- Stephan Marche on how there are no necessary nations, and no permanent global order;
- Judges, appointed both by Republicans and Democrats, speak out against the Trump administration;
- Heather Cox Richardson identifies one key failure in the Texas floods, the result of a Trump policy;
- And NYT shows how FEMA answered fewer and fewer emergency calls, because of firings by the Trump administration, even *after* the floods happened;
- How the new Superman movie is — like so much else — too “woke” for conservatives;
- Similarly, how Charlie Kirk thinks *all* immigrants threaten his values.
Quoted by The Week, Saturday Wrap, 12 July 2025.
Stephen Marche in The Guardian:
One of the great ironies of history is that the triumph of MAGA has led to the piecemeal destruction of everything that once made America great, and on every level. Its power derived from a reliable trade network, with logistical chains that were the wonders of the world, combined with a huge alliance network, and the greatest scientific and technological institutes in the world. It is systematically destroying all of those strengths far more thoroughly than any enemy could. The lesson the Americans once taught the British, they are teaching the rest of the world: There are no necessary nations. There are no permanent global orders.
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Speaking of which:
NY Times, opinion by Maureen Dowd, 12 July 2025: Trump’s Cabinet of Incompetents
This is about how Pete Hegseth unilaterally ordered suspension of delivery of weapons to Ukraine, without telling Trump. NY Times reporter Shawn McCreesh challenged Trump on this point.
In a follow-up the next day, McCreesh asked Trump if he had figured out who had ordered the munitions to Ukraine halted.
When Trump said no, McCreesh pressed him: “What does it say that such a big decision could be made inside your government without your knowing?”
Trump bristled. A jester like Hegseth had kept the king in the dark on a consequential move.
“If a decision was made, I will know,” Trump blustered. “I’ll be the first to know. In fact, most likely I’d give the order, but I haven’t done that yet.”
It is not reassuring, at a time of man-made and natural disasters, that the president is spouting gobbledygook and his maladroit cabinet members are spinning out.
It’s a paradox: If you choose your cabinet based on looks, you are likely to end up with a cabinet that makes you look bad. Running government is harder than bloviating on Fox News and assorted podcasts.
And if you demand über-fealty from your advisers, you will end up surrounded by toadies who don’t level with you.
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It’s good to know there *are* intelligent, rational people still in the world. Because none of them are in the Trump administration.
NY Times, The Editorial Board, 12 Jul 2025: ‘Egregious.’ ‘Brazen.’ ‘Lawless.’ How 48 Judges Describe Trump’s Actions, In Their Own Words [gift link]
About 12 screens of quotes from various judges, appointed both by Republicans and Democrats. I’ll just quote a few.
James E. Boasberg, District of Columbia District, Appointed by Barack Obama
On a judge’s order blocking deportations:
“In an egregious case of cherry-picking, defendants selectively quote only a fragment of the court’s response here to mischaracterize its position.”
Patrick J. Schiltz, District of Minnesota, Appointed by George W. Bush
On the revocation of a student’s visa:
“The court cannot imagine how the public interest might be served by permitting federal officials to flaunt the very laws that they have sworn to enforce.”
Stephanie A. Gallagher, District of Maryland, Appointed by Donald Trump
On the deportation of an asylum seeker to El Salvador:
“Defendants have provided no evidence, or even any specific allegations, as to how Cristian, or any other class member, poses a threat to public safety. … This is a court of evidence.”
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And *of course* the haphazard firings of federal employees by the Trump administration made response to the Texas floods worse. (How could they not have?) Here’s one missing link:
Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson: July 10, 2025
On July 4, the day Trump signed the bill, flash floods devastated central Texas, leaving more than 100 people dead and about 160 still missing. Local officials immediately blamed cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS) for the disaster, but reviews showed that NWS meteorologists had predicted the storm accurately and had sent out three increasingly urgent warnings at 1:14 a.m., 4:03 a.m., and 6:06 a.m.
But four hours passed before the police department in the City of Kerrville issued a warning. It wasn’t until 7:32 that the city urged people along the Guadalupe River to move to higher ground immediately. The missing link between the NWS and public safety personnel appears to have been the weather service employee in charge of coordinating between them. He took an unplanned early retirement under pressure from the “Department of Government Efficiency” and has not been replaced.
The piece goes on. Why are Republicans so obsessed about waste, abuse, and fraud? Which they assert with not evidence.
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Also this, concerning Kristi Noem, she of the hair.
NY Times, 11 Jul 2025: FEMA Didn’t Answer Thousands of Calls From Flood Survivors, Documents Show [gift link via JMG]
Subtitled: “Two days after deadly Texas floods, the agency struggled to answer calls from survivors because of call center contracts that weren’t extended.”
Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.
The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contracts expired. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
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The new Superman movie is too woke for many conservatives.
Slate, Joshua Rivera, 12 Jul 2025: The Real Villain of Superman Is … the Discourse, subtitled “In James Gunn’s new movie, the Man of Steel takes on his most fearsome foe yet: the culture wars.”
and
Washington Post, Larry Tye (author of a book about Superman), 12 Jul 2025: Fear of a ‘woke’ Superman, subtitled “Conservatives are upset with a very un-MAGA Superman movie. But the character has always engaged with the politics of his time.”
I am not going to analyze or summarize these pieces. I’ve never been interested in superhero movies, or comic books; I never saw the original Christopher Reeve version of Superman in 1978. Superhero stories strike me as infantile fantasies; sorry, fans!
But superhero comics and movies were always about defeating villains and restoring justice to the world, right? And such justice doesn’t seem to be a concern of the current MAGA administration.
I saw a graphic on Facebook today about this. It read, Star Wars, too woke? Star Trek, too woke? Superman, too woke? No: it’s just you, who’s grown up to be a bad person.
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One more, on that very theme.
JMG, 11 Jul 2025: Charlie Kirk: “Legal Immigration Is Also The Problem”
Another thing that this generation increasingly believes is they don’t necessarily believe that immigration makes your country better. You get Mamdani, you get Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib. It’s not just illegal immigration. It’s legal immigration that is also the problem. When you allow a bunch of people into your country legally and they don’t share your values, turns out they don’t always assimilate.
Sigh, this has been going on for centuries. Values change. Kirk is obsessed with preserving the privileges and values of his youth, and doesn’t know any better. History will go on, and conservatives like him will be left in the dust bin of history.
