Disorder, Distractions, and Diversions
"Bick, you shoulda shot that fella a long time ago. Now he's too rich to kill."
"Bick, you shoulda shot that fella a long time ago. Now he's too rich to kill." -Uncle Bawley (Chill Wills) talking to Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson) about Jett Rink (James Dean) in the movie "Giant"
There was an old, sexist, raunchy joke that I repeat as a matter of metaphor, for the Trump administration:
Q.: (asked by a male) "Why is it that women take so long to orgasm?"
A." "Who cares?" hahahahahaha
Subtext: I GOT MINE!!!
Today, a hodgepodge of This Week in Hell, er, The News. And some distractions and diversions if you have time.
Musk Got His
I did a little thing with ChatGPT. Musk is supposedly worth around 400 billion. Seems like a lot, but we often get lost in big numbers. So I thought, what if he sold out half of his fortune... just invested in some index fund or annuity or some such. (He can go play business-man-genius-boy with the rest.) Let's assume that he could find a fund that guaranteed a 6% APR. He wants the fund and payout to last thirty years, you know, so he can have a little safety net. How much would the return be, how much do you suppose he could spend a day at 6% on 200 billion for 30 years?
Well, he would have to get by on around 39 million dollars.
A day.
If he cut back a little, made a budget, and stuck to it, he would have to get by on 39 million dollars a day. That is, on HALF of his current fortune.
I heard that Musk's Twitter ("X") settled an old lawsuit with Trump for 10 million dollars (long story - Trump was deplatformed a few years ago around the time of the insurrection.) Imagine. A ten million $ fine. At 39 million a day, that would be like dining out money to you or me. (Yes, I realize that it's coming out of Twitter's biz account, not his.... but still.) That's to give you an idea what 400 billion looks like in the real world.
"I Gots Mine!"
It appears that Elon Musk was 'blessed' with his 13th child! The new mother is a "conservative influencer," Ashley St. Claire. She would be the fourth (known) woman he has sired children with. Which is great for someone who believes that low birth rates are a greater world danger than climate change. He has also generously offered his sperm to friends and acquaintances. I like to think of him as Johnny Technoseed.
The sultry little vixen "conservative" that he bedded and never wedded is a real champion of traditional values. A bit of cute snark she posted during the presidential campaign: "Kamala can't help herself from bending over for a man to get ahead." So much to work with, here. Oh my.
People Editorial Guidelines
Well, Ashley honey, single motherhood, for you, may pay off handsomely. You get yours!
Let's take a break from politics and go to the Sports desk...
Oh dear. It looks like all hell broke loose at the 4 Nations Face-Off, the international ice hockey tournament that started up in Montreal on Saturday. Canadian crowds have been loudly booing the USA national anthem and team since Trump threatened to put tariffs on Canada and suggested that the country should become the "51st state." To add injury to insult, three fights broke out within the first :09 seconds of Saturday's game.
Austin Nivison
And speaking of Canada
Ironie macht frei... should be set in a metal sign over the White House entry gate.
This week in irony, Vice President wannabe J.D. "Pretty Boy" Vance went after Canada and their vicious drug cartel ways:
Yup. Bitching at Canada for not catching less than 50 lbs of fentanyl cross their border into ours, while the US couldn't stop over 900 lbs flowing the other way. Let's give JD a hockey stick and toss him out onto the ice with a few Canadian bruisers in goalie masks.
Not content with pissing off one ally, Hillbilly Vance sashayed over to Europe in support of Nazism.
Supposedly he was going as point man to discuss peace talks regarding Russia/Ukraine and deliver some information about Trump's intentions toward NATO. Instead, he chose to give Germany an earful about how they should allow the hard-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, to join their government. The AfD is full of white nationalists, extremists who have used Nazi slogans, and insurrectionists. (Sound familiar?) Vance was addressing Chancellor Olaf Scholz and several political parties that stand as a so-called "firewall" against Nazi-sympathizing politicians wishing to enter or influence the federal government. Furious that Vance would lecture them on how to run their government, Scholz said, “A commitment to ‘never again’ is not reconcilable with support for the AfD." He said Germany “would not accept” directives from outsiders about how to run its democracy — and certainly not to work with such a party... That is not done, certainly not among friends and allies. Where our democracy goes from here is for us to decide.”
Vance, representing the United States, said “There is no room for firewalls." He set about scolding Germany for liberal immigration policies that has led to a crisis in Europe, and suggested that critics of those policies needed a voice. He called restrictions on free speech a greater threat to Europe than military aggression from Russia or China.
Next time that your MAGA pals get into a beef with you over international affairs, or... well anything, ask him if he and his party are all in on supporting actual Nazis.
Let's take another break, another breath
If you want something that by comparison, actually seems to make for a light diversion in these trying times, well, try "American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson." Sure it's about the murderous sports star OJ - The Juice... but sometimes you need a couple of killings to take your mind off. (I kid, I KID!) But it's a well done look back, and it features almost all of the major players.
I was still deep in the news business when the famous "slow-speed chase" with the white Bronco took place and the resulting "trial of the century" consumed the nation's attention. It brought back... the whole era. I was verklempt.
Worth your while... it will jog some crazy memories.
Our top story has to be the continued DOGE actions...
DOGE - The Department of Government Efficiency butting into federal computer systems, laying off government employees willy nilly, and generally 'stirring the pot.' Again, when you look at the numbers of federal employees laid off, they are a bit alarming, but abstract. This week, testimonials flowed in from all over the country (and beyond) about the personal toll that this is taking on workers and the citizens who depend on the various agencies. (You may need to link to the full posts for all of the text.)
From a National Park Service ranger:
From a lifelong friend who recently retired from the National Weather Service:
More about the Parks Service:
A university-based scientist whose funding relies on federal grants:
You've by now heard that Trump axed hundreds from the Dept. of Energy, only to be told afterward that the Dept. of Energy, specifically those from the National Nuclear Security Administration administered the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, nuclear waste, and oversight of contractors that work on nuclear weapons. The firings were eventually rescinded, and things are still being sorted out. You would have thought that during his first presidential race, he ran against former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who also vowed to eliminate the Dept. of Energy if elected. He wasn't, but Trump appointed him Secretary of Energy... an appointment to an agency that Perry admitted to not knowing what they did. He, too, realized the importance of the agency and fulfilled the role without blowing up the place. But their memories (and general intelligence) seem to mimic the mental acuity of fruit flies.
The Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed late Thursday night that it has let go of more than 1,000 probationary employees this week.
The U.S. Forest Service, meanwhile, is dismissing 3,400 employees. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has fired probationary workers, as well as full-time contract employees. Other affected agencies include the Department of Education, the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the General Services Administration (GSA), where termination letters have gone out to hundreds of recent hires. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has been actively coordinating these layoffs across federal agencies, with all probationary staff at OPM itself dismissed in a group call. Musk’s team has also reportedly arrived at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), fueling fears of deep cuts.
DOGE, has already gained access to sensitive personnel and financial data in at least 16 agencies. Some agencies, like USAID, have been gutted completely. In all, DOGE is targeting over 200,000 federal employees for dismissal.
Trump’s administration has launched a full-scale attack on veterans, their families, and federal workers who support them. A third of all federal employees are military veterans, and make no mistake, the latest round of layoffs at the Department of Veterans Affairs is just the beginning.
Ask a vet who needs help from a VA hospital if they think that there's overstaffing at the local clinic.
From CBS News:
The government agency with the most probationary employees is the VA, with about 56,000 workers bearing that designation, OPM data shows. The VA on Friday said it had fired more than 1,000 employees. The agency didn't respond to a request for comment about whether more firings could be coming.
A termination letter provided to CBS News by a former employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs informed the worker that his job was ending because "you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the agency would be in the public interest."
Man, not having "demonstrated that your further employment is in the public interest" is the determining factor, I can think of a couple of highly placed government employees that need to go.
Before we leave DOGE entirely... a little secret. He's not appreciably cutting spending. From the Economist:
Since Donald Trump took office a little more than three weeks ago, outlays have averaged $30bn a day. Compare that with the same period last year under Joe Biden: federal spending back then came to about $26bn a day. Outflows from the Treasury have actually risen since January 28th, when Mr Musk first claimed his “Department of Government Efficiency”, or DOGE, was saving the federal government $1bn a day. Looking at the bigger picture, the government’s spending trajectory in the current fiscal year, which began in October, basically resembles that of the past two years... Mr Musk has promised over $2trn in annual savings for the federal government. He will struggle to get close to that.
No mention of eliminating the trillion-dollar tax break thrown to billionaires under the last Trump administration. They got theirs! And Musk got his!
Take another break:
Mo Najjar, a comedian who calls Houston his home base, returns with a wonderful season 2. Taking a bit here and there from his own story, he's a Palestinian who is without a country or passport and tries to navigate the labyrinth that is the US Immigration bureaucracy. It's hard to tell if it's absurdist humor, or just factual biography in this day and age.
What's equally fun is the fact that Mo lives among the suburbs and exurbs of Houston, which could stand in for any major metropolitan area. I suppose we often consider selling fake brand shoes and knock-off purses out of a car trunk in front of hookah bars, tattoo parlors, and cell phone shops as "fringe," but this is life for so many in our country. This is all on the surface while navigating race, religion, and ethnic relations is all-consuming to the core.
You gotta laugh to keep from crying... or screaming.
Wrapping Up the News... (even though it never seems to stop...)
"He who saves his country does not violate any law," Trump posted on his Truth Social app, referring to the (possibly apocryphal) quote attributed to the French military leader who created the Napoleonic Code of Civil Law in 1804 before declaring himself emperor.
Napoleon often justified his authoritarian rule in France, saying that it was "the will of the people."
But we've already been through this:
“When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal,” Richard Nixon claimed.
Nixon's statement came in a long interview that was recorded two years after he had resigned his office in disgrace - notably because he ruled like he was not bound by the constraints of law.
We are 180 degrees from that now. We're living in an era where the SCOTUS has ruled that indeed, the president may act without much legal constraint.
From Wikipedia:
The Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that the president had absolute criminal immunity for official acts under core constitutional powers, presumptive immunity for other official acts, and no immunity for unofficial acts. Which makes Nixon's statement a half-truth in a modern legal context, but damaging in a historical context for the time period as such a legal standard for presidential immunity had not been legally set yet, and such a statement would have been viewed as immoral by most citizens for the time period.
And Trump is moving toward that end. From the NY Times:
Trump and some of his allies have pushed the political argument that the nation has been under siege from what they characterize as leftist policies and values, and has fallen into a spiral of decline that must be reversed by any means necessary.
Among them, Mr. Trump’s budget chief, Russell Vought, wrote an essay in 2022, declaring that the United States was already in a “post-Constitutional moment” and that to push back against liberals, it was necessary to be “radical in discarding or rethinking the legal paradigms that have confined our ability to return to the original Constitution.”
Vought, you recall, was one of the architects of Project 2025, the massive policy directive that Trump claimed to know nothing about. Vought is the new head of the office of management and budget (OMB), one of the most powerful posts in the administration.
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Vought said in a video revealed by ProPublica and the research group Documented in October. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down … We want to put them in trauma.”
Got it. If you don't stand with Emporer Trump 100%, you're the enemy. If you work for the government, you're the villain. Yeah. Got it.
Final Break:
Remember a few weeks ago, I threw in a couple of links to a young musician's almost Bob Dylanesque songs? All folksy and clever and all with an incredible social conscience? Apparently, the New York Times got ahold of my recommendation and ran with it. (Gift link, below.) The kid has a new album and is having a very successful tour.
Hey, It's President's Day tomorrow!
If you know someone working in the federal government, give them a call. They may need a kind word from a friend. If you're a vet needing a doctor's appointment, or you're looking for information regarding the spread of measles or the new bird flu... good luck. Let's hope the media can step up amidst their own cutbacks and takeovers. Headed for a National Park this spring/summer? Maybe not. It isn't clear whether they'll be overrun without gatekeepers standing in the way, or possibly even closed.
This all leaves me wondering, "When do I get mine?"