Week of March 30, 2025

Here we go!

1. The White House shared this gem. An open celebration of deportation. It is very similar to Nazi propaganda from the 30’s, but with updated style. What are we doing here?

2. Trump is trying to force companies in OTHER COUNTRIES to drop their DEI policies. The obsession is so bizarre with something they do not even understand. But it sure helps whip up the base so they pay less attention to their retirement account.(Politico) “We have a culture of non-discrimination in Europe and we must continue that,” Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Jan Jambon said Sunday evening on the French-language TV channel RTL-TVi. We have no lessons to learn from the boss of America”.

3. Trump’s lies about the tariffs placed on us by other countries is just nonstop. Yes, Japan has a 700% tariff on our rice. However, it only kicks in at a certain tonnage and we have never reached that amount. He doesn’t tell you that part. Same with Canada and dairy products. (CNN, Yahoo Finance).

4. The absolute best thing that happened all week was that on Trump’s (dumb and mostly made up) tariffs chart that he displayed on what he called “Liberation Day” were listed two islands that are (snort) only inhabited by penguins. Penguins! So, all day I got to see things like this on social media.

5. These lists go by fast. They are dense every week. And then we are off to yet another week full of the macabre. Sometimes I think we need to revisit things from the previous weeks just so we don’t forget all of the madness we are living through. This is not normal. So, I present #27 from the Week of 2/28…

27. And now perhaps the single most embarrassing, ugly, disrespectful, bazaar, twisted (honestly, there are not enough words) move by anyone ever in government in the history of the world – Trump shares an AI generated video on social media celebrating the future “Trump Gaza”. In it…

a. It’s raining US dollars on Musk on the beach.

b. Musk is gleefully eating stuff. Why? I don’t know but I guess he is so excited at the prospect of yet another Trump resort he wanted to celebrate on the graves of dead children.

c. Bearded belly dancers dance on the beach. Yes, you read that right.

d. A giant (giant) golden statue of Trump.

e. All of this to music with the lyrics “Trump will set you free.”

f. Ending with Trump and Netanyahu shirtless on the beach giddily sipping cocktails.

(my eyes are still bleeding)

Aside from what seems to me to be obvious sacrilege (or blasphemy? bible scholars help me out here), and how truly humiliating it is to be American right now, how disrespectful to the entire Muslim world, particularly Palestinians, to have bearded and scantily clad women (actually I think they were men in belly dancers outfits), the drinking of alcohol, showering of money, and worst of all, Trump and Netanyahu gloating – on land where tens of thousands of innocents were just killed in war.

6. Trump’s nonsensical (well, it actually does make sense if the goal is, in fact, to trash our economy – which it seems to be – but anyway…) trade war has tanked the economy faster than a global pandemic. The markets have lost 11 trillion in value since inauguration day (Economic Times). JP Morgan says there is 60% chance we will slide into a recession.

Why would I say that he is trashing the economy on purpose? Because no one in their right mind (yes, I know) would do what he is doing, and stick with it, unless that is the actual goal. This is in the wanna-be dictators’ playbook. Tanking the economy makes his billionaire buddies a ton of money, because they can buy up everything from stocks to bankrupt companies and property for cheap. Trump is on record saying he does really well during a bad economy. It also earns their loyalty. They will always back him. Over time it will make the working class more and more desperate and exhausted. Eventually they will work for slave wages. That’s my take anyway.

As an aside, can you imagine the reaction if Harris were president and caused the financial markets to lose 11 trillion in value in a couple months?

7. Rep. Nancy Mace says that whenever she knocks on doors while campaigning, Democrats never have American flags outside because "they hate our country": "They'll burn it to the ground if it means that they can win and ruin our nation." PEOPLE HAVE TO STOP THIS SHIT. The other side does not want to "burn it down" because they "hate our country". FFS. We have to stop thinking this way about each other. Are there some people who are absolute psychos, yes. But by and large it is not your neighbors, family and friends.

I’ve heard Christians I care about call the other side “evil”. You call them “evil” and you turn it into a holy war. “The most dangerous form of tyranny is the one that claims divine authority-because you cannot reason with someone who believes their cruelty is holy.” Ana Nelson, Threads

8. Trump sent an innocent gay man to an El Salvadoran gulag, admitted it was in error and then said they would do nothing about it. The good folks at Fox News thought it was funny. Laughed and made jokes about it. Jessie Waters said, “It’s just a gay barber!” (Yahoo, ABC News)

9. Americans are starting to fear dissent. And even large Universities, places that should be bastions of free speech, places that should not be told what to and not to teach by the State are capitulating to Trump’s ridiculous anti-DEI threats. Large private companies are capitulating before the threats without a fight. (The Guardian, NYT, NBC News) I mean what kind of country do we want to be here?

10. Musk fired the entire team responsible for managing the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which supports approximately 6.2 million people across the U.S.—from Maine to Texas—in paying their heating and cooling bills.(NBC News, NYT)

11. It is really looking not only like Musk will not meet his deficit reducing goals, but will in fact increase the deficit. Part of the reason is that all of the cuts at the IRS will likely decrease revenue by 500 billion – a full 10% (Forbes, NYT, WaPo).

12. Musk is trying to pull a 38-billion-dollar government contract already in progress with Verizon and flip it to his company SpaceX. This is a blatant conflict of interest. He should not be mucking around in our government manipulating who gets contracts – especially if he is the beneficiary. (Inc, Yahoo Finance, WaPo)

13. In the continuing nonsense on DEI, Hegseth ordered 400 books to be removed from the Naval Academy Library. Books on the Holocaust, histories of feminism, civil rights and racism, and Maya Angelou's famous autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,". Books that explored themes of white supremacy, race and racism in America, gender identity and sexuality and diversity (CBS News, Baltimore Banner. The full list can be found here.

14. Sen. Cory Booker gave a (my opinion of course) brilliant, inspired, and even hopeful 25-hour speech in which he detailed every one of the ways Trump is damaging our country, our democracy, and hurting vulnerable populations. He broke the record set by Strom Thurmond in 1957 who was speaking AGAINST civil rights legislation. Just poetic.

15. And this is why you can’t believe all of Trump’s “the big man – with tears in his eyes – called me sir” stories. Retired Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, told a Senate committee on Tuesday morning that the story Trump has been spreading about him is not true. Trump says that when he met Caine in 2018 in Iraq, Caine told him “I would kill for you, sir,” before slapping on a red MAGA cap. “For 34 years, I’ve upheld my oath of office and my commitment to my commission,” Caine said, according to Politico. “I’ve never worn any political merchandise or said anything to that effect.” (Politico, CNN, The Dailey Beast)

16. Trump said last night in his speech that the word groceries isn't used anymore. It's an old-fashioned word. “It’s like an old-fashioned word, but it’s a beautiful word, a very descriptive word. The groceries are coming down.” “I inherited a groceries situation,” he said a day earlier at the White House. (USA Today, Yahoo, Economic Times) Look, I don’t know.

17. Award-wining Parkinson’s researcher among those fired at NIH. He was behind a major breakthrough that identified the mechanisms behind the disease. (Wired, Science AAAS) We are now being told this was a “coding error” and he and 9 other researchers are back at work. You don’t fire real people based on “coding” if you actually give a crap about what you are doing.

18. Dr. Oz was confirmed by Senate to run Medicaid and Medicare Services. (BBC, NPR). Television personalities are running our government. At least he’s an actual Dr, I guess, although he is known for giving some pretty iffy medical advice.

19. Trump fired 6 National Security Council officials on advice from - - Laura Loomer. (NYT, CNN, NBC News). Laura Loomer is a far-right political activists known for racist social media posts and pushing conspiracy theories of the “9/11 was an inside job” variety.

20. On Saturday the people finally marched. Millions of people took to the streets for entirely peaceful protests. I’m proud of that. We have to keep these protests peace because, well, it’s the right thing to do. Also, because Trump will use any excuse to impose Martial Law. Also, anyone who tries to tell you the protestors were paid is barking mad. Why do people believe this nonsense?

21. Trump just pardoned crypto firm BitMex convicted of violating money laundering laws — making him potentially the first president in American history to pardon a corporation. Essentially, he pardoned a bunch of white-collar criminals. (Reuters, CNBC, Bloomberg).

BTW: Trump’s Atlantic City casino got the biggest fine in history for violating money laundering laws.

I am going to add something while we are on the subject of pardons. I recently found out that Biden commuted the sentence of Michael Conahan, a judge who took kickbacks for sending kids to private juvenile facilities. (Guardian) While this is yet another example of why it’s a bad idea for facilities like this (and adult prisons)to be for profit, It also looks like a pretty appalling thing to do. Why did He do this? I can’t find any good reason. We get incredibly frustrated that the other side can virtually never – ever – admit their guy did something wrong. They say it didn’t happen, they don't believe their own eyes, or blame the MSM, or make excuses, or start in with the “what-abouts”. Let’s not do that. If our guy (or gal) did something wrong, let’s call it out.

While I'm on the subject, no one should be burning Teslas or Tesla dealerships. And leave the drivers alone. A whole lot of people bought Teslas without knowing who Musk really is and/or care about climate change. While I'm up on my high horse here I'm not going to lie, I don't feel bad for Musk. He is recklessly ruining hundreds of thousands of lives for no freaking reason. He's taken a sledge hammer to important government agencies that have CONGRESSIONALLY APPROVED funding. He calls people on Medicare the "parasite class". He called Gen. Mark Kelly a traitor. I despise him - with the heat of a thousand suns. But as someone who reveres MLK, I can only support non-violent protest. Violence will lead to civil war.

22. Musk staffers are in the process of seizing control of the Peace Corps’ headquarters. (Reuters). The Peace Corps was established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. It sends volunteers around the world to help countries with projects focused on education, health, and economics. More than 240,000 Americans have served as Peace Corps volunteers. This has always been supported by both Republicans and Democrats. There is even a bi-partisan Peace Corps caucus. But I’m sure Musk will blindly apply a jackhammer to it as he has everywhere else

In the words of Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton, “So what did I miss?”