Lech Wałęsa knows from police state tactics (via The Daily Beast):
Legendary Polish anti-Communist Lech Wałęsa has slammed Donald Trump’s Oval Office attack on Ukraine’s Volodymr Zelensky, comparing it to Soviet secret police tactics.
Wałęsa, 81, signed a letter along with 38 other Poles who had been held captive by the Communist regime, telling Trump that the Friday spectacle filled them “with horror and distaste.”
The former Polish president previously revealed that he met Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2010, and attached a photo of the two of them to the letter, which he posted on Facebook on Monday.
The letter was signed by Wałęsa and 38 former Polish political prisoners, who said “the atmosphere in the Oval Office” reminded them of “Security Service interrogations and from the courtrooms in communist courts.”
“Prosecutors and judges, commissioned by the omnipotent communist political police, also explained to us that they had all the cards in their hands, and we had none,” they write in the letter, referencing President Donald Trump’s comment that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not in a position to negotiate.
Expect more bullying and bluster at Trump’s address tonight to a joint session of Congress. I’m still hoping Democrats won’t drag poor, fired federal workers to sit as props in the chamber and endure the flood of Trumpish demagoguery. Do Democrats really expect the press will pay workers any attention during that reality show? They should instead hold a counter-programming event on the Capitol steps. Make the press split its attention.
Plus, I’m a Democrat in Congress. Do I want to be caught dead in a joint session where Trump aligns with Putin’s Russia against Ukraine and our E.U. allies? After last week’s Oval Office shouting match, how confident am I that that won’t happen?
Last night notices went out here in NC-11 that Congressman Chuck Edwards (R) has planned a town hall for next week in his R+8 district. Good on him and good luck. The last one I attended did not go as he’d hoped. After the rowdy affairs going on around the country, he’s likely had time to set this up more as a lecture than a Q&A.
Nevertheless, Edwards will hear plenty about Musk and his DOGE post-teens treating the government — your government and mine — like a stolen car in a chop shop. Musk grew up in South Africa and barely knows how our government works. Oh, but his techies are going to go into computer software that fell out of general use before they were born and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse — the free-energy device of conservative politics. Entire cities might be powered by waste fraud, and abuse if only it could be captured. But Big Energy doesn’t want you to know how. (I saw it in a YouTube ad.)
No Republican in Congress with any of that vaunted, private-sector business experience would let a 20-something, no matter how computer savvy, with no management, life, or business experience muck around in the software that serves their customers. But that’s what Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE are doing with government agencies that serve you. Republicans are hell at breaking things others built.
On my first congressional race, I expected to do no more than stuff envelopes or make phone calls. Then the campaign manager emerged from the back office and asked the room if anyone knew how to do a mail merge. The 20-somethings who grew up with computers didn’t budge. I raised my hand. Later, a similar question about manipulating a database. Same silence and my raised hand. I soon had my own desk and computer. The kids knew far more about computers and networks than I did, but they didn’t have 20 years’ experience operating business software. Neither do Musk’s DOGEes. The results you’ve read about and soon will feel.
You’ll recall how Texas Gov. Rick Perry ran for president on eliminating several government agencies, then in debate couldn’t name the one he later ended up running under Donald Trump: the Department of Energy. As a Texan, Perry likely thought Energy interfered with free-market wildcatters by regulating the oil and gas industry. It monitors fissile materials and the U.S. nuclear stockpile. When Musk’s young coders fired key Energy officials last month, then scrambled to rehire them, they demonstrated that they knew even less about what the agency does and how vital it is to national security.
Probably because he’s too rich to have an inkling of an idea how vital Social Security is to regular Americans and resents the idea of wealthy people like himself having to pay into a government program that helps the non-billionaire class. Musk is nothing if not myopic.
He’s already announced plans to cut Social Security staff by 7,000 and close six of 10 regional offices. Former Social Security commissioner and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley warned last week:
“Ultimately, you’re going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits,” O’Malley said. “I believe you will see that within the next 30 to 90 days.”
Ahead of any interruption in benefits, “people should start saving now,” O’Malley said.
Edwards will hear volumes about that.
The Alliance for Retired Americans issued a statement in response to Musk:
Social Security is a social insurance program. Workers and employers pay in, money goes to the Social Security Trust Fund and is paid out when due. Social Security has a Board of Trustees and professional actuaries who report annually on the health of the Trust Fund.
It’s solvent and the benefits are guaranteed (unlike the stock market or a private equity fund). In 89 years, Social Security has never missed a payment.
Now inexperienced DOGE coders are in its personnel files and its software finding millions of “dead” people. Start saving now.
Musk either doesn’t know what he’s doing or, worse, he does and it’s malicious (New York Times):
When DOGE first published its list of canceled contracts, there were about 1,100 examples.
In one case, DOGE listed a contract worth $8 million as actually being worth $8 billion. In another, it mistakenly counted the same $655 million contract three times. In yet another, it erroneously said that a huge contract at the Social Security Administration had been fully canceled, saving $232 million. In reality, only a small project within that contract had been canceled. Actual savings: $560,000.
Sen. Bernie Sanders votes for malicious. Huppke again:
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., posted on social media that “Social Security keeps 18 million seniors out of poverty every year. Trump and Musk are lying about it for one reason: so they can cut, privatize & dismantle it.”
There’s no reason to doubt that at this point. Musk’s sloppy axing of federal workers and contracts has demonstrated little concern or understanding of government work and how it might actually benefit Americans who don’t have the money to build rocket ships.
The constitutional crisis is here. Musk-Trump is engaged in a rolling coup. Trump is centralizing power in himself and usurping Congress’. He’s delegated control of the federal government to the kind of people who would sell you the air you breathe if they could control how it gets to your nose. And if you cannot afford to buy their air, well, you should have worked harder, planned better, and saved more.
Chuck Edwards will hear a lot about that next week … if he doesn’t cancel or switch venues at the last minute.
The details of what’s happening with the economy are frankly a bit beyond my ken so I was grateful to see this easy explainer from Josh Marshall today. (And you should subscribe if you can. His site is super valuable right now.)
The Atlanta Fed has again lowered its projection for first quarter 2025 GDP. It had been predicting growth of 2.3%. At the end of last week that was revised to 1.5% contraction and this morning they were again down-revised 2.8% contraction, or in other words 2.8% negative growth. To be clear these aren’t final or official stats. We’re only two-thirds of the way through the quarter. They are a prediction based on current indicators. But if it’s not clear that would mean a steep move into recession. And the numbers which presage that outcome are largely tied to general economic uncertainty and various collective economic decisions based on the expectations of a dramatic ramp up in U.S. tariffs and tariff retaliation.
Normally, you wouldn’t expect that an administration would be able to manage such a stark reversal six weeks into a presidency. The first three weeks of the quarter weren’t even under Trump. What’s critical however is that consumers and businesses have known about or expected big new tariffs since mid-November. And a lot of this is an import spending spree trying to get out ahead of the onset of tariffs. So in that sense, as an economic reality, Trump’s second administration really began almost four months ago. That’s more than enough time for this kind of economic impact. The Commerce Department also released data Friday showing a sharp drop off in consumer sentiment and purchasing. And that at least directionally matches private sector data from the end of last month.
I like to avoid interpreting macro-economic data. It’s just too far out of my knowledge area. With that said, I would say the best argument for skepticism about these numbers is that a significant amount of the prediction is based on what was basically an import spending spree trying to get ahead of Trump’s predicted tariffs. And we don’t have a lot of history going back upwards of a century with private sector anticipation of dramatic increases in protectionism. So perhaps the models are locked into a somewhat unrealistic way of interpreting this data. Or perhaps they’re technically correct – this is kind of what GDP is – but in a way that would be more transitory than we’d normally expect because it’s not rooted in deeper, organic problems in the economy. But that seems like a bit of a stretch. (Curious what others with more experience with these kinds of numbers think.) It’s also worth noting that there’s a lot more economic uncertainty, just in the last few weeks. And that’s likely not fully showing up in the economic data.
As Josh further points out, there are a lot of economic drivers — fires, floods, etc. But it’s the uncertainty, stupid. Nobody knows what’s happening and they don’t know if they can trust what the government is telling them about what is happening. That translates into “wait and see” at best which is basically a stall.
I noted earlier that the Dow plunged today on the news that Trump is rushing ahead with his 25% tariffs on on Mexico and Canada, so fasten your seatbelts, We have a whole lot of turbulence ahead of us.
I guess we knew this was happening but it’s still startling to see it confirmed. The US makes even more concessions to Russia as it “negotiates” a peace agreement:
The Trump administration has stopped financing new weapons sales to Ukraine and is considering freezing weapons shipments from U.S. stockpiles, moves that threaten Kyiv’s ability to fight at a critical time in its battle against Russian forces, current and former U.S. officials said.
The financing was halted in recent weeks amid the administration’s freeze on foreign aid. But the move to potentially shut down the main pipeline for arms transfers to Ukraine comes days after a contentious meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. The tense exchange Friday raised fears across Europe that the U.S. could be moving away from the wider Western alliance.
The United States is drawing up a plan to potentially give Russia sanctions relief as President Donald Trump seeks to restore ties with Moscow and stop the war in Ukraine, a U.S. official and another person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
So here’s where the “negotiations” stand:
Ukraine concessions
Russia will get all the territory its seized
No NATO membership ever
Zelensky will crawl on his belly and apologize to Trump in front of the whole world for being so mean to Vladimir Putin
Ukraine will not require any guarantee of security to back a cease fire or peace deal
The US will lift sanctions on Russia
The US will cease to send weapons to Ukraine
Russia concessions:
We’ll be lucky if the whole world doesn’t end up looking like the demolition of the Trump Taj Majal.
AOC has been telling immigrants what their rights are under the law. The crude “immigration czar” Tom Homan has referred her to the Department of Justice. Par for the course, I’m afraid. But that takes it to a new level.
First of all, Tom Homan can’t prosecute anyone. He’s just another one of Trump’s advisers who doesn’t have any such authority. But the idea that a US Senator would say this about another elected member of Congress for exercising free speech is a chilling development. I wish I could feel confident that this won’t go anywhere in Trump’s thoroughly corrupt DOJ.
AOC sent a letter to Pam Bondi on Friday:
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi asking for clarification on whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) has bowed to political pressure from “Border Czar” Tom Homan and launched an investigation against her for educating her community about their constitutional rights.
On Feb. 12, 2025, the Office of Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez hosted a ‘Know Your Rights’ webinar, offering constituents practical guidance on how to interact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The following day, Homan announced that he had requested the Deputy Attorney General initiate an investigation into Representative Ocasio-Cortez, warning she would be “in trouble now.”
As of today, the DOJ has not been in contact with Ocasio-Cortez’s office.
“I write to request clarity on whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) has yielded to political pressure and attempts to weaponize the agency against elected officials whose speech they disagree with,” wrote Representative Ocasio-Cortez. “Over the past two weeks, “Border Czar” Tom Homan has gone on multiple forums threatening political prosecution against me, citing resources I distributed informing my constituents and the American public of their constitutional and legal rights.”
Later in the letter, Representative Ocasio-Cortez reminded the DOJ of its obligation to uphold the First Amendment: “Mr. Homan’s repeated attempts to use your agency to politically intimidate duly elected officials are a textbook threat to the right to free speech in the United States. Threatening criminal proceedings for exercising the First Amendment is itself a violation of the First Amendment.”
Moody’s cutting Q1 GDP growth from 2.3% to 1.2% in a week is a pretty bad warning sign.Retail sales, manufacturing, home sales, and consumer confidence are all trending down. Trump’s unsteady leadership is taking a serious toll — the economy is losing steam.
I don’t think public opinion matters much to Trump right now but it certainly doesn’t hurt that according to this poll his embrace of Russia is pretty popular.
Now this contradicts some other polls so I don’t know how accurate it is. And who knows how people will see it after that display on Friday?
81 percent of respondents said Putin should not be trusted, including 73 percent of Republicans surveyed and 93 percent of Democrats.
Now that Trump says he trusts him because of all they went through together with “Russia, Russia, Russia” will Republicans change their mind?
This op-ed in the Wall St. Journal from last Friday before the blow up suggests they won’t:
Along with the serious implications of all this for America’s security and alliances, it is likely to cause domestic trouble for the president. The White House’s views on Ukraine are out of step not only with the country as a whole but with Republican voters.
Earlier this month, my organization, Razom, commissioned the Republican firm 1892 Polling to conduct a survey of 2024 GOP primary voters on their attitudes toward Ukraine. Majorities said they agreed Russia is the aggressor (69%), would support continued weapons assistance under certain circumstances (60%), and say they’re more likely to support aid for Ukraine when told Russia has kidnapped more than 19,000 Ukrainian children (71%).
Contrary to stereotype, Republican voters have nuanced views about America’s place in the world and Russia’s war. Their opinions on Ukraine are considered, internally coherent and broadly well-informed. Taken in aggregate, this constituency is unlikely to reward American politicians who empower Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Trump remains exceedingly popular among Republicans. Among those polled, 83% have a favorable opinion of him and respondents were much more likely to identify themselves as a “Trump Republican” (53%) than a part of the “traditional” Republican Party (38%). Republican voters revile Mr. Putin as much as they love Trump—83% view the Russian President unfavorably. Republican voters are split on Mr. Zelensky, with 43% viewing him favorably and 45% unfavorably.
The people who elected Mr. Trump and the Republican congressional majority understand the difference between the defenders on the wall and the marauders at the gate. They were asked which proposition they agreed with more: that Mr. Putin launched an unprovoked war to subjugate Ukraine, or that NATO expansion and Ukrainian belligerence sparked the war. By 70% to 15%, they chose the former. When Tucker Carlson travels to Moscow and hypes Russian supermarkets, his views are boosted by a small number of prominent influencers. But most Republican voters would likely think this fixation is bizarre.
On foreign policy, Republicans want Congress and the White House to tackle two core issues: the porous southern border and the growing influence of China. Everything else is an afterthought. Even those skeptical of continued U.S. aid to Ukraine would still vote for a lawmaker who backs it if he is aligned with the White House’s other priorities. The electoral record bears this out. Every Republican House member who voted for Ukraine aid in April 2024 went on to win his primary election.
That’s interesting, but then it’s in the WSJ which is still pro-Ukraine so, who knows what to think?
The news that the administration has ordered the U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia seemed to come as a surprise to Republican officials but I doubt they care. Here’s from the man who always says the quiet part out loud:
Tuberville: "Zelenskyy's gonna play hardball, but you know what? He's not even in the game. It's gonna be Putin and President Trump and the people on our side that will end up making this decision for the future of Ukraine." pic.twitter.com/R1VVZesmDa
He’s not right. Europe has something to say about this. But he’s certainly expressing Trump and the cowardly, traitorous sycophants like Marco Rubio who surround him.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that government spending could be separated from gross domestic product reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn.
“You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.”
Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the U.S. economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because changes in taxes, spending, deficits and regulations by the government can impact the path of overall growth. GDP reports already include extensive details on government spending, offering a level of transparency for economists.
Musk’s efforts to downsize federal agencies could result in the layoffs of tens of thousands of federal workers, whose lost income could potentially reduce their spending, affecting businesses and the economy at large.
The commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Musk’s arguments made Friday on X that government spending doesn’t create value for the economy.
“A more accurate measure of GDP would exclude government spending,” Musk wrote on his social media platform. “Otherwise, you can scale GDP artificially high by spending money on things that don’t make people’s lives better.”
It’s only a matter of time before they start fudging all of the numbers. I wonder when the CEO and investors will start to care? Or are they happy to put their fortunes on the line based on Trumped-up “vibes” too?
Economists cautioned against changes to the current national accounts structure as it would make GDP very volatile and difficult to get a clear view of the economy’s health, creating more uncertainty.
“I don’t think the stock market, the financial markets would like that,” said Sung Won Sohn, Finance and Economics professor at Loyola Marymount University.
It would also be impossible to compare the U.S. economy’s performance against its global peers. Looking at the private sector alone would not give the full picture on growth, Sohn said. “Economic growth over time would become a lot more volatile. The reason is, when the economy slows or, when we are in a recession, for example, the government spends a lot of money,” he said.
Removing government spending from GDP would distort the figure as government productivity is assumed to be zero whatever the production is in the computation of GDP. “It’s imperative that we keep the current system because, we need to make comparisons, and it’s important to know how well we are doing compared to a year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, and we can learn from our mistakes,” Sohn said.
Trump doesn’t make mistakes so there’s actually no need for data at all. Everyone will be rolling in so much money they won’t need all those silly numbers anymore anyway, right?
Last Friday, before President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the oval office and proceeded to embarrass America before the entire world, I happened to publish a piece here in Salon about how Trump’s anger and resentment were driving him and, in some cases, were making him lose control. He’s always had a short temper but since he’s been back in the White House he’s been lashing out in public more aggressively than in the past and it’s most often when someone fails to show what he deems to be proper deference.
For instance, he imperiously cut off UK Prime Ministers Keir Starmer in a joint press conference as he was talking about Canada and rudely chastised the Governor of Maine in a room full of other governors over her decision to follow the state and federal law relating to transgender citizens. But his unhinged behavior toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in that meeting on Friday was nothing less than a verbal beat down staged for the media, as Trump more or less admitted at the end when he said “this is going to be great television.”
The meeting began normally enough despite the fact that Trump had been insulting Zelensky non-stop for days, calling him a dictator and daftly claiming that Ukraine had started the war. He’d even ordered the US to vote with North Korea and Iran against a UN resolution calling for a secure and lasting peace because it blamed Russia for the war. Nonetheless, Zelensky gamely flew to Washington on the heels of earlier visits by the French and UK leaders trying to calm Trump down, agreeing to the “minerals deal” (or the “raw earth” as Trump insanely refers to them.) He hoped to convince Trump that he needs some kind of security guarantee with any peace deal or cease fire because the thuggish, war criminal Putin can’t be trusted to keep his word and Ukraine would be a sitting duck.
Trump and VP JD Vance obviously had other plans. Vice Presidents never jump into photo ops and press avails to berate a foreign leader but JD Vance did just that rudely interrupting to make as shallow comment about America being a good country because it engages in diplomacy which prompted Zelensky to politely ask if it was ok if he responded.
Clearly taken aback by Trump’s repeated insistence that Russia had suffered just as much as Ukraine in the war, he spoke about all the earlier agreements for cease fires since 2014 that Russia had signed and then promptly broken and asked, “what kind of diplomacy, JD, are you speaking about?” Like the nasty junior high mean girl he is at heart, Vance snapped back that “it’s the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country.” It was at that point that he claimed Zelensky was being disrespectful and should be thanking the president for his generosity.
Vance then proceeded to go after Zelensky for forcibly conscripting soldiers (something the Trump administration has been telling them they have to do) and when Zelensky said that he should come to Ukraine to see what it’s like Vance was forced to admit that he’d never been but had seen “the stories” of Zelensky’s “propaganda tours.” That’s what JD Vance likes to call diplomacy apparently.
Trump then entered the chat to berate Zelensky for saying that the US would be affected by Putin’s aggression, screaming in his face like a drunk real housewife, “don’t tell us how to feel! We’re strong!” He then went on to tell him that he “has no cards” and he’s “gambling with WWIII” whining that Zelensky wasn’t being thankful enough and he didn’t think that was “nice.” He said Zelensky’s hatred for Putin (for invading his country and killing hundreds of thousands of its citizens) was the problem in getting to a deal and repeated his fatuous insistence that he could trust Putin because they had both been persecuted by the “Russia hoax” after which he proceeded to rant incoherently about Hunter Biden’s bathroom.
Reporter: What if Russia breaks the ceasefire?
Trump: What if a bomb drops on your head? You either a make a deal or we’re out. You’re not acting thankful. That’s not a nice thing. This is going to be great television pic.twitter.com/YFU8P9aXCO
That performance was hailed by all the GOP sycophants as a “master class” in diplomacy.
As he has pretty much been insisting from the day Putin invaded and Trump called it a “genius” and “savvy” move, Trump clearly believes Putin is entitled to take what he wants and that America supplying Ukraine with arms to fight him is a waste of money and a waste of time. His refusal to even talk about a security guarantee translates to surrender since we know that Putin will not keep his word. This is all theatre and that weird meeting was clearly a set-up to give Trump the excuse he needed to withdraw completely. Perhaps the sickest part of it was that he wanted Zelensky to lick both his and Putins’ boots in public while he did it.
If Europe is unable to fully support Ukraine and Russia finally overruns Ukraine and commits atrocities as they did in places like Bucha (as they certainly will) Trump and his henchmen will simply say that Zelensky was asking for it. Trump now hands out a red hat that says “Trump was right about everything” and as long as he can blame someone else for the carnage he creates, the people around him are willing to let him believe it.
The Europeans called an emergency meeting in London over the weekend and invited Zelensky to attend. They all ostentatiously embraced him and each other in a show of total unity.
(He even had a meeting with King Charles which I’m sure irritated Trump.) There seems to be some idea that maybe things with the US can be patched up, perhaps just long enough for them to gather the necessary support to Ukraine which may very well include troops on the ground. But there is little doubt that the U.S. is now out. They have accepted it. The question is whether they are going to go along with Trump and his minions throwing their weight around at NATO, the G7 or the G20 anymore. Why should they?
For Europe this isn’t theatre and Zelensky isn’t a plaything to entertain themselves as they perform for Vladimir Putin. Forcing Ukraine to surrender because Trump has withdrawn his “cards” isn’t really an option for them. Putin is knocking on their door and unlike Trump they know what he is and they know what he wants.
Zelensky was right when he said that just because there’s an ocean between us and them, we will feel the reverberations of what has happened. Trump may think that he and Putin have a bond but Putin thinks Trump is a joke. He’s played Trump perfectly from the moment he met him and his efforts are bearing fruit. The whole world sees that America is now a paper tiger run by a fool and that’s a very bad position for a fading superpower to be in.
“We are closing in fast on the limits of constitutional process to contain Trump,” Brian Beutler writes this morning. Read: Get off your asses (if you haven’t already).
Beutler urges congressional Democrats to boycott Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday in spite of the fact that “Democratic leaders have instead encouraged members to ignore the activists and show up to be berated and lied to by an aspiring dictator.”
They are encouraging members to “bring a guest who has been harmed by the Trump administration’s early actions or will be hurt by the House Republican budget,”
Like abused spouses, Democrats “imagine that attendance will be taken, absences will be noticed, and backlash directed at frontline members who don’t treat Trump with the same respect they’d show a normal statesman.”
Which is the point! Trump is neither normal nor a statesman. Don’t behave as if he is! Sadly, most Democrats in Congress have two speeds. If you don’t like this one, you’ll really dislike their other one. But as a therapist might ask a perfectionist client frozen by indecision, what’s the worst that could happen if they boycott? Perhaps they should consider what could happen if they don’t?
The Trump beast thrives on attention. Give him none. Make the press divide its attention.
Trump has shown contempt for both Congress and the courts, and singled out elected Democrats and liberal judges for particular abuse. He has plain dictatorial ambition and taunts the overwhelming majority of Americans with his aspirations to kinghood. He is a criminal who claims to be above the law. He has betrayed both this country and American allies for purposes of self-enrichment, and seeks to align the United States with a global axis of murderous thieves. We don’t have votes of no-confidence in the American system, which limits the number of ways Trump’s opponents can express their total lack of faith in his leadership, but one easy option is to not make ourselves captive to another of his dishonest screeds.
If all we’ve witnessed these past six weeks, or for nine years prior, hasn’t prepared frontline Democrats to win that narrow debate, they might consider new lines of work.
Contrary to Beltway commentary, Congress and the courts aren’t the last guardrails. Mass public protest is, with all the risk that entails with an autocrat in the White House who’d like to see protesters shot.
Elected federal Democrats have a platform and they damned well better use it while they can and spare their constituents that risk. But not by standing behind a lectern and blandly blathering about how Trump is not addressing the price of eggs. Yes it’s true, most average Americans are unaware that their freedoms are gravely at risk. But the job of leaders is not to ignore the risk but to make them care … before physical risk is their only recourse for preserving their beloved freedoms.
Beutler continues:
We are closing in fast on the limits of constitutional process to contain Trump. If they collapse, mass politics and civil disobedience will be the only tools left available.
So just as Democrats have learned to contemplate everything through the eyes of the median voter, and how he intends to cast his ballot in the next election, they should begin evaluating the form of their opposition for how well or poorly it will help them rally the public.
With respect to this joint address, they should know that Trump will lie promiscuously. Less than two months into his presidency, he’s driven a strong economy to the brink of collapse, but will blame the evident turbulence—for which he is singularly responsible—on Joe Biden and Democrats. He will lie about Russia and Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He will lie about waste and fraud in government, while stripping it for parts.
Without a counter-program, this is all most Americans will hear. If Democrats boycott the address and stage an alternate event, Americans will gather that something is very wrong, and may even hear a rival but true story about the republic under internal siege.
And it’s past time for workaday Americans to hear a story like that. To be rallied. To see that Trump’s entire opposition views him as a derelict. That he’s set the country up for failure, so that a small band of connected billionaires can loot it and retreat to their fortresses.
I wish I were more hopeful that Democrats will send that message in a manner that will demand press coverage.
If Trump on Tuesday were to openly declare that the U.S. is now aligned with Putin’s Russia against NATO and Ukraine, which of you Democrats wants to be in his audience giving assent by your presence?
