The Worst is Yet to Come 🤮 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 🤮

Shock and Awe 🤯🤯:  As promised Trump has issued a slew of executive orders, too many to cover them all here which is probably the point of the deluge. Some address the policies that he promised to implement, others reflect his pettiness, others are downright dangerous, and many are already being litigated.  Protecting the environment is out, as are incentives to buy electric vehicles but tail pipe emissions are in. Top secret security clearances without background checks are being provided to members of the White House staff but not for Trump’s former National Security Advisor turned opponent John Bolton who in addition to losing his is also losing his protection detail despite the credible Iranian threats against him. Trump has withdrawn the US from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization and is also rescinding Biden administration orders to lower prescription drug prices for people on Medicare and Medicaid. Migrants, even those seeking to enter legally who’d been on line to receive interview appointment slots, are being left stranded at the border and scheduled flights to the US for Afghans who’d served the US and had been promised transport and visas, have been canceled, leaving them and in some cases their unaccompanied children in the lurch.  No more birthright citizenship even for children born to those legally in the US on legitimate visas, a surprise to many in technology and assuming stare decisis still matters, a violation of the Constitution and case law. He’s eliminating all federal diversity and environmental justice programs, letting federal contractors know that they better do the same if they want to keep their contracts. Also, going forward there will be only two recognized sexes an indication that he and many others in his administration weren’t paying attention in biology class and never read Jeffrey Eugenides Pulitzer Prize winning novel Middlesex which I highly recommend.  Also, transgender people had better stay on the straight and narrow because there will be no protections for them in Federal prisons, a policy that likely will result in a few deaths but isn’t that the point? And though JD Vance and Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi both said that pardons for the convicted January 6 thugs would be provided on a case by case basis, almost all of them, including those who beat the crap out of the Capitol police, have been granted pardons or had their sentences commuted, including former head of the Proud Boys Enrigue Tarrio and head of the Oathkeepers Stewart Rhodes, who were serving 22 and 18 year sentences, respectively.  Included in the pardoned crowd is the guy who wore the Auschwitz t-shirt and the painted one with the horns on his head.  A number of those pardoned charmers have posted plans to immediate augment their gun collections and Congressman Lauren Boebert has offered them tours of the Capitol, useful for their next insurrection. The Fraternal Order of Police, the large group that had endorsed Trump but apparently missed his oft repeated promise to move forward with the pardons is shocked and “deeply discouraged.”  Keeping with the Auschwitz theme, Elon Musk did the Nazi salute during his speech at Trump’s inauguration rally, something that got him lots of appreciation on social media from the Neo-Nazi set who know a Sieg heil when they see one but that others insist was just Elon being his socially awkward self.  For his part Elon who didn’t deny his salute was a Sieg heil wants the rest of us to just get over our Hitler thing and sadly the Anti- Defamation League appears to have jumped the shark because they, or at least their leader, seems to agree.  Lastly, Trump also slipped in a few orders that will facilitate his retribution plans, which likely explains why outgoing President Biden felt compelled to issue his last-minute pardons to January 6 committee members and some members of his family. The next four years will be long and ugly.  

Cabinetry: Former Senator Marco Rubio who received thumbs up votes from all of his Senate colleagues is now Secretary of State. The first member of Trump’s cabinet to be confirmed, he could also be the first to be fired (FIFO 😊), given that when he is not kowtowing to Trump, he is somewhat rational.  More cabinet members, some qualified, others not, including Kristi Noem, Doug Burgum, and Scott Bessent will likely be confirmed soon, but Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth’s process has hit a bit of a speedbump.  Yesterday, a copy of a signed affidavit from his former sister-in-law was provided to Senators. We’ve heard the allegations about his excessive drinking and poor behavior before but now those allegations are officially on the record with some gnarly embellishments.  The lap dance while in uniform is icky and hardly befitting a military officer or cabinet member as are the many times he passed out drunk out but the allegation that one of his former wives felt compelled to use a “safe” word that she had previously shared with her sister to escape him is far more concerning.  The Republican Senators who have already voted Hegseth’s nomination out of committee will probably dismiss these accusations as just hearsay recollections of a vindictive former sister-in-law because that’s what they do 🤯🤯.

Silkworms:  In addition to pardoning the January 6 marauders, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an underground website that the FBI called “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet.” Silk Road was where people went to buy and sell illicit drugs, weapons, poisons, and services such as computer hacking.  It was also a good place to go for those seeking to have their adversaries permanently eliminated; prosecutors implicated the site in at least six murders.  Only untraceable crypto payments were accepted something that the crypto crowd loved. Ulbricht who had been serving an arguably too long, life sentence wasn’t just a darling of the crypto crowd but was also loved by many Libertarians. Trump, who purports to hate drugs and who continues to blame Biden for all the fentanyl in the country had promised to pardon Ulbricht in exchange for Libertarian Party support.  Though he didn’t get the party’s endorsement he did get a lot of their votes, so the pardon should surprise no one however, his accompanying message where he called the DOJ and FBI out as “the scum that worked to convict him" is rather despicable, though totally in character.  Also not surprising, Trump has been demoting and forcing out lots of those “scummy” people at the FBI, not for their prosecution of Ulbricht but for participating in the prosecution of him. His message is clear, if you are at the FBI and want to continue with your career, cross me at your peril.

RIP Cecile Richards

#BringThemAllHomeNow