Drizzling chilled rain this early-evening Wednesday here in California’s Central Valley, with just a hint of daylight left, looking like a cold, wet, dark night.
Of course, it’s always normally dark at night, unless there’s light.
As we progress through the 44th day of the T-Rump’s wild ride in an on-going attempt to dismantle the US government, bring chaos and dozens of assorted shitstorms to the nation, and indirectly, the world. As an old guy — 76 last November — the idea of freezing Social Security payments chills the living daylights out of me: It’s early-evening anyway! And if this Elon Muskrat coup continues unabated in its present form, we’re in for some bad-ass shit happening soon.
A for-instance — Martin O’Malley, former commissioner of the Social Security Administration, on Monday: ‘“Ultimately, you’re going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits … I believe you will see that within the next 30 to 90 days … people should start saving now.”‘
Reality is a hardscabble future:
"We're going to have to suffer through some bad news." To them, it's just bad news. A bummer headline. To actual real people, it means losing a job. Losing benefits. Losing their house, their car, their savings. This isn't a game.
— Jake Schwitzer (@jakeschwitzer.bsky.social) 2025-03-05T21:48:23.665Z
Short run, long lasting — Randall Kennedy at Prospect magazine this morning:
In years to come, in small ways and large, Americans will pay exorbitantly for the Trump administration’s signature savagery in gutting the civil service without an iota of courteousness, gratitude or attentiveness to the practical rigours that people face in changing jobs. Crucially, slashing the federal bureaucracy in the Trump-Musk fashion seems designed to make it less capable of providing needed services, and to exacerbate widespread distrust in the very idea of public provision. Cuts to national park staff will make potentially glorious outdoor spaces unsafe. Cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will make the government less able to respond to disasters. Cuts to the Internal Revenue Service will lessen the government’s ability to collect the taxes that contribute to collective upkeep.
A particularly worrisome feature of the Trump administration’s abuse of the federal workforce and federal funding is its obvious hostility towards medical science, which is perhaps a hangover from battles begun during the coronavirus pandemic. Research laboratories received “stop work” orders after the government froze foreign aid. Massive proposed cuts in funding for scientists at universities and the National Institutes of Health will delay, if not stymie, important discoveries and innovations. Anyone who might one day become a patient—meaning everyone—stands to lose from the vilification of expertise in this moment.
Even although the shit is getting sharp-edged:
Trump hails his first month as the greatest first month of any president and he's more popular than ever. But…
— David Corn (@davidcorn.bsky.social) 2025-03-05T02:32:52.610Z
A nasty round-out of 44 days of a massive, long-lasting/far-reaching shitstorm:
As bleak as it seems, or not, yet here we are once again …
(Illustration out front: Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Old Man in Sorrow (On the Threshold of Eternity)‘ found here.)