Skip to content

Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Little Donnie Dealer

Published by digby on March 10, 2025

I’m so old I remember when a president’s son trading on his father’s name to make money for the family was a scandal of such epic proportions that it led to congressional and DOJ investigations for years and calls for impeachment. But that was a different time. You know, a year ago.

Today?

The names lining up behind Elon Musk read like a who’s who of big money: BlackRock, Fidelity, venture-capital giant Sequoia.

And then there’s 1789 Capital.

The upstart investment firm scored a hot ticket recently with Musk, Donald Trump’s wealthiest backer: a rare chance to invest directly in his AI venture, xAI, and his roughly $350 billion startup, SpaceX.

Turns out, 1789 has a big attraction: Donald Trump Jr. — son of the US president, crown prince of MAGA and now frontman for what fans hail as a “parallel” US economy aimed at the Trump faithful.

Trump Jr. is clear: At 1789, his role is not to crunch the numbers or kick the tires the way most investors do. Instead, he’s looking to make the firm money by tapping into the MAGA ecosystem and its network of profit-minded believers like Musk.

Few have arrived at this moment with a better sense for President Trump — and where his second administration might take the nation and the world — than his eldest son. Only now, Trump Jr. is trading Washington to focus on a new mission: monetizing his father’s vision for America.

At a time when businesses big and small are trying to navigate all things Trump, Trump Jr.’s stamp of approval can mean the difference between access to lucrative opportunities – such as an in at Musk’s xAI and SpaceX — or a cold shoulder. Like his father and brother Eric, who runs the Trump real estate business, Trump Jr. has brushed aside concerns about the seemingly unprecedented number of conflicts the first family is facing.

They are building what they like to call “the parallel economy” which is essentially a right-wing only commerce venture under the assumption that they can make billions catering to “the movement.” The article points out that this isn’t the first time right wingers have attempted to monetize their “movement” and they have often crashed and burned in the past.

But barely two months into the second Trump administration, 1789 Capital is in a position like few others. Based in Palm Beach, two miles from Mar-a-Lago, the firm today sits near the epicenter of Trumpworld with ties both broad and deep.

They’re practically doing it out of the White House.

Trump Jr., 47, formally signed on in November, less than a week after his father won the White House again. The move took many in Washington by surprise: Beltway insiders had expected him to stay close to the administration given his role in championing Vance for vice president. He says he hasn’t been to the White House since the inauguration…

Trump Jr.’s role at 1789 will be a sort of MAGA magnet, sourcing deals as well as investors into the firm.

Gee, I can’t imagine how he would do that, can you? It’s not as if he has a line to Trump and Musk. After all, he hasn’t been to the White House since the inauguration.

They liken the potential of MAGA-style investing “to the late boom in the environmental, social and governance space, which conservatives deride as part of a “woke” liberal agenda that threatens American capitalism.”

For instance, they’ve “poured more than $50 million directly across Musk’s xAI and SpaceX, opportunities.” I sure hope they’re doing better than his flagship Tesla stock. It’s lost 15% just today.

It’s down over 37% over the last month. Also, his rockets are blowing up.

Other recent investments include a stake in Happy Dad hard seltzer, founded by right-wing YouTubers the Nelk Boys (they packaged their drink to look like a beer because “we are tired of the skinny can bullsh*t”) and the Enhanced Games, a startup looking to host an Olympics-style competition where athletes are allowed to take performance-enhancing drugs; and Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction site that gained widespread attention during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Winners all, no doubt about it.

Trump Jr., for his part, has plenty of balls in the air. In addition to his role at 1789, he’s an adviser to Kalshi, another prediction market, and to Unusual Machines, a manufacturer of drones and related components. He and his brother Eric are also personal investors in biotech-startup-turned fintech Dominari Holdings Inc. (news in February that the Trumps were joining the company’s advisory board sent the stock soaring). On top of that, he maintains his title of executive vice president at the Trump Organization.

He isn’t on the board of an obscure foreign energy company so there’s no reason to suspect corruption. The Trumps are as honest as the day is long.

No, The Federal Government Is Not Bloated

Published by digby on March 10, 2025

Think about how much more the federal government is tasked with doing since 1960.

When I hear virtually every reporter and Democratic politician issue a disclaimer in every discussion of the DOGE cuts that “of course the government is too bloated and needs to be cut, we just need to do it more thoughtfully” I want to scream. It is NOT bloated. Considering what it is tasked with doing for the American people it is actually too lean and we should be hiring more people not firing them.

Yes, there are the proverbial $1000 toilet seat examples in the defense department and I’m sure there is some “waste fraud and abuse” elsewhere as there is in any large organization. But the idea that there are too many workers is ridiculous. And I’m afraid we’re about to find out just how ridiculous that is.

Hmmm. Why Would They Do This?

Published by digby on March 10, 2025
DOGE boys and their bodyguard

The DOGE boys want that data, no matter what:

They came in aggressively, a former official who witnessed Elon Musk’s team take over the Social Security Administration said, demanding access to sensitive taxpayer data and refusing briefings on how the agency ensures the accuracy of its benefit systems. They recklessly exposed data in unsecured areas outside Social Security offices, the official said, potentially disclosing personally identifiable information on almost every American to people not authorized to see it.

And representatives sent by the U.S. DOGE Service refused to explain why they needed taxpayer information that is protected by law, the former official said. Despite their status as political appointees, the secretive members of the cost-cutting group overseen by Musk ignored the normal chain of command, instead communicating directly with DOGE.

These and other allegations are included in a sweeping declaration filed as part of a federal lawsuit Friday from Tiffany Flick, the agency’s acting chief of staff until she was forced out in mid-February.

[…]

Flick and acting commissioner Michelle King, another career leader, abruptly retired on Feb. 16 after resisting demands from DOGE to provide access to three massive databases containing sensitive taxpayer information. In their place, the White House elevated acting commissioner Leland Dudek, a mid-level data analyst who the career leaders believed had been improperly sharing information with DOGE. The career leaders had placed Dudek on paid leave and opened an investigation into his actions before he was promoted.

Dudek is now the acting Social Security administrator, eagerly doing Trump’s bidding.

But why are the DOGE boys doing what they’re doing? Well, I don’t want to go too far down any rabbit holes, but there may be a reason beyond the desire to simply destroy everyone, which I wrote about last week:

Tech reporter Kara Swisher appeared on The Focus Group podcast a week or so ago and had a very interesting theory about what’s actually going on. We all know that AI is where all the action has been for the last few years with the “Magnificent 7” Big Tech companies leading the impressive growth in the stock market. Swisher claimed that Musk has been behind on the AI boom, having had his partnership with Sam Altman of Open AI blow up over his desire to monetize the free service, and was almost certainly on a hunt for data to use for his own AI purposes. She said:

What Elon is after, from what I can guess, if I had to guess, is… He is behind. One of the big debates going on right now in AI is we’re running out of data. All the LLMs have sucked in all the data. Now they need more to have an advantage.

And so that means that all the LLMs have become a commodity because they’re all parsing the same information, right? That they’ve scraped everything they can. Government is the biggest trove of information on the planet. U.S. government is at this point, would be my guess, or China would be.

The only other country that has it all consolidated is China, because it’s a surveillance economy and it’s a communist country, and so they want great control over their citizens. Our government data is siloed all over the place. What if someone could bring it all together and then load it into an LLM? What if…

I dunno. But it sure seems weird that they were so intent upon getting the data even before they figured out what the agency or the system even does. Getting into the system was job one, nothing else mattered. Why?

Oh, Canada

Published by digby on March 10, 2025

People have always wondered what it is about now former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Donald Trump just cannot stand. His politics aren’t demonstrably different from any other center-left leader Trump has dealt with around the world and the US Canadian relationship until now had been the most congenial, peaceful, cooperative relationship in the history of both countries. I happen to think it’s personal, as is so much of Trump’s behavior toward his global counterparts.

Just as he admires Russian President Vladimir Putin for his strongman image or North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for his (plainly insincere) obsequiousness, he likewise loathed German Chancellor Angela Merkel for being a plain, dumpy woman and currently hates Volodymyr Zelensky for being in his mind, the instrument of the humiliation of his first impeachment. With Trudeau I think it’s always been simple, juvenile jealousy of his youthful good looks. Trump is not a complicated man when it comes to his judgments of other people. He is, after all, a person who commonly hires people because they are “out of central casting.”

During Trump’s first term his antipathy for Trudeau was evident from the start and it began with one of Trump’s famous handshakes. He likes to try to dominate his peers by violently yanking their hands toward him and it often makes for bizarre awkward situations. But a couple of weeks after his inauguration, during the traditional visit between tour two leaders, Trudeau resisted the “yank” at the White House door and then hesitated before taking Trump’s weird palms-up outstretched hand in the oval office. The picture went viral.

The BBC even published a long disquisition on English physician John Bulwer’s 1644 “eccentric tome Chirologia: Or the Naturall Language of the Hand, Composed of the Speaking Motions, and Discoursing Gestures Thereof.” to explain what had happened. (It said Trudeau’s hand position wasn’t disdainful but rather dejected while there was no explanation for Trump’s odd gesture at all.)

It also didn’t help that when Trump brought in Trudeau to a meeting with businesswomen, including his daughter Ivanka, the swoon was heard around the world. Trump clearly believed, and still does, that he was the leader with the movie star good looks and he didn’t like it one bit.

From that point on, Canada was in Trump’s cross hairs and he refused to meet with Trudeau at various meetings or shake his hand and he constantly threatened to throw tariffs on everything whenever he felt he was being disrespected. They did finally agree on an update of the NAFTA treaty which Trump had characterized during his campaign as screwing the U.S. (It did, but not in the way Trump said it did.) In the end they basically just ended up tweaking it so that he could strut around like a hero.

I suspect that the straw that broke the camel’s back was this moment caught on tape at that G7 where Trump absurdly announced that it had been decided that the very best location for the next meeting, scheduled to be held in the U.S., would be his Doral Golf Club in Florida.

Considering all that, I suppose it’s not a big surprise that Trump would still be holding a grudge and would give Trudeau a hard time when he became president again. But never did anyone imagine that he would launch a full scale rhetorical assault on Canada itself, insult its people and proclaim that he wants to annex the country and make it America’s 51st state,

Trump had said he planned to throw huge tariffs on Mexico and Canada during the campaign but nobody knew if it was just the usual Trump bluster or if he meant it. He went forward with them as promised and since then has gone back and forth so often that nobody knows what he’s really after.

It’s obvious that his deep antipathy toward Mexico stems from immigration and his belief that it is just another sh**hole country. He is sending combat troops to the border and has previously entertained plans to invade the country ostensibly to “take out” the drug cartels. As grotesque as it is, it isn’t exactly a surprise. But this ongoing threat to make Canada the 51st state, even repeatedly calling Trudeau “governor” is entirely unexpected.

According to the NY Times, what they first considered a typical Trump insult joke is now being taken very seriously by the Canadian government. They report that the phone calls between Trudeau and Trump as well the trade talks between the two countries are extremely acrimonious, beyond anything previously experienced. Trump has even said explicitly that he does not believe that he doesn’t believe that the treaty that officially declared the borders between the two countries is valid and he intends to change them.

The Times writes:

“The excuse that he’s giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false,” Mr. Trudeau told the news media in Ottawa. “What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us,” he added.

They seem to think he means it.

Yesterday Justin Trudeau stepped down as Prime Minister after 10 years as he had promised to do. He was very unpopular over the past year and his Liberal party was expected to lose to the conservatives in the next election. That is, until Trump started talking about making Canada into the 51st state and Trudeau started telling it like it is. The Liberals have surged in the polls and will probably call elections very soon to take advantage of it. The people of Canada, across the political board, are infuriated by Trump’s audacious threats and they are not in any mood to cater to his insane impulses regardless of his tariff threats. Even those who were supportive of him have changed their tunes:

The Liberal party elected former central banker Mark Carney as the new Prime Minister and should they win the elections he will be the one to deal with Trump’s antics going forward. Luckily, although he is a nice looking fellow, he isn’t likely to inspire the extreme jealousy Trudeau inspired in Trump. But if Trump thinks that he will kow-tow to him, he may have another thing coming. His acceptance speech was a barnburner. Among other things, he said:

“My gov will create new trading relationships with reliable partners”
“My gov will keep tariffs on till America shows us respect”
“All the proceeds from our tariffs will be used to protect our workers”
“Canada will never ever be part of America in any way shape or form”
“Donald Trump thinks he can weaken us to divide and conquer”
“We can give ourselves far far more than Donald Trump can ever take away”

As I write this Trump has not written anything on Truth Social or offered a statement. If he expected that Trudeau’s replacement was going to come crawling for forgiveness it appears that he was wrong.

The Republican Party and the vast majority of American elites have certainly been a perfect illustration of that. It’s a shame that Americans have to look to our neighbor to the north for inspiration but we’re grateful for it.

BTW: Eat your heart out Trump. He’s still 25 years younger than you are

Salon

You’re Living In The Past, It’s A New Generation

Published by Tom Sullivan on March 10, 2025

They ain’t gonna change

Jasmine Crockett’s blunt message to Elon Musk drew eyeballs. https://x.com/CalltoActivism/status/1894443125701071316

All the personality of “wet cardboard,” a friend said over the weekend of Democrats’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.). It wasn’t a comment on his abilities as a legislator. I’m sure Jeffries can count and whip votes with the best of them. Democrats’ problem is their insistance on making their legislative leaders their spokespersons when the skill sets are not necessarily (and frequently are not) coincident.

A raft of postings describing Democrats flailing and failing to respond to Trump 2.0’s march to dismantle the republic appeared over the last week. “Democrats Voice Regret on Scattered Responses to Trump’s Speech,” declares The New York Times. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told Fox News that Democrats’ scattered response to the president’s Tuesday address was “not a good look” and the backlash to Texas Rep. Al Green’s heckling Donald Trump “was ‘a distraction’ from Democrats’ economic messaging.”

The conservative Politico describes ‘Potty mouth’ Democrats as “cursing up a storm” and at the same time being no good at it. “If the first time you’ve used a cuss word in public is reading off a script, it’s probably not authentic and not something you should do,” says Democratic adviser Lis Smith.

The headline on Michael Tomasky’s commentary at The New Republic reads, “Humor Is Vital to Effective Protest, and the Democrats Suck at It.” Even the little signs members held up at the speech — “Lies,” “False,” “Save Medicaid,” “Musk Steals” — were lame.

Tomasky writes:

What they should have done with those little signs is mock Trump. “Stormy Daniels Says Hi.” “E. Jean Carroll Wants Her Money.” “Convicted Felon.” “43 Counts.” “2029 = Prison.” “Orange You Ashamed?” Whatever. And, reviving the old Spy magazine classic, “Short-Fingered Vulgarian.”

That would have rattled him. He doesn’t care about lies or Medicaid. He cares about his vanity and never being wrong. It also would have completely outraged the right-wing propaganda complex. It would have dominated the news coverage for days. In fact we’d still be talking about it.

Here’s something you’ve read here before: “Democrats just can’t seem to think outside the box,” Tomasky complains. “The public language of liberalism has become so timid, so afraid to offend, that too many forms of humor are just out of bounds.” They are “over-cautious and over-earnest in how they talk about almost everything.”

Semafor reported last month that the party is scrambling for a new communications strategy. It doesn’t exactly come off as authentic, writes the Bulwark’s Laura Egan:

But those efforts have led, often, to online mockery. And Democratic officials acknowledge that a lot of the content is still giving off a “How do you do, fellow kids?” vibe.

[…]

FOR THOSE ADVISING DEMOCRATS ON HOW TO GET a better footing in the social media space, the general belief is that the only way through is to rip off the band-aid. That might mean enduring a number of cringe attempts at social media posts until someone figures it out, or until more dynamic and online officials emerge as national leaders.

Democrats’ aging leadership is “living in the past, it’s a new generation,” as Joan Jett sang 45 years ago. They haven’t kept up and they “ain’t gonna change.” Their risk-aversion not only makes their efforts feel inauthentic, but they come off as trend-followers not trend-setters. And it does not smell like leadership to voters, especially younger ones now registering as independents in droves.

“It is more dangerous to be ignored than it is to get yelled at,” said Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge 21st Century.

You get the idea. I’m of a certain age and I get it.

Democrats’ attempts to adapt to the new media environment and to master the attention economy fail miserably, in part, because the leadership’s politics dates from the age of 5-1/4″ floppy disks. Caucus leaders like Jeffries mistakenly resent younger caucus members like AOC and Max Frost to whom social media engagement comes naturally. And “potty mouth” Jasmine Crockett of Texas who don’t give a damn ’bout her reputation. She brings it, the newsies report it, and social media spreads it.

This party is not going to recover lost ground until it retires officials who are past their best-by dates. That’s not about age but about skill sets.

* * * * *

Have you fought the coup today?
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions

Of Russian Assets And Manly Toilets

Published by Tom Sullivan on March 10, 2025

If Trump looks like a Russian asset, walks like a Russian asset, etc.

Christopher Landau (left), Matthew Whitaker (right).

The Donald Trump nominees before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week were U.S. Ambassador to NATO nominee Matthew Whitaker (the former Trump acting Attorney General who looks like Marvel’s Kingpin once sold manly toilets), and Deputy Secretary of State nominee Christopher Landau, former ambassador to Mexico in the first Trump administration. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) of Oregon meant to use his time to talk about the elephant in the room. He wasted no time.

Clip is here. (I couln’t get it to embed.)

“Is President Trump a Russian asset?” Merkley asked bluntly.

Asked first, of course Landau said, “Absolutely not.”

Merkley then explained that he’d asked because others have asked him that question and, to all appearances, “they say, ‘If [Trump] was an asset, we would see exactly what he’s doing now.’ “

Closer to the Edge substack transcribes Merkley’s listing of evidence:

Senator Merkley: “For example… he proceeded to forward — or express from the Oval Office — propaganda that has been Russian propaganda… that Ukraine started the war… that, uh… Zelensky is a dictator.”

Step one: repeat Kremlin talking points like they’re gospel.

Senator Merkley: “Second of all… he gave away key things on the negotiating table before the negotiations even started, ensuring the U.S. would absolutely oppose, um… any possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine.”

That’s like showing up to a poker game and tossing your entire stack of chips across the table before the first card’s dealt.

Senator Merkley: “Uh… third… he’s cut off the arms shipments to Ukraine completely — undermining their ability against a massive neighbor next door with short supply lines and… and huge resources.”

Pause here and picture Vladimir Putin popping champagne.

Senator Merkley: “Fourth… he’s undermined the partnership with Europe, which has been essential to security over the last 80 years — a major goal of Putin’s.”

At this point, Merkley wasn’t describing bad policy — he was reading Putin’s wish list.

Senator Merkley: “And then… he’s done everything to discredit and demean Zelensky on the international stage — notably with that shameful press conference in which he teamed up with the Vice President to attack Zelensky.”

Ah yes, that infamous JD Vance press conference — the diplomatic equivalent of shoving Zelensky’s head in a toilet while Putin watched from the corner clapping like a seal.

Senator Merkley: “I can’t imagine that if he was a Russian asset, he could be doing anything more favorable than these five points.”

Landau dodged and changed the subject, so Merkley turned to Whitaker and asked him instead if he approved of Trump’s five actions.

Manly Toilet Kingpin demured because “We’re in the middle of a very, uh… important peace negotiation.”

Merkley responded:

Senator Merkley: “I agree. Thank you. Uh… I… I do hope that we have an Administration that works to get the very best deal for Ukraine.

“But what a Russian asset would do would be to work to get the very best deal for Russia — and that appears to be exactly what Donald Trump is trying to accomplish.”

Perhaps “Is President Trump a Russian asset?” is a question all of Trump’s nominees should have to (not) answer.

* * * * *

Have you fought the coup today?
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions

Elon And Marco’s Manly Tag Team

Published by digby on March 9, 2025

This is the Polish foreign minister:

Speaking of small men…

That’s li’l Marco trying to make amends with Elon by doing a very adorable little Col. Nathan Jessup impression:

And, needless to say, Musk is very much threatening to pull Starlink and he will have Trump and Putin’s total support if he does it. In fact, it will probably be their idea.

(I guess his statement that he challenged Putin to one on one physical combat is supposed to make us all tingly down there or something… I’m not sure. But it’s a very weird non-sequitur.)

Update:

Trust him? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Surrender and Step Down Or Else

Published by digby on March 9, 2025

NBC News reports:

As U.S. and Ukrainian officials prepare to meet in Saudi Arabia this week, President Donald Trump has privately made clear to aides that a signed minerals deal between Washington and Kyiv won’t be enough to restart aid and intelligence sharing with the war-torn country, according an administration official and another U.S. official.

Trump wants the deal, which would give the U.S. a stake in Ukraine’s mineral resources, signed. But he also wants to see a change in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s attitude toward peace talks, the officials said, including a willingness to make concessions such as giving up territory to Russia. Trump also wants Zelenskyy to make some movement toward elections in Ukraine and possibly toward stepping down as his country’s leader, the officials said.

Elections in Ukraine have been paused under the country’s constitutional provision for martial law, which has been in effect since Russia invaded in 2022.

I don’t think there’s any doubt about Trump is up to. He appeared with Maria Bartiromo this morning:

On Sunday, Trump reiterated that he thought Zelensky wasn’t “grateful” and added that he “took candy from a baby” — his description of the Biden administration’s policy of military and political support for Ukraine’s military.

The president also seemed to deride the Ukrainian leader’s assertion that his country’s armed forces were serving the country bravely, as he dismissively recalled Zelensky “talking about the fact that they have fought and there’s […] bravery because somebody has to use those [US-supplied] weapons.”

General Bonespurs says what?

He claimed that nobody has been harder on Russia than he has and blathered on again about the “Russia, Russia, Russia” hoax because he is consumed with anger and resentment that people saw what a dupe he was. His oppositional defiance disorder leads him to go even closer to Putin in response. (Also, he might just be a Russian asset… or something. Who knows?)

He once again took “credit” for stopping the Nord Stream II pipeline which is bs since he was forced by Congress to impose the sanctions. (Remember when Congress used to do things like that?)

And guess what?

And some reports have indicated that his administration could be interested in cutting a deal with Russia in 2025 that would allow for the project to resume…

Referring to Trump throwing Zelenksy out of the White House before a minerals deal could be signed, Bartiromo asked the U.S. president: “Are you comfortable with that, the fact you walked away and Ukraine may not survive?”

Trump replied: “Well, it may not survive anyway. But, you know, we have some weaknesses with Russia. You know, it takes two.”

He is a monster. And some people love him for it:

“The new (U.S.) administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations,” Peskov said in an interview aired Sunday on Russian state media. “This largely coincides with our vision.”

Indeed it does.

We’ve Crossed The Line

Published by digby on March 9, 2025

Don’t look to the elites to step up. They’re all running for cover.

This article in the NY Times surveys the cowardly retreat overtaking American elites both public and private.

More than six weeks into the second Trump administration, there is a chill spreading over political debate in Washington and beyond.

People on both sides of the aisle who would normally be part of the public dialogue about the big issues of the day say they are intimidated by the prospect of online attacks from Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, concerned about harm to their companies and frightened for the safety of their families. Politicians fear banishment by a party remade in Mr. Trump’s image and the prospect of primary opponents financed by Mr. Musk, the president’s all-powerful partner and the world’s richest man.

“When you see important societal actors — be it university presidents, media outlets, C.E.O.s, mayors, governors — changing their behavior in order to avoid the wrath of the government, that’s a sign that we’ve crossed the line into some form of authoritarianism,” said Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard and the co-author of the influential 2018 book “How Democracies Die.”

It appears that not even ambition or opportunism is enough to make some powerful and important people risk opposing him.

Most elected Republicans are fully supportive of Mr. Trump and his agenda, and on issues like immigration some Democrats are moving in his direction, reflecting public opinion. Democrats were divided over the wisdom of the protest by Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, during Mr. Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday night.

But the lack of aggressive pushback from targets of Mr. Trump’s retribution and policy agenda is striking if understandable in other cases.

University presidents are largely silent because they are protecting their institutions, said Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education. “Don’t wrestle with a pig,” he said. “You’ll just get muddy and annoy the pig.”

Business leaders rarely criticize presidents of either party, and in any case they like Mr. Trump’s plans for tax cuts and deregulation, if not his tariffs. They also recognize, one of them said, that “periodically culling the work force is actually good for a healthy organization.”

But that business leader thinks that chief executives see the way that Mr. Musk is going about slashing the federal work force as “totally crazy” — but would say so only on the condition of anonymity, fearing retribution.

Universities are supposed to be a bastion of free speech and free thought. Never mind. As for the business leaders, I would have thought they’d be concerned about their own bottom lines but apparently they are more afraid of Trump and Musk. What great stewards of private sector health they are.

How about this from the WSJ?

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing agencies to strip security clearances, government contracts and federal-building access from a top law firm with Democratic ties, Perkins Coie. It followed a similar, but more narrowly tailored, order late last month against attorneys at Covington & Burling representing former special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw the investigation and federal prosecutions of Trump.

“We have a lot of law firms that we’re going to be going after because they were very dishonest people,” Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News.

The White House moves have sent a chill through the world of Big Law, at a time when litigation has emerged as one of the few checks on the president. 

In private conversations, partners at some of the nation’s leading firms have expressed outrage at the president’s actions. What they haven’t been willing to do is say so publicly. Back-channel efforts to persuade major law firms to sign public statements criticizing Trump’s actions thus far have foundered, in part because of retaliation fears, people familiar with the matter said.

Golly, I seem to remember that during the campaign when Trump said he was going to get revenge on anyone who crossed him many of his allies and members of media were quick to point out that he had parroted once or twice that his revenge would be “success” so he didn’t mean it literally. Oh well. The rule of law was good while it lasted.

The NY Times reports that this fear among elected officials was about literal threats to themselves and their families who begged them not to put them in the cross hairs and also the fact that Elon Musk has said he will personally fund primaries against anyone who even thinks of crossing him has put the fear of God into most Republicans.

And then there’s this inspirational leadership:

Frankly,” Mr. Coons said, “it is a combination of hoping that things change and somehow this all comes apart and the chain-saw approach to government stops.”

A few very cool, savvy people went on the record saying that the whole thing is overblown and Trump isn’t doing anything that unusual. (I’ll have what they’re smoking.) And there are some naysayers, among them the alleged Great Democratic Billionaire Hope, Mark Cuban, who insist that the real problem is the “identity politics and all the wokeness as the real silencing factor.”

Yeah, that pronoun thing was a nightmare. Wokeness destroyed the economy and the world order, fired thousands of people and killed thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands around the world) with its “identity politics” just like Trump and Musk.

Levitsky, the democracy expert, had this silver lining:

The United States, he said, has a “wealthy and diverse opposition,” and rather than outright authoritarianism, there could be “a slow and gradual slide into a gray area.”

As he put it, “no democracy this old or this rich has ever broken down.”

I would never have believed that we’d vote a criminal imbecile like Trump into office even on a fluke much less restore him to the White House just four years later so maybe we are the first test case. And maybe we’ll get out of this without the country and world blowing up but that slow and gradual slide is well underway and I don’t know if enough of those in power, private or public, have the courage to ever do anything about it. Don’t count on them for anything.

And by the way, if we do manage to survive this crisis remember what they didn’t do and rebuild this country accordingly.

They Are Taking It Seriously And So Should We

Published by digby on March 9, 2025

Center-right French senator Claude Malhuret gave a speech last week that was heard around the world. He’s an epidemiologist and former leader of Doctors Without Borders. This one’s for the history books.

Europe is at a crucial juncture of its history. The American shield is slipping away, Ukraine risks being abandoned, and Russia is being strengthened. Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a buffoon on ketamine tasked with purging the civil service.

This is a tragedy for the free world, but it’s first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. [President Donald] Trump’s message is that being his ally serves no purpose, because he will not defend you, he will impose more tariffs on you than on his enemies, and he will threaten to seize your territories, while supporting the dictators who invade you.

The king of the deal is showing that the art of the deal is lying prostrate. He thinks he will intimidate China by capitulating to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but China’s President Xi Jinping, faced with such wreckage, is undoubtedly accelerating his plans to invade Taiwan.

Never in history has a president of the United States surrendered to the enemy. Never has one supported an aggressor against an ally, issued so many illegal decrees, and sacked so many military leaders in one go. Never has one trampled on the American Constitution, while threatening to disregard judges who stand in his way, weaken countervailing powers, and take control of social media.

This is not a drift to illiberalism; this is the beginning of the seizure of democracy. Let us remember that it only took one month, three weeks, and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its constitution.

I have confidence in the solidity of American democracy, and the country is already protesting. But in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in the four years of his last presidency. We were at war with a dictator; now we are fighting against a dictator supported by a traitor.

Eight days ago, at the very moment when Trump was patting French President Emmanuel Macron on the back at the White House, the United States voted at the United Nations with Russia and North Korea against the Europeans demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Two days later, in the Oval Office, the draft-dodger was giving moral and strategic lessons to the Ukrainian president and war hero, Volodymyr Zelensky, before dismissing him like a stable boy, ordering him to submit or resign.

That night, he took another step into disgrace by halting the delivery of promised weapons. What should we do in the face of such betrayal? The answer is simple: Stand firm.

And above all: make no mistake. The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic states, Georgia, and Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to the Yalta Agreement, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin.

The countries of the global South are waiting for the outcome of the conflict to decide whether they should continue to respect Europe, or whether they are now free to trample it.

What Putin wants is the end of the world order the United States and its allies established 80 years ago, in which the first principle was the prohibition of acquiring territory by force.

This idea is at the very foundation of the UN, where today Americans vote in favor of the aggressor and against the aggressed, because the Trumpian vision coincides with Putin’s: a return to spheres of influence, where great powers dictate the fate of small nations.

Greenland, Panama, and Canada are mine. Ukraine, the Baltics, and Eastern Europe are yours. Taiwan and the South China Sea are his.

At the Mar-a-Lago dinner parties of golf-playing oligarchs, this is called “diplomatic realism.”

We are therefore alone. But the narrative that Putin cannot be resisted is false. Contrary to Kremlin propaganda, Russia is doing poorly. In three years, the so-called second army in the world has managed to grab only crumbs from a country with about a quarter its population.

With interest rates at 21 percent, the collapse of foreign currency and gold reserves, and a demographic crisis, Russia is on the brink. The American lifeline to Putin is the biggest strategic mistake ever made during a war.

The shock is violent, but it has one virtue. The Europeans are coming out of denial. They understood in a single day in Munich that the survival of Ukraine and the future of Europe are in their hands, and that they have three imperatives.

Accelerate military aid to Ukraine to compensate for the American abandonment, so that Ukraine can hang on, and of course to secure its and Europe’s place at the negotiating table.

This will be costly. It will require ending the taboo on using Russia’s frozen assets. It will require bypassing Moscow’s accomplices within Europe itself through a coalition that includes only willing countries, and the United Kingdom of course.

Second, demand that any agreement include the return of kidnapped children and prisoners, as well as absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia, and Minsk, we know what Putin’s agreements are worth. These guarantees require sufficient military force to prevent a new invasion.

Finally, and most urgently because it will take the longest, we must build that neglected European defense, which has relied on the American security umbrella since 1945 and which was shut down after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The task is Herculean, but history books will judge the leaders of today’s democratic Europe by its success or failure.

Friedrich Merz has just declared that Europe needs its own military alliance. This is a recognition that France has been right for decades in advocating for strategic autonomy.

Now it must be built. This will require massive investment to replenish the European Defense Fund beyond the Maastricht debt criteria, harmonize weapons and munitions systems, accelerate European Union membership for Ukraine, which now has the leading army in Europe, rethink the role and conditions of nuclear deterrence based on French and British capabilities, and relaunch missile-shield and satellite programs.

Europe can become a military power again only by becoming an industrial power again. But the real rearmament of Europe is its moral rearmament.

We must convince public opinion in the face of war weariness and fear, and above all in the face of Putin’s collaborators on the far right and far left.

They say they want peace. What neither they nor Trump says is that their peace is capitulation, the peace of defeat, the replacement of a de Gaullian Zelensky by a Ukrainian Pétain under Putin’s thumb.The peace of collaborators who, for three years, have refused to support the Ukrainians in any way.

Is this the end of the Atlantic alliance? The risk is great. But in recent days, Zelensky’s public humiliation and all the crazy decisions taken over the past month have finally stirred Americans into action. Poll numbers are plummeting. Republican elected officials are greeted by hostile crowds in their constituencies. Even Fox News is becoming critical.

The Trumpists are no longer at the height of glory. They control the executive branch, Congress, the Supreme Court, and social media. But in American history, the supporters of freedom have always won. They are starting to raise their heads.

The fate of Ukraine will be decided in the trenches, but it also depends on those who defend democracy in the United States, and here, on our ability to unite Europeans and find the means for our common defense, to make Europe the power it once was and hesitates to become again.

Our parents defeated fascism and communism at the cost of great sacrifice. The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century. Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe.

He. Is. Right.

Long live free and Democratic America. It’s on life-support right now.

Translation courtesy of The Atlantic