NATIONAL HUGGING DAY UPDATES
What a Day For This Holiday!
-This update is late for me because of the start of the Spring semesters at the schools I teach at (I am an adjunct at now three Chicago-area universities, for those who don't know) as well as a late outage on Substack, but it was a helpful space to process and sort through the shit-flooded zone - a term used by human canker sore Steve Bannon to describe one of the basic MAGA strategies that the newly reinstalled President has always done, and yesterday did and then some. The strategy has two purposes: allow really awful things to get through simply because such volume allows bad stuff to get through; and to build the "Resistance is Futile" psychological warfare that Team Trump is leaning on to consolidate power without working all too hard to get it (since they emulate Dear Leader's arrogance and laziness). The time allows me to think what snark to throw around and nurture my hopium realistically with this little Substack.
-So with that preamble, let's get our hip waders on and glop our way through some of the first 24 hours of the Trump II regime that we should worry about, what we should not worry about so much, what we can work to do about some of these things, and most importantly to continue to mock (because even that is something The Powers That Now Be would rather people not feel, since if there's one thing we know irritate the Hell out of them is mockery, and generating irritation is a particular skill of mine!) ...
-FIRST, let's start with cataloguing Trump's Broken Promises, and there's a BIG one to start: TRUMP HAS NOT STOPPED THE WAR IN UKRAINE! Even though today Trump actually said some things about his BFF Vladimir Putin that were - dare I say it? - CRITICAL OF PUTIN (DUMDUMDUUUUUMMM!!!), his boast that he would end the conflict "within tWENty fouR HOURers!" of becoming President was not fulfilled. Sure, the entire idea was kind of asinine, but MAGA voters who have also noticed eggs are still expensive have to figure out which promises to take literally and which symbolically, and broken promises are broken promises, so In The Name of Truth, truth hurts. He broke that promise, MAGA. Deal.
-And, SLAVA UKRANINI!
-Now to deal with Inauguration Day, which started with now-former President Biden with a final wave of pardons and commutations, including American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, siblings from his own family, and a wave of heroes from the January 6, 2021 insurrection from police officers to members of the January 6 Commission and staffers (and WHOA will we come back to THIS). Then on to the actual Inauguration, which reports from the Philadelphia Inquirer and Rolling Stone noted was nothing more than Trump's campaign stump speeches, with the same lack of energy and directionless noodling that again revealed the cognitive decline he has been on for at least the last year.
-Ah, but if it were just that ... alas, it wasn't ...
-Because while speaking, Actual (or is it Co-?) President Elon Musk was on the dais, bobbing and twitching his head to no sound that could be heard on the podium in what sure looked to some like tripping on some kind of hallucinogenic drug. That was a warm-up, though, because at a 'rally' later in the day that substituted for a parade (because the He-Man Alpha Male Mucho Macho Men of MAGA don't like it when their tootsies get a little chilly) Musk "warmed up" the crowd with a speech that ended with not one, but two CLEAR Nazi salutes.
-Naturally, the Self-Gelded Legacy Media (and followed up in testimony by MAGA Suck-Up Elise Stefanik this afternoon at her United Nations Ambassador hearings) pooh-poohed the notion that it was a Nazi salute, with NBC News going so far as to edit the first salute (and not show the second) in a report produced for YouTube. The problem is that American Nazi web sites were positively orgasmic in recognizing that Elon damn sure DID make a Nazi salute - and German newspapers (who would know it) went so far as to block out the salute when reporting on it accurately. But it lit a fuse that was a bit damp at the start of the day, and built to the shit-floodgates burst wide open later in that event.
-Because there Trump delivered on his threats to unleash a mountain of Executive Orders, many of them signed with followers screaming like he was body slamming good guys at a WWE event every time he pulled out a Sharpie and opened one of the faux leather steak house menu covers that encased each Order he signed. Something near 100 such Orders were signed, and if you followed the campaign none of them were really all that surprising. Enraging and endangering in many cases, but not surprising ...
-Yes, several Orders flipping Biden policies because Biden made them were signed (reasonable prescription drug prices? Building windmills that create manufacturing jobs? No drilling near polar bears? HA! HA! HA!). Yes, Trump's vile efforts to dehumanize and endanger the trans communities in the United States were accelerated. Yes, absurd and utterly ridiculous ideas like creating a commission to reduce grocery prices and calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America now have Trump's chicken scratch promoting them. And this is where "flooding the zone with shit" comes into play, as MAGA hopes it cows decent Americans - that is, THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE COUNTRY (YES IT IS - @ ME!) - into doing nothing and letting most of them go through.
-Now, efforts started almost immediately after the oath was administered in Courts, as there are clearly unconstitutional garbage Orders that have and will or should be struck down (most notably the challenge to birthright citizenship), and other Orders that can only be done with Congressional approval (anything involving budgets and spending monies). And, quaintly but surprisingly powerfully, a surprisingly large number of the Orders are likely to be struck down thanks to them being poorly written, not proofread, or clearly generated by ChatGPT and other AI text generation programs.
-Seems silly, right? Well, it's not. As Slate and Talking Points Memo noted, Judges - whether appointed by Biden or Trump - are NEVER happy with sloppy briefs being presented to them, and will generally always rip attorneys that submit them. More to the point, Executive Orders may be written in reaction to laws on the books, therefore knowing exactly what laws are being referred to and what provisions are being affected by such Orders are kinda important. And on a purely practical matter, badly-written Orders leave people wondering what the Heck the people who are supposed to execute the Orders are supposed to do to fulfill the Orders in the first place! In other words, even with years to plan, the work product Team Trump has generated will result in a lot of that work not being done because of their own lack of talent and disdain for the job of governing (and where have we seen THAT before?!).
-Just as many who have dreaded this day were absorbing a few of those Orders (and many of them are still being worked through), the capstone to the day left many of them/us beyond enraged and into full terror. Despite reports and fears expressed by people including now-VP Pence and Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi, virtually most of the elected Republicans, and public polling that reflected massive opposition to the idea, Trump nonetheless went through with his threats and pardoned or commuted everyone that was convicted on Federal charges connected to the January 21, 2021 insurrection. The pardons (and while it is weak sauce, it should be said accepting a pardon for a crime you were convicted of includes an admission of guilt) have led to worst-case scenarios that fear the 1,500 convicts affected by the pardons now gives Trump a para-military "brown shirt" vigilante force ready to literally attack anyone Dear Leader directs them to ... though a few of them may also wonder why Trump waited four years to pardon them when he said he would pardon them in 2021 and never got around to it ...
-No matter the case, the injustice of Trump's act, combined with the cowtowing of the media, raises the fear that Trump's lies about him having the 2020 election stolen from him will move beyond the MAGA Cult and Fox/Newsmax/OAN ecosystem will obliterate the reality of the violence that did occur on that day, prompted by Trump trying to overthrow the election after Biden beat him. Which Biden did. Which means it's up to us to keep the truth out there as best we can as Trump II builds.
-From there, the Trump pettiness was in full bloom. Trump removed the portrait of Gen. Mark Milley that was put up last week (and after Milley accepted a pre-emptive pardon), "fired" Biden favorites Chef Jose Andres and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms from their Federal commissions (even though both had already resigned), removed the Constitution and Spanish language White House web pages, and even changed a button on the Spanish language page to say "GO HOME" (that has since been edited). The pettiness was matched on Facebook when new Trump BFF wannabee Mark Zuckerberg automatically added Trump and Vance to everyone's Friends list (in my case, both appeared yesterday and today despite being blocked the first time), along with reports that searches for "Democrats" on Instagram were being blocked. Again, the "Resistance is Futile" message is out there loud and clear.
-Next up, potentially/probably: the long-promised raids on immigrants. The anticipated raids in Chicago have yet to happen, whether because the initial reports were a leak or ICE agents weren't ready or film crews from Newsmax or Tucker Carlson's podcast weren't in place or because it barely got above zero in Chicago today - whatever the reason, the crotch-rattling of Border Czar Tom Homan and Trump ghoul Stephen Miller continues as Chicago and other blue cities and swing state cities await the raids to begin and the hope by Team Trump that some scuffles can be elevated to depicting a lawless Hellscape in the cities that can be repressed by those who literally have hard-ons to create lawless Hellscapes in said blue and swing state cities.
-It does seem time for Democrats to come out and fight - or that is what most Democrats ache to see happen. And by "fight," Democrats do NOT mean bending over to be "bipartisan" when would-be Fascists won’t (glaring at PA's John Fetterman, who still insists his dalliances with Trump and company do NOT mean a shift to become Republican, for what that's worth) or using such mealy-mouthed quasi-scholarly language that nobody wants to listen (looking at YOU, Chuck Schumer) and instead be clear and forceful in defense of blue states (like IL Governor JB Pritzker) or even better, direct and pointed like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who attended none of the inauguration events because, as she laid out on the Gram, "I don't celebrate rapists!" (Note her use of the plural, speaking of why good grammar is important!)
-All of which leads to what we can do to fight the shit-flooded zone. And besides doing what many of us have been doing since Election Night - stepping away when things get too overwhelming, embracing things that give you joy, not giving Legacy Media a second of your time - pushing elected leaders to fight harder and louder is a good thing to do. Another is to pick issues you want to work on with passion and fearlessness and trust others will find other issues since we can't fight everything everywhere all at once. A third is to engage with those close to you, as they will help you get through. Stuff you've heard from others way more qualified than me, but good to repeat nonetheless ...
-And, in closing, know that the image of Team Trump being an overwhelming juggernaut is simply full of its own flood of crap. For proof, one only needs to look at Musk's "Government Efficiency" commission (IT IS NOT A DEPARTMENT), which made its first effective move to get more efficient by ousting Musk's co-chair, the at-least-as-annoying-as-Musk oligarch wannabe Vivek Ramaswamy. Officially, Vivek is leaving to begin a campaign to run for Governor of Ohio in 2026, but reports indicate his irksome personality, perhaps accentuated by some in MAGA by his skin color (YEAH I SAID IT), has led to Vivek's exit. Remember, folks, if there are people MAGA may hate more than people they think are woke, it's fellow MAGAts.
-THIS JUST IN: In a bit of unmitigagted Good News, Ichiro Suzuki has become the first Asian baseball player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, falling one vote short of an unanimous vote. Pitchers CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner have also been enshrined, joining Ford Frick winner Tom Hamilton for this year’s class. Congrats to all!!!
-On to the day's trivia!
-NEWS ON THIS DATE: In 1968, the Battle of Khe Sanh - a month-long fight that proved pivotal in America's perception of the war in Vietnam - was launched. In 2009, Toyota replaced General Motors as the biggest auto maker on Earth. In 2010, the Supreme Court helped set the stage for yesterday by ruling spending money equals political speech in the corrupt Citizens United decision. In 2017, tens of millions of people marched around the world - billed as The Women's March - in protest of the ascension to power of Donald Trump in 2016 (sigh).
-DEBUTS ON THIS DATE: The Swiss Guards to protect the Pope at The Vatican (1793), Opel Automobiles (1899), the Monte Carlo Rally/Grand Prix (1911), The Concorde (1977), KING OF ROCK (1985), MTV UNPLUGGED (1990).
-HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Georges Vezina, Christian Dior, Karl Wallenda, Barney Clark, Telly Savalas, Paul Scofield, Benny Hill, John Chaney, William Wrigley III, Wolfman Jack, Jack Nicklaus, Ivan Putski, Placido Domingo, Richie Havens, Edwin Starr, Mac Davis, Jill Eikenberry, Billy Ocean, Eric Holder, Mike Krukow, Paul Allen, Geena Davis, Robby Benson, Detlef Schrempf, Hakeem Olajuwon, Jam Master Jay, Cat Power, and Emma Bunton.
-REST IN PEACE/REST IN POWER: George Orwell, Cecil B. DeMille, Jackie Wilson, James Beard, Carl Furillo, Colonel Tom Parker, Jack Lord, Susan Strasberg, Peggy Lee, Michael Winner, Maggie Roche, Kaye Ballard, Russell Baker, Terry Jones, Louie Anderson, and today, Jules Feiffer.
-FEED THE WORMS: Stonewall Jackson and Grigori Rasputin entered Earth on this date. Louis XVI literally lost his head to a guillotine on this date. Vladimir Lenin and Byron de la Beckwith also bought it on this date.
-TODAY'S MUSIC INTERLUDE: Rest in Peace to the last surviving member of The Band, Garth Hudson.