Floodgates 🤮 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 🤮

The Deluge: Well, last week wasn’t fun, and sadly it was just the beginning.  Pete Hegseth, the accused rapist who promises not to drink anymore but probably will, was confirmed and is now the Secretary of Defense.  Three Republican Senators including Maine’s Susan Collins, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, and Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell voted against his confirmation requiring that JD Vance, who was waiting in the wings, cast the tie breaking vote. North Carolina’s Thom Tillis who is up for reelection in 2026 pretended to give serious consideration to voting against Hegseth but in the end voted for him, bowing to threats from Trump that he’d be primaried if he showed some gumption.  Tillis followed the example set by Iowa’s Joni Ernst who also put her personal political interests over those of the country.  As to McConnell, he deserves no credit for doing the right thing given that we’re in this mess in the first place because when he could have torpedoed Trump he didn’t.  South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was confirmed as Homeland Secretary much to the relief of her state’s tribal population who are happy to see her go but kind of a twisted joke for the rest of us.  Confirmation hearings are set for FBI nominee Kash Patel, the one with the enemies list and a not so funny cartoon depicting some of those enemies being decapitated which is circulating on social media;  the totally unfit for the job RFK Jr, who didn’t just encourage Samoans to avoid getting measles vaccinations but did that so he could “study” the impact on the deluded population because what’s a few dozen deaths and a lot more illness in the interest of perverse science; and Tulsi Gabbard, the DNI nominee who few outside Trump world trust with top secret information with the exception of deposed dictator Bashir Assad and Vladimir Putin. Word is that Gabbard’s nomination is the one most in jeopardy but with Trump threatening to kneecap anyone who opposes her confirmation, even she might pass.  For his part, Trump who has announced plans to spend his weekends golfing at Mar a Lago, when he’s not on the road with the likes of the pardoned Oath Keeper Steward Rhodes by his side upping promises about tariffs, tax cuts and egg prices, got into a shxtting match with the president of Colombia (not Columbia despite that being Trump’s preferred spelling) this weekend after he sent a military flight full of shackled migrants their way.  Sending undocumented migrants back to their home countries isn’t unheard of, both Biden and Obama did as well, it’s the way that Trump shipped the migrants that Colombia’s leader found so offensive but then again with Trump it’s all about playing strong man and bragging about it so he threatened to impose high tariffs on Columbian goods like coffee and flowers, a good move in the run up to Valentine’s Day, before the two leaders reached an agreement. How long before Colombia starts cozying up to China?  Also, would it surprise you to learn that shipping people like they’re cattle on military planes is way more expensive than sending them home commercial? That DOGE efficiency stuff only matters when it’s our health care on the chopping block.  As to health care, in addition to “temporarily” turning off the spigot of health statistics that informs the medical community about circulating diseases, Trump, or more likely the DOGE and Project 25 people he’s delegated decision making to have also frozen and/or cancelled a lot of NIH’s disease trials leaving quite a few desperately ill patients in the lurch while also delaying or jeopardizing future medical breakthroughs.  As to hiding data about diseases, remember when Trump wanted to stop COVID testing in order to hide how much of the deadly virus was circulating and killing people and when he stopped CDC official Nancy Messonnier from making public statements about the incoming COVID pandemic, that’s apparently his plan for bird flu because if we don’t know it’s there, it won’t hurt us and RFK Jr’s anti-vax position won’t really matter.  Right?

More:  Don’t let Trump’s anti-DEI actions fool you.  He isn’t “just” doing away with policies and programs that promote diversity, he’s trying to eliminate history and set back civil rights to the Jim Crow days. Likely in response to the announcement that anyone who failed to turn in anyone hiding DEI stuff or ferret out anything that remotely looked like DEI would be fired, the Air Force announced they would no longer show videos about World War II’s Black Tuskegee Airmen or pioneering women pilots to new recruits. The good news is that those plans to erase history have been scotched but only because Alabama Senator Katie Britt objected. Her objection wasn’t because she’s for diversity, but because Tuskegee is in Alabama. The bad news is that someone ever thought erasing history was okay but then again Trump’s mentor Musk spent part of his weekend telling Germans it’s okay for them to forget about the Holocaust.  Trump is also talking about eliminating FEMA, forcing each state to assume the cost of their own disaster relief, a concept that would severely impact hurricane and tornado impacted “red” states that rely on “blue” states anteing up when they’re suffering but goes over big with the Republican crowd when “Marxist” California is the state that is suffering.  Getting rid of FEMA would take congressional action so it’s not likely to disappear though privatizing it, whatever that really means, is on the Project 2025 wish list. Trump also fired 18 Inspectors General this weekend despite legislation requiring that the inspectors only be fired for cause and that thirty days’ notice be provided but then again, kings get to do what they want and eliminating them is another one of those Project 2025 mandates, so he did.  Also, in a move that affects fewer people but is very petty and cruel, the State Department, now led by Marco Rubio, will no longer issue or renew passports to anyone who doesn’t identify as male or female and he’s put a halt on most foreign aid, another thing that falls into China’s hands.  By the way egg prices are still up.  

Fog:  Four female Israeli hostages were released by Hamas on Saturday.  Unlike during the first release, they didn’t appear to go through a threatening gauntlet on their route out of Gaza, however they were put on public display alongside a too large for comfort group of Hamas terrorists in military uniforms.  All four of the released hostages were soldiers even though the truce deal between Hamas and Israel required that at least one of them be a civilian. That matters because of the “swap math” which requires that Israel release thirty Palestinian prisoners and detainees for each female civilian but fifty prisoners, including some serving long sentences for things like blowing up buses and murder, for each female soldier. Israel’s response to Hamas’ shenanigans was to put a hold on allowing Gazans to return to their homes, or the little that’s left of them, in the north.  For a while it appeared that the fragile truce was in jeopardy, but Hamas has now committed to releasing Arbel Yahoud, the female citizen who was supposed to have been released last Saturday.  Yahoud is now supposed to be released together with two other hostages on Friday. Adding fuel to the fire, Trump who has lifted former President Biden’s hold on the delivery of 2000 pound bombs to Israel called for Egypt and Jordan to “take in Palestinians.”  That suggestion, which in addition to be destabilizing for Jordan, a regional ally that we shouldn’t want to see destabilized, didn’t go over all that well with either country or the Gazans trying to go back to their homes.  Note to all those voters, especially those from Dearborn, Michigan who either stayed home or voted for Trump, are you happy about that now?    

#BringThemAllHomeAliveNow