One of the best articles I read recently about DT’s attempts to shred our lives and the Constitution was an opinion piece by Ezra Klein in the NYT titled “Don’t Believe Him.” DT wants us to mistake him for someone in command, someone with a sense of inner power and utter strength. He wants us to “believe he is already king,” so we will let him govern as a king. Don’t believe his hype. He’s trying to attack so quickly and chaotically to shock us, so we don’t see who he really is⎼ a man in a political position of tremendous power and responsibility, but who is vindictive, frightened, power hungry, and too weak to hear opposing views or to work step by step with others.
Just open a news feed. Today mine began with a Reuters article about DT negotiating with Russia about how to end the war with Ukraine, calling the Ukrainian leader, who has led one of the smartest, strongest, and bravest counterattacks against an immoral and violent invader, “a dictator without elections.” “Zelensky better move fast,” said DT, “or he is not going to have a country left.” DT, seemingly acting in the interests of dictator Putin, basically blamed the Ukrainians for the Russian assault on their own lives and freedom.
DT, with Musk’s help, has been moving chaotically and at incredible speed to devastate our federal workforce. His executive orders and mass firings will affect every aspect of our lives. People who are losing their jobs and income are those who hire, manage and fight devastating fires, rescue us from floods and assist our recovery from disasters. They send out Social Security checks and tax returns, approve surgeries, doctor visits, and medicines for the elderly, provide childcare and healthcare information to educate and protect children, and defend us all from foreign and domestic criminals and terrorists. Those fired were given little notice and no justification. Just imagine all the pain this is causing in thousands or millions of lives!
In the meantime, our personal information once securely held by the IRS and other government agencies has been or is intended to be made accessible to agents of Musk and DT. According to a suit by labor and tax payer organizations, the information is being exposed in an “arbitrary and capricious manner,” and without compliance to Privacy Act requirements and IRS policies and procedures, to agents without the training, and commitment to security and the law that the career employees had. Imagine what DT could do with this information to take revenge on those who oppose him, or to rip away power and money from the great majority of us and give it to the tiny minority of ultra-rich.
All this is supposedly to look for fraud and waste. But such an investigation takes time and sophisticated investigations. DT said these cuts would also bring down the deficit. But according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, his policies would substantially add to the deficit. His goal to cut taxes on the rich and corporations, as well as Social Security, etc. could add $5 trillion to the deficit, while undermining the future of SSI, for example, or undermine the future of our nation.
Another article provided the latest example of the spitefulness, smallness, and vindictiveness of DT’s administration. Three migrants from Venezuela, with no criminal records, brought a suit against the government’s attempt to imprison them at Guantanamo Bay. They won the suit one day; and on the next, they were immediately taken to a plane and deported to Venezuela.
DT continues to devastate workers throughout the government. For example, he capped NIH funding at 15%, which means firing the people who support the scientists engaged in medical research into diseases, medicines & other treatments, including cancer, viruses, etc. This could totally wipe out life-saving treatments we all need.
One of DT’s executive orders stopped 13 operating divisions of HHS from sharing external communications. On Nicolle Wallace, on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, informed us that the flu has led to a “serious condition called acute necrotizing encephalitis,” but DT ordered the CDC to hide information on this and other illnesses. This temporarily interfered with the media sharing information to inform parents about the effect of the flu on children’s brains. And then there’s the bird flu. Among those fired (and later re-hired) were those from the Department of Agriculture who had been working to respond to the bird flu outbreak.
In Texas, the Health Service alerted the public to a measles outbreak amongst unvaccinated children happening now in Gaines County, Texas. After all the cuts to Federal health officials and RFK, Jr.’s approval as Secretary of Health, would this information even be shared with the public? ….
*To read the whole article and the light in the middle of the dark, please go to The Good Men Project.