White Men Implicated in DC Mid Air Crash

And Other Trumpian Tales of Woe

There is no better salesman for the anti-MAGA movement than Donald J Trump. BUT…Trust me on this, no hard core supporter of the current President will abandon their faith based on what someone else says. This week provided valuable insight on things being done in his name that will be somebody else’s fault when/if actions break bad.

His actions by themselves won’t topple the regime. A combination of bribes, threats, and fear will keep the lower tiers of his administration grinding on, implementing the Project 2025 playbook and servicing the needs of the moguls who’ve pledged fealty.

Trump 2.0 demands a response, one that starts with the understanding of the class nature of this beast, a commitment to making noise, solidarity with the victims, and ends with a promise to make things better… Not “Again…” Better. And, given that much of the nation’s public square is being blocked off by goons, actions capable of rising above the daily chatter are necessary.

The national Democratic Party is gathering this week, promising to elect a new leader. This could be a good thing, except that the process has been bogged down over the mechanics of election. What I fear is that the party leadership won’t buy into the broader struggle, instead focusing on a figurehead. Trump is everything bad that people say about him; but he’s been elected for four years and our system of checks and balances has been worn down to a nub.

Resistance starts with understanding the enemy and understanding the inherent danger involved in becoming what one opposes. The only way to be clear-minded about strategy and tactics is to always find ways to keep the bigger picture in mind.

That said, there are a lot of things happening that I feel obliged to catalogue, in the hope they will assist in developing insight about the nature of the beast we face. A “Hair on fire” response to each atrocity needs to be replaced with steely determination.

To live in fear isn’t to live at all.

***

Let’s start with a couple of truth bombs about this week’s presidential melt down triggered by a mid air collision over the Potomac river. Trump’s once-upon-time lawyer and mentor taught him that anything he perceived as an attack needed to be responded to by a counter-attack.

So the President on some level knows (based on what we know) that the air tragedy could have happened at any time regardless of who sat in the White House, but realizes that it’s his administration’s actions that will be scrutinized. Hence the kabuki theater with multiple enemies, a despised cultural element, and assorted heroic puppets being shuffled on and off the stage.

As is true with any situation involving perceived injury to Dear Leader, the misinformation minions of the right have been circulating stories claiming the pilot of the helicopter was transgender. Sorry, guys, the story of this disaster involves white guys in command.

***

Via Fast Company:

• A Silicon Valley airport that is on the approach to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) will no longer have air traffic controllers guiding planes starting Saturday, the airport’s manager said in a Wednesday notice.

• Current controllers for the San Carlos Airport (SQL) have resigned after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) changed air traffic contracts to a firm that would pay controllers “significantly” less than their current compensation, the notice states.

• Airport manager Gretchen Kelly said its request for temporary FAA staffing for the tower was denied. The San Carlos Airport has more than 25 aviation-related businesses and about 500 aircraft, according to city data.

The shortage of air controller personnel is so severe that a bi-partisan Congress mandated they be fully staffed up with legislation just last year. Cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face is a chronic condition among legislators, and the various reconciliation budgets haven’t been helpful for the nation’s air safety. And the current proposal being floated in Republican circles cuts next year’s transportation budget by $16 billion.

Trump criticized the FAA’s effort to recruit people with disabilities during Joe Biden’s administration, even though the FAA’s Aviation Safety Workforce Plan for the 2020-2029 period, issued under Trump’s first administration, promoted and supported “the hiring of people with disabilities and targeted disabilities.”

“DEI means people DIE,” said associate president Elon Musk after the LA fires. So people were killed and guess what? Brown people and/or women and/or the disabled and/or gender ideologies were to blame.

George Takei on Bluesky:

• We used to all hold our breath hoping a shooter wasn’t a Muslim or a trans person.

• Now we gotta worry if the air traffic controller was Black?!

• Do you see how far they have moved the window?

***

Following the budget freeze that wasn’t, some interesting and concerning news has bubbled through.

Ooops…At the Atlantic, Ashley Parker reported that the Office of Management and Budget sent out the memo that froze all federal grants and loans—and thus prompted a constitutional crisis—without getting approval from the White House.

Workers of the Government! You’re screwed. The Washington Post reported that the proposal emailed to 2.3 federal employees offering them an inducement to resign was also a surprise to the White House. The memo came from the Office of Personnel Management, now run by Elon Musk’s team, and the email had the same title as one Musk sent to Twitter employees when he took over the company.

In order to send that memo to that much of the federal workforce, Musk’s people created 20 email addresses tied to each agency’s personnel list. There’s a reason the federal government hasn’t done this before, namely that working through a chain of command (among other things) provides better operational security.

Well, guess what? Employees with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ocean Administration received obscene and spam emails on Thursday night. Can you say hacked, boys and girls? I thought you could…

If you think Musk & Co getting email addresses was a bad idea, wait until you hear about them taking over bill paying. From the New Republic:

• A top-ranking official in the U.S. Department of the Treasury is resigning after a fight with Elon Musk over a sensitive payment system.

• The Washington Post reports that David Lebryk, who has worked in the department for decades and is its longest-serving career official, will depart soon, after conflicting with Musk’s deputies over access to the government’s payment system used to distribute trillions of dollars every year. Until Scott Bessent’s confirmation as treasury secretary on Monday, Lebryk served as acting head of the department.

On Wednesday, USDA Inspector General, Phyllis Fong, was escorted out of the building after refusing to comply with the President's executive order firing IGS from 15+ agencies. In 2022, Fong’s office “launched an investigation of Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink, which remains ongoing.”

The Department of Transportation has released a memo ordering programs supported or assisted by the agency to prioritize funding projects for communities that have above-average marriage and birth rates. The great replacement theory in action. I’m sure the SNL Church Lady would have something to say about it…

At the Environmental Protection Agency, employees hired within the past year have been notified that “the agency reserves the right to terminate you immediately,” without justification. Reports suggest that demonstrating loyalty to the current administration’s agenda may improve the chances of retaining employment.

At the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it’s purge time. Via CNN:

• At least six senior FBI leaders have been ordered to retire, resign or be fired by Monday, according to sources briefed on the matter, extending a purge that began last week at the Justice Department across the street from the FBI headquarters.

• The senior officials are at the executive assistant director level or special agent in charge level and include those who oversee cyber, national security and criminal investigations, the sources told CNN. Some were notified while Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency, sat answering questions from senators for his confirmation hearing Thursday.

At USAID, the Director of Employee and Labor Relations has been put on administrative leave for refusing to carry out illegal firings ordered by DOGE and political appointees.

Elon Musk visited the General Services Administration building yesterday, as part of a plan to pare down federal real estate. An email to workers said the agency was terminating three leases, along with listing two of the agency’s properties for sale.

The Internal Revenue Service removed mentions of “equity” and “inclusion” from its Internal Revenue Manual, the procedural handbook for IRS employees, according to The Wall Street Journal. It looks like administrators used a search function to simply eliminate sections using the forbidden words. One deleted section mentioned the potential “inequity” of holding on to a taxpayer’s money and described the potential “inclusion” of a taxpayer identification number on a form.”

At the National Science Foundation, PhD researchers holding NSF-funded research fellowships are having their salaries withheld until such time as the leadership figures out how to eliminate any grant funding that doesn’t align with the president’s political ideology.

Newly ensconced FCC chair Brendan Carr has reinstated previously dismissed complaints filed by a Trump-affiliated group against CBS and NBC for their treatment of the presidential campaign. He left untouched the dismissal of the one focusing on a Fox station owned by conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

The FCC Chairman has withdrawn a proposed rule to rein in bulk billing agreements, which force apartment tenants to pay for a single internet service provider. Such contracts limit tenants’ choices for broadband and cable. industry figures celebrated Carr’s move to limit consumer choice, including the National Multifamily Housing Council and the National Apartment Association, the two largest lobbying groups representing corporate landlords, developers and investors.

And… Carr has ordered an investigation into the sponsorship practices of NPR and PBS member stations. The FCC does not directly regulate the two networks. Instead, it evaluates the actions of roughly 1,500 public broadcasting stations across the country, which hold licenses granted by the FCC for use of public airwaves.

Locally, the Voice of San Diego reports “an executive order by President Donald Trump has halted talks between regional and federal officials about the long-running border sewage crisis – and fueled uncertainty about what might come next.”

Enough already, you say? How about the 25% tariff on products from Mexico and Canada going into effect this weekend? Mexico supplied 63% of our vegetable imports and 47% of our fruit & nut imports in 2023. News reports say there’s confusion at the White House over which items will be affected, but rest assured that both nations are at the ready with their own tariffs.

I’ll be back next week with a report on just how bad the administration’s announced plan to open a concentration camp at Guantanamo could be… What’s actually ordered is a 90 day study on how to do it…

Finally, Trump's Executive Order "RESTORING THE DEATH PENALTY" asks the Supreme Court to overturn the ban on execution for non-homicide crime, specifically for migrants.

How the 2026 World Cup Will Embarrass the United States by Hayden Clarkin at The Transit Guy

• So what does a FIFA World Cup require of a host city? A lot actually, but let's focus on transportation specifically.

• Transportation: FIFA requires each stadium to have a nearby airport with a minimum capacity of 1,450 passengers per hour. Let's examine if current transit service from each principal airport to their respective downtown meets these requirements. [chart showing four out of ten sites qualify]

• It is estimated that over 6 million people will visit sixteen U.S. cities over the course of a month, making the need for strong transit infrastructure more than justified.

***

Oppose, Oppose, Oppose — and Do It Loudly by Paul Krugman

• But Democrats can’t just sit around waiting for Trump’s promises to fail. They need to constantly challenge him on the issue, keep reminding voters that he lied about it all through the campaign, and hang rising prices around his neck every step of the way.

• Nor, as I see it, should they narrowly focus on kitchen-table issues. One reason low-information voters may have believed Trump’s nonsense claims about being able to reduce prices is that some of them really thought he was the brilliant manager he played on TV. The reality, however, is that the Trump administration has made a complete shambles of its first 10 days, especially with their it’s on, no it isn’t, yes it is spending freeze that is both destructive and clearly illegal, and has itself been frozen by the courts. It would be political malpractice for Democrats not to make an issue of Trump’s raging incompetence.

• I also think and certainly hope that the ugliness of Trump’s character will quickly become a political liability. We all know and dislike people who are always looking for someone else to blame when bad things happen. I can’t imagine that Trump’s reaction to the DC plane crash — blaming it on DEI, that is, asserting without evidence that someone nonwhite, female, or both must have been responsible — will play well with most Americans. And Democrats shouldn’t hold off on pointing out how despicably he’s behaving because political consultants have told them to focus on the price of eggs.

• So Democrats and MAGA opponents shouldn’t hold their tongues and try to make nice with Trump in the belief that he represents the will of the people. Americans are just starting to find out that they guy they elected and his policies aren’t at all what they thought they were voting for. And we should do everything we can to accelerate their awful journey of discovery.

***

Dingus of the week: January by Lyz at Men Yell At Me

• Just this past week, we’ve had RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearing, with his voice that sounds like an old haunted door. Even if you didn’t listen to it, what was spoken at that hearing collectively made America drop 50 IQ points. Let me try to summarize: Vaccines made your wife leave you, made your truck break down and turned your Bud Light gay.

• He will, of course, be confirmed.

• Which brings us to another January horror: All the Democrats grabbing their pearls, covering their mouths in shock and horror, telling us, TRUMP CANNOT DO THIS, and then voting to confirm his cabinet anyway. Like what is happening? Is the Democratic party enacting a policy of appeasement? Did you stop reading history past 1930? Are we just rolling over and getting conquered? Who is running this show, Neville Chamberlain? If it’s not Chamberlain, did an opossum write this strategy?

• Guys, Donald Trump is not a brown bear; we simply do not have to curl up in the fetal position and protect our vital organs. Also, given that RFK is going to be on the cabinet, faking being roadkill is gonna backfire when he loads us up in his truck and lets us rot while he dines at a steakhouse.