Category: Abuse

I Don’t Know About Happy, But Whatever…

Happy Insurrection Day by Clay Jones

Is Trump confused or just lying again? Read on Substack

Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of Donald Trump’s white nationalist insurrection, when he called MAGA terrorists to come to Washington, DC on January 6, 2021, to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory over him.

Trump lost the 2020 election fair and square.

Trump is the first president to refuse a peaceful transfer of power. He refused to cooperate with Biden’s transition team, a courtesy President Barack Obama extended in 2016 and after Trump’s victory last November (gag), President Biden extended to him as well. Both Democratic presidents hosted President-Elect (sic) Trump in the White House.

Trump ordered his MAGAts to attempt the insurrection after failing to overturn the election through court challenges, installing fake electors, calling election officials to intimidate them into giving him extra votes that didn’t exist, and even having his goons harass and intimidate election workers.

Trump’s white nationalist terrorists assaulted at least 174 Capitol Police officers on January 6, 2021, with 15 hospitalized. There was one death from a stroke and four suicides afterward. They also caused over $30 million in damages which Trump should pay for.

Two of the terrorists died from natural causes, one died from a drug overdose, and another, Ashley Babbit, died from a gunshot wound.

Over 1,500 were arrested, including Donald Trump. This nation has forgotten about the insurrection and has returned Trump to the presidency (sic). After January 20, Donald Trump plans to pardon all of the white nationalist terrorists who attacked our nation.

These people were looking to murder Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence. Now, they will be rewarded.

I had a Lyft driver on New Year’s Eve ask me why I don’t support Donald Trump and I answered, “Because I love my country.” The elderly white driver (surprise) replied, “Donald Trump does too.” I have a serious inability to tolerate bullshit and I probably got a one-star rating from him after I replied to his response, “Donald Trump does too.” Thankfully, he made his dumbass ignorant comment near the end of the ride, where a guy ambushed me with Jesus pamphlets. I went straight from Trump freak to Jesus freak. I was glad I was getting out of town.

That’s our country for you today. Half this nation believes Donald Trump was right to send white nationalist terrorists to attack the Capitol to make him an unelected dictator or they don’t care.

Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t just want to ignore January 6, but she wants to make it a national holiday. Hey, we’ll all get a day off. MTG is also concerned that a snowstorm tomorrow will “disrupt” Trump’s certification. That’s rich.

Speaker-hanging-by-a-thread Mike Johnson doesn’t want to investigate January 6 but investigate the investigators. The new Department of Justice under Donald Trump and Pam Bondi will be looking to prosecute people like Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chaired the J6 Committee, and former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who co-chaired the committee. The DOJ may also be weaponized against people like Special Counsel Jack Smith, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and even President Joe Biden.

Other Republicans encouraged J6, attempted to dox Speaker Pelosi’s location, gave them pre-insurrection tours, and later called the attackers “protesters” and “tourists.” Goons gotta goon.

On January 6, some will celebrate. I will encourage you to remember that our incoming president (sic) is a terrorist and a national security threat.

Two days that will make me sick to my stomach this month is tomorrow, January 6, and January 20.

I’m gonna get drunk.

Creative note: Both of my proofers had disgusted reactions to this cartoon which is exactly what I was going for. Also, I hate layers in Procreate. This cartoon has nearly 40 of them. I would usually just write “pardon” over and over again, but I thought the placement would work better with the layers, but that’s just as much of a PITA to me as lettering. My layer-loving friend and colleague Phil Hands should be happy.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (go watch!)

Trigger Warnings. My feelings about Christmas what happened to me as a child.

Hello everyone.  This is a hard post but one I feel I must make for my own continued healing and to explain why this season hits me so hard.  Before I get to the abuse let me tell everyone that yesterday taking things out of the car I was standing sideways with my knee pressed hard against the seat of the car as I reached across needing just an inch or two to grab the package … and as I strained to grab the parcel my knee snapped, I heard a grinding sound and fell to the ground.  I fell to the ground seeing stars.  

Ron rushed to me as soon as he saw me on the ground, we got me into my room and realized that my knee cap had been pushed into the cartilage beneath the cap.  What ever happened to my knee caused me agony and lost me the ability to stand or use my leg.  The pain made moving my leg in any way mind-blowing excoriating pain.  Remember I take two kinds of morphine and other pain relievers.  Ron got my walker from the bedroom but even using that was not able to help me move around.  I went to bed.   During the night I was OK if I did not move.  The longer I stayed still the more the knee healed and the few times I had to get up to pee, well I had the walker and now understood how to hold my leg.  The more it healed, the better it got.  So this morning I was able to get up, and using the walker make my way to the kitchen and make my coffee.   Then on to the Pink Palace to start my day.  

====================================================================

Now to the reason for my post.  I seriously warn for abuse trigger warnings.   Please.  The reason for this post, I am going to post something I wrote to a fellow survivor about why I get so withdrawn during this time.  I appreciate his care and concern, plus I want you to know that it was Randy my grand real brother who talked to me this morning and made it possible for me to deal with posting this time in my life.  I won’t include what he replied when I showed him the stuff I wanted to post but I assure you he was a comfort unparalleled in giving me the strength to do this.  When I look to the past, what happened in late 2013 and in 2014 forward I wonder if I would be here if not for the unflagging love and care of my grand brother Randy.

Below is what I wrote to a fellow survivor who was worried about me.  

=========================================================

…

Christmas always brings depression and a desire to hide or withdraw from life for me.  Short story … it provided more time for abusers to use me and more of them around.  During the weeks leading up to Christmas day as presents were placed under the tree which I knew better than go near the hell spawn would mess with their presents to figure out what they were, then when it was discovered I was of coursed blamed and punished for it in front of everyone.   
 
But the worst was Christmas day, and despite what I knew had happened in the past and would happen that day I would get excited thinking of the gifts.  After the nighttime / early morning rapes / giving oral to both males and females, I would be told where to sit.  One of the hell spawns would pass the gifts out, one at a time.  When it was my turn I would carefully unwrap the present even though I was being told to speed up, then give the required thanks to the person it was from, then place it on the floor next to me.  
 
After all the gifts had been unwrapped while the adults gathered their gifts to stash in their room, the hell spawn gathered around me where I still sat.  They took what they wanted of what I was “given”, most of which would have been bought knowing they would be the ones to get it.  I was left with the clothing, socks, shirts, a pair of pants or two.   One Christmas I got a coloring book that they let me keep but they took the crayons.   I would take my gifts to my hallway mat until I was nearly 8 and got a bed of my own in the male hell spawns room as we moved and there was no longer a hallway for me to be made sleep in.  I knew better than to complain or make a fuss, it was just the way things were, my place there, my life.  To cry or complain would get me a public punishment and then a private worse punishment for ruining their Christmas.  The private one would be very humiliatingly to insure it stuck with me.  I learned not to complain, just shut down.  
 
Anyway you asked if I have gotten any help.  No.  Two of my doctors want me to get a therapist, along with a neurologist, and several other specialists for different symptoms I have.   I do not have the income for all the doctors, tests, and scans these doctors claim I need.  Maybe this year.   I get through Christmastime by withdrawing and shutting down, kept sane only by my husband and my best friend, and the little internet communications I feel well enough to doing.  Mostly during this time I watch videos, movies, not really seeing the screen, not even remembering what I watched, just existing for one more minute, one more hour, one more day.   
==============================================================
 

Grand for me this year I got a true real Christmas gift.  One with no costs of my body for exchange as in my childhood if I wanted something.  When at my youngest even food came with me providing sexual favors.  

Yes this year I got a Christmas gift with no strings attached.  Yes Ron gives me those but this one was special.  My brother Randy gave me money to spend on me, not on the house, not on others, but just on me.   I have been working for years with a broken keyboard which the backlighting has given out, and my mouse now takes many clicks to make work.  Even Ron was frustrated by it during the times we sat together paying bills and wanted me to replace them.  

So remembering the spirit this gift was given, I used it to buy the following things.  It will make my life so much better.   I got them in white.  Thank you my grand brother.   Hugs

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/mice/mx-master-3s.910-006558.html

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/keyboards/mx-keys-s.920-011559.html

Peace & Justice History for 1/4

January 4, 1961
The longest recorded labor strike ended after 33 years: Danish barbers’ assistants had begun their strike in 1938 in Copenhagen.
January 4, 1965
The Free Speech Movement held its first legal rally in Sproul Plaza of the University of California at Berkeley.
January 4, 1974
President Richard Nixon refused to release tape recordings of Oval Office discussions and other documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee investigating illegal activities of the president’s re-election committee.

Nixon’s attempted suppression didn’t work.

Listen to the “smoking gun”

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january4

Peace & Justice History for 1/2

January 2, 1905
The Conference of Industrial Unionists in Chicago formed the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), frequently known as The Wobblies. The IWW mission was to form “One Big Union” among industrial workers.


IWW home  
======================================= 
January 2, 1920
U.S. Attorney General Alexander Palmer, in what were called the Palmer or Red raids, ordered the arrest and detention without trial of 6,000 Americans, including suspected anarchists, communists, unionists and others considered radicals, including many members of the IWW.

Attorney General Alexander Palmer
This followed a mass arrest of thousands two months earlier based on Palmer’s belief that Communist agents from Russia were planning to overthrow the American government.
A suicide bomber had blown off the front door of the newly appointed Palmer the previous June, one in a series of coordinated attacks that day on judges, politicians, law enforcement officials, and others in eight cities nationwide. Palmer put a young lawyer, J. Edgar Hoover, in charge of investigating the bombings, collecting information on potentially violent anarchists, and coordinating the mass arrests.
More on the Palmer raids
FBI perspective 
==========================================
January 2, 1975
A U.S. Court ruled that John Lennon and his lawyers be given access to Department of Immigration and Naturalization files regarding his deportation case, to determine if the government case was based on his 1968 British drug conviction, or his anti-establishment comments during the years of the Nixon administration.
On October 5, 1975, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the order to deport Lennon, and he was granted permanent residency status.

Watch the trailer for the documentary, “The U.S. v. John Lennon” 
==================================================
January 2, 1996

Khaleda Zia
An estimated 100,000 Bangladeshi women traveled from the countryside to attend a rally in Dacca, the capital, to protest Islamist clerics’ attacks on women’s education and employment.
Khaleda Zia, the country’s first female prime minister, had introduced compulsory free primary education, free education for girls up to class ten, a stipend for the girl students, and food for the education program.
About Khaleda Zia 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january2

Peace & Justice History for 1/1

January 1, 1831

William Lloyd Garrison first published The Liberator (four hundred copies printed in the middle of the night using borrowed type), which became the leading abolitionist paper in the United States. He labeled slave-holding a crime and called for immediate abolition.
From the first issue: “I will be harsh as truth, and uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation. “Assenting to the ‘self-evident truth’ maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, ‘that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights—among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,’ I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population.”
Selections from The Liberator 
January 1, 1847
Michigan became the first state – the first government in the English-speaking world – to abolish capital punishment (for all crimes except treason). This was done by a vote of the legislature, and was not a part of the state’s constitution until 1964.
How it happened (it’s a .pdf)
January 1, 1959
32-year-old lawyer Fidel Castro led Cuban revolutionaries to victory over the corrupt government of Fulgencio Batista who had fled the island the day before. Batista, a former army sergeant, had seized power in a coup, canceling an election, in 1952.
 
Fidel Castro
More on pre-Castro Cuba
The news at the time
Perspective of a U.S. intelligence agent
January 1, 1983
44 women scaled a 12-foot fence at dawn, breaking into a cruise missile base at Greenham Common in Great Britain, and danced on a missile silo.
The lyrics to their “Silo Song”  
January 1, 1987
Ten anti-nuclear activists were arrested for trespassing at the Nevada Test Site, the culmination of a 54-day encampment at the main Test Site gate. The camp established momentum for what became a movement ultimately involving over 10,000 arrests in numerous Test Site protests over the following years in the campaign to achieve a freeze of all nuclear weapons testing.

Nevada test site landscape
The Nevada site includes more than 14,000 sq. km. (nearly 6000 sq. miles, larger than the state of Connecticut) of uninhabited land where atmospheric, and later underground, nuclear testing had been conducted since the 1950s.
About the the Nevada Test Site 
January 1, 1989

Kees Koning
Kees Koning, a former army chaplain and priest, and Co van Melle, a medical doctor working with homeless people and illegal refugees, entered the Woensdrecht airbase (for a second time), and began the “conversion” of NF-5B fighter airplanes by beating them with sledgehammers into ploughshares. The Dutch planned to sell the NF-5B to Turkey, for use against the Kurdish nationalists as part of a NATO aid program which involved shipping 60 fighter planes to Turkey. Koning and van Melle were charged with trespass, sabotage and $350,000 damage; they were convicted, and both sentenced to a few months in jail.
Read more about the plowshares movement
January 1, 1991
Early in the morning Moana Cole, a Catholic Worker from New Zealand, Ciaron O’Reilly, a Catholic Worker from Australia, and Susan Frankel and Bill Streit, members of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker community in Washington, D.C., calling themselves the ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand and U.S.) Peace Force Plowshares, entered the Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York.

Moana Cole
After cutting through several fences, Frankel and Streit entered a deadly force area, and hammered and poured blood on a KC-135 (a refueling plane for B-52s), and then hammered and poured blood on the engine of a nearby cruise missile-armed B-52 bomber. They presented their action statement to base security who encircled them moments later. 
About Moana Cole 
January 1, 1994
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect. A treaty among Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, it called for all three countries to follow similar policies for environmental, safety and investment regulation, apart from laws passed by their respective legislatures.
January 1, 1994
On the day NAFTA (see above) took effect, more than 2,000 native Mayans in Mexico’s Chiapas state marched into the state capital, San Cristóbal de las Casas, and five neighboring towns, and seized control. Calling themselves Zapatistas, or the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), a “declaration of war” was issued.
Chiapas is among the poorest parts of Mexico. The indigenous peoples of Mexico long suffered as second-class citizens due to the dominance of the Roman Catholic church and the traditional Mestizo (mixed Spanish and Indian ancestry) political leadership of the country. The EZLN was certain that NAFTA would permanently lock in the top-down economic situation in Mexico. The Zapatistas’ slogan was !Ya basta! (“Enough is enough”).
Employees at the Mexican stock exchange were evacuated by riot police. 25,000 Mexican soldiers arrived in Chiapas equipped with automatic weapons, tanks, helicopters and airplanes. 145 deaths were reported, mostly civilians. Massive arrests and subsequent torture of prisoners by the government took place.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january1

‘Shocking’ bodycam video released of New York officers fatally beating prisoner

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/rcna185537

Robert Brooks, 43, died a day after being attacked by several correctional officers at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9. His death has prompted a state investigation.
 
***  There is a video at the site linked above that is very informative and shows the man before the police killed him.  ***
 
By Erik Ortiz

The office of New York’s attorney general released body camera footage Friday showing the fatal beating of a state prisoner this month by correctional officers who punched and kicked him repeatedly while he was handcuffed on an infirmary bed.

The incident, which has drawn outrage from political leaders and was condemned by the officers’ union as “incomprehensible,” is being investigated by state Attorney General Letitia James. The inmate, Robert Brooks, 43, died in the hospital a day after the Dec. 9 attack.

 

“I do not take lightly the release of this video, especially in the middle of the holiday season,” James said at a virtual news conference.

“These videos are shocking and disturbing,” she added.

Brooks can be seen in the videos with his hands cuffed behind his back. In one video, he is sitting up as an officer presses his foot down on him. He is then punched by two officers.

At another point, he is forcefully yanked from the bed by his shirt collar and held up above the ground, his face visibly bloodied.

OSI is currently conducting an investigation into the death of Robert Brooks, who died on December 10, 2024 following an encounter with Department of Corrections and Community Supervision officers at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County.
Robert Brooks as seen in body camera footage at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, New York, on Dec. 9.Office of the New York State Attorney General

Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to begin the process of firing 14 workers at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, where the incident occurred. They include correctional officers, sergeants and a prison nurse. In the interim, all have been suspended without pay, except for one officer, who already resigned. In a statement following the release of the videos, Daniel Martuscello, the commissioner of the state corrections department, said his office has launched its own investigation in an effort to bring “institutional change.”

“Watching the video evidence of Robert Brooks’ life being taken left me feeling deeply repulsed and nauseated,” Martuscello said. “There is no excuse and no rationalization for a vulgar, inhumane act that senselessly took a life. This type of behavior cannot be normalized, and I will not allow it to be within DOCCS.”

James said the officers had not activated their body cameras, but they were still on and recorded in standby mode. As a result, she added, they did not capture audio and only recorded for 30 minutes.

Her office released the entirety of the four officers’ videos, which included some blurring.

On Dec. 9, James said, Brooks was being transferred from the Mohawk Correctional Facility, also in Oneida County, to Marcy Correctional Facility. The events unfolded in a medical exam room before 9:30 p.m. Brooks was carried into the room hanging upside down with his hands handcuffed behind his back, one video shows.

prison death
The entrance to Marcy Correctional Facility state prison on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in Marcy, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)Will Waldron / Albany Times Union / Getty Images

Without audio, it’s unclear what words were exchanged between Brooks and the officers. While he does not appear to physically retaliate in the footage, the videos present different angles, and at times it’s unclear what is happening to Brooks as officers move and stand around the room. After the officers yank Brooks from the bed, he is brought to a corner. Later, he is seen on the bed wearing only his underwear and being tended to by the nurse.

Brooks was taken to the hospital and died the following day. An autopsy was conducted, and “preliminary findings show concern for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, as well as the death being due to actions of another,” according to a state corrections office investigative report obtained by NBC affiliate WKTV in Utica.

In the wake of the initial media reports, James said her Office of Special Investigation would conduct a review and make the video public after Brooks’ family viewed it first.

“I have a responsibility and duty to provide the Brooks family, their loved ones and all New Yorkers with transparency and accountability,” she said Friday.

Attorney General Letitia James speaks during the press briefing on Nov. 6 2024.
Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press briefing on Nov. 6.Lev Radin / Pacific Press / Getty Images

Brooks had been imprisoned since 2017 on a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault involving a longtime girlfriend. State corrections officials declined to detail what led Brooks to be transferred to the Marcy Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison, that night. The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, but the union has previously said it viewed parts of the videos.

“What we witnessed is incomprehensible to say the least and is certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day,” the union said in a statement this week, adding what transpired is the “opposite of everything NYSCOPBA and its membership stand for.”

Hochul said in a statement that the “vast majority” of correctional officers “do extraordinary work under difficult circumstances,” but “we have no tolerance for individuals who cross the line, break the law and engage in unnecessary violence or targeted abuse.”

Martuscello said the agency has expanded its body camera policy effective immediately, requiring all corrections officers to have their cameras activated any time they are engaging directly with inmates.

The Correctional Association of New York, an independent prison oversight group, released a report last year after monitoring the Marcy Correctional Facility in October 2022. The report noted complaints of “rampant” physical abuse by staff members, with 80% of incarcerated people reporting having witnessed or experienced abuse and nearly 70% reporting racial discrimination or bias.

Brooks’ family thanked Hochul in a statement this week for taking action “to hold officers accountable.”

“We cannot understand how this could have happened in the first place,” the family said. “No one should have to lose a family member this way.”

Erik Ortiz

Erik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.

Daniel Arkin contributed.

Colorado Man Accused Of Attacking Reporter, Saying ‘This Is Trump’s America Now’

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/colorado-man-accused-attacking-tv-reporter-trump-america_n_676f8133e4b03f311afdc4bd

The Colorado TV reporter told police that he believed he had been followed by the man because he is Pacific Islander.
Colleen Slevin
 

A Colorado man is facing possible bias-motivated charges for allegedly attacking a television news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying “This is Trump’s America now,” according to court documents.

Patrick Thomas Egan, 39, was arrested Dec. 18 in Grand Junction, Colorado, after police say he followed KKCO/KJCT reporter Ja’Ronn Alex’s vehicle for around 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the Delta area. Alex told police that he believed he had been followed and attacked because he is Pacific Islander.

After arriving in Grand Junction, Egan, who was driving a taxi, pulled up next to Alex at a stoplight and, according to an arrest affidavit, said something to the effect of: “Are you even a U.S. citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a Marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”

Alex, who had been out reporting, then drove back to his news station in the city. After he got out of his vehicle, Egan chased Alex as he ran toward the station’s door and demanded to see his identification, according to the document laying out police’s evidence in the case. Egan then tackled Alex, put him in a headlock and “began to strangle him,” the affidavit said. Coworkers who ran out to help and witnesses told police that Alex appeared to be losing his ability to breathe during the attack, which was partially captured on surveillance video, according to the document.

 

According to the station’s website, Alex is a native of Detroit. KKCO/KJCT reported that he was driving a news vehicle at the time.

Egan was arrested on suspicion of bias-motivated crimes, second degree assault and harassment. He is scheduled to appear in court Thursday to learn whether prosecutors have filed formal charges against him.

Egan’s lawyer, Ruth Swift, was out of the office Friday and did not return a telephone message seeking comment.

 

Eight LA sheriff’s deputies fired for 2023 arrest and beating of trans man

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/25/los-angeles-sheriff-trans-man

So much of this story is upsetting.  But one detail stood out to me, and it has not been stressed enough when police violence and false arrests.  The man, Mr. Brock lost his job three days after the brutal assault and may have suffered severe financial distress.  Police and prosecutors know that often just being charged can ruin a persons life.  Hugs

————————————————————————————————————–

Joseph Benza III, main officer involved in incident with Emmett Brock, pleaded guilty in federal court last week

From The Bee

I wish…

The Chaos Monkeys Have Already Taken Over the Zoo by Paul Krugman

The peddlers of misinformation are high on their own supply Read on Substack

(Thanks to BruceDesertRat who comments here, for linking this really useful Substack!)

Well, I was going to post about proposals for bank deregulation, but I think that can wait for a bit. The news of the moment is the looming prospect that the federal government will shut down over the weekend.

We’ll have to see how much damage this does, but it’s already clear that assuming the worst happens — and it’s hard to see how it won’t — this will be the dumbest shutdown ever. I’d say that the incoming Musk administration (so far Musk, not Trump, appears to be calling the shots) is trying to hold itself up for ransom, but it doesn’t even rise to that level. This isn’t like 1995, when Newt Gingrich shut down the government in an attempt to extract cuts in Medicare and Medicaid — a move that seemed (and was) a foolish act of petulance, but at least had a ghost of motivation.

No, Musk is demanding — apparently successfully — that Republicans in Congress renege on a deal they had already agreed to, a continuing resolution that would keep the federal government going for the next few months. Why? Because, Musk says, of the outrageous provisions in that CR.

Except none of the items Musk is complaining about are actually in the bill. No, Congress isn’t giving itself a 40 percent raise. No, the bill doesn’t fund a $3 billion stadium in Washington. No, it doesn’t block future investigations into the Jan. 6 committee. No, it doesn’t fund bioweapons labs.

I have an embarrassing admission to make. I thought that Muskaswamy’s obvious problems with getting DOGE going would have inspired, not humility — never that — but at least a bit of caution. That is, I imagined that Musk would by now have at least an inkling of two things.

First, finding big-ticket examples of government waste is hard, because the government mostly spends money on things people want. Here’s a nice chart from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, showing where the money goes:

Yes, the federal government is an insurance company with an army.

Second, you shouldn’t trust claims about the budget coming from Some Guy on the Internet. You might have imagined that the world’s richest man could have a couple of fact-checkers on retainer to help ensure that he isn’t making clearly stupid assertions. But nooo.

In a barrage of posts on X Musk pushed misinformation about a more or less routine, place-holding bill that was basically a way to keep the ship of state afloat until Trump takes charge. Maybe this was in part a power play, an attempt to make Republicans in Congress show fealty to a man who clearly imagines that he’s the real president — and Trump, by meekly endorsing Musk’s position, did in fact convey the impression that Musk is leading the guy who is supposed to be in charge by the nose. But this political theater will have real consequences, for America, for Trump, and for Musk himself.

Musk has asserted that shutting the government down for a month would do no harm. And it’s true that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid funding — which is where the bulk of the money goes — will continue. But many services people rely on will be disrupted, especially if the shutdown goes on for more than a month, which seems all too likely given Republicans’ razor-thin House majority and the dominance of misinformation in many members’ thinking.

Maybe Musk himself doesn’t expect to experience any hardship, but put it this way: I’m glad that I won’t need to renew my passport any time soon, that I don’t expect to be trying to get through airport security for a while, and especially glad that I don’t rely either on food stamps or on small business loans. For all of these things have been disrupted in past government shutdowns.

Do Musk and Trump know any of this? Almost surely not.

Beyond the specifics, my guess is that antics like the potential shutdown will do much more damage to the Musk/Trump administration than they realize. (There’s also this other guy — JV Dance or something? — but he clearly doesn’t matter.)

First, since the election financial markets have clearly been betting that Trump will do very little of what he promised during the campaign — that we won’t really have a trade war, just some minor trade skirmishes, that we’ll have symbolic deportations rather than a mass roundup of immigrants, and so on. Markets have, in effect, discounted the disastrous consequences that would follow if Trump honored his own promises.

But a government shutdown in response to completely false claims about what’s in an innocuous short-term funding measure suggests that the peddlers of misinformation are high on their own supply. Trump may really believe that foreigners will pay tariffs, that U.S. trade deficits subsidize the rest of the world, that there’s a reserve army of American workers available to fill the gaps deportation would create. I don’t want to put too much weight on the latest market fluctuations, but it is starting to look as if investors are questioning their own complacency.

Second, many, probably most people who voted for Trump believed that he really is the character he played on The Apprentice — a highly competent manager. The other day I said that Trump was elected by low-information voters; this wasn’t a slur on Americans’ intelligence, it was a reference to survey results showing that Trump’s edge depended entirely on support from voters who don’t pay much attention to politics:

How will these voters react if, as seems all too likely, the second Trump administration is instead marked by rolling chaos?

Anyway, it’s pretty remarkable. Inauguration Day is still a month away, yet the chaos monkeys have already taken over. (snip)