If it's Thursday, this must be Nay Pyi Taw.
Only 1,381 days to go...
“Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.” ~George Orwell
Trump Backs Down on Reciprocal Tariffs for 90 Days
… I wonder how long it will last this time?
Living through these times…
Social media before bedtime wreaks havoc on our sleep
Beyond simply measuring time spent on social media, researchers have started looking at how emotionally connected people feel to their social media use. Some studies suggest that the way people emotionally engage with social media may have a greater impact on sleep quality than the total time they spend online.
Finding Strength in Seasons of Change
The critical question becomes: How deep are your roots?
If your roots go no deeper than your own ego or personal desires, you won't be able to bear the full weight of life or the weight of today’s politics. When strong winds blow - whether political upheaval, economic uncertainty, or personal crisis - shallow roots leave us vulnerable.
However, if your roots go deep into something bigger and stronger than yourself - whether that's community, purpose, spiritual practice, or enduring values - you can weather the worst storms. Like the tree that stands strong through seasons of loss, you can remain grounded even as everything around you changes.
How different colors may make you more productive.
Finding the humor…
This Trump Appointee is Driving the White House Nuts
Elon Musk calls Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, a 'moron' and 'dumber than a sack of bricks'… Backstabbing was rampant in President Trump's first White House. In Trump 2.0, it's front-stabbing.
Thought for the day in honor of his birthday…
“We are a democracy, and there is only one way to get a democracy on its feet in the matter of its individual, its social, its municipal, its State, its national conduct, and that is by keeping the public informed about what is going on.”
~Joseph Pulitzer
Must Read Article:
The Fascism Expert at Yale Who’s Fleeing America
A lot of people are having conversations right now about how you know when it’s time to try to leave. When exactly did you make the decision, and what was the tipping point for you?
Jason Stanley: I don’t know the general answer to that question, but things are very bad in this country. It’s an authoritarian regime. People are not responding well. It’s moving faster than it moved in Russia.
I knew where every American embassy was in every city I visited. I would feel a quiet steadiness walking by the Great Seal, the flag waving above. That seal didn’t just represent power. It represented a promise.
And for a long time, I believed in that promise.
What I’m experiencing now—what thousands of others are feeling—is the ache that comes when that promise begins to feel broken. It’s not theoretical. It’s visceral. Like watching a parent decline. They’re still them, but not really. And even if they’ve started to hurt you, you still feel guilty for stepping away. For choosing safety over sentiment.
And yet people are choosing. Not loudly. Not rashly. But methodically. They’re applying for dual citizenship. Scouting schools abroad. Exploring exit routes—not in panic, but with a heavy heart.
Quote of the day:
“Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists—be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere—it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints. The Constitution requires no less.”
~ U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden
What I’m reading today…
‘Just a Mess’: Staff Cuts, Rushed Changes and Anxiety at Social Security
With the stock market in turmoil and the economy under threat, beneficiaries might see their monthly Social Security checks as predictable amid the chaos rippling out of Washington.
AP wins reinstatement to White House events after judge rules government can’t bar its journalists
A federal judge ordered the White House on Tuesday to restore The Associated Press’ full access to cover presidential events, affirming on First Amendment grounds that the government cannot punish the news organization for the content of its speech.
U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled that the government can’t retaliate against the AP’s decision not to follow the president’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico. The decision, while a preliminary injunction, handed the AP a major victory at a time the White House has been challenging the press on several levels.
Our Treasury Secretary Is an Economic Illiterate
I have not elected myself tribune of the plebs, but I think it is safe to say that lower-income Americans could stand to hear a good deal less from billionaire and near-billionaire hedge-fund dorks about how consumer prices aren’t high enough, that those “cheap goods”—products with low prices relative to Americans’ wages—are part of the problem. It takes a special kind of Ivy League-educated asshat—and there are a lot of them wandering around these fruited plains—to believe that Americans are being somehow victimized by the fact that the stores are full of things they want at prices they can afford.
James Carville Fears Trump Will Declare Martial Law and Rig the Elections
During a Q&A segment on his Politics War Room podcast, Carville said people were right to be worried about Trump’s authoritarian tendencies. Listeners asked if there was a risk that Trump could halt the U.S. democratic process. “Is Trump looking to spark enough protest to justify declaring martial law in 2026 thus suspending the election?” asked one.
“You’re so correct to be concerned about this,” Carville said. “They deserve a serious answer. And a serious answer is not necessarily an encouraging answer.”
He said the threat of Trump disregarding election laws was very real. “It’s getting worse by the day. It is not going to stop getting worse. And I would be—we ought to be—on high, high alert,” he said.
Last month, the president claimed he wasn’t joking about an unconstitutional third term in office.
Authoritarianism Without Ideology
The idea of upholding certain rules and norms in the international system is foreign to Trump. After he and Vice President J.D. Vance berated Volodymyr Zelenskyy during an Oval Office meeting in February, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declared that the Trump administration’s foreign policy “largely aligns with our vision.” When Lavrov declared that the war was about building a new world order, he couldn’t have known that the United States would soon be such a willing participant in this process.
Trump Administration Fires Female Vice Admiral Amid Widening Purge of Military Officers
Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield has been fired in what appears to be a growing purge of top-ranking military officials by the Trump administration, multiple officials confirmed to Military.com.
Chatfield, who began her career as a helicopter pilot and was the first woman to be president of the Naval War College, had been serving as a senior official at NATO and was one of just a handful of women who occupied the highest ranks of the Navy.
More US Postal Service changes will affect millions, including NC residents: What we know
Though the changes coming to the United States Postal Service in April are intended to improve efficiency and cut costs, many of the millions of customers served by the agency could also see a decline in services associated with the adjustments.
US expected a big travel year, but overseas visitors — angered by Trump — are heading elsewhere
The U.S. tourism industry expected 2025 to be another good year in terms of foreign travelers. The number of international visitors to the United States jumped in 2024, and some forecasts predicted arrivals from abroad this year would reach pre-COVID levels.
But three months into the year, international arrivals are plummeting. Angered by Trumps’ tariffs and rhetoric, and alarmed by reports of tourists being arrested at the border, some citizens of other countries are staying away from the U.S. and choosing to travel elsewhere.
The Destruction of the American Ideal
Even by the ugly standards of this administration, the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia stands out.
A Salvadoran migrant and metal worker in Maryland with no criminal record other than traffic violations and illegal entry into the country, he was arrested by immigration authorities in March and deported to one of the notorious prisons of his homeland, in contravention of a U.S. immigration judge’s order. The government acknowledged the “administrative error” — an Orwellian euphemism for a Kafkaesque nightmare — but petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal judge’s order requiring his return on Monday. The same day, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the lower court’s order so it can have time to consider the case.
Abrego Garcia was an unimportant person when he was deported — except, of course, to his wife and son and two stepchildren. He is the subject of an accusation that he belonged to the MS-13 gang — but there is only flimsy evidence and no proof. The entire edifice of American justice is built on the conviction that there is no guilt without proof beyond reasonable doubt — and that there is no unimportant person, at least not in the eyes of the law.
I’ve been thinking about this case as an emblem of everything that makes Donald Trump’s presidency so vile and destructive.
How to steal a state supreme court seat with one weird trick
Those 65,000 voters now have only 15 days to confirm their voting eligibility. If they don’t, their votes no longer count. But this isn’t just a victory for Griffin. It’s also a victory for conservatives who, mimicking Donald Trump’s spurious challenges to Joe Biden’s 2020 win, no longer acknowledge or respect election outcomes if they lose. Stealing the election…
Here Are the Places Where the Recession Has Already Begun
Businesses near the Canadian border are particularly vulnerable to the rising costs and falling revenue caused by tariffs, and are delaying projects, holding off on hiring, raising prices, letting workers go, or wondering how they are going to keep feeding their cows as a result.
Trump Administration Freezes $1 Billion for Cornell and $790 Million for Northwestern, Officials Say
The moves are the latest and largest in a rapidly escalating campaign against elite American universities that has resulted in billions in federal funds being suspended or put under review in just over a month. Other schools that have had funds threatened include Brown, Columbia, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton.
Appeals Court Restores DOGE Access to Sensitive Information at US Agencies
An appeals court on Monday cleared the way for billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to once again access people’s private data at three federal agencies, a win for the Trump administration as the underlying lawsuit plays out.
In a split ruling, the three-judge panel blocked a lower court decision that halted DOGE access at the Education Department, the Treasury Department and the Office of Personnel Management. U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction last month in federal court in Baltimore, saying the government failed to adequately explain why DOGE needed the information to perform its job duties.
How to Undo Trump’s Growing Dictatorship and the Damage it Is Inflicting
The United States now faces the grave and imminent danger of its democracy decaying into a “competitive authoritarianism” in which multiparty elections still hold but are no longer free and fair. Under such a system, here’s what we can expect to follow:
The opposition wins seats in Congress and some city and state governments—but at the national level, a domineering leader and ruling party assert monolithic control over government, in a grip that cannot be broken by any normal means.
Regulatory agencies are stripped of their independence.
The legislative branch becomes a rubber stamp.
The courts are pressured, defied, and eventually brought to heel.
The civil service and the military are purged of non-loyalists and converted into instruments of the “elected” leader and his party.
The media are pressured and sued into passivity and subservience.
Business is lured into backing the authoritarian project with the promise of huge financial windfalls (and crippling punishment for defection).
Universities are threatened with financial ruin if they resist or protest.
Think tanks and philanthropies are threatened with loss of their tax-exempt status and even prosecution if they speak up.
Prominent critics and opposition voices, including former officeholders, fall silent for fear of retribution.
Democracy dies, to use T.S. Eliot’s famous phrase from The Hollow Men, “not with a bang but with a whimper.”
2025 hurricane season may see "above-normal" storm activity, forecasters say
Tampa Bay is still recovering from hurricanes Helene and Milton, which flooded streets, damaged homes and claimed lives. This year's hurricane forecast isn't exactly promising.
Researchers forecast a busier season than the 1991–2020 average of 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes — those with sustained winds of 111 mph or higher.
The forecast is intended to provide a "best estimate of activity in the Atlantic during the upcoming season, not an exact measure," according to a CSU news release.
It’s not a joke, and we need to take it seriously. This is the same man who repeatedly refused to commit to accepting the results of an election if he lost. People were nonetheless shocked when he made good on that refusal in 2020. They should not have been, and we must not be now. It’s time to prepare, which means gearing up in both the courts of law, where this issue will surely go to the Supreme Court for a decision if Trump pursues it, and the court of public opinion, where even those who have supported Trump can be convinced it’s not a good idea to have anyone, let alone someone in their eighties, serve a third term, especially when the law doesn’t permit it.
The Authoritarian Bargain That Trump Didn't Make
With the "Liberation Day" announcement, Trump fell into the dictator trap, which both Putin and Xi Jinping of China have fallen into with moves like the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and "zero-COVID" policy. While Putin and Xi fell into this trap after years in power, it took Trump less than three months into his second term. The phenomenon happens when leaders reward loyalty rather than expertise; subordinates carry out bad ideas rather than pushing back against them. The remaining are unflinchingly loyal: as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters, "You have to trust the president's instincts on the economy, okay?” In other words, Trump's long-held obsession with tariffs is beyond question, even though the vast majority of economists think that tariffs are self-defeating -- and that the way he is carrying them out is catastrophic.
Even in conservative Alabama, there are quiet concerns and caveats amid Republican cheers for Trump
That doesn’t mean Trump or Republicans are in danger of losing their grip in Alabama, where the GOP holds all statewide offices, dominates the Legislature and has won every presidential electoral vote since 1980. But it’s a notable wrinkle in a place where there’s long been tension between relying on the federal government for funding and jobs, and an embrace of the kind of anti-Washington, anti-establishment populism that has twice propelled Trump to the Oval Office. And any cracks for Trump in Alabama — where he got 65% of the vote in 2024 — could portend trouble elsewhere, as the effects of a seismic shift in U.S. policy reach across the economy and society.
“There are some concerns, some conversations,” said John Merrill, a former secretary of state, over just what Trump’s agenda will mean on the ground. Alabama, he acknowledged, has “been a net recipient” of the very federal government and economic model Trump is upending, meaning it receives more money back from Washington than its taxpayers send the federal government.
Fluoridation is the controlled careful addition of a precise amount of fluoride to community water systems to enhance dental health, ensuring it remains safe without causing systemic health side effects. The practice has been hailed as one of the “10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.”
But with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal opponent of fluoridation of water supplies, being tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, this progress is under threat.
The Trump Administration’s First 100 Days
Gun Control Roll Back: The Trump administration is expected to roll back a range of Biden-era gun control measures, according to two people briefed on the move.
U.S.-Iran Talks: Expected talks between Iran and the United States would be a late, and perhaps last, opportunity to control Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and avoid war.
Drilling and Mining on Public Land: The Trump administration has opened thousands of acres of land in Nevada and New Mexico to oil and gas drilling, geothermal development and hard-rock mining, reversing protections that former President Biden enacted.
Harriet Tubman: A National Park Service web page about the Underground Railroad appeared to have been restored to prominently show the abolitionist leader, after it had been changed to remove a large photo and quotations from her.
Tech C.E.O.s and Trump: With inauguration donations and Mar-a-Lago visits, leaders of the biggest tech companies sought favor with the president in an attempt to steer regulation and tariffs, to little avail.
Female Military Leader Fired: The Trump administration fired Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, U.S. officials said. She had been included on a list of “woke ideologues” that a conservative watchdog group said should be purged.
I.R.S. Audits: The Internal Revenue Service’s audit rate has been lower this decade than in most taxpayers’ lifetimes, a New York Times analysis shows, and if the Trump administration follows through with plans to cut the agency’s work force, audits will almost certainly become even rarer.
Infants With H.I.V. Overseas: The consequences of mother-to-child transmission can be enormous, a new study suggests. But the U.S. has dismissed experts working to solve the problem.
(source: New York Times)
What I am listening to…
What I read every day…
