Doom Report (Week 1: Shock and Aw, Fuck)

Well, there was definitely no week 0 for this shit.  Week 1 of the Trump regime (credit to Robert Reich for proposing that alternative to “administration”) was a shit-show, with Trump demonstrating Bannon’s “flood the zone with shit” strategy, but also the military strategy of “shock and awe.” It’s important to remember, as you’re feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, that that’s all by design.  If you’re too overwhelmed to focus on any one thing, then at least some of it will slip through the cracks, and that’s all they want.  Divide our focus, blast us with a firehose, then watch as we scramble around uselessly trying to recover.

So, there have been executive orders a-flyin’, for everything from cancelling DEI programs to a literal royal decree that trans people don’t exist.  Looks like project 2025 is right on track!  On the one hand, it makes me want to call my friend and remind him of his claims that Trump wasn’t running on Project 2025—not to mention the actual scoffing I mentioned last week at the suggestion that Trump wanted to erase trans people—but I don’t think I can.  It would be too exhausting.  And, if he didn’t express remorse over his arguments, then I don’t think we could be friends any more, and I don’t want that.  Because, even though this week’s Even More News posits that people are starting to regret their choices, and even talks about how we really need to talk to them about that with empathy and not just devolve into “I told you so!“s ... I’m not sure the time is right for that.  Oh, I think they’re absolutely right about what needs to happen eventually; I just don’t believe the people who voted for Trump are getting it yet.  Sure, it’s true that he’s mainly done a bunch of culture war bullshit, like pulling us out of the Paris Climate Accords (because climate change isn’t real) and pulling us out of the World Health Organization (because ... I dunno, pandemics aren’t real either, I guess?), and in all of that was absolutely nothing that could possibly make the price of eggs go down or end the war in Ukraine, which are two major campaign promises he made, and (at least for that first one) the primary reason most people gave for voting for him, but I think people, if asked, would just say, “well, let’s give him some time.” (Of course, on the Ukraine thing he said he could end the war in 24 hours, and it’s been closer to 150, but we’re not supposed to take him seriously when he says stuff like that ... remember?)  Typically, when humans make mistakes, it usually takes a while before they’re willing to admit to them.  And of course some never will.  But I don’t think very many Trump voters are regretting their choices ... yet.

So, while a lot of the executive orders are just silly—I think trying to rename Mount Denali back to “McKinley” or imagining that he can unilaterally change “Gulf of Mexico” on all the maps is basically a white supremacist temper tantrum—and some of them (like his feeble attempt to end birthright citizenship—already struck down by one conservative judge—and the mass firing of inspectors general on Friday night) will not survive legal challenges, but buried in there are some actual harms.  Including the two Project 2025 gems I led with: the DEI rollbacks, and the attempt at trans erasure.

The MAGA crowd often claims they want to replace DEI initiatives with a focus on choosing whoever’s the “most qualified.” Sadly, “most qualified” seems to be code for “whitest.” Look at how they blame the LA wildfires on black mayor Karen Bass and lesbian fire chief Kristin Crowley: it’s because they’re “DEI hires.” It’s never stated why this means they’re unqualified, but the unspoken undertone is that there were obviously some straight white guys who could have done a better job, but were passed over.  Poor straight white guys: always getting the shaft.  Still, we can try to find some heartening news in all this.  For instance, Costco’s shareholders voted by more than 98% to resist the pressure that the government (via Right Wing thinktanks) is putting on corporations to eliminate their DEI policies.  Which makes sense: the business world figured out a long time ago that diversity increases profitability, and they’re only going to engage with your idiotic culture wars if they think it will impact their bottom line.  Obviously companies like Meta/Facebook and Amazon do think that.  They have government contracts to protect and government regulations to avoid.  But I think most companies won’t be interested in any sort of pressure: they just want that profit line to keep going up.  As for the gender thing ...

Congratulations! we’re all women now.  Yes, in their haste to attempt to erase trans people from existence, the moron architects of Project 2025 have adopted the clumsiest language possible (I even heard one pundit claim it must be AI-generated), with the stunning end result that, according to an executive order that claims to “defend women from gender ideology extremism,” every human on earth is now, technically speaking, female.  Now, while it’s true that this embarrassing boner likely won’t mitigate the cruelty that will result from its “enforcement,” I disagree with people who have said it doesn’t matter.  Because what strikes me about this little bit of idiocracy is that, for years now, conservative pundits and influencers have opened shows featuring liberal guests with the “gotcha” question of “can you define what a woman is?” And now, when they finally have the chance to answer their own question, they’ve totally blown it.  Because defining something like that is not easy.  Here’s their attempt:

“Women” or “woman” and “girls” or “girl” shall mean adult and juvenile human females, respectively.

and then:

“Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.

So, first thing, notice how they’ve slyly introduced the very controversial concept of fetal personhood right into the language, no doubt in an attempt to normalize it.  But here’s where they fucked up.  First of all, at conception, zygotes can’t produce reproductive cells at all.  And, once they can, they’re all female.  For at least six weeks.  And of course the 1.7% of the population that’s intersex has just been left wondering what the fuck this all means for them.  Also worth noting: the second episode of Zeteo’s new show American Unhinghed observed that there are currently more anti-trans bills than there are professional trans athletes.  Truly this is a “solution” in search of a problem, but it’s also not much of a solution.

And now a word from our sponsors.

Want to deport your neighbor?  Not sure how to do it?  Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a law that said that any immigrant who commits a crime can be deported?  Well, there actually already are laws like that, but what if your annoying neighbor just refuses to commit any crimes?  No, problem: try the Laken Riley Act!  The Laken Riley Act gets rid of pesky details like due process, so you can just claim your neighbor committed a crime and, poof! no more neighbor.  They’ll be whisked away to private detention centers, at no cost to you (other than via your taxes, of course), where they’ll be held without charge or access to legal representation, until they can be deported to wherever we can think of!  (Terms and conditions apply.  Your neighbor might be an American citizen, in which case we cannot guarantee deportation, though we will still make the attempt.)

And we’re back.  If you want to know more about the Laken Riley Act, I would direct you to The Weekly Show, where Jon Stewart interviews AOC.  Key facts include that Riley’s parents did not want their murdered daughter’s name on this bill, but Republicans just ignored that, and that 46 Democrats in the House, and 12 in the Senate, voted for it (theoretically because they were afraid to look “weak” on border issues), thus allowing conservative media to crow that the bill was passed with “bipartisan support.” Again, it’s week 1.  I think the Democrats should probably pace themselves a bit more: they’ve still got 207 more weeks to spinelessly cave in to Trump’s fascist agenda.  Don’t blow your wad all at once, guys.

What else?  Oh, yeah, President Musk did a Heil Hitler salute.  Twice.  Weirdly, some people—including the Anti-Defamation League, which is an organization that’s supposed to be fighting against anti-Semitism—have defended this.  I’m not sure why ... it’s not particularly defensible.  He literally did it twice.  This “it was just an awkward gesture” thing is so bizarre: as the folks on Even More News pointed out, if he had actually done it by accident, he would have apologized for it.  Instead, he posted a bunch of Nazi puns, which ... I mean, why are Nazi puns even a thing?  I think maybe they aren’t a thing and Musk is just gaslighting us.  Even the ADL reversed course after that bit, alhtough I believe Netanyahu is still on board.  Which I suppose makes sense, actually: when you’re doing a genocide yourself, you probably figure the Nazi supporters are totally going to be on board.  Also, given the fact that Musk has boosted white supremacists on Twitter and even openly supported a neo-Nazi party in Germany, we may want to heed the words of Jon Stewart on The Weekly Show: “This all does fit together.  It’s not like it comes out of nowhere.” Also also, as someone this week noted (sorry, I can’t recall who it was right now), the conservative shitbags claiming we need to give Musk a break because he has Asperger’s are the same pitiful excuses for human beings that made fun of Tim Walz’s son Gus.  So, you know: fuck them.

And so many things we don’t even have time to get into.  The brave Episcopalian bishop who Trump and his allies called nasty and extreme because she had the audacity to express the radical ideas of that crazy liberal, Jesus Christ; the massive pardons for the insurrectionists, including some who violently assaulted police officers, about which Trump said, pithily, “Fuck it: release ’em all.”; the so-called QAnon Shaman adopting a bad British accent in a desperate attempt to turn the tables on a BBC interviewer when her questions got too uncomfortable; Trump literally saying that America was at its richest during the Gilded Age, so that’s what we’re shooting for again.  Or how about Carrie Underwood desperately attempting to sing “America the Beautiful” despite some amusing (though not, apparently, to her) technical difficulties?  Kimmel here makes fun of her (or at least of the situation), as many did; conservatives, on the other hand, focussed on her “the show must go on” efforts to sing a cappella when the music just refused to cooperate.  I had a different take altogether.  I think this episode was emblematic of how the Republicans assume that they just don’t need anyone, so they try to do everything themselves.  Sometimes that even works.  And, sometimes, they just embarrass themselves.  Well, they would, but I think they’ve all had their shame surgically removed, so it doesn’t seem to bother them too much.

But the Carrie Underwood appearance—as well as others such as Nelly, Snoop Dogg, and even the Village People, who not only performed but also announced they would sue anyone who referred to “YMCA” as a “gay anthem”—raises a more sinister spectre.  Remember in Trump’s first term when he had trouble finding performers for the inauguration?  And remember how many sports teams refused to accept invitations to come to his White House?  But now football players are doing the Trump jack-off dance in the end zone and Snoop Dogg is at the inauguration.  He’s been normalized now.  The times, they are a-changin’.

If you’re looking for only one political show to watch this week, I’d recommend the AOC interview over on The Weekly Show.  If you’re willing to go to two, try the first episode of America Unhinged (and, if you’ve got a third hour to invest, the second episode is pretty good too).  The only other video I’d recommend this week is perhaps Legal Eagle’s breakdown of Trump’s executive orders.  He does a pretty good job of outlining what will and likely won’t pass muster.

Finally, I’ll try to end on as hopeful a note as I can manage.  I noted that AOC, in the interview I mention above, when talking about insider trading by Congresspeople (of both parties) says that:

... it explodes the cynicism that fuels the Right.  It doesn’t benefit us.  It benefits Republicans because they make no bones about ... what class they are here to serve.

And I think she has a point.  Cynicism is almost inevitable with weeks like this one, but it’s only going to help the other side.  And let me be clear what the sides are: we’re talking about right-wing fascism vs progressive liberalism.  Screw Rebpulican vs Democrat.  Rapper Talib Kweli was on The Daily Show on Thursday, and he put it brilliantly:

I’m not a Democrat.  I’ve never been a Democrat.  I voted Democrat before; I’ve never voted Republican, but I’ve never identified as a Democrat.  This is not about Democrat vs Republican: this is about good vs bad; this is about the oligarchs vs the poor and working class people.

And AOC, I think, summed this up trenchantly when she talked about how in the world people could simultaneously vote for Trump and for her, two people who seem diametrically opposed on the political scale:

They see two people that are fundamentally anti-establishment, two people that do not respect a rule
if the rule does not lead to ... a positive outcome.

And, when I heard her say that, despite the fact that it’s a seeming compliment to Trump, I couldn’t help but remember that Monday, apart from being the spectacle of the launch of yet another disastrous Trump regime, was also Martin Luther King Day.  And I had gone back to reread some of Dr. King’s words that I quoted in a post several years ago, and one of those quotes was this one:

One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust.  I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws.  One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws.  Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.  I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”

We already knew that Trump was willing to break the laws he doesn’t care for.  But hearing that there are people like AOC who are willing to break ... if not the laws, but at a minium the rules ... that she can’t abide—that’s what gives me hope.  Let us all hope for more progressives—for more politicians of all ideologies—to make what Civil Rights icon John Lewis often referred to as “good trouble.” And pray that Trump can’t keep up this pace.  He is, after all, very old.