When will America wake up?
The Pew Research Center reports that Trump’s approval ratings (47%) haven’t budged much since he won the election by just 1.5 points (hardly the landslide he claims…). The 51% of us who disapprove watch aghast as he takes a sledgehammer to constitutional law, critical government agencies, and long-held international alliances—each blow cuts deep into the beating heart of our democracy.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
In other words, most of us are shit out of luck. If you’re among the 50.5% of Americans who are female, the 13.7% of us who are Black, the 1.3% who are Native, 6.4% of us who are Asian, 19.5 % of us who are Latino, the 3.1% of us who are mixed race, the 9.1% of us who are disabled, the 7.6% of us who are LGBTQ (which includes the 1/2% transgender)—that’s us who are SOL.
I call Trump’s new policy “Affirmative Action for the Mediocre White Manly Man,” aka WAAMMM™! WATCH! Jon Stewart, and the Daily Show crew knocked it out of the park with this skit. One of their best.
If you only get your news from Fox, X and/or other random internet sources, I know with absolute certainty that you are being dangerously misled.* The pain that is coming all of our way will affect you at least as much as it will affect those “elite woke libs” (like me).
Muskification comes home.
My next door neighbor is three years from retiring as an attorney, working (remotely) for the Social Security Administration. He says he and his colleagues are losing sleep, having trouble eating, wondering how soon the ax will fall on them. And if it does, how they’ll pay the mortgage, feed the kids.
“Some sort of tracking software just showed up on my computer Thursday, with no explanation from my boss,” he told me. “She’s as baffled as the rest of the team. It’s total chaos in the office. I’m sure you heard that Musk’s team of coders got into the Treasury Department’s payment system… so who knows who might now have ALL your personal info, including your bank accounts!”
I’m not arguing there isn’t fat in the the Federal government. There’s fat in my closet, there’s fat in my writing, there’s fat in how I spend my day. But I don’t take a machete to my closet in order to create a capsule wardrobe. Likewise, it’s insane to take a machete to entire agencies, websites, research grants, etc etc etc without giving a shit about the far-reaching tsunami of destruction that will follow.
Enjoy what you got while you still got it.
Remind yourself of how bad Trump really is: read Everything Trump Touches Dies [aka ETTD] by former GOP strategist Rick Wilson. Evidently he’s updated it.
Some folks are pissed at coverage by the Washington Post and/or the NY Times, but they’ve been doing a pretty good job of keeping track of what is actually happening on the ground in Washington, the current and future consequences of these moves, and what’s being done to restrain the lawlessness.
Other alternatives to help you keep abreast:
Amy Siskind’s The Weekly List, which she’s been keeping track of Trump since 2016.
One or more of the Four Jessicas I linked to last week, depending on your specific interests.
The Bulwark. It’s become a quite a collection of thoughtful columnists, many of whom were former Republican journalists. Very level-headed. Jonathan V. Last is always worthing reading or watching the podcast.
*Misled! For example, if you look for news about immigration arrests and deportations, a startling investigation by The Guardian, many of the stories and videos of raids have had the date stamps altered by the White House. Some of them were more than ten years old, but show up like they happened since 1/20/2025.
Put yourself in the way of beauty
Parking structure at night. NW 13th Street, Portland
We’re gonna make it, folks. We, the non-WAAMM!™ are in the majority, and we’re starting to arise from our stupefaction to make NOISE. What will be your part? I’d love to hear from you.
Sending love and courage your way. Mwah!
Joy
One for certain that hasn't changed about the Felon or his buddies. Their best skill is LYING.....and they are proof that you can fool 47% of the people ALL the time!
Good column - I loved the Jon Stewart excerpt! Hope you're right that we're going to make it.