Week of February 10, 2025

1. Trump announced that he had “ordered the immediate dismissal” of the advisory boards of the service academies for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard because they were "invaded by left wing "woke" ideology (Politico). Left wing woke ideology, or learning about and appreciating people who are different than you.

2. The White House has designated Mr. Musk’s office, the United States DOGE Service, as an entity protected from public records requests and most judicial intervention until at least 2034, by classifying its documents as presidential records. WE HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING WHAT HE IS DOING – NOT EVEN THROUGH FOIA!! Again Republicans, imagine if Biden or Obama gave Mark Cuban or Bill Gates unfettered access to the Treasury! You’d be tearing your clothing and writhing with rage!

3. Totally not earth shattering in the grand scheme of things but Trump just called Ozempic the “fat shot.” I just…I don’t even know.

4. Republican congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter, just submitted a bill that would authorize Trump to start the process of “acquiring” Greenland, and renaming it RED, WHITE, and BLUELAND.”

5. Trump continues to call the Prime Minister of Canada “Governor” Trudeau, and act as though he can make Canada the 51st state. This is insulting, petty, and stupid, but Trump, The President of the United States of America , thinks it's...what...funny?

6. Trump decided that The Gulf of Mexico is now The Gulf of America. He has no authority whatsoever to do that but Google, subservient and obeying in advance, changed the name on Google Maps.

I’m sure lots of people think these things are funny. I mean it’s funny in its absurdity, sure. But his expansionist desires seem to mimic Putin and the speed with which weak people jump on board is alarming.

7. Related - In a boldly obnoxious and entirely unnecessary FU to native Alaskans he renamed Denali to Mt. McKinley. Noone in Alaska wants this, including Republicans in the state. Why would he do this you ask? I mean, it turns out McKinley never stepped foot in Alaska. Did you know that? Trump loves McKinley because he was a fan of (drum roll please…) tariffs. Yes. Trump tries to unilaterally rename a mountain that both Ds and Rs worked together, with native Alaskans to change to Denali – just cuz, well, he wants it that way. No, no, not authoritarian at all (Bloody Hell).

8. In some good news (Reuters): A federal judge appointed by President Bush has ordered the Trump administration to restore public health websites with critical medical information that doctors use to care for patients. There is a mountain now of legal challenges. This is good of course. The courts are the only thing right now standing in the way of Trump's darkest desires for our country. But here is the pertinent question: WHO WILL ENFORCE THE COURT ORDERS? Trump’s DOJ? Federal Marshalls? No. TRUMP IS REPLACING ANYONE WHO COULD ENFORCE THE LAW WITH LOYALISTS (YES, I’M SHOUTING RIGHT NOW. THE CATS ARE DIVING UNDER THE BED. THE CAPSLOCK IS NOT BROKEN. THIS SHIT IT IS SERIOUS. (takes deep breath) anyway...

9. In more good news, the Army and Navy have both restored webpages that featured the histories of female soldiers and sailors. They were removed last week. It is good news but come on, is honoring the accomplishments of women in military service to “woke”? (I feel an essay coming on about the word “woke”. Stay tuned).

10. Funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health means St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital loses out on $40 million (Seattle Times, CBS News). They are making massive cuts to medical research. Are we great yet?

11. Musk is mad at the judge that unfroze some of the federal grants, so he found the judge's daughter's info posted her picture, the number where she works, and a signed copy of her tax returns (Bloomberg, MSN and others). Other than the obvious point I’m pretty sure everyone understands that this is not how an “audit’ is supposed to be conducted, THE GOVERNMENT IS OUT OF FREAKING CONTROL. People will get hurt.

12. Musk has made over $25,000,000,000 from tax breaks, subsidies and government contracts. DOES ANYONE CARE ABOUT CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ANYMORE?

13. Massive federal layoffs are happening now (wait until you-anti-government folks find out what it’s like without a functioning one – or worse). The ones doing the firing seem to be enjoying the cruelty. Not only are people who accepted the “buy out” offer now being told they don’t qualify (after losing their job – it was a con), but they are getting letters described in the following post from my Uncle Rod (who spent 45 years as a wild land firefighter and smokejumper):

“For those who don't work for the federal government, it might be difficult to envision how the actions by Trump and Musk actually hit the pavement. So, let me describe for anyone who's interested, a typical scenario that is occurring all across the nation right now.

Let's say you're the boss of an organization that performs some particular task for the government. In my case, it was at a smokejumper base, so let me use that as our example. Following the 2024 fire season, say in November, four of your best people have decided to move to new jobs. They either found new employment in the private sector, or maybe they moved to a new job higher up in the jumper base, or possibly a Fire Management Officer on a national forest somewhere in Montana. You now have four openings in your leadership structure. Let's say your loft foreman, your training foreman, your crew supervisor, and your assistant paracargo foreman have all come open. Three of your best people apply for each of those jobs. Out of a total jumper headcount of 75, 12 of your most experienced, proven workers apply for these four jobs. You go through their applications very carefully, and even though the competition is very strong, you, as the overall Smokejumper Foreman pick the four that you think have the highest qualifications and offer them those jobs.

All four of these candidates accept the offers. All of them have already done 4-5 years on a hotshot crew and probably have been jumping for about 10-15 years each, maybe 20 years of total fire experience. Most likely, they are all Red Card qualified to be Crew Boss, Strike Team Leader, Task Force Leader, Division Supervisor, Incident Commander Type II or III, and various other qualifications. BUT . . . because they are moving into new positions, they are technically listed as "Probationary Employees" for one year. One month after all four have accepted their new positions, the new administration in DC informs them that they have been fired. Not moved back into their previous positions . . . FIRED. In various ways and on a wide variety of job descriptions, this is what is happening all across America tonight.

See you later, sucker; that's what you get for trusting me”

Also, my nephew the wild land fire fighter tells me they cannot start hiring people for the fire season. Obviously you cannot wait until the last minute to hire people, especially for a job like this. They need orientation and skills and safety training. They put their lives on the line for us. I can only HOPE they will actually be allowed to hire this year.

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People keep telling me that the cruelty is the point, and it really does appear to be so.

14. But don’t worry, the Trump Administration is now rescinding the firing of dozens of DOE staffers after it turned out they help run our nuclear program (CNN, NBC, NPR). The incompetence is staggering. They fired them all without knowing what they actually do!

15. Alt National Park Service: Elon Musk’s staffers have been going through data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees healthcare coverage for over 160 million people through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Marketplace. When concerns about HIPAA violations were raised, a staffer responded, “Do I need to call Elon?” (you can argue with me about whether Alt National Park is a good source but so far they have been accurate and mostly ahead of all other news sources).

And again in the words of Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton, "So what did I miss?"