For once we happened to watch a much-discussed current show only a week after it debuted (instead of months later or years later). This is the Netflix show Adolescence (Wikipedia link).
It’s four hour-long episodes, about a 13-year-old boy in an English village who is accused of killing, with a knife, a girl classmate. Each episode is shot in one continuous take, and the episodes are sequential but not continuous. Continue reading
First, a reminder of the current situation.
The Bulwark, Mona Charen, 28 Mar 2025: What Happens When the Government Starts Reporting ‘Alternative Facts’?, subtitled “The truth is the last weapon of the opposition.”
Frank Bruni nails it.
NY Times, Frank Bruni, 27 Mar 2025: Trump’s Crackerjack Cabinet Is a Fiasco Foretold [gift link]
It’s been pointed out time and again that Trump’s choices for his cabinet were among the least qualified people to hold those positions, ever.
On the major story this week, let’s look at Tom Nichols’ take.
The Atlantic, Tom Nichols, 26 Mar 2025: The Trump Team’s Denials Are Laughable, subtitled “The president’s officials must know that what they did in the Signal group chat was wrong—and dangerous.”
Following up on yesterday’s story. They’re minimizing or even denying that the incident happened, and it’s triggered Trump’s reflex to insult anyone who impugns him or his administration in any way. (Yet again, he’s always concerned about ratings and accuses publications he doesn’t like of “failing.”)
AlterNet, Alex Henderson, 25 Mar 2025: ‘Hire clowns, expect a circus’: Leaked chat exposes ‘stupidity and recklessness’
Can you imagine what Republicans would have said if Biden or one of his officials had done this?
The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg, 24 Mar 2025: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans, subtitled “U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.”
A beautiful weekend here in the Bay Area.
We’re witnessing the downfall of the United States as an idealistic nation that for many decades has led the world on enlightenment principles and scientific achievements. At the same time, most people won’t notice this downfall. And it’s happened before.
NY Times, Eric Lipton, 23 Mar 2025: Musk Is Positioned to Profit Off Billions in New Government Contracts
Subtitled: “The boost in federal spending for SpaceX will come in part as a result of actions by President Trump and Elon Musk’s allies and employees who hold government positions. Supporters say he has the best technology.”
It’s not enough for Trump to win; his enemies must be excoriated as well. The attitudes of a zero-sum tribalist.
NY Times, Frank Bruni, 20 Mar 2025: Why Trump Can’t Quit Biden [gift link]
For President Trump and many of his closest aides and allies, every day is a great day to beat up on Joe Biden. They treat bashing the previous occupant of the White House as proper political hygiene, best repeated and ritualized, the autocrat’s equivalent of flossing your teeth.
Heather Cox Richardson, 21 Mar 2025: March 20, 2025
It seems as if the Trump administration is rushing to tear apart as much as it can as opponents of its wholesale destruction of the United States government organize to stop them.
Admittedly, many Americans, especially the MAGA crowd, don’t care what’s going on in the rest of the world. But don’t any of them wonder *why* people in so many other countries are happier than Americans?
AP News, 20 Mar 2025: Finland is again ranked the happiest country in the world. The US falls to its lowest-ever position
I’ll acknowledge that a primary reason might be that these Nordic nations are monocultural, unlike the US. (But many African nations are monocultural, and they’re unhappy, mainly because they’re poor.)
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