Rock, Paper, Scissors...
Only 1,446 days to go...
When I graduated from college, I became a GS7 Civil Servant working as a teacher on the Navajo Reservation in northern Arizona. It was a life-altering experience, but also one that shaped my less than positive view about the Civil Service system for many, many years. For a number of reasons, I didn’t like being a civil servant and left the job after two years. Perhaps I’ll write about it sometime.
With age and perspective, I have modulated my feelings and recognize the obvious importance of various government functions, that in my youth, I didn’t fully appreciate. So with utter incredulity, I am appalled at what this administration is doing to the Civil Service system. It is a crime both literally and figuratively.
“Power is like scissors, because if you're not careful with power, it can cut people to bits.” ~Michael Kelly
Not only is #FOTUS putting the health, safety and financial security of the American public at risk, people’s lives are being destroyed. Within the last couple of days, I have heard stories from various sources about acquaintances, friends and family, who are being fired without cause and with no healthcare benefits.
These are career people. They are not political. They are people who have been in these positions often many, many years or even decades. Many of these people have extraordinary institutional knowledge and experience. Some of their jobs are being staffed with ignorant and unqualified Trump loyalists or are being left vacant or being simply eliminated. We have already seen the affects of these chaotic, irresponsible actions during the last two weeks.
Elon Musk is Doing Trump’s Dirty Work by taking over the U.S. government. Coming to the realization that Musk’s gang of computer hackers may have access to my personal data - including my bank account information makes me feel — well, let’s just say, I’m not sleeping very well these days.
Not to mention, Trump is taking the most successful economy in the world and turning it upside down with his grand schemes to run the country like a Putinesque mob boss by setting off a destructive trade war with his ridiculous 19th century tariffs. (Uh oh, Canada: Trump declares trade war on America's "best friend"). We’ll see if these initial pauses against enacting the tariffs against Canada and Mexico can hold.
I sent off yet another ( probably futile) letter to Senator Tillis. I’m trying to do my civic duty by doing the one thing, that I have the power to do. Taking cues from a scoundrel, I think we all need to “flood the zone.” (FYI - here are the links: House of Representatives and Senate).
I took comfort from re-reading Adam Grant’s OpEd piece in the New York Times, If You’re Sure How the Next Four Years Will Play Out, I Promise: You’re Wrong.
And finally, I keep meditating on the Serenity Prayer.
Have you ever been in a car accident? I have. It’s weird — like slow motion takes over. You can that see your car is going to get hit and there’s nothing you can do about it, so you just hold on tight and hope for the best.
God grant me the serenity…
Thought for the day in honor of his birthday…
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless.
Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
What I read every day…
I’ve decided to eliminate a few sites from my posts, specifically, Letters from an American and The Bulwark. You can go directly to their Substack accounts to read what I read every day. I very much encourage you to subscribe to both. The links to their sites are below.
Quote of the day:
“This action is utter madness. It is a betrayal of America’s closest friend—your ally, your neighbor, your best partner in the whole world. It is an act of economic warfare.”
~Chrystia Freeland
What I’m reading today…
Daddy's Home & It Ain't Looking Good
Perhaps the biggest economic shock comes from the Trump administration's decision to suspend payments on nearly all federal grants and loans… Given that Republican-leaning red states receive a disproportionate share of federal aid compared to blue states, Trump’s base will bear the brunt of these cuts.
Tariffs: Aiming at Mexico, Hitting Ourselves
Economic policies often fail to produce the desired results. President Trump’s new tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports have a chance to accomplish something rarer. They are so badly misconceived that they may achieve the opposite of the president’s stated goals.
Trump says Americans could feel ‘some pain’ from his new tariffs
Trump’s Tariffs Roil Global Markets as American Consumers Brace for ‘Pain’
Musk's wrecking ball pierces government's inner sanctum
Behind the scenes: So far, the White House appears pleased with Musk's foray into the inner workings of the government, seeing his efforts as aligned with Trump's broader goals of disrupting D.C.'s status quo.
Civil servants shouldn't quit their jobs
Preemptively resigning as part of a vague sense that Trump is bad doesn’t ultimately help anyone. Many of Trump’s policies are truly awful, and I do understand that at a point, some might find staying to be untenable. But I also believe we should not accuse anyone of being “complicit” for staying in their positions and following lawful Trump directives. On the contrary, people who choose to put up with an abusive boss for the good of the country deserve to be praised.
When tanks roll into the streets and the military overthrows a democratically-elected leader, people know to call it a coup…Musk is a private citizen with no official government role. Trump signed an executive order on January 20 granting Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) "access" to unclassified government data. However, the establishment of DOGE, which is not a department but a presidential advisory board, is of questionable legality; the entity faces multiple lawsuits.
Candidly, none of our three branches of government are all that representative which is dangerous in a democracy. There are no term limits in the Supreme Court. There are really only 5 to 7 “swing states” that determine the President based upon our electoral college system. In the Senate, Wyoming has as much power (with less than 600,000 people) as California (with nearly 40 million people). And, in the House of Representatives, the districts are so gerrymandered that only 5% of House races are truly competitive and Congresspeople have to run to the extremes to fend-off challengers in their own party that are more right or left than them.
There are so many reasons he is a dangerous choice to run the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency that I have trouble picking his worst qualities. Do I highlight his commitment to conspiracy theories? He still won’t acknowledge that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, and he believes the F.B.I. helped trigger the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
For those who clung to the hope that Trump’s presidency might soften his extremism, or dismissed warnings as partisan hysteria, the past eight weeks have stripped away every illusion…. read on…
Trump’s Project 2025 agenda caps decades-long resistance to 20th century progressive reform
The lineage of conservative responses has been largely an assertion of business power. Whatever populist trappings the second Trump administration may possess, the bottom line of the conservative cultural and political agenda in 2025 is to dismantle what is left of the New Deal or the Great Society, and to defend unfettered “free enterprise” against critics and alternatives.
How to Break Public Schools: A Republican Playbook
In a state where public schools are chronically underfunded, Tennessee is about to spend nearly half a billion public dollars to launch a program that will benefit mainly students already enrolled in private schools.
What I am watching…
Reimagining the U.S. political system with Sharon McMahon
“You don’t need to have your name on the side of a weirdly shaped rocket ship in order to matter.”
Things I read everyday….
I read Letters from An American everyday, so I am no longer going to reference it in my Substack posts. Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletters are fabulous, so I encourage you to subscribe on your own.
I’m also a big fan of The Bulwark. I started subscribing to it shortly after I discovered it in 2019. The Bulwark was founded to provide analysis and reporting in defense of America’s liberal democracy. That’s it. That’s the mission. I find their podcasts and articles thoughtful and helpful in making sense of what is going on with the US.
