The Kleptocracy is Here 🤮 🤢 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 🤮 🤢  

And So It Begins: To quote Martin Luther King Jr, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." At noon today, on Martin Luther King Day, Trump will be inaugurated, ringing in an extreme time of challenge and controversy.  Our job is to stand up to it as best we can.  It won’t be easy, but the alternative is worse. Herr Trump will take his oath of office inside the Capitol rotunda instead of outside because though he wants to make Canada the 51^st state and covets Greenland, today’s cold weather is too much for him to bear. Worth noting President Kennedy took his oath outside coatless on a colder day.  Few if any of those “lucky” enough to make it into the Capitol for today’s now space constrained swearing in will be wearing masks but since COVID, the Flu, RSV and the current version of the norovirus will  among them it could be a superspreader event because it’s not like vaccinations or other disease prevention practices are de rigueur for many of Trump’s closest, including HHS nominee RFK Jr. As to nepo man, his fellow attendees, including all the right-wing leaders from abroad including from Germany’s anti- immigrant and anti-Semitic AfD party would be wise to demur if he offers a sip from his flask, because raw milk, but then again why shouldn’t bird flu be given a seat at the table? Joking aside, the NY Times reports that during the height of the Covid pandemic, when thousands of Americans were still dying every week, RFK Jr formally asked the FDA to revoke the authorization of all COVID vaccines. His petition demanded that in addition to rescinding authorization for the lifesaving shots that most of us greeted with enormous sighs of relief and a few tears of happiness, that the FDA refrain from approving any covid vaccines in the future. If confirmed as HHS Secretary RFK will be in charge of the FDA.  

Day One: As promised, immediately upon being sworn in, Trump will start issuing the executive orders he’s promised.  Punchbowl News reports that they will fall into three categories: energy, government reform and immigration-border security.  He plans to halt the funding of all Biden’s “green new deal” and climate-related actions; speeding energy permitting and the construction of pipelines; opening tens of millions of acres of federal land, including offshore areas, to oil drilling; and declaring a national energy emergency not that we’re actually facing one but he did promise all his fossil fuel energy donors that he’d “drill baby drill,” environment be damned. As part of the onslaught on the environment, Trump also plans to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, again. Trump intends to make it easier for government agencies to fire workers especially insubordinate ones, as in those who don’t tow his party line, and will rescind all DEI and gender-related directives from the Biden administration. On the immigration and border security front his plans include classifying drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” to justify declaring an emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and to possibly legitimize raids by the US military into Mexico. He also plans to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy; end “catch and release”; and more generally restrict entry into the country even though crossings are currently down by a lot. Last time many of Trump’s orders were poorly written and didn’t pass legal muster, but Kommandant Stephen Miller has likely learned from his prior mistakes and the Supreme Court, now made up of many more Trump appointees, is expected to be more cooperative.   

Tick Tock Tik Tok:  Last time he was president, labeling Chinese owned Tik Tok a risk to national security, Trump called for it to be sold to a US based company or be banned from doing business in the US.  Those security concerns were legitimate which is why despite the objections of legions of loyal Tik Tok users, Congress, on a bipartisan basis, passed a law mandating Tik Tok’s sale. In a unanimous decision the Supreme Court upheld the law, ruling that concerns about national security trumped free speech. The wrinkle in this tick tock, is that Tik Tok’s Chinese owners, abetted by at least one of its billionaire US investors, handed over buckets of money to Trump during his campaign so naturally he’s now pro-Tik Tok. Over the weekend Tik Tok, shut down its US service posting the following message: “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S.  Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”  Then after their savior and beneficiary Trump said that he would issue an executive order giving Tik Tok a lifeline, the app miraculously came back up, with a note thanking Trump, of course.  Trump is now suggesting that it would be okay if Tik Tok’s Chinese owners sold only half the company to US investors, but that wouldn’t satisfy the law or solve the problem because the Chinese government would still control Tik Tok’s mind bending algorithm and would still have access to user data, the concerns that spurred Congress to act in the first place.  The Tik Tok saga will continue. Maybe Trump will get his minions in Congress, aided by some pro-tech bro Democrats to lift the ban, it’s hard to know at this point, but one thing is for certain, Trump’s for sale and money, especially money that ends up in his coffers, ethics rules be damned, talks.  And lots of money has been making it his way. Reports are that his recently issued crypto meme coin made him around $11 billion, so much loot that Melania is following up with one of her own. As to tech bros, Vivek is departing DOGE, apparently Elon Musk didn’t thing he was pulling his weight.  He won’t be Ohio’s next Senator, that plum is going to the state’s Lt Governor Husted, but does plan to run for Governor.  Good luck with that Ohio.

Fog:  On Sunday, the Gaza ceasefire went into effect.  Lots of hockey sticks in the air with Trump’s team crediting him for all of Biden’s efforts.  The reality is that the ceasefire was an unusual and laudable example of a team effort, with Trump’s representative working with Biden’s negotiators, helped by Trump putting pressure on Bibi Netanyahu while also threatening Hamas to get with the program or else.  Lots of celebration but let’s not get ahead of ourselves because so far only three Israeli hostages have been released in exchange for 90 Palestinian “detainees/terrorists” and not without a few hitches.  Hamas violated the terms of the deal by delaying the release of the names of the three women who were ultimately freed until after the deadline for the sharing of their identities, putting the ceasefire in jeopardy, and then despite their promises otherwise, subjected the three women and their caravan to a harrowing ride to freedom. Probably no surprise that Hamas made the released women pose for “smiling” pictures holding “goody” bags before their release. The deal is for 33 of the remaining hostages to be dribbled out over 42 days in this first Phase, each exchange for an increasing number of Hamas terrorists.  In theory, more hostages will be released in Phase 2 and bodies will be released in Phase 3, a process that can take months if not years. There will be many opportunities for the deal to implode, hopefully it won’t but given history it’s not a stretch to think that it might.

PARDONS and Equal Rights: Among his parting gestures President Biden declared the Equal Rights Amendment to be the official 28^th Amendment to the Constitution.  It’s not clear that his announcement will stick but some think it’s kosher because the Amendment which says that no one can be denied equal rights under the law based on their sex was passed in a sufficient number of states but with a few hiccups on the way. Just another thing to litigate.   And since I sent the first version of this out Biden issued preemptive pardons to retired Gen. Mark Milley, Anthony Fauci, and the lawmakers and staffers from the House committee that investigated the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. Those lawmakers include former GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois; and California Sen. Adam Schiff .

#BringThemAllHomeNOW