piece on antivaxxers. It seems that they can, after all, change their minds if given the right information in the right way. Check out this piece in the Guardian, “Formerly anti-vax parents on how they changed their minds: ‘I really made a mistake’.” The authors cite the case of several anti-vaccine parents who woke up one morning and realized they were being lied to…and that those lies were putting their own children at risk.

Give the piece a read. It offers some useful techniques for the ways that communities and families can confront the (incredibly dangerous) antivaxxer movement. 

He is deadly.

 Now, as I say, I wrote a short, witty, comic post about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on 26 Feb. The very next morning, I discovered it was no laughing matter. Here’s what happened…

On 27 Feb, I saw this article in the New Republic: “RFK Jr. Has Horrific Response to Measles Death: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s comments reveal the terrifying new normal.” 

A child has died of measles. When confronted by that tragedy, Robert F. Kenney Jr. basically shrugged his shoulders and said, in effect, Yeah, so? Or, to be more precise, what he said was ““It’s not unusual…We have measles outbreaks every year.”

His indifference is horrible.

Let us hope that, someday, in some better time, antivaxxers will be in court…

On trial for crimes against humanity. 

JFK jr.’s small comforts

Okay, there are two posts today. The first one I wrote on Feb 26, 2025, just after I saw the referenced article about RFJ Jr.’s inactivity regarding the recent measles outbreak. I thought I was being witty and somewhat tongue in cheek. I was wrong. The second posting, which follows this one, reflects what has happened since then. 

Interesting and disturbing article in Vox the other day, “What RFK Jr. has said about the ongoing measles outbreak: The new Health and Human Services secretary is facing one of his first public health crises. Will he blow up the typical protocol?” by Dylan Scott. In it, Mr. Scott looks at what the administration’s favorite antivaxxer is doing in response to the measles outbreak currently raging in Western Texas and Eastern New Mexico.

The fear is that he will interfere in some fashion with vaccination programs, and thus make the situation much, much worse. However, so far, he hasn’t done much of anything, for good or bad. That means that he has left the problem in the skilled hands of local authorities – which is a very good thing, indeed.

There is, however, something terrifying in the knowledge that the best you can ask from the new Health and Human Services secretary is that he remain inert, and so not hurt anyone.

Thus we have a whole new meaning of the term “competence.” In the case of this administration, it means immobility, so that the individual involved does not actively and vigorously engage in genuine evil, but instead remains safely asleep at the switch, and is thus only passively harmful.

As I say, I then discovered I was oh so very wrong. For that, go to the next post.  

They are not listening

 So I saw this disturbing article in Politico, “House Republicans unfazed by protests: ‘We’re moving forward with the cuts,’” By Ally Mutnick and Lisa Kashinsky. Basically, it says that the GOP Congressmen and -women are ignoring the protests and demonstrations breaking out in the country. They simply don’t care what protestors, or you, think about what they’re doing. 

But that makes sense. They haven’t represented ordinary voters for such a long time. They represent Great Power, particularly great economic power. They are owned by Musk, now. What you want, or what anyone without a billion to their name wants, simply doesn’t matter.

Which means, unfortunately, that the traditional methods of influencing our government and its policy no longer work, at least not when you’re dealing with House Republicans. Demonstrations, messages, email, letters, and so on are useless. They couldn’t care less.

The question now is what do we do instead. I’m not sure. But, I notice with some interest that the one thing that does seem to be impacting the GOP is angry confrontations at town halls and meetings. That’s unfortunate. I wish there were a way to get our message across in a polite, civil, and controlled sort of fashion.

But if there isn’t…?

Well, one uses the tools one has at hand.

Including rage. And fury. And confrontation.