read it and weep

image via https://theweek.com/cartoons/636660/editorial-cartoon-office-down-flag-half-mast

Warning, this is a very depressing post but I think it’s essential that we know just what is happening.

The first five days of Trump's 2nd term and this is by no means a comprehensive list.

Immigration raids are reported in California, Newark, NY, Detroit, Kentucky. ICE is setting up roadblocks and entering businesses arresting and detaining immigrants and citizens alike without the lawful requited warrant signed by a judge. In order to avoid algorithmic censorship people on TicTok are shuffling through hand written signs to get the information out there while they talk about cooking or pets or any other inane thing.

ICE, which does not recognize Tribal IDs, is detaining Native Americans that don’t have a driver’s license.

Trump is sending cargo jets and active duty troops to the border to assist CBP. (Mexico yesterday refused permission to land to Air Force deportation flights).

Farms are reporting that 75 to 80 percent or more of their laborers are not showing up to harvest the fruits and vegetables in the fields. Food is going to become scarcer and prices are going to rise. Eggs have already become scarce in some places and prices have shot up.

State GOP officials are not just stopping DEI hires but ‘reviewing’ DEI hires and firing qualified people.  (DEI does not mean unqualified. It means that if there are two equally qualified people and one of them is a white male the white guy doesn’t automatically get the job just because he’s white and male.)

Republican rep Andy Ogles has introduced a resolution to amend the 22 amendment to allow Trump to seek a third term.

Department of Justice has:

-deleted its four year old webpage on the US Capital invasion investigations.

-put a freeze on pursuing new cases, indictments, and settlements in its civil rights division.

The MAGAt administration has deleted on the White House website:

-the page on women’s health, reproductive rights and resources

-the Spanish language version 

-the page on the constitution

Among his many executive orders Trump has: 

-nullified Biden’s order that lowered prescription prices for people on Medicare.

-canceled all NIH medical research funding indefinitely so don’t count on that cure for cancer or any other disease.

-proclaimed only two sexes in America, male and female, determined at conception (surprise, all fetuses are female until 6 - 8 weeks into gestation).

-illegally ended birthright citizenship (this is already being challenged in court).

-ended LBJ’s executive order that all government contractors comply with anti-discrimination laws and affirmative action programs.

-blocked the immigration of already approved Afghans who helped us during the war including family members and unaccompanied minors.

Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025 but about 2/3s of his executive orders mirror those in Project 2025.

Trump has dismantled the Office of Gun Violence prevention following his pardon and release of violent criminals (you know, the ones he seeks to deport unless they're white). When his team brought the paperwork for Trump to review who among the J6 insurrectionists should get a pardon he had no interest in actually determining who should be released and who should not saying “Fuck it, release ‘em all”.

Trump has: 

-ended all DEI programs. 

-fired the Commandant of the Coast Guard, a female 4 star general for being too ‘inclusive’.

-illegally fired 17 inspector generals, the internal government watchdogs tasked with ensuring accountability and transparency.

-pulled security details from former members of the government that criticized him and that have been receiving threats of violence and death to themselves and their families including Dr. Fauci.

-has conditioned aid to California after the devastating wildfires on turning on the non-existent valve that lets water flow down from the PNW and Canada and passing a stricter a voter ID law that he approves of.

-pardoned nearly 2 dozen anti-abortion activists convicted of violating the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

-has withdrawn the US from the Paris Climate Accords and the WHO.

-stopped the funding for infrastructure projects repairing roads, bridges, airports, ports, and new solar manufacturing plants passed by Biden.

-temporarily frozen all hiring by the government except for the IRS for which it is permanent.

Trump want to dismantle FEMA altogether and require states to handle their own catastrophes.

HHS including the FDA, CDC, and the NIH has had all travel restricted and been told to stop issuing health advisories, scientific reports, and updates to their websites and social media accounts. This is particularly bad because N1H1, bird flu, is jumping from birds to cattle and now to pigs and has been reported in some farm workers. It’s likely to be the next pandemic.

The republicans in the Senate confirmed Hegseth to run the Department of Defense, a completely unqualified drunk, misogynist, sexual abuser, and defender of war criminals who was forced to step down after mismanaging the two advocacy groups he was in charge of before becoming a Fox show host.

Newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio has, likely illegally, halted all foreign aid, including to Ukraine, except military assistance to Israel and Egypt which will cause a decline in American influence as recipient nations reach out to other nations for aid.

Trump intends to pull 20,000 troops from our NATO allies and wants those countries to pay a financial contribution for maintaining those that are left.

We all know Trump has no interest in actual governing. The only thing Trump is interested in is power, money, and being the center of attention, the limelight. Some people think that he’s just basically going along with whatever Stephen Miller, his close advisor, wants and we all know Stephen Miller is a racist misogynist Nazi. People who believed his lies and voted for Trump are starting to wake up and realize the horror they helped usher in. He’s not going to just deport criminals, he’s not going to protect Dreamers, he’s not going to bring down the price of food or housing or gas or medical care or drugs or protect/create jobs or stop arming Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians or or or. He’s not going to do any of that because he doesn’t give a fuck about people. When Bishop Budde implored him to have compassion for marginalized people, Trump called her vicious and demanded an apology. The only people he cares about were sitting in the front row during his inauguration and they weren’t representatives of African Americans or the Latino community or the immigrants who bring fresh blood and work ethic into this country or the LGBTQI+ citizens. They weren’t even the elected politicians sent to Congress. 

They were every one obscenely rich billionaires.