We were promised there would be “shock and awe” and “rolling thunder” in the first few days of felon Donald Trump’s second Presidency. Instead, as one of our guests on The BradCast quips today, what we’ve got, so far anyway, is more like “drooling thunder.” [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
Before we get to our guests today, some quick news…
- Just as firefighters have largely gained control of the two largest, still smouldering fires out here in Los Angeles, and residents who still have houses standing are finally returning from long evacuations, a new, very fast moving blaze, dubbed the Hughes Fire, erupted in northern L.A. County, near Castaic, on Wednesday afternoon amid continuing, exceedingly dry and windy conditions.
- Meanwhile, back in D.C., the Trump Administration is continuing to pretend there is a “national emergency” at the southern border (there isn’t) — despite Donald Trump‘s false declaration on Monday — by sending thousands of more U.S. military troops there. They will join others who are doing largely logistical work, such as data entry and vehicle maintenance. But the new deployments may free up ICE agents for promised raids in U.S. cities in coming days.
- Moreover, after Trump spent the last four years falsely claiming the Dept. of Justice was “weaponized” by the Biden Administration, the new Trump Administration is weaponizing the DoJ to investigate and prosecute local and state officials who are not sufficiently cooperative with upcoming federal round-ups of undocumented migrants.
- Finally, Trump is rolling back Lyndon B. Johnson‘s landmark 1965 post-Civil Rights Act Executive Order barring discrimination in federal contracting and other federal programs. In Orwellian language, Trump’s new Executive Order claims that programs meant to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion by barring discrimination amount to “discrimination”. He has ordered federal anti-discrimination staffers put on immediate leave and all anti-discrimination programs immediately shut down.
Those moves were all largely expected, even if variously obnoxious, offensive and performative. In fact, while we had been told for months that Trump, having learned from experience and having shed all of those loser non-MAGA appointees from his first term, was ready to unleash holy MAGA hell on Day 1. So far, however, most of his poorly-written Executive Orders have either failed to include much “shock” or “awe”, much less actionable items. The only real surprise is that he decided to issue pardons and/or clemency to more than 1,500 of his fellow January 6 felons and insurrectionists, including hundreds who violently assaulted law enforcement officials that day.
My guests today, two longtime progressive bloggers, are decidedly unimpressed with what they’ve seen so far. We’re joined today for the first time in the new year by our old friends HEATHER DIGBY PARTON of Salon and Digby’s Hullabaloo blog, and DRIFTGLASS, author of his eponymously-named blog and co-host of the weekly Professional Left Podcast.
The Inauguration was “ridiculous,” Digby tells me. “The fact that they had these oligarchs sitting behind him — it’s a joke. It’s going to be remembered forever. It was the Oligarch Inauguration. That was a stupid mistake.” She sees Trump’s Executive Orders as “full of holes” and “absolutely unprofessional. All these months that they were supposedly putting this stuff together, it turns out that it’s the same old sloppy garbage that they had done in the first term.”
Driftglass argues that “nothing that happened during the entire Inauguration was anything but performing for his base,” while cautioning: “When things actually hit the ground and hurt people, we should take it seriously. But this was all chaff, smoke and mirrors to make his base happy.”
He warns, however, that “the amount of corruption” in this Administration “is going to be epic. The amount of looting, straight up looting, is going to be epic.” So epic, in fact, he predicts “that it’s going to affect the rest of the world. They’re going to be taking everything but the kitchen sink, and it’s going to have a direct effect on the economy.”
As usual, both have got much more to say and make sense of in this historic moment. They concur that Trump has really stepped in it with his pardons of violent insurrectionists and attempted January 6 cop-killers. Do they feel the same about Joe Biden‘s last minute pardons for U.S. House January 6 Committee members and preemptive pardons for members of his family? Tune in to find out about that and much more, including our conversation about Episcopal Bishop, Mariann Edgar Budde, who, during this week’s Inaugural Prayer Service attended by both Trump and J.D. Vance, dared to quote both Trump’s own words and Christian scripture to plea with the new President to show mercy to marginalized people like migrants and those in the LGBTQ community.
“That was an act of pure Christian action and bravery in the face of tyranny,” Driftglass says. “She really is a resistance hero,” asserts Parton. “And I hate to say it, but the minute I heard that speech, the first thought that came to my head, as horrible as it it was: ‘I hope they have security for her.’ Because I am very worried for the safety of this woman. That is the country we are living in.”…
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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