{"id":23796,"date":"2025-01-26T17:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T01:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=23796"},"modified":"2025-02-18T10:59:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T18:59:20","slug":"fury-and-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/01\/26\/fury-and-chaos\/","title":{"rendered":"Fury and Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>An off-hand summary of what Trump\u2019s done in his first week, apparently working to install an authoritarian police state in America;<\/li>\n<li>How those who think the president should solve egg prices don\u2019t understand capitalism, and Vance admits grocery prices aren\u2019t coming down soon;<\/li>\n<li>How Trump\u2019s definitions of male and female are nonsense, and useless;<\/li>\n<li>How Trump\u2019s war on the \u201cdeep state\u201d means dismantling the government that has kept our society running, for a century;<\/li>\n<li>A psychologically revealing comment by Mel Gibson about \u201cDaddy\u201d Trump.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>Apparently Trump \u2013 or the Project 2025 architect \u2013 was smart enough to understand that by opening his presidency with a volley of executive orders, some substantial and some silly, no one would be able to keep up, and a lot of them would slip through without notice. Just for future reference, let me see if I can compile what has happened this past week, mostly off the top of my head, without links. Then some links.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/01\/26\/74266192-fbc8-4049-9de3-a58d5136da75\/thumbnail\/1280x720\/a74a4c7ab049fd5fffd51e1f30e7f18e\/trump-first-week-getty-1920.jpg?v=e306e7b9fefc168c00baa623d76d1eaf\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trump freed 1500 criminals, those convicted of various crimes during the insurrection against the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. Even those who assaulted police. Police groups have complained. Even some Republicans are horrified. The irony: Trump is always complaining that other countries are \u2018sending\u2019 us their criminals and refugees from mental asylums as immigrants, while in fact it\u2019s now Trump who is loosening criminals, many quite violent, on the American population.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Similarly, he\u2019s cancelled Secret Service protection on several former government officials, and also Dr. Anthony Fauci, who have been the target of death threats by either MAGA folk or the Iranians. And let it be known. As if he\u2019s *inviting* assassins to take them out.<\/li>\n<li>He persists in the absurd demand that America take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, and even all of Canada, despite vociferous rejections by the governments involved. Is he determined to start new wars?<\/li>\n<li>He\u2019s announced the imminent implementation of tariffs, despite promises from the target nations that they will tariff America right back, and ignoring the economists who point out the costs will end up on ordinary Americans.<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile, he and his lackeys have admitted grocery prices won\u2019t be coming down any time soon; and his plan for ending the Ukraine war? A harsh threat of more tariffs. Which hasn\u2019t done a thing.<\/li>\n<li>He\u2019s cancelled government Inspectors General who keep watch on the integrity of various government agencies. It\u2019s as if he *wants* there to be corruption, especially since his cabinet nominees have mostly zero actual qualifications for running their agencies, aside for being wealthy and\/or on TV.<\/li>\n<li>He\u2019s cancelled anything called or resembling DEI in the government, and apparently has assigned watchdogs to sniff out DEI programs in state governments, and is pressuring private industry to do the same.<\/li>\n<li>And almost trivially, he\u2019s canceled military training about the Tuskegee airmen. He wants them to disappear from history?<\/li>\n<li>He\u2019s cancelled all foreign aid \u2013 never as big a part of the US budget as critics contend, and which went to things like removal of land-mines \u2013 except for Israel and Egypt (?).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Pause. We seem to be on the verge of a police state, like Hitler\u2019s Germany or the old Soviet Union. Do MAGA folks realize what they\u2019ve done? Trump thinks he has a mandate (despite the slight margin of his win) to do all this!<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m just waiting to see Trump spectacularly fail. And to see if any of his fans notice, or care. (I think they won&#8217;t.)<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s go through a round of recent links to compile, briefly, what else is going on.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mediaproxy.salon.com\/width\/1200\/https:\/\/media2.salon.com\/2025\/01\/donald_trump_2182002632.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Salon, Rich Logis, 26 Jan 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2025\/01\/26\/magas-true-believers-dont-understand-capitalism--will-teach-them-a-hard-lesson\/\">MAGA&#8217;s true believers don&#8217;t understand capitalism \u2014 Trump will teach them a hard lesson<\/a>, subtitled \u201cToday&#8217;s Republicans have swallowed so many economic myths that reality has disappeared. They face a wakeup call\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>One delusional mythology about American capitalism that has been instilled in We the People is that we somehow have a guaranteed right to prosperity; this imaginary right has been deployed by politicians who are afraid of educating their constituents about how our model of commerce actually works.<\/p>\n<p>Too many Americans have come to believe they are owed financial comfort and material abundance, not to mention eggs and gasoline at predictable prices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you better off today than you were four years ago?\u201d Frankly, it\u2019s an illogical question in a capitalist nation. Some people are of course worse off, and I don\u2019t mean to make light of that. But in fact, many millions are better off; Joe Biden\u2019s administration oversaw the recovery of millions of jobs lost during the COVID pandemic and the <a href=\"https:\/\/econofact.org\/factbrief\/were-more-jobs-added-under-biden-than-in-the-first-three-years-of-any-president\">creation<\/a> of millions more. Some people out there will be worse off by the time they finish this article than when they commenced reading it. I\u2019m not being flippant; that\u2019s reality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vox, Jess Craig, 26 Jan 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/394511\/bird-flu-eggs-human-death-prices-government-response\"> Eggs are pricey again. What\u2019s the government doing about it?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Why should the government do anything about it? Capitalism! What do you want, communism, with everything controlled and regulated by the government? Yet Americans are constantly blaming the government, in particular the president, for things that are beyond their control and are rather the effects of an unpredictable, complex, global economy.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Vance admits it.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/media-library\/image.jpg?id=55952175&amp;width=1245&amp;height=700&amp;quality=85&amp;coordinates=0%2C53%2C0%2C54\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>AlterNet, 26 Jan 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/grocery-prices-jd-vance\/\">&#8216;So, grocery prices aren\u2019t going to come down?&#8217; CBS host busts J.D. Vance on the economy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>One of those executive orders defines male and female, in terms that are logical only up to a very limited point.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/abuwjaawap.cloudimg.io\/v7\/_lgbtqnation-assets_\/assets\/2025\/01\/donald-trump-definition-of-sex-gender-nonsense-male-female.jpeg?auto=format&amp;auto=compress&amp;fit=crop&amp;gravity=face&amp;w=812&amp;h=541\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>LGBTQNation, Madison Pauly, 26 Jan 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lgbtqnation.com\/2025\/01\/trumps-definitions-of-male-and-female-are-nonsense-science-with-staggering-ramifications\/\">Trump\u2019s definitions of \u201cmale\u201d and \u201cfemale\u201d are nonsense science with staggering ramifications<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As we know, conservatives prefer to reduce every complex topic to simple black and white terms. These definitions are about the size of reproductive cells at conception. Conception?? There are no reproductive cells at conception! Even if they mean at birth, how would this definition be used in everyday matters? A physical examination? Invasive surgery?<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>By deep state, they mean the infrastructure that has kept our government running for decades, without which there would be anarchy. Cf. Rauch.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/AKILN5GG3POKCEAILN5ZS6CAR4.JPG&amp;w=916\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Washington Post, Ruth Marcus, 24 Jan 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2025\/01\/24\/trump-war-doj-deep-state\/\">Battleground DOJ: How Trump is waging war on the so-called deep state<\/a>, subtitled: \u201cThe new administration has chosen its first targets: The environment and civil rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It didn\u2019t take long for the Trump Justice Department to launch an all-out war against what it considers the \u201cdeep state.\u201d<br \/>\nThe department on Thursday evening summarily informed senior officials in the divisions that oversee civil rights and environmental enforcement that they were being transferred to a newly created office to take action against sanctuary cities. The career lawyers were told they could either accept the reassignment or face disciplinary action, including removal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>This is revealing.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/gibgrov-660x330.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>JMG, 25 Jan 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2025\/01\/gibson-grovels-daddy-trump-has-arrived-here-in-california-and-hes-taking-his-belt-off-to-get-results\/\">Gibson Grovels: \u201cDaddy\u201d Trump Has Arrived Here In California And \u201cHe\u2019s Taking His Belt Off\u201d To Get Results<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll catch up with my favorite columnists tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An off-hand summary of what Trump\u2019s done in his first week, apparently working to install an authoritarian police state in America; How those who think the president should solve egg prices don\u2019t understand capitalism, and Vance admits grocery prices aren\u2019t &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/01\/26\/fury-and-chaos\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23796"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23940,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23796\/revisions\/23940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}