{"id":25551,"date":"2025-08-19T17:49:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T00:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=25551"},"modified":"2025-08-23T10:46:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T17:46:19","slug":"further-reports-on-the-current-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/08\/19\/further-reports-on-the-current-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Further Reports on the Current Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Robert Reich on groveling and inept and unprincipled people;<\/li>\n<li>Heather Cox Richardson on our idiot-child president;<\/li>\n<li>By wanting to banish mail-in ballots nationwide, Trump attacks states&#8217; rights, a conservative principle for centuries;<\/li>\n<li>On the same theme, Thomas B. Edsall looks at the mind-boggling intrusiveness of the Trump administration;<\/li>\n<li>Similarly, a demand in Texas that all citizens stand for Christian prayers; a charge that naturalized citizens &#8220;are not Americans&#8221;; a complaint that teaching that slavery existed (and was bad) is &#8220;woke&#8221;; and two know-nothings agree that science says nothing about climate change;<\/li>\n<li><em>The Week<\/em> wonders if medical science will survive RFK Jr., with comments by Andrew Egger.\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This can&#8217;t go on indefinitely; it hasn&#8217;t before.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!NAsO!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F835874cb-04d5-485e-a50c-89fb359cabac_1416x1103.png\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Robert Reich, 18 Aug 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/robertreich.substack.com\/p\/why-the-scumbag-in-chief-attracts\">Why Trump will fail<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The iron law of grovelers and those to whom they grovel&#8221;<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Monica Crowley, a former Fox News personality who is now Trump\u2019s chief of protocol, apparently left behind in a public area of an Alaskan hotel documents describing confidential planned movements of Trump and Putin during their Friday meeting in Alaska.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s nothing compared to Emil Bove, Trump\u2019s new nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, who reputedly told subordinates at the Department of Justice that they should tell the courts \u201cf*uck you\u201d and ignore any court order blocking the deportations of Venezuelan migrants declared to be gang members.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And then Billy Long, E.J. Antoni&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I haven\u2019t even mentioned the towering ineptitude of Trump\u2019s Cabinet picks, such as Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Kristi Noem. Or the flagrant cruelty and wild negligence of Trump assistants Russell Vought and Stephen Miller.<\/p>\n<p>How to explain the rise of so many inept and unprincipled people?<\/p>\n<p>Easy. They could never succeed on their own merits. As soon as their brainless incompetence became apparent \u2014 likely as soon as they took the first job that required some degree of intelligence and integrity \u2014 they were fired.<\/p>\n<p>So they learned that the if they wanted to be rewarded with promotions, money, and power, they could not rely on the normal processes and systems of recognition for jobs well done. If they were to make anything of themselves, they must instead become ass-lickers, lapdogs, and sycophants.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thus:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>They must latch onto someone who values loyalty above integrity or competence, someone for whom fawning obsequiousness is the most important criterion for being hired and promoted, ideally someone who cannot tell the difference between a groveling toady and a knowledgeable adviser.<\/p>\n<p>Enter Trump.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Heather on our idiot-child president.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from and American:<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/heathercoxrichardson.substack.com\/p\/august-18-2025\">August 18, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Excerpts&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This morning, J.D. Wolf of <em>Meidas News<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/heathercoxrichardson.substack.com\/p\/august-18-2025\">pulled together<\/a> [I inserted the link, from HCR&#8217;s soures] all of Trump\u2019s self-congratulatory posts from Sunday morning, when the president evidently was boosting his ego after Friday\u2019s disastrous meeting with Russia\u2019s president Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Trump shared an AI-generated meme of himself with a large male lion standing next to him and the words \u201cPeace through Strength. Anyone can make war, but only most courageous [sic] can make peace.\u201d He posted memes claiming he is the \u201cbest president\u2026in American history\u201d and the \u201cG[reatest] O[f] A[ll] T[ime], a \u201clegend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump also reposted material from two QAnon-related accounts and pushed the QAnon belief that the Democratic Party is \u201cthe party of hate, evil, and Satan.\u201d Trump has faced a rebellion among his QAnon supporters as he and administration officials have refused to release information from the federal investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and have moved Epstein&#8217;s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted of sex trafficking children, to a minimum-security prison camp and given her work-release privileges. It appears he\u2019s working to make QAnon supporters forget that he was named in those files and to lure them back to his support.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<br \/>\nTrump\u2019s social media account this morning posted a long screed saying the president is \u201cgoing to lead a movement to get rid of\u201d mail-in ballots and voting machines, and lying that the U.S. is the only country that uses mail-in voting because it is rife with fraud. As usual, the post claimed that Democrats \u201cCHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE\u201d and claimed they \u201care virtually Unelectable without using this completely disproven Mail-In SCAM.\u201d The post said he would sign an executive order \u201cto help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>This is bonkers across the board. Dozens of countries use mail-in voting, and there is zero evidence of widespread voter fraud in the U.S. Just today, news broke that right-wing channel Newsmax will pay $67 million to Dominion Voting Systems for spreading false claims that the company\u2019s voting technology had been rigged to give the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>These obvious lies make it seem crystal clear that Trump and his loyalists are preparing to reject any election results that they don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s panic about facing voters is increasingly evident. His job approval ratings are already abysmal, and the fallout from his tariffs and deportations is only now beginning to show. Last Thursday, a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the Producer Price Index\u2014wholesale costs that will likely show up later in consumer costs\u2014jumped 0.9% in July, the largest jump since June 2022, when the U.S. was mired in post-pandemic inflation. The wholesale price of vegetables jumped 38.9% in July.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With examples about the effects of tariffs, among other topics.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Another pair of related items.<\/p>\n<p>Remember how conservatives have always stressed states&#8217; rights? That&#8217;s what they&#8217;ve always said the Civil War was about (not slavery). They&#8217;re not so concerned about states&#8217; rights anymore.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/ap25226658105499.jpg?c=original&amp;q=w_860,c_fill\/f_avif\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>CNN, analysis by Aaron Blake, 18 Aug 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/08\/18\/politics\/mail-voting-trump-states-rights-analysis\">Trump\u2019s remarkable statement against states\u2019 rights<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/politics\/president-donald-trump-47\">President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> announcement Monday that he will sign an executive order aimed at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/08\/18\/politics\/trump-mail-in-voting\">getting rid of mail-in ballots<\/a> and voting machines seems unlikely to amount to much. He doesn\u2019t appear to have any such authority, and legal challenges would surely follow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmehlacor00053b6nxzj54ttl@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">But it was instructive in one way: It made clear the president elected to lead the party of states\u2019 rights has very little regard for states\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmehlacor00063b6n1kh6vamk@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">Indeed, he almost seems to disdain them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>While selling his new pitch to get rid of mail-in voting and voting machines, Trump included this remarkable pair of sentences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmehlacor00093b6n87v54866@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\u201cRemember, the States are merely an \u2018agent\u2019 for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes,\u201d the president <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/115049485680941254\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote on Truth Social<\/a>. \u201cThey must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmehlacor000a3b6ndmrgt8w3@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">Trump has described the states <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/factbase\/trump\/transcript\/donald-trump-speech-campaign-rally-pittsburgh-november-4-2024\/#102\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as \u201cagents\u201d of<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/factbase\/trump\/transcript\/donald-trump-speech-nrcc-republican-dinner-april-8-2025\/#181\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the federal government<\/a> before in this context, but without casting them as subservient to him personally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmehlacor000b3b6n7ey0ox2t@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">This is a rather novel take on the Constitution, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>All his MAGA fans don&#8217;t care, likely won&#8217;t notice. One more bit:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But just as striking as Trump\u2019s claim to power on Monday was his explicit statement that states are merely his \u201cagents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is very difficult to square with decades of conservative orthodoxy, which holds that the federal government should be small and that states should lead the way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>On the contrary. Trump&#8217;s administration wants to control everything at every level.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/08\/19\/multimedia\/19edsall-ftkc\/19edsall-ftkc-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, guest essay by Thomas B. Edsall, 19 Aug 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/08\/19\/opinion\/trump-intrusion-lincoln-roosevelt.html\">The Mind-Boggling Intrusiveness of Donald J. Trump<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Trump administration ranks among the most intrusive in American history, driving the tentacles of the federal government deep into the nation\u2019s economy, culture and legal system.<\/p>\n<p>Economically, the administration is dictating corporate behavior through tariffs, subsidies and the punishment of disfavored industries and companies, while rewarding allies with tax breaks and deregulation. And that\u2019s all before the government takes its cut.<\/p>\n<p>Culturally, Trump is seeking to redefine the boundaries of public discourse: pressuring universities, elevating grievance politics and reshaping federal agencies to reflect ideological loyalty rather than expertise or experience.<\/p>\n<p>Within the legal system, the administration is aggressively reshaping the federal judiciary, asserting executive power over independent institutions and using the Justice Department for political ends.<\/p>\n<p>Taken together, these interventions reveal a presidency determined to expand executive reach into virtually every sphere of national life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Again, his MAGA fans haven&#8217;t notice, or approve!<\/p>\n<p>As usual with Edsall essays, this one goes on with many quotes from various sources to support this thesis.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Links about the MAGA\/religious conservative mindset.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!ZVNv!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb89654e9-6c51-4f54-803d-ca35ce3c9473_1400x785.png\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta, 19 Aug 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.friendlyatheist.com\/p\/texas-lt-gov-dan-patrick-demands\">Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick demands citizens stand for Christian prayers\u2014or else<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p><strong>JMG, 19 Aug 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2025\/08\/charlie-kirk-naturalized-citizens-are-not-americans\/\">Charlie Kirk: Naturalized Citizens \u201cAre Not Americans\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Again, conservatives are obsessed with purity, and tribalism. Not principles.<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p><strong>JMG, 19 Aug 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2025\/08\/trump-attacks-woke-out-of-control-smithsonian-for-teaching-how-bad-slavery-was-instead-of-hailing-us\/\">Trump Attacks \u201cWoke Out Of Control Smithsonian\u201d For Teaching \u201cHow Bad Slavery Was\u201d Instead Of Hailing US<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once again: tribalism. The tribe is good. You are good. All of our tribe are good. Rely only on the stories we tell you. It&#8217;s the others who are bad.<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p><strong>JMG, 19 Aug 2025<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2025\/08\/charlie-kirk-and-energy-secretary-chris-wright-agree-that-science-says-nothing-about-climate-change\/\">Charlie Kirk And Energy Secretary Chris Wright Agree That \u201cScience Says Nothing\u201d About Climate Change<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tell me you&#8217;re an uneducated ignoramus without saying those words.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/usmagazine.theweek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1005\/2025\/08\/import\/the_week_us_2025_08_22-cover-c631943ebb6ce3465c1fe78847d1fe43-768x1024.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Reading the latest issue of <i>The Week<\/i>, and a piece about &#8220;Will medical science survive RFK Jr.?&#8221; that quotes this piece, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebulwark.com\/i\/170682558\/spitting-on-a-miracle\">Spitting on a Miracle<\/a>, from <strong>Bulwark, by Andrew Egger.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It concludes thus. The last line is the point.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When it comes to questions of misinformation, you can always find a line of heterodox thinking that wants to scold the elites first. People are supposed to believe crazy things about COVID and the shots because Anthony Fauci was too hectoring, or the official guidance for how to deal with the pandemic changed too many times, or because Joe Biden was too heavy-handed with vaccine mandates. But it\u2019s impossible to tell that story with a straight face here. America didn\u2019t turn on an unbelievably promising vaccine technology that <em>literally just saved millions of our lives like two seconds ago <\/em>because of an elite failure. They did so because right-wing distrust for anything that feels \u201cofficial\u201d is a suppurating wound on the body politic, and the infection has spread to the brain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Reich on groveling and inept and unprincipled people; Heather Cox Richardson on our idiot-child president; By wanting to banish mail-in ballots nationwide, Trump attacks states&#8217; rights, a conservative principle for centuries; On the same theme, Thomas B. Edsall looks &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2025\/08\/19\/further-reports-on-the-current-crisis\/\">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":[18,54,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lunacy","category-politics","category-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25551","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=25551"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25601,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25551\/revisions\/25601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}