CURMUDGEONS DAY UPDATES
For The Perpetually Grumpy Relative in Every Family … It Might Be You, But You’re Too Aggravated to Tell Us
-After one week of the second Trump regime, it appeared the SHOCKANDAWE! And Flood-The-Zone strategies to get people too demoralized and tired to combat the implementation of Project 2025 and other sundries as quickly as possible. But in the last 36 hours or so, while by no means can a victory be declared, a series of skirmishes and retreats has reminded us that the people Trump calls upon to try to execute all of these horrific policies are Not Good At This, and thus beat down some of the harm and damage his ability to try more (not that he will stop).
-What changed? Primarily the wildly unconstitutional and brazenly illegal attempt by the White House to “suspend” all Federal government spending outside of the military for broad and MAGA-heavy “reasons” The words “Marxist” and “liberal” were used liberally throughout the super-vaguely-worded “Executive Orders” which triggered the anger, and at one point the anger was so acute it got otherwise woozy Senate Democrats to making proclamations that approached punchy competent communications.
-As Medicaid portals in all 50 states shut down, letters sent to nonprofits wondering when or if grants that had been approved and allocated with funds would be released (if ever), and lawsuits from multiple entities including States Attorneys General and medical nonprofits and individuals being filed and planned, the pushback to the attempt (remember, refusing to release funds meant for Ukraine (SLAVA UKRAINI!) because Trump demanded dirt on Hunter Biden (dumdumdum) was the specific crime that led to the first Impeachment of Trump) and court order to flip the ban combined with the real potential that even this Supreme Court would likely not rule in Dear Leader’s favor forced Dear Leader to back down early this afternoon – a MAJOR defeat that again showed that one of its mottos should probably be TOO MANY RAKES TO STEP ON.
-As Trump turned his massive tail away in embarrassment over losing this particular battle, another piece of Project 2025 may have hit its own set of roadblocks. Bookmarking the attempt to block Federally-supported and Congressionally-approved funding, a number of steps aimed at forcing civil servants out of their jobs to be replaced by MAGA toadies was also launched. The last update mentioned the attempt to fire all but one Inspectors General across the government, and that was followed by a memo “encouraging” most of the two million civil service workers to just leave. Realizing that made the request look like the same way Trump has treated construction contractors and lawyers over the years, an outside memo reportedly drafted by Possibly Real President Elon Musk (or his minions) (or AI) (probably AI) “offered” anyone who would simply type “ACCEPT” in its response would get what was first reported to be eight months of “severance pay” before disembarking from the job.
-That this “buyout offer” came on the same day Trump also froze all government spending made the “offer” immediately suspicious. That the “offer” would literally cost the Government billions of dollars – dollars that would need to be budgeted for 2025-26 – and could endanger retirement accounts meant there literally was no money backing this “offer” and a real potential to be more economically damaging if accepted.
-That the email and accompanying text message sent to Government workers with the “offer” was flagged as potentially a malicious message by many Government systems AND whose language was virtually the same as the “buyout offer” proffered after Musk bought what used to be Twitter was just kind of the icing on the turd. And that various social media channels with Government workers reporting they were so insulted by everything surrounding the offer that many are now willing to stay in their jobs so MAGAts would not take those jobs over shows yet another layer of blowback in the critical first days of the Trump II regime.
-It doesn’t stop there. While it cannot be minimized that the Trump signature policy (arguably) of vastly increasing deportations of immigrants (and subsequent abuses) are being documented as they are seen and a culture of fear in immigrant communities is real and needs to be fought (particularly since THIS JUST IN: Trump has called for the preparation of the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison for up to 30,000 “undocumented immigrants”), the promise from Trump and his deportation major domo Tom Homan of a huge public display of expulsion has not yet occurred – and, as with spending freeze and tries to gut the Federal work force, is seeing a number of embarrassments for Trump.
-For starters, there was The Great Colombian Trade War of January 26, 2025. On that day, that country’s demand that Trump simply give deportees who are flown in to that country be treated “with dignity” was met with a WAY-over-the-top response from Trump that included a 25% tariff on all that they export to the U.S. – a list that includes important items including coffee, off-season cut flowers, and oil. Later that day, Colombia reported – and reporting from other Central and South American new services confirm – that Trump backed away from surrendered his demand that Colombia accept deportees in shackles and pulled the plug on those tariffs (despite what Trump and Legacy Media hyped).
-Then there was the self-own of Homan deciding he would make a show of showing up at arrests with a military squad and a camera crew, only to have the lone embed that filmed arrests of MAGAts be none other than the Doctor of Bullshit-ology himself, “Doctor” Phil McGraw. Remember, MAGA was promised livestreams of grandparents being ripped away from grandchildren – and, as of this moment, that simply hasn’t happened.
-Then Homan seemed to own himself yesterday when he admitted to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that his hand-picked Ground Zero for The Racist Purge of Chicago, Illinois, has proven to be very, VERY difficult. Why? Because, as Homan bitterly admitted, Chicagoans understand and have exercised their still-existent Constitutional rights (that, so far, ICE agents seem to be respecting?!). “They call it ‘Know Your Rights,’” Homan spat, “I call it how to escape arrest!”).
-As attempts to intimidate continues with reports of quotas that ICE must meet in a short time and thus will increase arrests, and reports of innocent men and women and children who are still being deported is long, stories like the one in Seattle indicate the people who did NOT vote for Trump are getting their sea legs. In Seattle, ICE agents attempted to board a bus they suspected had illegals in it. They were rebuffed by the irate drive, who according to witnesses told Team Ice to “GARGLE MY BALLS!” and move along (providing The Good Guys with our “Russian warship Go F**k yourself!” moment) …
-One area that is extremely dangerous and damaging that is still in process (though many lawsuits have been filed here as well) are multiple trans-bigotry-driven Executive Orders that would not only deny trans-Americans basic rights but would forbid the Government and other entities to recognize their existence and rights as humans. That community needs support and real defense, and Democrats’ silence on these Executive Orders remains a brutal stain on the party until they wake up and do the right thing and protect Transamericans of all ages and upbringings.
-Another event of the last 36-48 hours may also prove, in retrospect as history continues, to be a pivot point – grand, I know, but in the world of computer culture and computer science, it happens with a fair amount of regularity. Such a moment may have occurred – and the investment markets absolutely reacted like such a moment occurred – with the announcement of the release of a new artificial intelligence program developed in China called DeepSeek.
-As an AI program in ostensible competition with OpenAI and the ‘grandddaddy’ of AI programs ChatGPT, DeepSeek does the same kind of code/text generation as ChatGPT. Reviewers give DeepSeek praise for its text output from “good enough” to major praise for creating text that, while as dry and flavorless as ChatGPT and other programs like Google Gemini and Microsoft Co-Pilot, gives more detail and step-by-step output as those other programs.
-Two elements of DeepSeek make its AI a potential paradigm-buster. First, because the developers of the program did not have the access to the high-speed high-energy computer chips that OpenAI and its mega-tech competitors had (thanks to sanctions against China), its engineers combined the Nvidia chips they did have with more readily available standard-grade computer chips – and got the same kind of performance as the mega-programs did for a tiny fraction of the cost (minus the sunk cost of OpenAI’s infrastructure, of course). That could mean the need for the vast number of Nvidia chips it and investors thought they needed and were hoping to get from Trump might be HUGELY overinflated (and that was why the market value of Nvidia plunged nearly $400 BILLION on Monday), and why the Zucks and Musks and Bezoseses were having a Big Sad on Monday.
-The second Really Big Deal about DeepSeek is its open-source coding – coding that, combined with the use of far more currently accessible computers and computer power, could mean that, for example, cities like Los Angeles could create their own local AI program that could help the city manage everything from rebuilding from the recent fires to helping distribute and manage firefighting (and doing so without having to have an AI computer farm with its own power plant to generate the energy that ChatGPT and company use) – all, again, without a need to lean as hard on Big Tech as the Big Tech companies had been banking on until, literally, Monday.
-So that is why all the companies that were hoping to get a piece of a proposed $500B program announced by Trump that was one of the central reasons the mega-TechBros supported Trump took a massive financial bath on Monday (with the exception of Apple, which is the one company that right now is NOT developing its own AI – their stock went up Monday). It is also why OpenAI CEO Sam Altman complained about how DeepSeek used a chunk of OpenAI to help create its breakthroughs (because, DUH, asking AI how to make itself more efficient is something that would totally happen!) and how DeepSeek “stole” from ChatGPT (irony meter pegging into deep red). And it is not that DeepSeek itself is a paradigm-buster – it is still a program created in China, and as we saw with TikTok that’s not necessarily a good thing in the West. It’s more in how DeepSeek works that the paradigm may get rewritten.)
-The first round of hearings for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took place today, and liberal/progressive observers seemed happy with his record and insanity being exposed - but as we saw with Pete Hegseth, that’s no guarantee four Republicans will vote no (particularly with the Wall Street Journal revelation that NC Republican Sen. Thom Tillis essentially promised Hegseth’s second ex-wife he would vote no if three other GOP Senators did - then backstabbed her and voted for him even though three others did vote against him), so keep the pressure on as best you can! Tomorrow, Tulsi Gabbard goes in front of a committee, with Ka$h Patel soon to follow …
-As you can see, there’s plenty more fighting to do. How Trump and MAGA are using the trans community is evil and vile and must be fought – and leaders who do not fight for them must themselves be exposed and shamed until they do. The Guantanamo news shows Trump and MAGA will be undeterred in creating Others to keep trying to push to do what they want to do with impunity.
-BUT, these last few hours also show they can be fought and defeated. They can and will take losses. Their base incompetence is something we will need to keep exploiting as their base thuggery is something they will keep working to use to their favor. And when we get wins – and we got at least one big one – we celebrate and use it to build to get more. All is FAR from lost is all I’m saying.
-ONWARD!!!
-NEWS ON THIS DATE: In 1595, it is believed the first production of ROMEO AND JULIET took place. In 1850, William Clay announced a “Compromise” that bought ten more years of delay before the Civil War broke out. In 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment – and Prohibition – was ratified. (D’OH!) In 1936, the first class of the Baseball Hall of Fame – including Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb – were inducted. In 1958, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married. In 1962, Peter, Paul and Mary were signed to a record deal. In 1996, CATS overtook A CHORUS LINE as Broadway’s longest-running musical. In 2002, George W. Bush labelled Iran, Iraq, and North Korea “the Axis of Evil.”
-DEBUTS ON THIS DATE: THE BEGGAR’S OPERA (1728), Singapore (1819), THE RAVEN (1845), the internal combustion-powered automobile (1888), the Coca-Cola Company (1892), Baseball’s American League (1900). Ice Cream Cones (1924). SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959), DR. STRANGELOVE, OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964), SWEET CHARITY (1966).
-HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Thomas Paine, William McKinley, Anton Chekhov, W.C. Fields, Ernst Lubitsch, Victor Mature, John Forsythe, Paddy Chayefsky, Leslie Bricusse, Germaine Greer, Tom Selleck, Bettye LaVette, Ann Jillian, Handsome Dick Manitoba, Oprah Winfrey, Greg Lougainis, Steve Sax, Nicholas Turturro, Andre Reed, Dominik Hasek, Stacey King, Sara Gilbert, Adam Lambert, and Marc Gasol.
-REST IN PEACE/POWER: H.L. Mencken, Robert Frost, Alan Ladd, Freddie Prinze, Jimmy Durante, Willie Dixon, Dick “Night Train” Layne, Harold Russell, Barbaro, Margaret Truman, Tom Brookshire, Milton Babbitt, Colleen McCullough, Rod McKuen (rough day for poets), Jacques Rivette, James Ingram, John Chaney, Howard Hesseman, and Barrett Strong.
-FEED THE WORMS: Former House Speaker and Person Who Takes Ayn Rand Seriously (hence his being listed here) Paul Ryan entered Earth on this date. King George III bought it on this date.
-Mega-wealthy John D. Rockefeller Jr. was born on this date. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.
-YOUR MUSICAL INTERLUDE FOR THE DAY: Happy Birthday to Tommy Ramone!