National politics

If there was any doubt about the incompetence of the Trump administration, this story in The Atlantic today should squash it. Jeffrey Goldberg is the editor in chief of The Atlantic. I'm a subscriber. This gift link to Goldberg's story should enable anybody to read it.  Remember the uproar over Hillary Clinton using her own email server when she was Obama's Secretary of State? Trump and other Republicans thought she should be go to jail for engaging in a breach of security protocols. Well, the debacle described by Goldberg is way worse than Clinton's emails. Hopefully there will be investigations…

There's a lot of anger among Democrats, especially the left wing of the Democratic Party, right now. The anger is divided between Donald Trump and his billionaire buddy, Elon Musk, and Democrats in the Senate -- especially minority leader Chuck Schumer -- for preventing a government shutdown by voting to end a filibuster that would have blocked a Republican-backed continuing resolution to fund federal agencies through the rest of the fiscal year, September 30. That anger is completely understandable. Trump and Musk are doing terrible things. They're taking a wrecking ball to the federal government, to our economy, to international…

We Democrats are notorious for engaging in circular firing squads where different factions of the party take political shots at each other. But the arguing over Senate Democrats voting today to avoid a government shutdown is unusually intense. Yesterday I was surprised to see MSNBC's Chris Hayes, who I usually agree with, telling Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer not only that he was wrong to support ending a filibuster so a continuing resolution passed by the House that would keep most federal agencies funded at their 2024 level until this fiscal year is over on September 30 could pass with…

My wife couldn't believe I was able to do this, but I've watched most of Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress last night. I did so because I believe in knowing your enemy. I wanted to see how Trump came across rather than just read about his speech. I also was curious to see how Democratic legislators acted during the speech. How aggressive would they be in protesting what certainly would be copious amounts of lies coming out of Trump's mouth, not to mention his truthful statements about what his administration has been doing since inauguration day, naturally…

While it wasn't widely reported, probably because it isn't news when Trump says stuff that clearly isn't true, today Trump claimed once again that tariffs are paid by foreign countries.  The Chris Hayes show on MSNBC did talk about what Trump said, correctly pointing out that this is another example, among a great many, where it is unclear whether Trump is incredibly stupid or an incredible liar. My personal conclusion is that he's both, though I admit that in any particular instance, logically it is difficult for Trump to manifest both personality defects.  Tariffs are a great example. At the…

Kamala Harris has been vindicated.   After her loss last November, many people claimed that her campaign was too focused on the danger to our democracy that Trump posed instead of doing more to reassure voters that if elected she'd work to bring down the price of groceries and inflation in general. Now, two and a half weeks into the chaos that the Trump administration has produced, it's clear that if anything, Harris should have uttered her warnings about how Trump would subvert our democracy in a louder voice.  For every day it becomes more obvious that while Trump's first…

Did you think that your Social Security number was kept secret by the federal government through rigorous security measures? Well, think again, because Trump's billionaire buddy, Elon Musk, has allowed six 19 to 25 year old dudes access to the Treasury Department's payment system that has sensitive information which, until now, was closely guarded. WIRED has a bombshell story about this by Vittoria Elliott, "The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk's Government Takeover." Excerpt: Elon Musk’s takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of—and in…

Silence means surrender to tyrants. I'd rather be writing about other things than Trump's latest outrageous action, but I refuse to allow myself to be shocked into submission by the mountains of authoritarian crap that Trump is shoveling out in these early days of his presidency. For as soon as the American public accepts Trump's completely unacceptable behavior as something that we simply have to silently put up with, that's the day our nation slides irrevocably into a dictatorship.  Today Trump broke new ground for a president, and not at all in a good way. For he claimed with zero…

I'm not an egg eater, but my wife is. When she puts eggs on the list for my LifeSource Natural Foods shopping, ideally the pasture-raised variety, I buy a dozen. But today, for the first time I can remember, the shelves were completely bare in the egg section. I didn't look for eggs when I went to Trader Joe's, Natural Grocers, and Fred Meyer (there's four stops on my weekly grocery shopping expedition), so I don't know if any or all of those stores also were out. LifeSource has a "Where are the eggs?" page on their web site. They…

Like so many others who voted for Kamala Harris, then watched Donald Trump defeat her in a fairly convincing though not overwhelming fashion, I'm politically depressed. Meaning, I'm still enjoying the personal life I was leading before the election. But when my attention turns to Trump, my spirits sink.  Trump looks like he's hugely enjoying the kickoff to his second term. He's keeping his promise to be a dictator on Day 1, extending that promise throughout his first week in office. I expect Trump will attempt to realize his authoritarian dreams throughout his entire presidency. Meanwhile, while Trump holds center…

Trump voters, you knew what you were getting when you cast your ballot for him. A man who lies incessantly, who lacks any sense of moral decency, who loves dictators and hates democracy, who has no commitment to upholding the Constitution because his goal is only to uphold himself. Yet you preferred Donald Trump over Kamala Harris. Maybe it was because the price of groceries was too high. Maybe it was because you wanted our southern border to be strengthened and undocumented immigrants to be deported from the United States. I can understand those reasons. They make sense. Almost everybody…

When I got in my car this afternoon and heard talk about Jimmy Carter after I turned on the radio, I knew, or at least strongly suspected, that former President Carter had died.  My first thought was, "He was such a decent person, the complete opposite of Trump." Listening to reports of Carter's life -- his upbringing, his presidency, his post-presidency -- reminded me  that it wasn't that long ago that decency, honesty, strong moral character, and putting the broad interest of the nation above narrow party politics were viewed as basic qualities someone aspiring to be president needed to…

Donald Trump has gotten a political lump of coal in his Christmas stocking. He loves to pretend that he's a macho guy, even though he actually is a grossly overweight, out of shape, hair-dying, makeup-wearing narcissist who doesn't demonstrate any genuinely manly qualities. Now his weakness is on full display, and he hasn't even taken office yet after narrowly defeating Kamala Harris for the presidency.  It's clear that the genuine leader of the Republican Party isn't Trump, but Elon Musk. That's why Democrats like me are finding great satisfaction in referring to President Musk and Vice-President Trump -- as these…

Since I was a strong Kamala Harris supporter, it isn't surprising that much of what Trump wants to do in his second term as president worries me. But there are big differences when it comes to my emotional reaction toward Trump's proposals. If he wants to get back to building his border wall, even if Mexico doesn't pay for it, I say, fine, go ahead. If he wants to pardon some or all of the January 6 rioters, a wrong-headed idea, I say, fine, go ahead. However, if he wants to do away with Daylight Savings Time and make the…