Is he ok? That’s really bizarre, even for him.
Rumors have been flying that Trump is only planning to pardon most of the insurrectionists not all of them and the J6 choir is very unhappy about it, assuming that they will be the ones left in jail since they are the violent criminals. I’ll bet he comes through for all of them, saying that all the prosecutions are political. He appreciates what they did for him.
It’s a hellscape:
California likely will not have a budget deficit next year, but incoming President Donald Trump’s agenda portends an uncertain road ahead for California’s budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Monday.
The budget outlook Newsom describes is a major turnaround from the $47 billion deficit last year and the $32 billion shortfall the year before. Newsom and the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, which makes budget projections for the Legislature, both attribute the improvement to stock market gains by the state’s wealthiest taxpayers and cuts in previous years.
But, Newsom cautioned, the steep cuts to federal government spending that Trump has promised could darken the bright picture he painted of California’s economy. Newsom said the incoming president could impact California’s budget depending on how his trade, tariff and immigration policies play out. That happened last time Trump was in office, Newsom said.
“Even as we were working with the Trump administration, they were still assaulting our values and programs and hard-earned rights under the law,” Newsom said. “We should anticipate nothing less than that.”
His proposal would largely keep state spending consistent with what he and lawmakers agreed to last year, with some increases in a few areas.
[…]
Most urgently, Newsom is seeking $25 million in additional funding for Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office to defend the state’s laws in court against expected efforts by Trump to erode them. He called lawmakers into a special legislative session to approve the funding shortly after Trump was elected. They intend to act on the proposal before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
By the way, California gained population last year. Just saying.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is making sweeping changes to the social internet, all in line with the desires of President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters. Out with the fact-checkers that conservatives deride. In with more permissive rules for posting conservative opinions.
The recent elections “feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg said in his announcement, justifying relaxed new content moderation rules on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
“Governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more,” Zuckerberg said, repeating a right-wing talking point used to undermine fact checking.
Because Meta is such a dominant force in the industry, with billions of users on its platforms worldwide, the changes will resonate even more widely, reshaping whole swaths of the internet in MAGA-friendly ways
I can’t understand what these billionaires think they’ll accomplish with this destruction but it appears to me that they are just playing schoolyard games with each other, currying favor with Trump and trying to outcompete each other.
They even announced it on Fox and Friends:
Tuesday morning’s announcements seemed like they were addressed directly to Trump, especially since Meta first gave the news exclusively to “Fox & Friends,” one of the president-elect’s favorite TV shows.
The company’s newly promoted policy chief Joel Kaplan, a former senior adviser to George W. Bush, sat with the Fox co-hosts and fully agreed with the show’s “censorship” versus “freedom” framing. Kaplan’s appearance was the latest sign of Meta recalibrating in advance of Trump’s second term in office.
Trump and some key allies have been harshly critical of Zuckerberg and Facebook in the past. Trump once accused Zuckerberg of election interference and threatened to send him to prison for “the rest of his life.”
They all have business with the government and are also terrified of Trump and his henchmen.
This is the Orban/Putin model. I just can’t believe how obvious they’re being about it. But why not? If Trump has proved anything it’s that there are no consequences for total shamelessness. Who cares?
I gave up Facebook a long time ago and I will give up X too just as soon as Blue sky finally attains the scale I need to do my work (and allows me to embed and play videos on to the site.) Social media is about to make a major leap into the abyss and I’m not sure what happens now.
Aaaand:
More threats:
The average price of eggs in the US today is $3.02.
From Brian Stelter’s bold-heavy Reliable Sources newsletter this morning:
Mark Zuckerberg just announced sweeping changes to the social internet, all in line with the desires of President Trump and Trump voters.
Out with the fact-checkers that conservatives deride. In with more permissive rules for posting opinions that conservatives hold dear.
The recent elections “feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg said in a video that was shared first with Fox News.
That’s one of the reasons why Zuckerberg said big changes are coming to Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Because Meta is such a dominant force in the industry, the changes will resonate even more widely, reshaping whole swaths of the internet in MAGA-friendly ways.
Among the announcements:
>> Meta will “get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse.” He didn’t elaborate.
>> “Fact-checkers have just been too politically biased, and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the U.S.,” Zuckerberg asserted, so Facebook is cutting ties with third-party fact-checkers and moving toward an X-style community notes system.
>> “We’re bringing back civic content,” Zuckerberg said. “For a while the community asked to see less politics because it was making people stressed, so we stopped recommending these posts. But it feels like we’re in a new era now, and we’re starting to get feedback that people want to see this content again.”
Overall, CNN’s Clare Duffy writes, the moderation changes are “a stunning reversal in how Meta handles false and misleading claims on its platforms.” Meta’s framing – in its PR blog post – is “More Speech and Fewer Mistakes.” An alternate title could be “More Lies and More Confusion.”
There’s a strong Ministry of Truth vibe here.
Stelter notes that with Zuckerberg giving the exclusive to “Fox & Friends,” perhaps this move is an attempt to derail Trump’s threat to send Meta’s founder to prison for “the rest of his life.”
Meta’s policy chief, Joel Kaplan, tells F&F, that eliminating fact checkers “is a great opportunity for us to reset the balance in favor of free expression,” and make their platforms places where lies, smears, and propaganda may flourish, he did not add. “[W]hat we’re doing is we’re getting back to our roots and free expression.”
[Checking on my supply of Tums.]
Stelter continues:
I am struck by a commonality between Zuckerberg and Elon Musk‘s recent announcements:
Zuck said “civic content,” i.e. political news, will be more prominently featured going forward, and Meta will work “to keep the communities friendly and positive.”
Musk said last week that X’s algorithm will be tweaked “to promote more informational/entertaining content,” citing “too much negativity” that hurts the user experience.
The X change seems like an appeal to advertisers, since sponsors don’t want ads next to conspiracy theories and hate speech. But consider the timing: Musk is pushing his “new ‘everything is awesome’ algo tweak just in time for the new administration. To reduce ‘negativity.’ Fascinating,” TPM publisher Josh Marshall remarked. And Zuckerberg wants more politics back in peoples’ feeds – but he wants to keep it “friendly and positive…”
Meantime, my follower count on Bluesky continues to mount.
The leaders of the incoming Republican administration share the same first and middle intials, just in reversed order: D.J. Trump and J.D. Vance. I’m trying to decide if they stand for Delayed Justice or Justice Denied.
On the delay and deny front, Juan M. Merchan, the New York trial judge overseeing Donald Trump’s “hush-money payment to a porn star” trial, denied a Monday request by Trump’s lawyers to delay his Friday sentencing, reports The New York Times:
Although Mr. Trump’s lawyers had implored the judge to postpone the sentencing, Justice Merchan dismissed their claims as “a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past.”
Mr. Trump is now poised to escalate his effort, court filings show, turning to a New York appeals court in hopes that it will intervene in his case.
Late Monday, Mr. Trump’s lawyers filed a civil proceeding against Justice Merchan before the appeals court, challenging two of the judge’s recent decisions to uphold Mr. Trump’s conviction. Mr. Trump’s lawyers will argue to the appeals court that Mr. Trump is immune from criminal prosecution now that he is the president-elect.
The flurry of filings demonstrates the great lengths to which Mr. Trump will go to avoid his sentencing.
It is premature, of course, but bookmark that last sentence as a nominee for understatement of the year. Trump will go to any length to avoid accountability for his misdeeds. He’s made a second career of it.
With a change of administrations pending, Trump’s attorneys argue that Attorney General Merrick Garland should not release to the public special counsel Jack Smith’s draft report on his two investigations into Trump.
One investigation examines Trump’s alleged theft of classified documents and another his alleged participation in trying to overhrow the results of the 2020 presidential election. Department of Justice regulations dictate that “special counsels must submit reports explaining their legal decisions at the conclusion of an investigation,” The Washington Post reports. Garland has said he would release (with necessary redactions) any reports that reach is desk.
But Trump’s lawyers say releasing the two-volume report days before their client is again sworn in as president would be disruptive for his transition, according to a letter to Garland included in a motion filed in Florida federal court Monday evening.
“Releasing Smith’s report is obviously not in the public interest — particularly in light of President Trump’s commanding victory in the election and the sensitive nature of the ongoing transition process,” Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and John Lauro said in the letter.
Donald Trump — yes, that Donald Trump — on the anniversay of the Jan. 6 insurrection is concerned about actions that would be disruptive to the “sensitive” presidential transition process. Trump’s “commanding victory” hung on a handful of votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Trump’s lawyers have made a similar argument in their currently unsuccessful attempt to cancel the president-elect’s sentencing this Friday in his separate New York state criminal conviction for falsifying documents related to a hush money payment before the 2016 election.
May their tongues cling to the roof of their mouths.
The New Republic takes a look at where the MAGA base is these days. They point out that generally a base movement loses momentum when their party is out of power but that it never happened with the MAGA cult. (I think that’s because its cult leader stayed on as party leader and was still in the public eye.) Now they’re building a new army of foot soldiers:
[D]efying the odds, the MAGA movement continued to flourish under Joe Biden. Now, with Trump returning to the White House, the far right grassroots is barreling into 2025 with plenty of momentum, while their leader both helps set their agenda while sustaining it by crowd-sourcing their conspiracies and lies for his own use.
The far right is currently animated by several themes, many of them interrelated. For several years, demonizing “DEI” (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) frameworks—which focus on identities, racial and otherwise—was an obsession. But the far right has gradually replaced DEI with “woke,” a vaguer and broader idea which can refer to the vast majority of left-leaning positions and be applied to any number of hot button, culture war topics.
The backlash over gender, sexuality, and reproductive rights continues, with trans issues front-and-center. After Roe v Wade was struck down in 2022, attacks on abortion rights increased. And when Trump was reelected, the slogan “Your Body, My Choice” spread like wildfire after being embraced by far right leaders like Nick Fuentes.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric has also increased, particularly as Trump has promised to deport tens of millions. His racist vilification of immigrants was epitomized by his embrace of unfounded rumors that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio—who were, for what it’s worth, legal residents—were stealing and eating pets.
Finally, completely discredited “race science” theories have returned, often focusing on bogus IQ studies. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has promoted them on his social media platform X, as has Trump, who has blamed violence by immigrants on “bad genes.”
Well, that certainly sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
The article goes on to discuss how happy the far right is with Trump, “the tax-cutting businessman, the international negotiator—and the authoritarian strongman … A demagogue and a xenophobe who is committing to cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy and who pitches himself as the only man who can keep the country—and the world—safe.” The fact that he a batshit crazy imbecile makes them love him all the more. And they adore his cabinet picks which are just as batshit crazy as he is.
Then there is the base itself:
The far right has two wings. One is openly white supremacist, and is vocally opposed to groups like people of color, Jews, Muslims, and LGBTQ+ people. The other is more moderate in its beliefs; people of color—themselves an increasing part of Trump’s base—are welcome, as are Jews. Both wings overlap in their hatred of “communism” (also a catch-all term for anything to the left of them), embrace of conspiracy theories, contempt for democracy, and desire for traditional social hierarchies.
The white supremacists and their moderate cousins often see-saw in popularity, one rising as the other falls. In recent years, the moderates have swung high. Moms for Liberty, which has focused on banning school library books—especially those with LGBTQ+ content but also ones with pro-diversity or antiracist messages—started 2024 with almost 300 chapters. But their influence has waned as the year went on.
That’s an interesting observation. The “moderate” MAGAs have been in the lead over the past year or so. But as the article points out, that often changes.
[O]pen white supremacists are doing quite well. Active Clubs—white supremacist MMA training gyms—are in full flourish, and have even expanded overseas. While they’ve had limited public activism, observers worry they could soon transform into a fully-fledged fighting force.
A new wave of swastika-waving neo-Nazis has emerged, too. The media-friendly Blood Tribe, who use striking aesthetics and a confrontational approach, were early promoters of the pet-eating rumor. A Columbus, Ohio march by their splinter group Hate Club 1488 grabbed so much attention that even President Biden denounced it.
This is a growing movement. Yikes.
But they also discuss the successful strategy of lawsuits in going after some of these people and it’s working to some degree, citing Giuliani and Alex Jones as examples. Law enforcement has also managed to arrest some of the high profile neo-Nazi terrorists and militia types although I wonder if that’s going to continue under the new regime. The convicted J6 insurrectionists and other terrorists are, as the author puts it “red meat to the base who see them as political prisoners.” If Trump pardons the worst of them it will likely fuel a resurgence of the groups like the Proud Boys.
As Far Right grassroots remain mobilized, the next four years will likely be an environment where far right individuals and groups can be fully activated and function as Trump’s foot soldiers—legally or otherwise.
Great. Just what we need.
If you have some time to read a long form investigative piece, I highly recommend this from Pro-Publica which profiles a highly unusual character who went undercover with some of the most violent militia types to expose their plans. Probably the most startling fact uncovered is just how many of them are what we would normally think of as normal upstanding citizens, doctors, lawyers, cops. Chilling stuff.
Democrats are telling us that this is all about economic anxiety. Sure it is.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation Monday after nearly a decade in power, bowing to rising discontent over his leadership and growing turmoil within his government signaled by the abrupt departure of his finance minister.
Trudeau, the latest incumbent to be driven out amid rising voter dissatisfaction worldwide, said it had become clear to him that he cannot “be the leader during the next elections due to internal battles.” He planned to stay on as prime minister until a new leader of the Liberal Party is chosen.
“I don’t easily back down faced with a fight, especially a very important one for our party and the country. But I do this job because the interests of Canadians and the well being of democracy” are “something that I hold dear,” said Trudeau, who was initially teary-eyed at the announcement outside his official residence.
He said Parliament, which had been due to resume Jan. 27, would be suspended until March 24. The timing will allow for a Liberal Party leadership race.
All three main opposition parties have said they plan to topple the Liberal Party in a no-confidence vote when Parliament resumes, so a spring election after the Liberals pick a new leader was almost assured.
The crazy old man south of the border had this to say:
Total. Lunacy.
To hear President-elect Donald J. Trump tell it, he is about to take over a nation ravaged by crisis, a desolate hellscape of crime, chaos and economic hardship. “Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World!” he declared on social media last week.
But by many traditional metrics, the America that Mr. Trump will inherit from President Biden when he takes the oath for a second time, two weeks from Monday, is actually in better shape than that bequeathed to any newly elected president since George W. Bush came into office in 2001.
For the first time since that transition 24 years ago, there will be no American troops at war overseas on Inauguration Day. New data reported in the past few days indicate that murders are way down, illegal immigration at the southern border has fallen even below where it was when Mr. Trump left office and roaring stock markets finished their best two years in a quarter-century.
Jobs are up, wages are rising and the economy is growing as fast as it did during Mr. Trump’s presidency. Unemployment is as low as it was just before the Covid-19 pandemic and near its historic best. Domestic energy production is higher than it has ever been.
The manufacturing sector has more jobs than under any president since Mr. Bush. Drug overdose deaths have fallen for the first time in years. Even inflation, the scourge of the Biden presidency, has returned closer to normal, although prices remain higher than they were four years ago.
“President Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “The U.S. economy is the envy of the rest of the world, as it is the only significant economy that is growing more quickly post-pandemic than prepandemic.”
I’m not blaming Baker specifically, but the media in general mocked and derided Joe Biden and others in the White House for pointing all this out over the past couple of years. Biden was old, he was wearing shoes with rubber tread, Harris had a cackle, voters have vibes. But rarely did we ever see a straightforward recitation of the fact by the media that looked like that.
I don’t know if it would have made a difference. I do wonder if the Democrats had said “fuck the vibes, we’re going to relentlessly parrot the truth over and over again” if it might have helped people see the reality. Instead we had endless hand wringing about how we need to be empathetic to people’s perceived needs because they have feelings and it’s wrong to deny them even if they’re not true. Well, that really worked out, didn’t it?
The propaganda machine of the right wing in America has been well-honed for 30 years now and it’s almost impermeable. But I don’t know that Democrats couldn’t penetrate it with simple, repetition of the truth over and over again. Yes, you and I would probably rebel. It gets boring. But the only way to break through the cacophony is by relentlessly pushing the same message.
If we’ve learned anything from Donald Trump it’s that.
At the time Republicans knew how bad it was:
“A shrine to democracy for our country, and the world, was overrun by violent extremists seeking to overturn an election. We must hold those responsible to account.” Senator John Thune in Jan. 2021
Today:
I don’t know how we can survive this level of delusion and mendacity.
