A mixed second day—a sign of progress!
January 23, 2025
The second full day of Trump's new term was decidedly mixed—which is a good sign for those defending democracy and the rule of law. It is customary that a president’s initial weeks (or months) are a “honeymoon" with the press and public in which the president carefully orchestrates the introduction of policy initiatives to maximize their chances of success.
Not so with Trump. He planned a campaign of “shock and awe” with a blitzkrieg of executive orders designed to exact revenge and promote white supremacy. Trump's plan provoked shock—but not awe.
With the benefit of twenty-four hours, it is clear that Trump's mass pardon of the January 6 insurrectionists was a grievous political mistake. The Fraternal Order of Police, which supported Trump's re-election bid, issued a statement condemning Trump's pardons. See Newsweek, Police Union That Endorsed Trump Condemns Jan 6 Pardons—'Dangerous Message'.
Congressional Republicans spent a second-day dodging questions about the appropriateness of Trump's pardons, continuing to claim they “didn’t know the details.” Pathetic. There aren’t many “details” in a mass pardon. But even that pathetic excuse was better than Speaker Mike Johnson’s changing explanations, which included his belief in “religious redemption,” “second chances,” and “looking forward, not back.”
But no sooner had Mike Johnson embraced “looking forward, not back” to avoid answering questions about the pardons, Johnson announced a new House subcommittee to examine the events of January 6. See Huffington Post, After Saying Republicans Are ‘Not Looking Backwards’ On Jan. 6 Pardons, Mike Johnson Announces New Jan. 6 Committee.
Democrats raked Republicans over the coals in House floor speeches that give a preview of how dearly Republican candidates will pay for the pardons in 2026. See The Hill, Jeffries bashes GOP over J-6 pardons: ‘Don’t ever lecture America again’, and Mediate, ‘I Don’t Ever Want To Hear About Law and Order From Your Side Again’: Democrat Torches Trump’s Pardons on House Floor.
Even Trump's private PR newspaper—the Wall Street Journal—published an editorial that criticized the pardons as a mockery of Republican “law and order” principles. See WSJ, Trump Pardons the Jan. 6 Cop Beaters.
Per the WSJ Editorial Board,
[The mass pardon] includes those convicted of bludgeoning, chemical spraying, and electroshocking police to try to keep Mr. Trump in power. Now he’s springing them from prison.
This is a rotten message from a President about political violence done on his behalf, and it’s a bait and switch. Asked about Jan. 6 pardons in late November, Mr. Trump projected caution. “I’m going to do case-by-case, and if they were nonviolent, I think they’ve been greatly punished,” he said. “We’re going to look at each individual case.”
In the hands of the WSJ editorial board, “bait and switch” means “Trump lied.”
Trump will survive this firestorm, but he has burned huge amounts of political capital while double-crossing and embarrassing GOP officeholders who assured the American people Trump would not pardon those who attacked cops. As the WSJ noted,
Taking cues from the boss, last week Vice President JD Vance drew a clear line: “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”
Trump is out of control and burning bridges with people who attempted to normalize him in advance of the election and his inauguration. There is no normalizing Trump. Those who do are complicit in his depravity.
Trump launches full-scale attack on diversity programs in federal government
Trump's bad start to his second full day in office got worse as he announced that he was shutting down all federal agency programs to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (referred to as DEI). Trump expanded “DEI” to include an “A” (for “accessibility”)—apparently indicating an attempt to root out efforts to expand the representation of disabled individuals protected by the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). See Mother Jones, Trump Shuts Down Diversity Programs Across Government.
Internal memos at federal agencies announced the immediate abolition of “DEIA” in ominous language that suggested a police state. The memos said,
The Department [AGENCY” NAME] is taking steps to close all agency DEIA offices and end all DEIA-related contracts in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders titled Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions.
These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.
We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language. If you are aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024, to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, please report all facts and circumstances to [omitted email address] within 10 days.
There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information. However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences.
Worse, the email threatens federal employees with punishment if they fail to “snitch” on other federal workers who fail to comply with vague, retrospective regulations designed to sniff out alleged “underground efforts” to promote diversity. The analog to Nazi Germany is direct. No similes or metaphors are needed. The memo is a complete one-to-one mapping onto the tactics of Hitler’s SS.
For once, the NYTimes headline writers got it right: Federal Workers Ordered to Report on Colleagues Over D.E.I. Crackdown.
As noted in Slate, the anti-DEIA order is one of the few orders that may have far-reaching effects. See Shirin Ali in Slate, Trump executive orders 2025: There are a few we should really be worried about.
The wholesale assault on diversity in the federal workforce is consistent with the three pillars of Trump's campaign—racism, sexism, and white supremacy.
Congress is empowered to take steps to overcome the effects of slavery (See 14th Amendment, Section 5, “The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”)
The notion that promoting diversity is “radical” and “wasteful” ignores the Civil War, its outcome, and three-quarters of a century of efforts to implement the promise of the 14th Amendment. See generally, Axios, Trump rolls back bedrock LBJ civil rights measure, orders anti-DEI probes.
Other Trump actions to promote sexism, racism, and white supremacy
Trump took the following additional steps to make the federal workforce white, male, and illiterate:
The Spanish language website on WhiteHouse.gov disappeared as soon as Trump took office. See The Hill, White House Spanish language page shut down. A WhiteHouse source assured The Hill that the website would go back online—sometime. Don’t hold your breath.
A federal website devoted to providing reproductive healthcare information has been taken offline. See CBS News, Government website offering reproductive health information goes offline. Per CBS,
The site, launched in 2022 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of a public awareness campaign, contained information on access to abortion and reproductive health care and a Know-Your-Rights patient fact sheet.
The Trump administration has canceled various scientific meetings and seminars designed to advance knowledge regarding human diseases. See STAT, Trump administration abruptly cancels scientific meetings, panels.
Per STAT,
A Feb. 20-21 meeting of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, a panel that advises the leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services on vaccine policy, was also canceled. So was a meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria that was scheduled for Jan. 28 and 29.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will retain interest in lawsuit against Covid vaccine manufacturers
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supports himself, in part, by referring lawsuits to plaintiff lawfirms that specialize in suing pharmaceutical manufacturers. He has an ongoing financial interest in the outcome of lawsuits currently being litigated against Merck—one of the manufacturers of a Covid vaccine. See Health News Florida, RFK Jr. plans to keep a financial stake in lawsuits against the drugmaker Merck
Kennedy claims that because he is not the trial lawyer in the matters, he is free to continue his financial interest a lawsuit against a vaccine manufacturer over which he exercises oversight. That situation creates an obvious potential for conflict. According to one expert,
"RFK Jr's ethics agreement is inadequate because it doesn't address the bias created by his continuing financial interest in the litigation against Merck," Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in government ethics wrote to NPR.
New affidavit from Hegseth former sister-in-law alleges abusive relationship with ex-wife
Pete Hegseth is the subject of new allegations that he abuses women. His former sister-in-law provided an affidavit to congressional staffers that alleges he was abusive toward his second wife. See AP, Pete Hegseth's former sister-in-law alleges abuse against second wife.
Hegseth’s defense to the new allegations is that he did not “physically” abuse his former wife. The only problem is that the affidavit doesn’t allege physical abuse.
Per the AP story, Hegseth’s former sister-in-law provided the affidavit because she believes the FBI failed to report her statement to Senators on the committee reviewing Hegseth’s nomination. AP also reports,
The affidavit describes Hegseth’s treatment of his second wife, Samantha, and alleges repeat drunkenness and a domestic situation where Samantha Hegseth had a safe word to indicate if she was in danger at home. Danielle Hegseth said Samantha texted that safe word to her sometime in 2015 or 2016, which prompted her to call a third party for help.
The revelation of the affidavit from Hegseth’s sister-in-law caused the FBI to re-interview Hegseth’s second wife, who reportedly told the FBI that “He drinks more often than he doesn’t.”
Hegseth is not qualified to hold any job for the federal government, let alone Secretary of Defense. But support for Hegseth has become a loyalty test for Trump. Republican Senators are about to walk off the ledge for Trump, again. Will they ever learn?
Opportunities for Reader Engagement
Join Civic Sunday’s for a session on combatting misinformation.
Please join Civic Sundays L.A.’s Truth Bomb Briefing via zoom, on Monday, January 29th at 4:30pm PST/ 7:30pm EST. We all know that we need to change our messaging to combat misinformation, and this is an exciting strategy for doing just that. This will allow Pro-Democracy Democrats to use our creativity and social media to send unified messages designed to fight the misinformation that contributed to our November electoral loss. This exciting strategy will be presented by Johanna Siegmann.
Civic Sundays L.A. is a group of activists dedicated to opposing the Trump Administration, and electing pro-democracy candidates to elected office at all levels of government. They meet every Sunday in Los Angeles.
Please sign up to attend this Truth Bomb presentation via zoom HERE.
If you are in L.A. you can join Civic Sundays on any Sunday, by signing up HERE .
Join 31st Street Swing Left as it supports the most important election in 2025
My friends at 31st Street Swing Left sent the following note, which is more than the usual pitch for support. It discusses the most consequential state election in 2025.
Readers may recall that in 2023 we helped elect Judge Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, giving progressives a 4-3 majority on the Court. With that majority, the Court required the drawing of fair legislative maps making it possible for Democrats to gain 14 seats in the state legislature.
Now, in 2025, a very impressive candidate, Judge Susan Crawford, is running to replace a retiring progressive, and we need her to maintain the majority in this non-partisan race. If she wins, fair redrawn US House maps could make it possible to elect two Democrats to the U.S. Congress later on. Losing the progressive majority would be a huge setback for Wisconsin.
Please join 31st Street Swing Left at their fundraiser for Power to the Polls and Wisconsin Native Vote, at 7PM ET on January 30, featuring Power to the Polls President and former Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin, Mandela Barnes.
31st Street Swing Left is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to electing Democrats, up and down the ballot, through persistence and precision. Here is the Link to Register for this free event.
And here is the Link To Donate To Power To The Polls and here to Donate To Wisconsin Native Vote, (tax deductible) - a program of Wisconsin Conservation Voices.
Concluding Thoughts
Congress passed the Laken Riley Act anti-immigration bill on Wednesday. Trump will sign the bill, which will allow the indefinite detention of immigrants accused of a crime—thereby overriding the presumption of innocence to which everyone in America is entitled (including immigrants). See The Guardian, Laken Riley Act passes US House, sending anti-immigrant bill to Trump.
The bill also grants state attorneys general to sue the federal government over immigration policy—thereby turning the Constitution on its head. For obvious reasons, the Framers granted exclusive authority over immigration to the federal government. Having 50 separate states in charge of immigration policy (through litigation) is madness. The law is plainly unconstitutional.
The law's passage with significant Democratic support is a bitter and disappointing outcome, even more so because newly elected Democrats supported the bill. Many readers helped elect those new members of Congress and did not expect that one of their first actions would be to side with a Trump-backed, vindictive, unconstitutional piece of legislation.
The situation would be different if, for example, the legislation set policy that was merely a difference of opinion about enforcement priorities and methodologies. However, supporting a law that grants states extra constitutional authority over immigration and deprives due process rights recognized by the Supreme Court makes it difficult to rationalize the vote by Democrats in the House and Senate.
In legal terms, this situation stinks. But we have too much at stake to turn on the Democrats who supported the bill. Rightly or wrongly (hint: wrongly) they believe that they are protecting their electoral prospects in 2026 and beyond, hoping to secure Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. While their intentions are good, their calculations are wrong. MAGA faithful will give them zero credit for supporting the bill—and some Democratic voters will never forgive them.
We have significant battles on the horizon. My advice is unchanged: we must remain unified, no matter what. Republicans have demonstrated an unnatural ability to remain unified despite daily reasons from Trump that should fracture their party. Against that adversary, we have no choice. Stick together. United we stand, divided we fail.
That’s it for this evening.
Daily Dose of Perspective
The image below is of a portion of Barnard’s Loop, a huge emission nebula about 300 light-years from end-to-end and 1,600 light-years from Earth. The portion of the nebula shown in the photo below captures about one-tenth of the nebula (due to the limited field of view of my telescope).
Enjoy!
Minor but telling detail:
During the Biden Administration, the White House website had provisions for emailing the president and the vice president. They always sent an email to acknowledge having received the email.
The current White House website allows no communications with the president, vice president or anyone else. Not surprising that Trump isn't interested in what the American people want or need.
I just don't get it. Where is the leadership? Where is the opposition? Where is the actual resistance?
Yes, maybe in the last 24 hours Trump has come to realize that he made a mistake by taking the pardons farther than most people are willing to go. But what will the consequences be? From where I'm sitting, what he's managed to do is normalize the pardoning of 1,500 insurrectionists because all we're talking about now is the violent ones. In effect he has succeeded in rewriting the history of J6. I understand that the implicit understanding on our side is "can't we least agree about the violent ones?" But that's not the effect.
And I would be very happy to bet that not a single MAGA person heard or read a single word of any fiery speech on the floor of Congress. Who cares? That crap is so 20th century. It is just not good enough. Where are the Willie Horton-esque commercials (meaning any kind of communication) intended to instill fear and remind people that these folks are coming to YOUR neighborhood.? I mean the template is literally already there. And where are the commercials showing Elon Musk making Nazi salutes with the voice over noting that Elon spent his formative years as a pampered, privileged white boy in apartheid South Africa? I mean even Democrats ought to be able to craft a message that draws a direct connection (hopefully express but at least implied) between apartheid and nazis. Where are the commercials showing an elderly couple sitting in front of a stack of cash, watching the bills fly off the table as the narrator explains how Trump has uncapped prescription prices? Need I go on?
Speeches in the halls of Congress, even if they're on C-Span, just don't cut it. They may arguably be necessary but they are nowhere near sufficient. And can we finally stop referring to "ethics experts" to explain why something is wrong? Ethics experts are more out than the WaPo. Nobody is listening. Why can't we just call a crook a crook? Where are the commercials explaining that Trump's "cryptocurrency" is simply a bribery scheme? Where are the commercials that explain in small words how RFK, Jr. will benefit directly from decisions he makes as Health Secretary? Come to think of it, where are the commercials stating clearly that RFK wants your kids to go to school w/ other kids who haven't been vaccinated against almost eliminated childhood diseases that are actually quite serious if your kid gets one? Or even that if RFK were in charge there wouldn't have been covid vaccines and your, yes YOUR, grandma would have died? Need I go on?
I want a coherent, consistent message. I even want that message to be proactive, not reactive but I get that that's wishful thinking right now. I want hard-hitting direct responses that employ concepts like right and wrong and good and bad using modern communications methods and channels and simple words . I want somebody to represent ME in this WAR we are fighting.