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Jack-booted Thugs Another domino falls Mary L Trump Feb 22 Failing up. When Donald started rolling out his cabinet nominees, it seemed each one was worse—more corrupt, more vicious, incompetent, and unqualified—than the last. It seemed unthinkable that Republicans, for so long and erroneously considered the adults in the room when it came to national security, would even consider nominating such an unserious candidate as Pete Hegseth to be the Secretary of Defense, just as it seemed unthinkable that they would confirm an obvious Russian asset (or, as Russia media like to call her, “Putin’s girlfriend) to be Director of National intelligence. So, too, did the confirmations of Robert Kennedy, a notorious, virulent, and life-long anti-vaccine sociopath, to head Health and Human Services, or Kash Patel to head the FBI. The most egregiously bad (yes, I know that’s redundant) of the lot, of course, was Matt Gaetz, the nominee for attorney general. But despite being credibly accused of sex trafficking of a minor, Republicans still rallied around his nomination. Ultimately, though, those charges weren’t the problem for Gaetz—a plurality of American voters had put an adjudicated rapist back into the White House after all. No, the problem for Gaetz is that familiarity breeds contempt and, except for a few of his colleagues who are just as depraved, almost everybody hated him. He was, essentially, the Ted Cruz of the House of Representatives—but worse. Either because he knew he’d never be confirmed, or because he didn’t want to cause problems for Donald, or for some other corrupt reason, Gaetz dropped out to be replaced by Pam Bondi, an also-corrupt sycophant who, at least, was somewhat qualified—at least on paper. (Of course, this isn’t working out at all well for us either but, again, ostensibly the lesser of two evils, etc.) So maybe Gaetz was the sacrificial lamb, after all. Maybe he was picked because, as vicious and reprehensible as he was, all of the other nominees also looked like the lesser of two evils by comparison. That seemed to be the logic at the time, at least. But that should not have absolved Senate Republicans from their Constitutional duties. Yes, presidents-elect can nominate whichever depraved miscreants they wish, and their party will go a long way to confirm as many of those nominees as possible; but that is not an excuse for abdicating their senatorial responsibility to advice and consent. The transition would have been the time for Democrats in the Senate to strike. We still had the majority. They could have held their hearings into these nominees, actually substantive hearings, without the absurd limitations Republicans placed upon the process in January and February of 2025. These hearings would have had no impact on the nominations themselves, but, if done properly they may have informed the American people just how unqualified, corrupt, and compromised these people were, and how contemptuous the incoming administration was of Americans’ health and security. If done properly, the Democrats could have brought pressure to bear on Senate Republicans by alerting and activating their constituents. But they did nothing. Did they think it wouldn’t matter? Did they think people would have forgotten by the time confirmation hearings took place starting in January? Well, they wouldn’t have forgotten if hearings had been held every day until the Senate changed hands in January. Or maybe they were so blinded by their wrong-headed belief in collegiality and Senate decorum, that they still could not fathom what we were up against, and what their colleagues were capable of? At that point, all that was left to hope for was that Senate Republicans would choose to protect American democracy. They had a 53-47 majority. They did not need one Democratic vote. But surely four Republicans would get it, and would understand that putting Kennedy in at HHS or Gabbard in as DNI would be utter and destructive madness. Apparently not. With every nominee who was confirmed, it became increasingly likely that the rest of them would be—many along party lines. But it wasn’t just that should have tipped us off. We were also witnessing the fact that nobody, nobody in the Republican Party was lifting a finger to halt, or even slow down the marauding of Donald and Elon Musk as they dismantled or weakened every single agency in the federal government. So, it should have come as no surprise that Kash Patel, the most obviously unfit, the most glaringly unqualified, and the most psychopathologically sycophantic would also get confirmed, yet another tiny man being handed power he does not deserve and could not possibly know how to wield. The FBI is now in the hands of the man who for months now has claimed that the agency is part of the deep state; that he has an enemies list comprised of those who have stood up to and spoken out against his pathetic boss. This is new territory—it’s all new territory. And I hate to end on a truism, but I think it’s apt: This is all going to get so much worse before it gets better. And we need to be prepared. Stay vigilant, everybody. __ I don’t remember the first time I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing, but “The Lady Is a Tramp” is the first song of hers I loved. To me, her voice is the greatest of all the voices. She is elegant and whip-smart. She was a consummate musician with an extraordinary range. She is deep while also having a brilliant sense of humor. She is Ella. And this song never fails to thrill me. Even now, it never fails to bring me joy. And that’s what I’m choosing to take out into the world.

There Is No Worst Opposition in the age of accommodation Mary L. Trump Jan 26 The storm is here This is an updated version of a piece I wrote last February. In light of the rather stunning amount of backsliding that’s occurred in the last six days, I thought it was worth revisiting and expanding in order to take into account our new circumstances. I honestly don’t remember what the impetus for the original piece was, but I thought it was appropriate to examine the original premise in the context of our current reality. Of course, Donald and the Republican Party wasted no time taking a hatchet to the rule of law, anti-discrimination legislation, the Constitution, and a plethora of other things. The onslaught of changes is designed to keep us off balance, but let’s keep an eye on the ways in which, regardless of the empty rhetoric, the actions of the new administration will negatively impact the lives of tens of millions of Americans, while destroying the lives of many undocumented workers who came here simply because they wanted a shot at a better future. None of the executive orders, changes within the executive branch and government ages will improve the lives of the poor, working, and middle classes. And none of it should be surprising. In Henry James’ The Bostonians, published in 1885, only twenty years after the Civil War, Basil Ransom, a southern conservative, and his cousin Olive Chancellor, a Bostonian feminist, battle for the affections of (and control over) the heiress Verena Tarrant. The fundamental problem with the novel, however, is that Ransom sided with the Confederacy. He supported secession because his family owned other human beings and they wanted to continue to be able to do so. Ransom has lost his fortune and he comes north after the South loses the war in order to jump-start his career as a lawyer. Early on in the novel, it becomes clear that, as distasteful as his northern counterparts might find his politics, Ransom is going to be welcomed into their drawing rooms and at their dinner parties despite the fact that he is both an unreconstructed racist an enemy of America. I love Henry James’ work in part because of his innate and deep understanding of the complexities and limits of human relationships (including our relationships to ourselves), but once Ransom is accepted and normalized, I had to put the book down. This man was an unrepentant monster who believed thoroughly in The Lost Cause. He regrets the war not because he has an epiphany about the egregiousness of what he willingly participated in, but because he and his family were ruined by it. The failures of Reconstruction are legion—or, more accurately, the failures of white mostly Republican northerners to fulfill the vast promise of Reconstruction are legion—and one seed of those failures was the ostensibly simple act of allowing these serial killers a place at the table without question or consequence after the Civil War ended. I grew up with my own serial killers (using the term loosely and metaphorically, of course), and even if I didn’t know that’s who they were, I had inklings from a very young age. I didn’t know what the racism, and the homophobia, and the misogyny were at first, but I did see the cruelty and I made myself as small as possible so I never became a target of it. There was no need to bother, of course, because as a girl and as my father’s daughter I was of no consequence to them. (That of course is its own kind of cruelty.) As I got older and recognized the extent of my family’s bigotry, I still said nothing. I pretended it was all just fine because they were my family and what else was I supposed to do? I even allowed myself to become close with a couple of them long after I knew better. And that’s how the accommodation starts. We grow up with the unacceptable and the unbearable and accommodation becomes a tool we use to make our lives easier. Accommodating the unacceptable and the unbearable is more often than not easier than doing the right thing—and then it becomes habitual. Eventually, we use it to let ourselves off the hook, because that’s easier, too. Maya Angelou made doing the right thing look easy. “[The negative] lives,” she said, “And if you allow it to perch in your house, in your mind, in your life, it can take you over. So, when the rude or cruel thing is said—the lambasting, the gay bashing, the hate—I say, ‘Take it all out of my house!’ Those negative words climb into the woodwork and into the furniture, and the next thing you know they'll be on my skin.” She would not allow, “poison and vulgarity” in her house. Any racial or sexual pejorative is designed to make a person less than, she said, and that kind of hateful disregard seeps in, leaps from one person to the next. “One isn’t necessarily born with courage,” Angelou told us, “but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” She counseled us to do one courageous thing in a small way. From there, do another, and then another until, finally, you can say, without hesitation, to the bigoted and the cruel, “no, not in my house you don’t.” This country is our shared home. If right now it feels as though it’s been invaded by vandals, it has. The serial killers aren’t just the people who’ve been pardoned and released from prison—they’re the people currently occupying the seats of power and doing the pardoning. It’s inexcusable for those who know better to normalize them, but it’s unconscionable to accommodate them. Too many Democrats are playing that game and what we need to do, what we need to admonish them to do, is start saying, “Take it all out of my house!” And then we can move forward. Like the Boston socialites and suffragettes who invited Basil Ransom into their drawing rooms, we know exactly who these people are. If we remain naive enough to give them the benefit of the doubt or extend them any grace, we will continue to be punished for it. For over a year, our leaders told us how dangerous another Trump administration would be. They warned us about the encroaching fascism that was poised to throttle our democracy. But as soon as our side lost, many of these people relinquished much of the power they still possessed or exited the stage or chose to become accommodationists to one degree or another. I’ve been calling Donald and his followers, sycophants, and enablers fascists publicly since the 2020 presidential election. It is deeply depressing to have been proven right, but so much worse that over 74 million Americans either did not believe the evidence right in front of them or simply didn’t care. But here we are. Those who understand the gravity of the situation, who acknowledge that the leaders of the party in power are indeed fascists, should never accommodate them, never lift a finger to make their lives more comfortable, never make their dark work easier. You would think that the least we could ask of them is that they never shake their hands, never invite them in, and never, for the sake of human decency, validate them. I never would. I was listening to one of my old playlists this afternoon and “Everybody Gotta Know,” from her 1983 album The Key, by the great Joan Armatrading, came on. I hadn’t heard it in awhile, and now I can’t get it out of my head. I’m not entirely sure if you’ll know what I mean, but makes me feel understood: Sometimes I think I've told it all So plainly But there's no one there To hear the words I say Sometimes It all sounds so crazy Your version of the story That I know Oh when your memory Fails you Everybody Gotta know this feeling

The Keepers of the Flame What comes next in our waning democracy Mary L. Trump Jan 19 Yearning to breathe free. [Photo credit: EyeEm Mobile GmbH] On this eve before we turn our once great democracy over to a cabal of insurrectionists, oligarchs, and fascists, I have been thinking about President Biden’s farewell address. I didn’t write about it at the time because I found it an odd and uncomfortable mixture of vague warnings, an abbreviated gesture towards his administration’s success, and a celebration of America. It was jarring if not entirely off-putting. In the end, his remarks made me sad. In reading them over, especially in light of what we are soon to face—have already been facing—I wanted to Biden’s assessment of where he believes things stand and highlight his final call to the American people: the challenge, as it were, if we choose to accept it. It goes without saying that Biden’s address would have landed differently if Kamala Harris were being sworn in tomorrow. That, unfortunately, is not our fate. And it’s why much of what Biden said made me think more about squandered opportunities than the very real accomplishments of the last four years. “In the past four years, our democracy has held strong.” No, Mr. President, it did not. Because if, when all is said and done, you fell at the final hurdle, knowing, as you leave office, that the vast bulk of your accomplishments will be undermined and, in some cases, completely reversed in the very near future; if you fell short of succeeding at your greatest challenge—protecting democracy from the person and party who are hell-bent on destroying it—by what calculus can you claim that democracy held strong? Essentially, the mechanisms of the democratic process were used to dismantle it. Biden continued, We can never lose that essential truth to remain who we are. I’ve always believed, and I told other world leaders, America will be defined by one word: possibilities. Only in America do we believe anything is possible. Like a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, sitting behind this desk in the Oval Office as president of the United States.” It was also possible in 21st century America for a creature like Donald Trump to ascend to the presidency. In 2016 he did so despite a long, sordid history of failure, a stunning lack of experience, and the kind of bigotry and cruelty that should have been, but never was, disqualifying. It was possible for him to get elected, after he committed unspeakable crimes against the American people and the Constitution during his first term, and then assaulted the very institutions and values of this country during the intervening four years when he was out of office but so very obviously not out of power. The reality of Donald’s arc was in tension with the picture Biden clearly wanted to paint—that democracy has “held strong"—and the realities of how weakened this nation has been by those benighted accomplices who have, relentlessly and maliciously, assailed thus nation at every turn for the sake of power, personal gain, and a thirst for division that is the specialty of the man they elevated, protected, and for whom they sold what little was left of their souls. Biden ended his remarks where he began them, by invoking the imagery and symbolism of the Statue of Liberty: The Statue of Liberty is also an enduring symbol of the soul of our nation, a soul shaped by forces that bring us together and by forces that pull us apart. . . . [W]e know the idea of America, our institution, our people, our values that uphold it, are constantly being tested. There is a story of a veteran — a veteran, a son of an immigrant, whose job was to climb that torch and polish the amber panes so rays of light could reach out as far as possible. He was known as the keeper of the flame. He once said of the Statue of Liberty, “Speaks a silent, universal language, one of hope that anyone who seeks and speaks freedom can understand.” Yes, we sway back and forth to withstand the fury of the storm, to stand the test of time, a constant struggle, constant struggle. A short distance between peril and possibility. But what I believe is the America of our dreams is always closer than we think. And it’s up to us to make our dreams come true. I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands — a nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure. Now it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith. Tomorrow will be a very dark day—there is no pretending otherwise. But I do take comfort in the knowledge that so much of what they intend is already out in the open. They no longer feel the need to hide their criminal intent. They plan to strip America for parts and they will do so in broad daylight. And we will be watching. We will counter corporate media’s grotesque assumption that all of it—the racism, the criminality, the greed, the breathtaking cruelty, the fascism—are already baked in and therefore of no consequence. We know this is not true. We will be the keepers of the flame and, as Emma Lazarus’ poem says of the Statue of Liberty, we we lift our lamps—as a beacon to those who feel lost, betrayed, and frightened, yes. But also to shine our light, continually, on what they try to get away with. We will keep the flame burning as long as it takes. I take comfort in that, too.

         In addition to the TODDLER creating CHAOS & LIES, 

        MAGA MAGGOTS have contributed to the false 

        absurdities that contribute to this staggering tragedy!

Welcome to the Old Abnormal “A staggering quantity of wrongness" Mary L. Trump Jan 11 “Hell itself.” We all know people who aren’t great in a crisis. They lose their cool at the first sign of trouble or become paralyzed when things get frightening. That’s human nature, though. That’s instinct: fight, flight, freeze. When it comes to our leaders, however, we expect them to be cool in a crisis while simultaneously having the skill to keep us calm. They need to be able to reassure us, lead all of us during our worst moments, and get us through it in one piece. We must be able to count on and trust them when we are facing the kind of crisis currently unfolding in California. On Tuesday, as you know, fires broke out in several areas across Los Angeles county. Many of these fires continue to rage out of control. At least 11 people have lost their lives, and at least 13 are missing; over 12,000 structures have been damaged and 153,000 people are still under evacuation orders. Meteorologists say the blaze in Pacific Palisades, which continues to spread, will have to burn to the ocean. Due to the combination of fierce winds and excessively dry conditions, firefighters will not be able to stop it without the assistance of the Pacific Ocean. Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley stated Thursday morning, “ We are absolutely not out of danger yet.” Unfortunately for us, one of the people who has been most vocal, and least useful, during this ongoing tragedy—Donald Trump—is terrible in a crisis. By that, I don’t mean he doesn’t handle crises well (although this is undoubtedly true), I mean he exploits tragedies for his own ends, making things worse for the rest of us in the process. While a significant portion of our most populous state is literally on fire, conspiracists and purveyors of disinformation on the far right—and let’s be honest, they’re always on the right—are following Donald’s lead by politicizing the disaster. Instead of rallying support and taking action to aid his fellow Americans, Donald is using his considerable platform to attack his perceived political enemies and stoke division. Donald’s first responses to the ongoing devastation, was to publish a series of rage posts aimed at Gavin Newsom: “One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground. It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” And then Donald claimed that Newsom “refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.” “I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes.” Because of these reckless lies, Governor Newsom’s office had to take to Twitter to clarify that Donald’s claims are “pure fiction.” For example, the so-called water restoration declaration does not exist. During an appearance on CNN, Daniel Dale mentioned a conversation he had with Jeffrey Mount, an expert on water policy, who verified that nothing Donald has been saying about the Los Angeles wildfires—what caused them and how they are being handled—is true. Dale said that Donald’s comments about the fires contain, “A staggering quantity of wrongness,” which seems an accurate description of Donald Trump’s entire life.] During an interview on with Gov. Newson, Anderson Cooper asked Governor Newsom to respond to Donald’s rants, even as the fires raged. Look at that backdrop, and consider how grotesque it is that Newsom, who is trying to manage an unfathomable tragedy impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Californians, had to divert any of his energy to pushback against Donald’s slander. One of the most frustrating things about all of this is that none of it is surprising—Donald is no longer an unknown quantity. After four years of his first administration, we are all too familiar with the sort of chaos he brings to already fraught situations. He has, in fact, a long, sordid history of making things worse. There were quite a few natural disasters between 2017 and 2021 that gave Donald the opportunity to demonstrated his unique combination of ignorance, indifference, and cruelty. 2017: Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. This was the first time many Americans got to see just how useless he was in an emergency. Worse, he also revealed his jaw-dropping lack of empathy. 2019: Hurricane Dorian descended upon the southeast. As it approached the east coast, Donald tweeted that Dorian was heading toward Alabama. It was not. The National Weather Service, whose job it is to inform the American people about weather-related emergencies, corrected him, tweeting, “Alabama will not see any impacts from Dorian.” Oh, the audacity. Donald did not handle this well because he is absolutely incapable of admitting he's wrong. In a fit of ego-driven stupidity, he took a Sharpie and altered a map of the hurricane’s path to include Alabama. 2020: Covid. For the first time in modern history, the leader of the United States of America, used a global crisis in the form of a pandemic to pit American states against each other. Then he divided American citizens against each other. He politicized wearing masks, the most simple and effective way to contain the spread of the virus. Then refused to take the crisis seriously. Because of his inaction, and his inability to course correct, and his inability to give a shit about other human beings, hundreds of thousands of Americans died needlessly. Every day in January, 2021, we lost more Americans than we had on September 11th, 2001. The Covid pandemic should have been an opportunity to unite the American people. Instead, it was one of the most divisive periods in our history and those divisions have only worsened over time. 2023: Tropical Storm Ophelia devastated parts of North Carolina bringing massive amounts of rainfall which caused storm surges and unprecedented flooding. Donald was out of power, but as a presidential candidate, he continued to have a platform from which to spread disinformation. He had a significant impact on the public's perception of the government’s disaster response and negatively influenced the ways in which victims understood the efforts of the Biden administration, in general and FEMA, in particular. We've seen the real world consequences of what happens when Donald is in charge during a crisis. He’s withheld disaster aid from states whose governors didn’t pay him sufficient obeisance; he’s diverted resources away from first responders; he’s repeatedly failed communities in crisis, and he’s often made recommendations based on pseudo-science that have made everything worse. (He actually recommended detonating a nuclear warhead in the eye of a hurricane in 2020.) What we can expect, because we've seen time and time again: If you need help in a crisis, but you do not kiss Donald’s ass sufficiently, he will not help you. He will use the crisis to perpetuate misinformation and conspiracy theories which will lead to a greater loss of life. He will blame the victims. He will divide us against each other. That is the playbook. Due to climate change, natural disasters now occur with greater frequency; the intensity and destructive power of hurricanes and wildfires are increasing. One of the reasons we're here is because there has been a drive, even by people who should know better, to bury the past. We need to be prepared, and the best way to do that is to remember what has already happened. It isn’t only worsening natural disasters we need to worry about—bird flu is on the rise again. As of now, according to the Centers for Disease Control, there have been 66 confirmed human cases of H5N1 bird flu. The first confirmed death was announced this week in Louisiana. With Donald’s nomination of Robert Kennedy to head of the Department of Health and Human Services, this puts us at increasing risk. Kennedy is a notorious leader of the anti-vax movement. I don’t have any idea what he gets out of spreading lies, but he's an environmental attorney. He's not a doctor, he's not an immunologist, he's not a virologist. He's not a scientist of any kind. Nobody should be listening to Kennedy about anything related to vaccines or disease or human health. I do know what Donald gets out of stirring up chaos and division during those times when we need unity. Division benefits him, even if, or maybe especially if it's at the expense of the rest of us. Division wears us down, even as it leaves him unaltered. I actually think it energizes him. We know what's coming and we know how to combat what’s headed our way: stick together—don’t let anybody tell you that the best way for you to survive in a crisis is to stop caring about other people. Remember, it was during Covid that Donald found the most effective way to tear us apart—he politicized a disease that should have been our common enemy. It didn't matter to him that the result of his malicious actions and inactions during the terrifying period between March 2020 and January 2021 ended up killing hundreds of thousands of Americans. Because what was true then, what has always been true, and will always be true is that if Donald Trump can in any way profit from your death, he will facilitate it, and then he will ignore the fact that you died. At a press conference in Southern California, the FEMA Regional Administrator informed those affected that they can register for assistance these ways: Go to https://disasterassistance.gov Download the FEMA app Call (800) 621-3362 If you are out there, please stay safe. And, if you are able, please support the following: CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: Provides support to families of firefighters PASADENA HUMANE SOCIETY: Helps with pet evacuations in the Los Angeles area AMERICAN RED CROSS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES: Shelter, food, water, health and mental health services for evacuees WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: Provides food and water to first responders and evacuees Thank you. And please stay safe.