Week of February 3, 2025

Week of February 3, 2025

1. Remember last week when Trump said Biden was spending $50 million on condoms for HAMAS (which was ridiculous of course. I explain in my previous post). Well, this week he said it was $100 million.

2. Let’s be clear about something, Musk is NOT doing audits of our government agencies. His toadies are not accountants. If you have ever been through an audit, and I have been through several as a non-profit administrator, you’d understand. Audits are done by accountants, and they are INDEPENDENT for a reason. These kids are hackers. None of us know exactly what he is doing. I keep seeing people say, “yes we do because he is posting about it.” He’s “posting” about it – so that makes it true? Zero actual evidence has been produced. Please correct me if I am wrong.

As someone on the Interwebs said: If you’re looking for fraud, you send auditors. If you’re looking for waste, you send accountants. If you’re looking to steal data, you send programmers.

3. What Musk does appear to be doing is destroying agencies that are conducting investigations into his business and labor practices. Zero oversite, zero accountability. NOONE SHOULD BE OKAY WITH THIS. Destroying things that are congressionally approved and funded. Republicans, imagine if Biden gave George Soros access to your employment records, tax returns, social security numbers with zero oversite while also destroying congressionally approved agencies. You’d flip out.

4. The only (rather dim) bright spots are that the courts are intervening, but not before massive damage is done. Musk, Vance, and Trump are saying that if judges stop what he is doing then we are “not a democracy”. In fact, Vance and Musk are now saying that judges who rule against Trump should be impeached. Bloody Hell that is exactly what authoritarians do! Apparently, none of them have read or care about the constitution.

5. And funnily enough, Republicans have told me for years that we are not a democracy. Interesting, no?

6. Approximately 20 members of Elon Musk’s staff have begun working within the Education Department. They have gained access to multiple sensitive internal systems, including a financial aid dataset containing the personal information of millions of students enrolled in the federal student aid program.

7. Trump paused the tariffs and told MAGA he won concessions, but both countries just agreed to do things they were already doing (AP, NBC, etc) and by the way the stock market dropped 600 points so, you know…market manipulation for his rich friends or just maybe not the master deal-maker.

8. By the way, did you know that farm bankruptcies and suicides rose dramatically during Trump's last administration (Forbes)? Why? Trade war with China. He had to bail them out with billions of taxpayer dollars.

9. One funny tidbit about Trade. Trump was complaining about the existing trade deals with Canada and Mexico and said, “Who came up with this stuff?” Well, he did in his last term (snort).

10. Vance: “Don’t give me some sob story about how Canada is our best friend.” Well, they are our closest friend and ally. And our trade relationship benefits both countries equally (IE: Investment Executive 1/14/25). So, I just have to ask, why, oh why, so consistently, be such an asshole? I guess they just want to be seen as tough guys.

11. Shutting down USAID. Musk has had a personal vendetta against USAID since it was a low-key player in overthrowing Apartheid (NYT and multiple other sources). I mean, most of us think Apartheid was a bad thing, right? Right? Tell me we all agree with this. It was a system of white supremacy and segregation. It was brutal. So, a billionaire with a grudge shuts down an organization that helps millions of poor people around the world because of his personal grudge over the destruction of a system of white supremacy.

From Michael McFaul:” In 2012, when I was the US ambassador to Russia, Putin shut down USAID inside Russia. Why? Because their work supported free markets, democracy, human rights -ie causes that threatened Putin's dictatorship. Shutting down USAID is exactly what autocrats all over the world want.

12. Cabinet picks. What can I even say about this? For folks who have been talking incessantly about merit being the most important factor in hiring, they’ve chosen the least qualified person imaginable for almost every post. But they are loyal to Trump, and that is the most important thing. Part of what bothers me is that Republicans in congress are no longer allowed to think for themselves. God-forbid you vote against one of his picks. You are likely threatened physically by MAGA and are almost certain to be primaried. A healthy government can tolerate dissent. I desperately want people to read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “A Team of Rivals”, but anyway…. (How long before those who dissent are falling out of four-story windows? I’m kidding – sorta.)

13. Senate confirms Project 2025 architect Russell Vought to lead powerful White House budget office. But Trump told us the entire campaign he did not support Project 2025 (once he realized it was unpopular). By the way, dozens of Project 2025 authors and supporters have been hired by Trump. They are enacting that thing as we speak.

14. In the war on DEI (which neither the president nor anyone who supports him seem to understand) the NFL removed “End Racism” from the endzone for the Super Bowl. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that Trump was going to attend. “End Racism” is too… “woke”. Also, the NSA literally taped paper over plaques honoring the accomplishments of women and people of color. NASA removed displays honoring women in STEM. THIS IS WEIRD.

15. Further down the inexplicably absurd DEI-hating rabbit hole, there is now an exhaustive list of words that are not allowed on government web sites. (list of "bad words"). As an example, people renewing grants involving climate change are not supposed to use the word “climate”. Federal employees have received an email encouraging them to report their colleagues for using any of the dreaded terms. Please folks, how Orwellian do we have to get before you stop telling me I am over-reacting?

16. It seems necessary to now point out that J.D. Vance went to Yale on a DEI scholarship for people who are the first generation in their family to attend college or who live below a certain income level.

17. In the Gaza/Palestinian/Israel war, many hostages are now coming home. This is great news. Thank you to whoever – Trump, or anyone else in his administration who helped make this and the ceasefire happen. It must be said that the Biden administration worked tirelessly on negotiations too, however it happened under Trump, so there you go.

18. Unfortunately, Trump now says we are going to rebuild Gaza, and tell all of the people who call it home to never return. We could make it like the French Riviera he says (I’m paraphrasing). And Nancy Mace says, “Let’s turn Gaza into Mara Lago!”. I agree with him that it’s basically rubble and what do they have to come back for. But Trump doesn’t see this as a humanitarian crisis, he’s sees it as an investment opportunity. When asked how we’ll buy Gaza he says, and I quote “We’re not buying it, we’re taking it.” Actually, I think he DOES see this as a humanitarian crisis, one that he can take advantage of. If he finds a “beautiful” place for all of the refugees to go to and they are generally in agreement with the plan, wonderful. That’s not going to happen, but if it does, I’ll eat my hat. (No you guys, I am not going to literally eat a hat. Come on. But I will admit I was wrong.)

19. Musk illegally HACKED into New York City’s bank account and extracted $80 million. This is emergency funding authorized by congress used mostly to house immigrants. You can be opposed to helping immigrants (I mean, if you have to be that way…) but this is an appalling and illegal abuse of power. We are headed to a very bad place.

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