Yes, It Is Happening Here
This is not normal.
Or is this what the frog feels when it finally realizes the water is boiling.
I’m sitting down to write this five days after Giant Baby Man has been officially seated as president, an utterly mind-blowing event, leaving us all wondering how the hell this could have happened. Now in the White House, a convicted felon, an insurrectionist, a rapist, and more than likely a traitor. And also a grifter.
But more about all this later.
It’s five days after GBM took office, and the last five days have been awful in terms of what he’s done, what’s he’s decreed, what he’s trying to do.
We were all wondering how extreme it would be. Now we have our answer. Pretty damn extreme. The only bright side is that Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff haven’t been arrested. Otherwise, it’s been pretty grim.
The following is not meant to be an exhaustive list, just a summary to give the flavor of what is happening.
On the same day that video went viral of Elon Musk twice flashing a Nazi salute, GBM signed a series of executive orders in an effort to implement extreme and racist anti-immigrant policies, including an Executive Order to abolish Birthright Citizenship.
Birthright Citizenship is enshrined as law by the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. An Executive Order cannot simply do away with it. Congress cannot vote to overturn it. The only way to overturn a Constitutional Amendment is to pass another Constitutional Amendment. Period. Full Stop.
And yet he persists. I have absolutely no doubt that he will push this to the limit, hoping the Supreme Court is sufficiently in his pocket to uphold an utterly unconstitutional measure that already had one judge basically laugh it out of court.
It is worth noting that the Executive Order doesn’t require that both parents be undocumented immigrants but would deport children of immigrants even if one parent was a lawful, temporary U.S. resident. Thus, if this order was implemented retroactively, Kamala Harris would be deported as well as the wife of J.D. Vance.
This is authoritarianism at its utmost. The Constitution is our monarch, meaning we are a nation of rule of law, not a monarchy. If the whims of a Giant Baby Man supersede the Constitution, we will no longer be a democracy.
As for the remaining Executive Orders involving immigration and deportation, they set the framework for the reign of terror unfolding in front of us this very second. U.S. military troop are being deployed all over the country, likely in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act that prohibits military from being used in domestic law enforcement.
ICE raids are happening all over the country, even in schools. They claim otherwise, but an elementary school in Chicago was raided.
American citizens have been caught up in raids and have been arrested and are being detained. It seems the presumption is that anyone caught up in these raids is not an American citizen and that the burden of proof is on them, not ICE. So much for presumed innocent.
And they are already sending plane-loads full of alleged undocumented immigrants to nations all over Latin America, making a big show of landing military transports, depositing shackled migrants whose only crime was wanting a better life.
Despite the rhetoric and demagoguery, the goal really isn’t safety. GBM will swear up and down that it is, but the simple fact of the matter is that the Biden policy of putting a greater emphasis on going after undocumented immigrants who actually committed criminal acts did more to promote safety. Using finite resources to sweep up everyone means some criminals may not actually get caught, while undocumented immigrants who contribute to our economy and whose neighborhoods tend to have lower crime rates get sent away.
These performative gestures mainly are intended to put on a big show while causing the maximum amount of pain and suffering. It all about intimidation.
GBM took a break, shoved a dozen Big Macs down his corpulent piehole and then pardoned all the J6 rioters. All of them. Every single one of them.
Let that sink in. No time to review or examine on a case-by-case basis even though Vance and Pam Bondi, the nominee for attorney general stated that they didn’t think violent offenders should be pardoned, especially those who assaulted police officers.
No, he pardoned all of them. When asked about pardoning insurrectionists who assaulted police, he acted as if he was unaware of that fact. Likely, he doesn’t care that they attacked police. He doesn’t care about the police officers who bravely defended the Capitol that day, even the ones who were injured or died. He tries to claim that he backs the blue, but only when it’s convenient for him. On J6, the insurrectionists were fighting for him, and the police officers defending the Capitol against an attempted coup were the enemy, his enemy.
In response, the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police union in the country, rescinded its endorsement of GBM. They get it.
Of high importance is that those who were pardoned did not merely include those who committed criminal acts on that day but those involved with seditious conspiracy, such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. With a stroke of a cowardly pen, Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes walked free.
This in particular makes my blood run cold.
The leadership of the Proud Boys and Tarrio as well as Rhodes and the upper echelon of the Oath Keepers were convicted of extremely serious charges after lengthy trials. Their guilt was well beyond a reasonable doubt. They received lengthy sentences due to overwhelming evidence and the gravity of their crimes.
Let’s not forget that fateful moment during one of the 2020 presidential debates when Trump claimed to not know the names of any far-right extremist organizations. Biden jumped in, mentioned the Proud Boys and challenged GBM to tell them to stand down.
In what appeared to be a slip of the tongue, GBM told them to “stand back and stand by.”
We now know that was not a slip of the tongue but a call to action.
Again, this is blood chilling. The Proud Boys marched in the streets of DC on Inauguration Day, despite not showing their faces in our Capitol city since J6.
Since their respective releases, both Tarrio and Rhodes have spoken in bold and defiant tones. And why shouldn’t they? The implication from the mass pardons couldn’t be clearer. Violence on behalf of GBM will not only be tolerated, it will be rewarded.
This single act will do more to promote lawlessness in this country than any other act, order, proclamation that I can think of. This degree of normalizing of such rightwing, white supremacist extremist groups was unthinkable ten years ago, but now here we are. GBM has secured the loyalty of these groups who will be more than happy to serve as his shock troops. Who know to what extent they will be used to stifle dissent? After all, the Proud Boys have long engaged in street fights with Antifa. More recently, rightwing extremist groups have marched outside venues holding drag shows.
This certainly makes me think of the Brownshirts. And when Hitler took office as chancellor in January 1933, the Brownshirts knew they could act with absolute impunity.
And it should be noted that GBM held an event in Las Vegas, and Rhodes was in attendance in the VIP area. Nuff said.
But there was so much more, and it is worth noting that much of what GBM did came right out of the Project 2025 playbook, something he claimed to have little to no knowledge of. According to Time the figure was two-thirds.
He rescinded Biden’s order to require Medicare to negotiate with Big Pharma over prescription drugs, a measure that capped insulin at $35 per month. Ironically, GBM tried to take credit for the insulin cap, and here he is attempting to do away with it. It is worth noting that his Executive Order may not have the power to reverse an act of Congress. It is further worth noting that despite the fact that millions of people voted with their pocketbook in the hope GBM would lower consumer prices, not a single Executive Order was aimed at lowering prices. And the one that did address what consumers pay could have the effect of raising prices.
And eggs are even more expensive. And just wait for the blowback from his tariffs.
Additionally, in a dizzying series of Executive Orders, GBM launched a massive attack against the federal government and federal employees. Any and all DEI programs have been eliminated. And that includes a ban on the Air Force showing videos about the Tuskegee Airman and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs—female World War II pilots. Proud history white-washed because it doesn’t fit the preferred white supremacist narrative.
Federal employees doing DEI work have been suspended. All federal employees are required to work in person five days a week despite Covid teaching us that employees can work just fine at home.
GBM rescinded Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Executive Order the forbid employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion and national origin by organizations receiving federal contracting and required federal contractors to set up detailed affirmative action programs that would be monitored by the federal government.
GBM considers this landmark order to be racist yet Republican presidents Nixon, Reagan, HW Bush and W Bush were okay with leaving it be.
Hiring has been frozen, and accepted job offers have been rescinded. All government grants were frozen, sending the country in a panic.
NHI in particular has been under attack. The agency has been ordered to halt all cancer research. In general, research grants have been halted. Here in Madison, Wisconsin, NIH funds a tremendous amount of research. What is supposed to happen to the researchers and their staff?
This, in particular, is very personal to me. Both my parents worked for NIH, my Mom at the National Library of Medicine, and my Dad worked at the National Cancer Institute for most of his career. In fact, my Dad help reorganize NCI following the passage of the National Cancer Act of 1971.
Travel has been suspended, including travel to meetings for reviewing grants. Training workshops have been abruptly cancelled, as well as advisory panels. External communication as well is currently prohibited. The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weeks Report was not published—for the first time in 100 years.
Not to be outdone in the cruelty department, GBM also put a freeze on almost all U.S. foreign aid. The only exception is food and military aid to Israel and Egypt. As far as the rest of the world, it is free to starve. Vaccination programs that save lives are suspended as well as programs that fight HIV in places where AIDS still kills people in large number.
And then, perhaps as a cherry on top, in the dead of night, heading into a weekend, GBM fired 17 inspectors general from agencies all across the federal government. He did so without giving the senate 30 days notice, and did not give a reason for the firings, both of which are required by federal law.
And the reason for this wanton action is obvious: GBM doesn’t want oversight. Period. Full stop.
So, once again, how did we get here?
Okay, first I have to say my comparison of Biden and the Roman Emperor Nerva in the last issue really isn’t apt. Biden would have acted more in the spirit of Nerva if, after having stabilized the country, he would’ve announced his retirement after serving out his term.
More importantly, Democrats got out-foxed on two major issues, the economy and immigration. They ceded ground on both issues and allowed GBM to set the narrative. Yes, Biden credibly could brag about a strong economy on just about every metric. Except inflation, which wasn’t really his fault. Still, he should’ve gone on national television for a “I feel your pain” moment. He should’ve touted the very real measures he took to lower people’s expenses. I get news blasts daily from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and I can tell you they’ve been very active fighting junk fees and in general going after businesses and industries that rip people off. Yet very few people have even heard of the CFPB.
Same with immigration. Dems needed to do a much better job of getting in front of the issue and tackling the lies circulated by Republicans who don’t really want to solve the immigration problem if they can use it as a cudgel against Democrats.
In addition, the genocide in Gaza lost Kamala a lot of votes. Yes, she certainly went further than Biden in support of the Palestinians and sovereignty for Palestine, but she needed to go much further. At the very least, she should have let a Palestinian American speak at the Democratic National Convention. I remember thinking at the time that this might cost her the election. This issue led some voters to simply not vote in the presidential election, while GBM was actually able to get Arab American voters to come over to his side.
But all of this isn’t normal.
GBM demagogued these issues. This was not a serious discussion. He flat out lied. He made wild claims about the prices of consumer goods. He shamelessly quoted entirely unreliable and debunked sources regarding Haitians eating pets. He lied when he said the boarders were left unguard. He totally lied when he said other countries were emptying their prisons and insane asylums and sending those people here.
I can’t help but wonder if he somehow confused insane asylums with people seeking asylum because that’s a big part of what was going on. With the push-pull of an attractive economy here and danger at countries of origin, migrants showed up at the boarder looking for a better life.
Again, how can you have a healthy political discourse when one side is allowed to lie, while the other side is held to a ridiculous standard. The corporate media really should hang its head in shame for the way they have allowed GBM to lie, the way they have “sane-washed” his words, when he would say the craziest shit, only to have the media interpret the rational thoughts they assumed he was expressing.
And here’s something I found extremely annoying. After the inauguration, I read a highly detailed fact-check of GBM’s speech. That’s all fine and good, but where the hell have the fact-checks been? I know he’d get fact-checked on occasion, but seriously someone running for president should be fact-checked vigorously. Also, last week, I read two long, highly detailed and highly nuanced articles. Annoyed the hell out of me. One was about immigration. Again, why didn’t I read that article a year ago? The other was about the crisis created by the reduction of funds from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) that had led to severe slashing of services all across the board, but especially battered women’s shelters and legal aid. Again, this has been a crisis for more than a year, and the article neglected to mention that the reduction in funds available for allocation started is due to actions taken during the first GBM Administration.
And where was Roevember? If this election had gone the way of just about every other election since Dobbs, Kamala would’ve steamrolled GBM. And yet, white women didn’t vote for Kamala in the same numbers that they voted for Biden. Was it because they believed GBM’s attempts to moderate his stance on abortion? Were they more concerned about the price of eggs than their ability to have agency over their own eggs? Or was it just flat-out racism?
Again none of this is normal. A sane country doesn’t elect a grifter, an insurrectionist, a convicted felon, a rapist. GBM seemed like a broken man when he slithered back to Mar-a-Lago. It suddenly occurs to me that the moment that turned things back around was when Kevin McCarthy, after denouncing GBM following J6, felt the need to crawl to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring. And most Republicans fell in line.
No, this is not normal and even worse, we’re seeing in real-time a takeover by the oligarchs. First, Elon Musk, in a clear violation of federal campaign laws, allowed his PAC to coordinate GBM’s campaign. Otherwise, GBM probably loses and may very well be in jail or prison right now.
We saw with our eyes during the inauguration, Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, all with front row seats. This is Citizens United finally fully coming home to roost, finally corroding our democracy to the point where it’s on the verge of shattering.
And yet, we still have something to say about it.
We need to stay informed. Watch each other’s backs. Speak out at injustice.
We all need to be like Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, who looked GBM right in the eye and spoke truth to power.
There will be another time. Like I so often say, the arc of history bends towards justice. What we’re looking at now is the backlash against all that we, as a society, have accomplished. We can and will and must survive this backlash.
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