I see TV commercials about health insurance that complain about “bills” and “not-a-bills”. I get plenty of both too.
- Not a surprise: Trump and Musk are really after tax cuts for the wealthy.
- Trump doesn’t grasp the point of foreign aid;
- Conservatives upset by the Super Bowl half-time show are apparently for diversity after all;
- How the Trump administration thinks America is full of the wrong kind of people;
- A Thomas B. Edsall round-up on this attack against modern American liberalism;
- Links about Musk and taxpayer-funded research, how Trump is emulating Hungary’s Orbán, and how maybe Trump’s zone-flooding can’t go on forever;
- Not a surprise: A Trump admin puts election security staffers, whose job is to ensure the security of US elections, on leave.
This is the least surprising thing yet.
Slate, Alexander Sammon, 1 Feb 2025: This Is Not About Cost Cutting, subtitled “What Trump and Musk really want out of their government rampage is hiding in plain sight.”
As terrifying and probably illegal as Elon Musk’s tech-bro holy war against the federal government has been, it’s only Phase 1. Really, the spectacle of the past few weeks sets Donald Trump and Musk up for what they almost certainly want much more: massive tax cuts for the wealthy.
This subtext has been made very clear.
…
[U]ltimately, all this “budget cutting” is theater, albeit highly destructive theater, that sets the stage for the real, looming fight: extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. Passed during his first term, these tax cuts were a multitrillion-dollar giveaway to the billionaire class and large corporations. They are set to expire this year. And Trump and the rest of the Republican Party want to keep those tax cuts, at minimum.It was passage of the initial Trump tax cuts that created a tax environment where America’s billionaire class—its 400 richest people—now have a lower effective tax rate than the bottom 50 percent of American income earners. The year that bill passed, Musk was worth around $15 billion; now he’s worth $415 billion.
… When the Congressional Budget Office invariably scores the new Trump tax plan as massively expansionary of the deficit, just as it was in 2017, Trump, Musk, and the rest of the billionaire crew will point to the unorthodox “offsets” they’ve already secured via DOGE cuts, along with other cuts to the social safety net they have in store. It’s a cover story for deficit hawks and fiscal conservatives—even if it is fantasy.
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Because Trump only understands money.
AlterNet, Michael Signorile, 11 Feb 2025: Opinion | Trumper can’t quite grasp how the US gives foreign aid to keep the world safe
Sometimes it’s like banging your head against a wall. David in Pittsburgh called my SiriusXM program last week to defend Donald Trump gutting the United States Agency for International Development.
MAGA morons and Fox fantasists have convinced themselves that there’s a massive amount of waste—using few dubious claims and some known outright lies—about agency that was less than 1% of the budget.
…
The facts are clear. The programs have done an enormous amount of humanitarian good. But the tiny investment for the U.S. also helps the keep governments stable, and stops them from collapsing and turning to our adversaries.As I said to David, “if you want to be the big guy on the block,” you have to look out for your neighbors.
He couldn’t quite grasp how this worked, and said that there was waste—which, even if it is true, you could cut, without killing the entire agency.
Listen in to get a sense of how the MAGA mind works—or doesn’t. And let me know your thoughts!
With a video of a phone interview with “David”, apparently; I haven’t listened to it. (Where has Michaelangelo Signorile been all these years?)
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I saw, but did not capture links to, conservative outrage that there *were no white people* in the Super Bowl Half-time show. With snarky replies on Facebook. Oh, so you *are* for diversity? No, of course not; they think white people should be at the center of everything.
Thus:
NY Times, opinion by Carlos Lozada, 11 Feb 2025: Apparently, America Is Full of the Wrong Kind of People
In its early days, the second Trump administration is delivering a clear message: The United States is full of the wrong kind of people.
Federal civil servants, for example, have been deemed the wrong kind of people. Their political and ideological allegiances are questionable, their ideas destructive and their low-productivity jobs not worth their salaries. Too many are lawbreakers or just “evil.” Whether they toil at U.S.A.I.D. or the Treasury, the C.I.A. or the F.D.A., in Washington or throughout the country, they should look upon that fork in the road and opt to resign. In some cases, they should be purged.
And children born in the US to undocumented parents; and refugees and asylum seekers; and transgender people; and so on. Recalling Sarah Palin’s appeal to the “real America” of small towns (and not big cities).
If, according to the Trump administration, so many people in the United States are the wrong kind of people, who makes up the right kind? Who belongs here — in our military, our government, our territory?
The administration invokes meritocracy as one way to answer those questions.
Which, as many have noted, is laughable considering his cabinet appointments.
The answer is evident. Their merit is not found in professional experience or outstanding qualifications, but in their fealty to the president.
Lozada goes on but never calls out Trump and his fans for what they plainly are: racists, and white supremacists.
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This round-up of items by Thomas B. Edsall is similar: their target is anyone who is not white and Christian.
NY Times, Thomas B. Edsall, 11 Feb 2025: Their Target Is ‘the Very Core of Modern American Liberalism’
The enemy, in this paradigm, is Democrats, liberals and everyone left of center, expanding beyond ideology to encompass huge swaths of the federal government and of the immigrant population, legal and illegal.
This would be at least half the country.
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A few more links without comment.
Salon, Amanda Marcotte, 11 Feb 2025: Elon Musk built his wealth from taxpayer-funded research — now he’s trying to destroy future science, subtitled “The billionaire should be writing a thank you note to Al Gore, not wrecking burgeoning developments”
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The Guardian, David Smith, 7 Feb 2025: ‘In a real sense, US democracy has died’: how Trump is emulating Hungary’s Orbán, subtitled “Trump has moved to gut the federal government, fire critics and reward allies – a path similar to ‘would-be dictators’ like Orbán, experts say”
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LA Times, Jonah Goldberg, 11 Feb 2025: Column: Love it or hate it, Trump’s zone-flooding can’t go on forever
One can hope.
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JMG, 11 Feb 2025: Trump Admin Axes Election Cybersecurity Workers from ABC, 10 Feb 2025: US cyber agency puts election security staffers who worked with the states on leave, subtitled “Staffers at the nation’s cybersecurity agency whose job is to ensure the security of U.S. elections have been placed on administrative leave, jeopardizing critical support provided to state and local election offices across the country”
Nor is this a surprise.
