the DON JONES
INDEX… |
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GAINS
POSTED in GREEN LOSSES
POSTED in RED 1/30/25... 14,@ 1/23/25... 14,907.73 |
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6/27/13… 15,000.00 |
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(THE DOW JONES INDEX: 1/23/25...
44,@ ; 1/23/25... 44,136.33; 6/27/13…
15,000.00) |
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LESSON for JANUARY
THIRTIETH, 2025 “Eee Eye, EI-O!”
Jan. 21st
– High Noon... Oath and Offense:
When last we
looked in on Donald Trump, his flying monkeys, lying flunkeys and the weeping and,
“resistence” either sitting silently in sober suits on Capitol chairs of
outside on a bitterly cold January 20th, he was stepping up to the
podium to take the Oath of Office making him the 45th and 47th
Presidents of the United States... and already preparing to mark the day, the
week and next four years with preposterous propositions...
BEFOREPLAY...
Some, but not all of the Show had
obviouslybeen scripted in advance. A little over a year ago, Donald Trump
claimed he would be a “dictator”—but only for the first 24 hours of his
presidency. Now, as his Jan. 20 inauguration approaches, wrote Nick Popli
(Time, Jan. 13th) the President-elect’s plans for his first day in
office are “becoming clearer.”
Trump had
told Republican Senators that he is preparing around 100 executive orders for the first
day of his presidency, designed to strike swiftly at the heart of the Biden
Administration’s legislative agenda. He has spent months teasing an ambitious
list of measures he would take on Day One, including shutting down the
U.S.-Mexico border, ending the Russia-Ukraine war, and pardoning Jan. 6
prisoners, among others.
“Look, I can undo almost everything Biden did, he through executive
order. And on Day One, much of that will be undone,” Trump told TIME in a November interview.
Popli listed some of the main promises Trump
said he would roll out on Day One of his Presidency and the DJI checked their
progress through Thursday morning...
Close the
border and reinstate travel bans
Achieved,
thanks to thousands of State, Local and... in a new development... Federal
troops.
Pardon Jan. 6
prisoners
Over-achieved. Trump had said that he would consider pardons “for some
individuals charged with violent offenses” and that, in addition to pardoning
individuals, Trump “he may establish a task force to review other cases of Jan.
6 participants still imprisoned.”
Intead, he even pardoned those convicted of the most serious assaults on
Capitol Police.
End the
Russia-Ukraine war
Not achieved.
End the
Russia-Ukraine war
Not achieved.
End the ‘electric
vehicle mandate’ and Green New Deal policies
Pending
Roll back federal
regulations
Pending
Ban transgender individuals
in women’s sports and the military
In Congress and, in
some cases, state and local authorities might help or hinder
Cut federal funding
for ‘woke’ schools
Pending… ref: debt
ceiling
End CRT and DEI
mandates in schools and the military and go back in time.
Uhhh... ending
CRT and DEI mandates in schools and the military has reaped toxic blowback from
Tuskegee University which says that deligitimization of the Tuskeegee Airmen in
World War II is racist, beginning mass deportations by ending birthright
citizenship necessitates going back in time to repeal the Fourteenth Amendment
or a complex removal process not tried since Prohibition. Paperwork commenced on woke mandates.
Deportations – eleven million expulsions might take a little
longer. Trump advisers have
signaled plans to direct the federal government to more aggressively use 287(g)
‒ a federal program
that empowers local law enforcement to carry out some immigration enforcement
duties and promised new tariffs on imports from Canada (rescinded if conquered
and made the 51st state), Mexico and China and save TikTok (done, at
least for ninety days)
“Shock and awe,”
Sen. John Barrasso, (R – Wy) predicted after
Republicans members of Congress received a preview of the activity to come. (See Lesson of 1/23, Attachment Seven)
As far as proposals most likely to face legal
or legislative challenges, USA noted that Trump’s proposal to
end birthright citizenship would seemingly have to pursue another amendment to
the Constitution to repeal the entire Fourteenth (such as the repeal of
Prohibition), “which would require support from two-thirds of Congress and
ratification from three-fourths of state legislatures.”
But, if successful,
repeal of the 14th could also open the door to bringing back
slavery. Suck on that, Tusks!
SWORN
and FOREWARNED...
The new/old
President was sworn into office at a minute past noon on Monday, MLK Day, by
Chief Justice Roberts – declaiming “I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I
will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will
to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the
United States, so help me God,” gave
what even critics alled one pleasant and inspring Inaugural speech in the
Capitol (Attachment One) thereafter and then went outside to a preplanned rally
where he gave a second, what he and many others called the “real” inaugural
(Attachment Two)... squirming and oozing with the revenge and retribution he’d
promised the base.
The Presidential
Oath has a long and distinguished history.
As the story goes, in the summer of 1787, delegates to the federal
convention in Philadelphia included in the document they were drafting a
requirement that before taking office, the President should recite the
following oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will
faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to
the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the
United States.”
So – “every president from George
Washington on has recited the 35 words as a commitment to the rule of law in
the face of unpredictable forces of change.”
Massimo Calabresi (Time, Jan. 19th, Attachment Three) added
that: “Trump will take
office in as strong a political position as ever before, buoyed by a decisive
election victory and near record-high public support, a Republican Congress
unified behind him, and broader backing in the business community, most notably
among tech elites, who have committed this time to working with him. To many,
Trump’s ascension carries the possibility of positive change for institutions
that have grown stagnant or worse.”
Democrats, of course, are
preparing to battle over many of Trump’s policies, “as they have for the past
10 years.”
A perspective from another land,
Qatar’s Al Jazeera (which not only Arab-Americans but many “woke” students at
elite universities now believe to be more honest and reliable than the American
media metalith) provided takeaways from the day (MLK day, at that) upon which
45 swore the oath as 47, leaving critics to swear a different sort of oath.
These included “preemptive
pardons” for Gone Away Joe’s friends and family (but not for himself, as Trump
snickered, perhaps presumptively), before Trump’s two addresses... pardons of
his own, promises, serious or not, to conquer Panama, Canada and Greenland,
stop immigration, tear up the Paris climate agreement and “drill, baby, drill”,
and dispatch billionaire Elon Musk and failed, suckling challenger Vivek
Ramaswamy to enforce a new breed of economy upon the bloated budget.
Some of the most notable included
pardons for all of the One Six
patriots/insurrectionists, including those convicted of violent attacks on
Capitol police and attempting to hang Mike Pence, 78 rescindments of Gone Away
Joe’s executive actions and orders, reiterations of the 2020 Election Fraud and
dispatching then-unofficial envoy Steve Witkoff to the Middle East to negotiate
the swap of the real hostages (Israelis and Palestinians) and so start a
still-smoldering dispute over which POTUS deserves credit for the deal.
For
his part, Trump could count upon supporters like Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the former and perhaps
current ISIS-affiliated armed group Hayat Tahrir
al-Sham (HTS)
that overthrew the government of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, has congratulated
Trump as he returns to the White House.
“The
past decade has brought immense suffering to Syria, with the conflict
devastating our nation and destabilizing the region. We are confident that he
is the leader to bring peace to the Middle East and restore stability in the
region,” al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, said in a statement.
Other
congratulants, grateful or guarded, included Mexican President Claudia
Sheinbaum, Ali Mohamed, Kenya’s special envoy for climate change, and a few
domestic critics like blacktivist Al Sharpton (who denounced the affront to
MLK), Sen. Elizebeth Warren and Gov. Gavin Newsome.
After
congressional luncheon, where he and Vice President JD Vance were toasted by
lawmakers, and a military ceremony, Trump boarded his limousine to join his
supporters at Capitol One Arena where, after a speech by FBI designate Kash
Patel and what some called a Nazi salute by Elon Musk
JAN.
20th: SELL – A – BRATION TYME...
SECOND
RALLY
But if resentment at their treatment won
Trump votes from working and wish-they-were-working young white males (as well
as a record turnout of black and brown American-born citizens apprehensive over
the armies of the south taking over their jobs because they were paid less by
elite employers), he also won their more numerous parents and entire
communities worried and angry over the “kitchen-table” issues – notably the
cost of gas and groceries, lesser in Trump’s first administration and, under
weak old Joe and crazy Kamalala, apparently headed nowhere but up while wages
stagnated (or at least, as in the last month’s Index, only now beginning to
rise). Forget the plague, and evil
Doctor Fauci with his mask mandates and work-from-home remedies applicable only
to the cubicle parasites with their computers and AI concubines (take away his
Secret Service and let private initiative do the Doc); forget the bird flu as
elevated the price of eggs to fifty cents apiece;
forget the wildfires attributed to reverse racism government rules. President Trump declared that he was an
intelligent man, smarter than any AI computer... he possessed Executive
Intelligence; therefore any of his dictates would be Executive(ly) Intelligence
Orders – no matter how confusing they might seem to the stupid peasants who’d
voted for him or the lousy liberals with their cunning stunts to thwart him.
Let the EI reign... let the EIO’s flow
forth!!
“We
won! We won! But now the work begins.”
Trump
declared that, later on Monday evening, he would begin signing pardons for the
rioters arrested after the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“ Tonight,
I’m going to be signing the J6 hostages’ pardons to get them out,” Trump said.
“ And as soon as I leave, I’m going
to the Oval Office and we’ll be signing pardons for a lot of people.”
Sloughing off blame for the inclusionary
half-hour fantasy of his Inaugural Address upon Melania and other unnamed
“advisers” who wanted him to be “nice” on this, of all days... with the goddam
Godless Democrats even flying the Stars and Stripes at half mast in an extended
homage to that other old loser, Jimmy Carter, New 47 brought revenge and
retribution back to the fore at his celebratory peckulations and pardoneerings
at the Capitol One Center with a shout out to the owner, Ted Leonsis.
It was a good day for hockey, most of the
revelers agreed... many of whom had been standing in line since two in the
morning in the two degree windchill, only to be notified that their tickets to
the main even would not be stamped. And
these weren’t bums, not by any means, they were thoughtful and earnest
Americans... many of them donors (though not of the million or billion class)
to the G.O.P. who shivered in silence and finally received their recognition
from THEIR President, voicing THEIR aspersions and aspirations.
In differentiating between the speeches, Vox
semi-editorialized, semi-prophesied that “four years of a president who uses
his power to punish political enemies and reward his lawbreaking friends does
not augur well for American democracy.”
But hey!... the populi had voxxed, the deed was done and it was time to
party.
PARTY
In his first hours as 47, the Incoming had several official celebrations to
attend.
They include the Commander in Chief
Ball, where the musical group Rascal Flatts will play; the Liberty Ball, which
will see performances by the Village People and Jason Aldean; and the Starlight
Ball, where Trump will be serenaded by country singer Gavin DeGraw.
(Al Jazz)
Trump
will also make remarks at each event, it was prophesied – and so it occurred.
Al jaz pink
WORK
BEGINS
While the merry minions were celebrating, the
Lord and Master was working... merrily in many instances, too: pardoning his loyal
2021 patriots and signing EO’s, just as promised (although not quite so fast as
stated in some cases, due to the nefarious negativity of Congress,
bureaucracies and, of course, lawyers while police conducted mass arrests of 234 people, including street
strollers, journalists, medics and legal observers and even a few actual
protesters... all of whom face felony charges, including rioting and conspiracy
to riot — “serious crimes that carried the risk of decades in prison,” the
Jazzies added while a delegation of the far-right Proud Boys group have marched
to celebrate Trump’s inauguration in downtown Washington, DC, with a heavy
police escort.
Asked by Al Jazeera about accusations
that the Proud Boys is a white supremacist group, one demonstrator said: “We
say, ‘F*** you.'”
MERCHING
“Who
pays for all this?” the Jazzies asked.
The
official inaugural events are financed by Trump’s inauguration committee.
That
committee is chaired by longtime Trump allies Steve Witkoff, a real estate developer
who is Trump’s pick to be his Middle East envoy, and Kelly Loeffler, a former
US senator and Trump’s nominee to head the Small Business Administration.
The
committee will be responsible for covering the costs of everything but the
swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol, which is borne by taxpayers.
Trump
raised a record $106.7m for his 2017 inauguration. This year, his committee has
raised more than $170m, according to US media reports.
“Amazon
CEO Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged to donate $1m each to the
committee as have Apple CEO Tim Cook and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Uber and its
CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, have each donated $1m to the fund.”
And then there was the merching.
Vendors
at the rallies, on the streets, everywhere and nowhere were peddling Trump-themed merchandise around
the Capital One Arena.
“That include(d) MAGA hats and
T-shirts, including some featuring Trump as one of America’s founding fathers;
Trump scarves; US flags and more.
“Some merchants were shouting their
prices and offers to attract customers.”
THE
REST of MLK/INAUGURATION DAY – Commentary
Al Jazeera solicited Mark Pfeifle, a former deputy
assistant to ex-President George W Bush, who said Trump’s speech was “over the
top” and was lacking themes of unity and bipartisanship.
“It
was over the top – pretty classic Donald Trump, a lot of talk and colourful
language,” Pfeifle said, citing Trump’s promise to take back the Panama Canal
as an example of blustery rhetoric.
“I
didn’t hear a lot of unity,” he told Al Jazeera.
“I
didn’t hear a lot of tenor that, if I was a Democratic member of Congress or a
Democratic voter, I could say, ‘OK, I could support a lot of these ideas.’ I
thought that was missing.”
“It is customary for human beings
inheriting enormous power over others to show a bit of humility before
exercising it. This is why presidential inaugurations include ritualistic
invocations of national traditions, hallowed precedents, and divine favor,”
opined Ed Kilgore in New York Magazine. (Jan. 20, Attachment Five)
Those staging the second inauguration of Donald Trump did their best to surround
the man with reminders that he stands in the shadow of leaders much greater
than he can rightly claim to be, and in the presence of institutions, from
Congress to the courts to the armed forces sworn to defend the Constitution,
that constrain his authority. “The reality that Trump doesn’t recognize any
such restraints was made most evident by his reluctance to bow before the
supreme authority of God Almighty, as he stood open-eyed during the invocations
of the deity to bless his puny human efforts,” and even declined to rest his
hand on one of the two Bibles there – perhaps out of fear (as the comedians
would note that evening) that Scripture would burst into flames.
Not exactly a fan of homeboy (sort
of) DJonnie, Kilgore wondered if, indeed, our recent election had been a
mandate “to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal, and all of
these many betrayals that have taken place, and to give the people back their
faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom.” From this
moment on, America’s decline is over, at least in the world according to
Drumpf.
“Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than
any president in our 250-year history.” Seriously? Kilgore asked... more than
Lincoln, “whose time in office started with secession and ended with
assassination?”
After this remarkable
exercise in relentless rhetorical hubris, Kilgore asked, “how can anyone be
confident that the 47th president will temper his plans, withhold his wrath,
respect the coequal powers of the Congress or the courts, or bend to the popular
will?
“The real Liberation Day is Trump’s own; he will never again have to
worry about an election, an intraparty challenge, a criminal indictment, or the
subversive activities of the “deep state.” He’ll pursue his dark dreams exactly
as far as he’s allowed to do by the alleged gate-keepers of the law and the
Constitution.
No, spattered and splattered
Lincoln, rather, Father Trump, notorious hater of boys named “Sue” just lost “a
piece of his ear.”
Matt Tracy in Politics NY
(Attachment Six, Jan. 20) also attacked transgender Americans and diversity,
equity, and inclusion in a dark inaugural address at the Capitol Rotunda on
Jan. 20. As of today, he spake, “it will
henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there
are only two genders, male and female,” and then presumably waved his magic
wand to make the wicked witches and bathroom bitches disappear in a sparkle of
glitter.
The Chinese, according to Fortune,
are likely to fare rather better – once New 47 realized that young people like
Tik Tok and cheap stuff from the Dollar Stores, young people vote and will have
to be massaged into serving into the military and accepting their status as
first-step steptoads of America’s military-industrial complex.
Besides, now that the Chinese have
trumped America on AI cyberwarfare, it’s time to get to know, if not love,
your... well... let’s call them competitors.
So Fortune’s Jim Edwards (Jan. 20,
Attachment Seven) singled out three reasons while President Xi and the
Celestials were also pleased with Trump’s inauguration...
1.
The deal that would rescue TikTok at least long enough for Incoming
to work out one of his famous deals...
2.
A telephone talk between Xi and then President-elect Trump a few days
ago which “reached an important consensus on the development of China-US
relations,” according to a statement from the Chinese government... and
3. Billionaire diplomacy with the
ChiComs as Elon Musk and Xi’s inaugural designee, Vice President Han Zheng, agreed that Tesla is willing “to deepen investment
and cooperation in China and play an active role in promoting U.S.-China
economic and trade exchanges.”
All of this is a complete reversal of Trump’s
historic dislike of TikTok and China, according to Fortune, which added
that it is well-known that Tesla’s
largest production facility is in Shanghai, China, needs the government’s approval to keep it
open and Trump needs Musk and his billionaire tech bros to keep American
cyber-everything from declining to about the level of Libya.
And topping off Jan. 20th,
Reuters and Al Jazeera solicited statements from world leaders who... with a
few scowling exceptions (Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Iran) expressed hope and
admiration for America’s new regime...
“We are confident that he is the leader to
bring peace to the Middle East and restore stability to the region". SYRIA'S DE FACTO LEADER AHMED AHMED AL-SHARAA
“It is my hope that under your leadership the American people will
prosper and always strive to build a more just society, where there is no room
for hatred, discrimination or exclusion.”
POPE FRANCIS (Al-Jazz)
“President Trump prioritises
bilateral negoatiations over multilateral frameworks, so we will focus on how
to leverage the national interests of both countries to contribute to world
peace and the global economy.” JAPANESE
PRIME MINISTER SHIGERU ISHIBA
"On behalf of the Brazilian
government, I congratulate President Donald Trump on his inauguration.
Relations between Brazil and the USA are marked by a history of cooperation,
based on mutual respect and a historic friendship.” LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, PRESIDENT OF
BRAZIL
“I look forward to working closely
together once again, to benefit both our countries, and to shape a better
future for the world. Best wishes for a successful term ahead!” INDIAN
PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI (Al Jazz)
"I believe that working
together again we will raise the U.S.-Israel alliance to even greater
heights." BENJAMIN NETANYAHU,
ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER
"The government will strive
to further strengthen policy cooperation with the United States and promote
mutual interests based on the shared value of the Korea-U.S.
alliance." SOUTH KOREA'S ACTING
PRESIDENT CHOI SANG-MOK
“The U.S. is our closest ally and
the aim of our policy is always a good transatlantic relationship. The EU, with
27 members and more than 400 million people, is a strong union." OLAF SCHOLZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR
"For centuries, the
relationship between our two nations has been one of collaboration, cooperation
and enduring partnership ... Together, we have defended the world from tyranny
and worked towards our mutual security and prosperity." KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER
Canada and the U.S. have the
world’s most successful economic partnership. We have the chance to work
together again — to create more jobs and prosperity for both our
nations." JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN
PRIME MINISTER
"President Trump is always
decisive, and the peace through strength policy he announced provides an
opportunity to strengthen American leadership and achieve a long-term and just
peace, which is the top priority."
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT
Unseen,
unnoticed, uncared-for, Ex-President Joe slunk out of the Inauguration and
joined Jill on a plane to Joint Base Andrews to deliver a brief farewell speech before flying to Santa Ynez,
California, “where his friend and billionaire Democratic donor Joe Kiani has an
estate,” (Politico, Attachment Nine) and, thereafter,
an afterlife of regrets, grand and great-grandchildren and, perhaps, his
memoirs.
“Biden last traveled to Santa Ynez
following his speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, where he
officially passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris shortly after
dropping his own bid for reelection.
“At the time,” Politico recalls,
“Biden had basked in the adoration of relieved Democrats grateful for his
decision to step aside and newly hopeful that Harris would charge to victory.
Yet instead, Trump is back in office — and Biden is leaving Washington having shouldered
much of the blame from those same Democrats for paving the way to his return.”
1/21
to 1/26 THE REST of the WEEK
Early
Tuesday morning, Newsweek reported that Hillary Clinton’s reaction to the
inaugural speech had “gone viral” after she burst into laughter during his
inauguration speech.
Trump had just outlined his plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico in favor
of "the Gulf of America," when Clinton collapsed into a fit of
giggles, her shoulders shaking visibly as she laughed openly in the audience. One clip of the incident shared on social media site
X (formerly Twitter) has been viewed more than 9 million
times and d by more than 15,000 other users, Newsweek reported (Jan 21, 9:07
AM, Attachment Ten).
And everything there and
thereafter tended to break down along predictably partisan lines.
An X user, a TV
viewer named Scott Lacy, whose
profile gave no indication of political leanings either way, said: "I'm
trying to figure out why everyone is not laughing. This is a third grade policy
change."
Another X user
named James Knowles,
whose other posts are critical of Trump, said: "Hillary Clinton couldn't
contain laughing at absolute stupidity."
But others thought Clinton was
disrespectful to the new president.
An X
account with the name "Florida Conservative" wrote: "Hillary, once
again, is sitting behind Trump as he's welcomed as President of the United
States. Not a great spot to feel smug."
Another account, with the
handle "JV" who identifies as an American patriot, added: "Typical
condescending Democrats smirk & laugh."
Competing with the Inauguration
was the meeting of rich people at Davos, Switzerland forcing the globe's wealthiest individuals to either attended Trump's
inauguration in Washington on Monday and the glamorous balls to celebrate with
the new president afterwards or hunker down in equally cold Davis to talk about
their favorite subject... their money.
Musk, Zuck and the Beeze chose Trump.
To some, “the presence of the
world's wealthiest represents the apex of Trump's return to power in Washington
after attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to
Joseph Biden.
“To others, it stands as a warning
that the new administration's priorities in coming years will favor the most
well-connected through tax, labor, trade and other policies.” (Reuters, Jan. 21, Attachment Eleven)
Numerous other members of the
Forbes Richie Richlist were in Washington as well, including lesser eight and
seven-figure luminaries like LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault (a former
Number One, now dropped down to Number Five); Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who
chatted up Trump during the luncheon, and Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in India.
"You
certainly see the obvious and overt involvement of the richest people in the
world on his first day in office," said David Kass, executive director at
the Americans for Tax Fairness.
Applauding
the applauding billionaires, decabillionaires, centibillionaires (and a few
old, plain multimillionaires) at the festivities, the New York (not Washington)
Post Editorial Board (Jan. 21st, 9:56 AM, Attachment Twelve) gushed:
“Let’s hope we — and he — can all live up
to Trump’s inspiring address... it was a grand speech — optimistic,
ambitious, unifying, elevating.”
As
would be, by the end of the day, several hundred migrants... some probably
violent criminals, some perhaps not... elevated into the skies on military jets
for return to the countries of origin – the first flock to Central America.
The Post celebrated some of what they
believe to be Trump’s most promising promises...
(End the) National emergency at the southern border
Defeat inflation, rapidly bring down
costs and prices
Declare
a national energy emergency
“Drill
baby, drill!”
Establish
the External Revenue Service to tax and tariff foreign countries
Establish
the Department of Government Efficiency
Immediately
stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America
Bring
Law and Order back to our cities
End
government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into daily
life.
Reinstate
service members who were ejected for refusing the COVID vaccine, with full back
pay
Rename
the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Restore the name of Mount McKinley.
Take
back the Panama Canal (and Canada, and Greenland!)
Plant
the Stars and Stripes on planet Mars
(Make Musk Happy!)
Revoke
the electric vehicle mandate (Make Musk Sad!)
Summoning
up, as it does, some words... maybe even the spirit... of Martin Luther King
and his dream, Trump’s speech “should not only ring in the ears of the American
people, who suffered for four
years under the yolk of misplaced shame (from a President who “tried to burn down”
America), but also to “other Western democracies that have all but forgotten —
and are in fact apologetic — about ambition, the pursuit of excellence and
meritocracy for all.”
And then there were the Democrats,
the sad and soggy Dams-o-Crap (Ee- Ee- EI Yore) whom Time’s Philip Elliott
called languishing “somewhere
between discombobulation and despair”... some, like Sen. John Fetterman
(D-Pa) hoping to cut deals, others cutting their throats with butter
knives. What next, Phil philosophizes...
“(a) more inclusive message, not just what plays well among activists and on
college campuses? More spending on state parties and less on D.C.-based
consultants? Serious investments in a progressive media ecosystem to rival the
conservative one? A foreign policy that is as easy to explain as Republicans’
tried-and-true “Peace Through Strength?” Better polling? Less fear-mongering
about the end of democracy? More podcasts?”
(Jan. 21st, Attachment Thirteen)
How about animé?
The solution... and the problem...
Phil concludes, is that the donkey bench is empty. There is no JFK wowing the masses, no
charismatic Obama (so long as Michelle stays on the sidelines), not even a
Slick Willie from Hope to make hope hope again.
“Few see either House Leader Hakeem Jeffries or Senate Leader Chuck
Schumer—both New Yorkers—as the unifying national figure the party needs,” and
outside Gotham... well Newsome is handsome but vapid. Some actor?
Bruce Springsteen? Dolly... as
this Index recommended last year.
Walz? Harris?
“Until Democrats anoint their next presidential nominee, the party will
lack a single leader, and that is probably more than three years away.”
Republicans have no shortage of
charismatic leaders, even if most of them are FOOP (fresh out of prison).
ABC (Jan. 21, Attachment Fifteen)
reported on the first release of the American hostages, rioters if you will, to
their families, friends and Fuhrer now in the Oval Office.
ABC’s morning after recap of
Inauguration Day included the speeches, the parties, the merching, the
billionaires, the ravening lawyers, the EO’s and a few more gristly nuggets of
firsts.
An undocumented expectant mother
has jumped to the head of the line of the 14th Amendment’s
birthright citizenship litigation...
Andrew and Matthew Valentin -- two
brothers from Pennsylvania arrested for assaulting law enforcement during the
attacks on the Capitol -- were processed and first to leave the Central
Detention Facility in DC...
Newsome, trying to be New Face,
denounced withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement while showing photographs
of the L.A. wildfires and saying: "If you don't believe in science,
believe your own damn eyes..."
Craig (the brother of Brian
Sicknick, killed by One Sixers) denounced Trump’s pardons as a "betrayal of
decency."
And Melania Trump’s hat designer
said that the hat sent “a powerful message.”
Also on Tuesday morning,
Newsweek’s Hugh Cameron was inspired to contact the gambling website Polymarket
to obtain odds and names of those whom Trump might pardon in his first one
hundred days. (Attachment Sixteen)
Atop the list, Polymarket gave Ross Ulbricht, creator and operator of the
online black market Silk Road now doing life at a high-security penitentiary in
Tucson, Arizona, a 92% chance of pardon after pleadings from Elon and assorted
Libertarians. (On @, done!)
Working downward, Steve Bannon has
a 54% chance of a post-incarceration pardon, then Bitcoin scammer Roger Ver
(fighting extradition requests from Spain), while cryptocolleague Sam
Bankman-Fried was given only a four percent shot – trailing whistleblowers Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.
“Polymarket also gives rapper and
producer Sean Combs, or P. Diddy, a 2 percent chance of receiving
a pardon. During a 2012 episode of The Apprentice, Trump
referred to Diddy, now awaiting trial for sex trafficking and racketeering, as
"a good guy" and "a good friend of mine."
And NBC concluded on Tuesday by
noting that, while Trump had followed through on several of his Day One
promises with a flurry of executive orders, he’d “left some on the table,
including imposing tariffs and ending the war in Ukraine.” (Attachment Seventeen)
Asked in the Oval Office, Monday
evening, Trump said he was considering 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico
and Canada, two top trading partners for the United States. Asked when tariffs
would be imposed, he said, “I think we’ll do it Feb. 1st.” Asked about
Ukraine, Trump had said: “That is a war that’s dying to be settled,” during his
debate with Kamala Harris. On Tuesday,
Trump said he needed to speak with Putin and teased that the conversation
“could be very soon.”
On Friday night, Trump’s controversial Pentagon
pick Pete Hegseth... the former Fox News
personality and rightwing commentator who’d said women should not serve in
combat roles, recommended the military purge generals and faced allegations of sexual assault and alcoholism...
was confirmed as secretary of defense in the Senate by a tie-breaking
vote from Vice-president JD Vance.
Almost the entire
Republican conference supported Hegseth’s nomination while every Senate
Democrat voted against his confirmation, resulting in a 50-50 vote. Three
Republican senators – Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – opposed Hegseth’s nomination.
The liberal Guardian
U.K. wrote that the nominee was bedeviled by wicked Sodomites and progressives
and that, in Hegseth’s hyperpartisan 2020 book, American Crusade, he wrote that he believed the
US was “on course for factional violence” and claim(ed) the country faced an
existential threat from the left. “You must be thinking, ‘Pete, you laid this
out in pretty simple terms. Us versus them. America versus the left. Good
versus evil. You’re overplaying your hand. It’s not that bad,’” writes Hegseth.
“Read on, and think again.” (Attachment
Eighteen)
They also noted that Trump had also “abandoned the world’s main
health agency, ditched a global treaty on the climate crisis, and told refugees
already approved to fly to the US that they were not welcome and could no
longer come.” Ten more other actions
they condemned included the Jan. 6th pardons, Israeli claims of “biblical rights” to
the entire occupied West Bank, bringing back the death penalty, scouring and
purging the Federal Government for DEI supporters and... in a “lightly veiled
threat that he would go after the former president”, Trump told Fox News that
Gone Away Joe “should have pardoned himself.”
The fired employees included inspectors-general from more than
a dozen federal agencies including the departments of “State, Energy, the
Interior, Defense and Transportation” (CNN, Attachment Nineteen) whom Incoming
considered “disloyal” to himself, not the country.
Even
Republican Senators like Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Majority Leader John Thune
of South Dakota expressed concern that the President had bypassed Congressional
regulations besides, of course, the usual Collins/Murkowski axis.
“There may be good reason the IGs
were fired,” Grassley said Saturday in a statement provided by his office. “We
need to know that if so. I’d like further explanation from President Trump.
Regardless, the 30 day detailed notice of removal that the law demands was not
provided to Congress.”
Reuters (Attachment Twenty) did
credit New 47 with ruthless speed and efficiency,
“showing that even his most radical campaign promises were far from just
bluster”, howsoever confused. Trump’s
allies, they claimed, compared his shock-and-awe opening foray to a special
forces raid that has caught federal workers, unions, advocacy groups and even
the media off-guard in its scope.
They credited the
“meticulous, years-long work of conservative allies who have spent much of
Trump's time out of office drafting detailed policy plans that would allow him
to hit the ground running,”
"This is the
beachhead team taking over the federal government," said Steve Bannon.
Trump's opponents
said he was “distorting the U.S. Constitution and expanding the limits of executive
power beyond its intended limit.” They also said Trump's opening moves showed
he was less interested in uniting the country than on radically transforming it
- and in many cases exacting vengeance.
Even Trump's foes
say the last five days represent a stunning contrast to his first term, when
infighting and poor preparation scuttled many of his most ambitious policy
initiatives.
"In terms of
just the scope of all this and the speed, his team has shown the results of
extraordinary preparation," said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian
and former director of the Nixon presidential library.
Many of Trump's
policies dovetail with those advocated by "Project 2025," a
consortium of conservative organizations that has spent more than two years
drafting policies in anticipation of Trump's possible return.
@And the WashPost
has even reported that the beast has begun to eat itself, tail up.
The DOGE purge
(Attachment Twenty One @get URL) has found Elon dumping Vivek Ramaswamy... as
one might have expected about a billionaire influencer and a failed candidate,
no matter how voluble Viv was in his submission.
But shed no tears
for the Rama Swami... he’s going to run for Governor of @OH get a22
The Washington Informer, another
black medium based in the Capitol, counted up Trump’s broken promises as of
Wednesday – the good news, for Informer fans and Trump goes alike being that
many of those promises “were either unfeasible or outright illegal.” (Attachment Twenty Three)
The Informer’s Stacy Brown noted
that Trump “has actively worked to raise prescription drug prices”, but
expressed passivity on ending the war in Ukraine and overturning Biden’s
so-called “electric vehicle mandate,” which, Brown contends, “never existed.”
Other failures... disappointing
some, relieving others... were on CRT in the military (resulting in a
disastrous disrespecting of the Tuskeegee Airman who had to be restored by...
go figure... Pete Hegseth!), tariffs, opioids and the Beautiful Wall which, at
least, is under way again.
Friday
night’s purge of inspectors-general was a ploy for Trump “to install his own picks for the
independent watchdog roles” according to CNN (Attachment Twenty Four),
interviewing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s calling the move “a
chilling purge” and warning the firings could kick off “a golden age for abuse
in government, and even corruption.”
1/27 to TODAY: THE FIRST FULLWEEK
So little time, so many EOs (with apologies
to Lord of Pasaquan, if not Mar-a-Lago)... let’s open this running tab on the proclamations
by category, sorted alphabetically – based on a plethora of Attachments, sorted
chronologically.
The more encyclopaedic selections include the
Times of London (Monday, Attachment Twenty Five@) adding reductions in grocery
prices to his roster of failed promises.
Probably the most resistant to political
willpower, the birds keep dying, prices on their eggs keep going up and, unless
Djonald can do a Lazarus Tweak on the disease, it’s unlikely he’ll get his
ducks in a row for a year or more. Poor
crop yields... affected by the mirage of climate change... have also reduced
the quantity, quality and affordability of staples from corn to coffee.
Chronic
Gukster (and former LabSec) Robert Reich explained how Trump’s
“vengeance machine” works... via, for example, termination of security for
enemies like Trump’s
former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, his former top aide, Brian Hook, and
former national security adviser, John Bolton... all of whom have been on
Iranian hit lists since early 2020.
“If
you think Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, will protect them from
violence, think again,” advised Reich.
“All three are on Patel’s enemies list, which is basically Trump’s
enemies list.”
This
is how the Trump vengeance machine works. “Trump is the mob boss who keeps his
hands clean while others do his dirty work.”
And how many nutjobs does it take to physically attack someone whom
Trump has deemed an enemy, Reich asks? “Just ask Paul Pelosi.”
Of
course, some of Djonald’s fellow felons might more likely be extras from the
gang that couldn’t shoot straight. After
the pardon spree, Jacob Chansley, dubbed the QAnon shaman as a reflection of
his horned-animal headdress and body paint that day, posted on X. “NOW I AM
GONNA BY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!! I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!! GOD BLESS
AMERICA!!!!” (Attachment Twenty Six)
Now,
MORE PARDONS, AIs and EOs THROUGH YESTERDAY
Here come more of Donnie’s dramatic deeds,
deferential dodges and a few dreary disappointments, to date, by category...
ECONOMICS
The A.P.’s Christopher Rugaber questioned
Trump’s pledge of “cheaper
prices and lower interest rates” remains stuck within an e-con-me sort of like
a sinkhole economy - transformed by Old White Joe, to be sure, but also by wars
and the pandemic. (Attachment Twenty
Seven)
On Thursday during the World Economic Forum’s annual event in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said he would
reduce oil prices, and then “I’ll demand that interest rates drop immediately,
and likewise, they should be dropping all over the world.”
The Fed didn’t cooperate.
“We are in a different world,”
said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, a tax advisory and consulting firm.
“Gone is the era of low inflation and low interest rates. In its place is a new
framework featuring scarce capital and higher rates.”
Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office
said this year’s deficit would likely reach $1.9 trillion, and grow to $2.7 trillion
in a decade. (See our Index below and do
the math.) “Trump’s proposals to extend
his 2017 tax cuts, and implement new ones, such as eliminating taxes on tips,
would raise deficits further,” the A.P. forecast.
“As US President
Trump begins his second term, his administration announced changes that will
affect climate action, the global economy and international trade”, the rich
and powerful of the world were meeting in Davos and peering into the prospects
for his regime (World Economic Forum, Attachment Twenty Eight) which varying delegates
reacted with variable quotients of excitement or fear.
"Something new
and strange is happening," said Graham Allison, Douglas Dillon Professor
of Government at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The fact that Trump
has staged "the greatest comeback in political history" means the new
US president "thinks he can do anything," he said.
The World Economic
Forum specifically looked into China and the potential for tariffs, the wars in
Ukraine and the MidEast and economic concerns like inflation and inequality.
“Trump’s cabinet of
self-made billionaires could be just the team to tackle such issues,” according
to Allison. When combined with efforts to cut regulations in areas like
diversity and climate – Trump is already clearing the way for more domestic
energy production, for example – many businesses are excited about a more
positive growth environment.
Said environment
might be bleak for the poor if, as the New York Times reported, tariff-caused
inflation might be supplemented by new work requirements for Medicaid recipients,
bringing in $100 billion in savings.
(Attachment Twenty Nine) More
GOPper whoppers include eliminating school lunches... a politician said
children should get jobs and work for their meals, even though they are children, leading Democrats to charge
that the cutoffs are all in the service of “of paying for the extension of tax
cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthy.”
Medicade work requirements “would
cause 600,000 people to lose coverage, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, cutting federal spending by at
least $100 billion over the next decade.”
Perhaps the most
controversial... inasmuch as it affects the middle class... is ending the home
mortgage deduction (which would save an additional $1 trillion over 10 years,
according to the budget panel document).
Also on the chopping block – perks
like free meals and gym memberships for workers.
But this might
collide with his popular 'no tax on tips'
campaign.
President Trump, speaking from Vegas’ Circa Resort
and Casino, appealed to the myriad of hospitality workers in Sin City during his speech.
"Any
worker who relies on tips [as] income, your tips will be 100% yours,"
Trump said. (Fox, Attachment Thirty) Trump added that he froze hiring within the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on his first day in office.
"They
hired, or tried to hire, 88,000 new workers to go after you," Trump told
the audience. "And we're in the process of developing a plan to either
terminate all of them or maybe we'll move them to the border." Perhaps he could impose an Alien Tax!
Monday’s Washington
Times/AP mashup predicted that the Fed would react to the consternation and the
chaos by letting interest rates remain where they are... and so it came to
pass. (Attachment Thirty One)
Trump’s comments Thursday suggest he expects to regularly
second-guess the Fed in public,
despite a decades-long tradition among previous presidents of taking a
hands-off approach to the central bank. Former president Joe Biden
reappointed Jerome Powell, rather than
replacing him, in a nod to central bank independence from politics.
Djonald
DisInterested threatened to fire Powell, whom he appointed in late 2017, “but he has more
recently backed off such threats. Powell’s term
as chair ends in May 2026, when Trump can
name a replacement.”
“A big unknown for the Fed this year
is whether Trump will impose tariffs, how sweeping they will be, and
whether they will push up prices. Mass deportation of immigrants could also
force employers to pay more for workers to fill jobs, which could also lift
inflation.”
IMMIGRATION
A dispatch from Homeland Security (Jan. 26th,
Attachment Thirty Two) assessed the nascent Trump alien removal campaign as “Promises
Made, Promises Kept”.
“The Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) on Monday issued memos to repeal limits on Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents imposed by former DHS Secretary Alejandro
Mayorkas…ICE agents who spoke to Fox News said they believe that rescinding the
Mayorkas order is going to free them up to go after more illegal
immigrants.”
ICEmen styled and
profiled some of the criminal migrants swept up in their dragnet... Franz
Cadet, a 43 year old Haitian doper, an attempted murderer and a child molester.
Also on Monday, Al
Jazeera (Attachment Thirty Three) fact checked the Trumpian rhetoric and
results and pronounced most of it successful, such as it was meant to be.
“What is particularly evident
already about these actions is the confusion, fear, and uncertainty these policies are already
evoking for immigrant families and their communities,” Thomas J Rachko, Jr,
research manager at Georgetown University’s Cisneros Hispanic Leadership
Institute, said.
“Trump also ended a humanitarian
parole programme that let Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans come in
legally and work with authorisation for at least two years. About 530,000
people came in this way during Joe Biden’s administration, Homeland Security
data shows.”
Imposition of an “expedited
removal” provision, immigration
agents can deport people without a court hearing if those people lack a “credible”
asylum case or have been living in the U.S.A. for less than two years.
Designation of cartels and “other
groups” as foreign terrorist organizations under the Alien Enemies Act, “a 1798 law that lets the
president quickly deport noncitizens without due process if they are from a
country at war with the US.”
That means you,
Sergeant Preston and all your maple syrup-sipping Canadian terrorists. (Trump will waive birthright repeal for
Mister Musk, below, unless Elon gets feisty.
Ending those
millions of birthright citizenships, as noted above, will require
Constitutional changes up to and perhaps including repeal of the 14th
Amendment and it has, not surprisingly, attracted the attention of lawyers.
Trump signing the order on the
first day is “testing the outer limits of executive branch power in the
immigration sphere”, Erin Corcoran, executive director of Notre Dame
University’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, said.
And
cancellation of the CBP One app has left many migrants in uncertainty.
"Individuals who had appointments and saved money for that day are now in
the air, not knowing what to do," said immigration attorney Raed Gonzalez. (Fox, Attachment Thirty Four)
The
Foxies plucked a passel of posies out of the first week’s INS arrests... in a
frenzied assault on declared and presumed sanctuary cities, ICE Enforcement
Removal Operations (ERO) joined with the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) and Homeland Security Investigations to grab "criminal aliens"
off the streets and prepare them for deportation flights – bolstered by popular
support welling up from passage of the Laken Riley Act responding to that
murder in nearby Athens.
“Miami-based
federal agents arrested at least four illegal immigrants accused of committing
crimes on U.S. soil over the weekend, including a Nicaraguan jailed in Broward
County for an alleged shooting.
“Boston
ERO announced the arrest of a Haitian man with 17 criminal convictions in
Massachusetts,” suspected gang member Wisteguens Charles, 25, had first entered the U.S. illegally in 2013 and between 2022
and 2024, “racked up 17 criminal convictions. ICE filed an immigration detainer
request in 2023, but a Massachusetts jail ignored it and released him back into
the community, authorities said.”
“MSNBC, CNN, liberal media figures claim Trump’s
immigration policies are racist, sowing ‘cruelty’ across US,” another Fox
missive (Attachment Thirty Five) declared.
The
new wave of arrests, in conjunction with the Trump administration's decision to
end a Biden-era guideline on "sensitive places" where ICE could not
conduct enforcement, “prompted backlash from some media
networks” as well as street perennials like MSNBC's Rev. Al Sharpton,
who called Trump's immigration orders a civil liberties "nightmare"
on Friday. He also suggested that the recent ICE raids were racist and gave
leeway for agents to abuse migrants.
"When
you look at the fact that there's a serious element of profiling here, that
we're looking for people of a certain Black or Brown color, when we're looking
at the fact that this is a president that has told law enforcement be tough on
people and don't even put their heads down when you're throwing them into a
police van. He's opening the doors for police brutality, so I assume that would
go with ICE as well," Sharpton told "Morning Joe."
CNN
political commentators Maria Cardona and Kate Bedingfield claimed that Trump's
policies would do "nothing" to solve the problems and challenges of
immigration.
"All
of it is focused on cruelty, on division, on separating families and on
inflicting as much pain as possible in communities across the country,"
Cardona said while Bedingfield added that "I think Trump seems to be
sometimes quite gleeful in pursuing policies that are hurting young children or
hurting young families."
White
House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed to the latest ICE arrests as
proof the administration is delivering on its promises.
"The
largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway," she
said on X. "Promises made. Promises kept."
Noted e-con-mystic
Paul Krugman predicted that Trump’s immigration and tariff policies would “spiral
out of control”, wreck the e-con-me and e-con-you and inflict special damage on
sectors like “food
production and home construction” and will likely — contrary to Trump’s
campaign promises — send grocery prices soaring.
“(I)mmigrants, legal and not, play
a much bigger role in some industries and occupations than they do in the economy
as a whole,” he said (Huffpost, Jan 27th, Attachment Thirty Six),
adding that many Trump voters will be “brutally scammed” when Trump introduces tariffs on
goods imported into America.
Another liberal stick in the
swamp... NPR (itself perhaps on the decapitation list, should the courts and
lawyers enact all of his Federal subsidy blackouts)... cited 47’s own Inaugural
Address One: "I will send troops to the southern border to repel the
disastrous invasion of our country," and whined that THAT WORD — invasion — has become mainstream on
the right when talking about immigration, in spite of objections from immigrant advocates and
some Democrats. They argue the term is dehumanizing and also deeply misleading,
since border crossings have fallen sharply from
their record highs during the Biden administration.
Strong, even offensive language is “(t)he key for everything they're trying
to do," said John Sandweg, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement under President Obama, who now heads the cross-border risks
team at the law firm Nixon Peabody – “them” being language liberals like Doris
Meissner, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in
Washington, D.C., and a former top immigration official during the Clinton
administration who has told reporters that Trump’s “dialing up” on migrant hate
“really renames [and] recategorizes immigration as a national security threat.”
But
the majority of unwoke, unobjecting Americans just wish they’d shut up and go
back to class or bother their minds with real dangers, such as mass enforcement
of the Alien Enemies Act, which would give 47 emergency authority to bypass
normal immigration law to quickly detain and deport noncitizens... or citizens
suspected of disloyalty.
"It's quite clear that the framers
understood the term to deal with armed attacks by foreign powers," said
Elizabeth Goitein, the senior director of the Liberty and National Security
Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a left-leaning nonprofit."We're
talking about acts of war. We are not talking about unlawful immigration."
The relatively small number (1,500) of
active duty troops now sent to the border to “support” ICA and others could
become “a
kind of force multiplier for the Border Patrol. That hasn't happened yet, and
we'll see how that works," Mark Krikorian, executive director of the
Center for Immigration Studies, a think-tank that favors lower levels of
immigration.
"Will
soldiers be arresting illegal aliens? That'll be an interesting question."
ABORTION,
SEX and CULTURE WARS
With too many tanks
and not enough thinkers thinking as Trump II unfolds, the devoutly religious
and virtuous POTUS also signed
an order Friday reinstating a policy that requires foreign nongovernmental
agencies to certify that they don't provide or promote abortion if they receive
U.S. federal funds for family planning assistance.
“The position, sometimes called
the Mexico City Policy and referred to by opponents
as the ‘global gag rule,’ was first introduced more than 40 years ago,”
reported CBS (Attachment Thirty Eight) “Every Republican president has put it
in effect, and every Democrat has rescinded it.”
Trump also signed an executive
order Friday requiring the enforcement of the Hyde Amendment, which restricts government
funding for most abortions.
The amendment was already the law
of the land under the Biden administration, but the Trump administration
argued "the previous administration disregarded this established,
commonsense policy."
The executive actions came on the
same day as the annual March for Life in Washington. In the video address to
the crowd, Mr. Trump vowed "we will again stand proudly for families and
for life" in his second term and once again boasted about nominating three
Supreme Court justices who helped strike down Roe v. Wade.
"I was so proud to be a
participant," he said.
Crowds also cheered Mr. Trump's
decision to pardon a group of anti-abortion activists
convicted of blockading abortion
clinic entrances.
"Our country faces the return
of the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our
lifetimes," said Veep Vance.
President
Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to veto a federal abortion ban, but
Democrats warn there are already efforts underway to get the country closer to
that point. (Fox, Attachment Thirty
Nine)
House
and Senate Republicans are pushing a “see what happens” bill this week to
require health care providers to try to save the life of an infant in the rare
case the baby is born alive during or after an attempted abortion.
“It’s
a simple bill,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, (R-S.D.).
“Those
innocent lives deserve to be protected,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson
(R-La.).
U.S.
Sen. Patty Murray, (D-Wash.) stressed it is already illegal in the U.S. to
intentionally kill a baby that is born alive.
But
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is pressing forward with a bill to defund (and,
perhaps later, criminalize) Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
“They
should not be able to get taxpayer money to do that,” Hawley said.
Politico (Attachment Forty) called
Trump’s pivot a way to calm fears about anti-anti-abortion Robert F. Kennedy’s
appointment to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and Marjorie
Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called the
executive orders “a big win for babies and mothers” that “restores sanity” to the
Federal Government.
A 2022 study by The National Academy of
Sciences estimated that Trump’s anti-abortion restrictions on foreign aid led
to 108,000 deaths of women and children in poor countries over the four years
of his first administration. That’s because it slashed funding for groups like
the nonprofit MSI Reproductive
Choices, which operates clinics that provide
contraception and testing for sexually transmitted infections with U.S. funds
and uses separate revenue streams to provide abortions.
MSI said ahead of the policy being
reinstated that it wouldn’t abide by it. This will lead to the organization
losing $14 million in U.S. Agency for International Development funding, an MSI
spokesperson said. The organization estimates the financial loss could result
in an additional 2.4 million unintended pregnancies because it would have to
stop providing contraception in several countries.
International abortion-rights
advocates worried that Trump would further extend the policy to organizations
receiving any type of U.S. foreign assistance, including humanitarian aid — a
policy the Heritage Foundation recommended in its Project 2025 blueprint for a
second Trump term. Trump’s executive order does not do that.
“(A)nti-abortion
groups that helped Trump win reelection are looking beyond these actions,” said
the Fox, “and are pushing for more from the new administration, including a ban
on telehealth prescription and mail delivery of abortion pills, rules forcing
states to provide more detailed information on all abortions within their
borders, and the repeal of Biden administration rules that expanded abortion
access for some military members and veterans.
Dannenfelser
(above) posted a dispatch on the SBA website stating that: “On behalf of
pro-life Americans and the moms and babies that will be saved from the tragedy
of abortion, thank you, President Trump.”
(Attachment Forty One)
Despite election results over
2022-4, she cited a new Marist/Knights of Columbus
nationwide poll released this week which confirms seven in 10 Americans
want limits on abortion. Fifty-seven percent of Americans, including 54% of
women, oppose using tax dollars to fund abortion domestically (29% “strongly”
oppose) and 73% oppose using tax dollars to fund abortion abroad.
The Independent U.K. via
AOL reported that, on Thursday, the president had also issued pardons for 23 anti-abortion activists who were convicted of
illegally blocking reproductive health clinics, violating a federal law. Lauren Handy made the cut.
Handy had been serving an
almost five-year prison sentence for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic
Entrances Act in 2020, when she and her associates used ropes and chains to block
the entrance to a clinic in Washington, D.C. (Attachment Forty Two)
Upon pardoning the nearly
two dozen anti-abortion activists, Trump said: “They should not have been
prosecuted.” He added: “Many of them are elderly people. … This is a great
honor to sign this. They’ll be very happy.”
Separately, last week, a
Trump-appointed federal judge revived a lawsuit challenging access to mifepristone, one drug in a two-drug
regimen used in medication abortions. The widely-used drug was approved by the
Food and Drug Administration 25 years ago, but some critics have taken issue
with some of the agency’s eased restrictions around the drug in recent years,
including its ability to be prescribed by telehealth providers.
The case’s new plaintiffs
— Missouri, Kansas and Idaho — argued that this rule violated a law that prohibits substances
“intended for producing abortion” from being mailed.
IUK’s
Peanut Gallery included remarks from W. who said that “I am sorry that most people see (sex) more for
pleasure than a way to have a family and enjoy life.”
Speaking
of those dirty deeds, done cheaply or not, between same or opposite sex humans
or in weird peregrinations (animals, couches, fingers, devices) Time (Jan. 27,
Attachment Forty Three) dove into the... well, call it heart... of the matter by claiming that President Trump’s EO that
there two and only two sexes, male and female, leaves all of those undeclared “others”
at risk of criminal prosecution.
The order accused “ideologues” of denying “the
biological reality of sex” and dismissed gender identity, calling it
“disconnected from biological reality.” It declared that all federal agencies
and employees will henceforth use the term “sex,” not “gender,” in all
applicable policies and documents, and that government-issued forms of
identifications would “accurately reflect the holder’s sex.”
For
a start.
Timeservers Solcyré Burga and Chantelle Lee took a time
machine trip back to the Biden Administration - where citizens could
update their gender markers to reflect their gender identity in a process Simone
Chriss, an attorney and the Director of Transgender Rights Initiative at
Southern Legal Counsel in Florida calls a more “affirming” policy of
self-attestation. “That means you signed an affidavit saying ‘this is what my
gender marker is,’ and you didn't need medical certification,” she says. In
2022, the Biden Administration rolled out an “X” gender marker for nonbinary,
intersex, or gender nonconforming people.
Trump’s executive order denies the
legal recognition of transgender and nonbinary people, barring them from
updating their gender on federal documents, such as passports, visas, and
Global Entry cards and, should the courts agree, invalidating many ID
documents.
Experts instead say problems
will likely arise when it comes to passport renewal, which happens every 10
years for those aged 16 and up. “Many folks have 10 years before they have to
worry about that, but upon renewal, it sounds like they will revert it back to
the person's sex assigned to birth,” says Chriss. Still, it isn’t clear how the
government would implement such a policy.
There is less confusion over the REAL
ID Act, which has stricter standards for the issuance of identification cards
compared to a standard license, and requests additional or supplemental
documents to verify a person’s information. Starting on May 7, residents must have a REAL ID in order to fly domestically or to
access certain federal facilities. “If you currently have a driver's license
that says the correct gender marker, and then to become REAL ID Act compliant,
you have to show your birth certificate, or passport—could that cause an issue?
It's very state specific, and we're going to have to see how different states
handle it,” Chriss says.
“It’s giving people a license to
discriminate because you’re immediately being marked as ‘Other’” says Imara Jones, an American political
journalist and the chief executive officer of the independent news organization
TransLash Media. The Hill reported that the President is expected
to sign an executive order explicitly banning trans people from military
service.
The Latin Times (Jan. 27,
Attachment Forty Four)
FOREIGN
AFFAIRS
A45
FROM TIME
@end
Our
Lesson: January 23 through January 29, 2025 |
|
|
Thursday,
January 23, 2025 Dow: 44,565.00 |
President Trump throws conspiracy theorists a bone – in fact, the bones
of JFK, RFK Senior and MLK by ordering declassification of their
assassination documents. Bobby Junior
is all for it, but the King Family wants to examine the data before public
release. A major standoff in the
making? There is already a standoff
between the tech bros, Trump and Steve Bannon over the 500+ billion Starlink
AI scheme backed by Sam Altman of Open AI and denounced by newly thrifty Elon
with help from Steve Bannon – they say it’s too expensive with the debt
ceiling collapsing all around. So far,
Trump is backing Altman, Elon’s sworn enemy, promising to find the money...
somewhere... maybe over in Davos in among the G-7 (though he only
televisits). Mother Nature continues to
hate on America with rising Santa Ana leading to more California wildfires
and snow blankets beaches fronting what is now the Gulf of America. Snow from the Eagles’ playoff win is being
sold for $5 a cup in Philadelphia. In the courts and Congress
wins one... the Laken Reilly Act increasing penalities for killer immigrants
is passed with some Democrats supporting, but Donnie’s own Supremes say that
birthright citizenship cannot be repealed without repealing the entire 14th
Amendment. Even as the fires spread,
Oscar nominees are announded with prayers that the conflatrations will cease
by March 2nd. Emilia Perez
garners thirteen... a record for a non-English film... followed by “Wicked”
and “The Brutalist” with ten each.
Gossipators prattle about snubs and celebrate Demi Moore who gets her
first nom nod at 62 for “The Substance” - a sign that horror films are being
taken seriously – and the woke and sleepers argue over Karla Sofia Gascon...
first trannie nominee for “Émilia Perez”. |
|
Friday,
January 24, 2025 Dow: 44,424.25 |
INS arrests 500 on the first full day of migrant crackdown... Tom
Homan says the targets are supposed to be violent criminal immigrants, but
they’ll round up anybody they find in the process. The captives are sent back to Guatemala on
military planes. A Border Patrol agent
is murdered... that is, a Northern
Border patrol agent... but the suspects are suspected of being Vermont
Americans from Bernland. Djonald UnBorn holds his
first full rally after Restoration... telling cheering crowds at a March for Life
raly that he was just joking about not enhancing abortion, contraception and
maybe all sex laws. A baby is born in
a Krispy Kreme parking lot during a Gulf snowstorm. As dirty doctors being busted for fake
Botox, Trump proposes abolishing the Centers for Disease Control, putting
teeth in RFK Junior’s plot to M-POGGA (Make Polio Great Again!). But POTUS II backtracks on
an earlier threat to punish Gov. Gavin Newsome (D-Ca) by denying aid to
California fire victims and a reluctant expenditure of $2.5B in fire relief
is proposed after the Trump-con-mystics point out the effects of no Hollywood
movie money coming in for months, even years.
A little further east, the Mob relaxes after Vegas hotel workers
settle their strike for... go figure... more money. |
|
Saturday,
January 25 , 2025 Dow: Closed |
Despite accusations of misogyny, rape and alcoholism, Pete Hegsetn is
confirmed as DefSec on a 50-50 vote by VP Vance. The GOP traitors are the usual two vengeful
vixens... Collins and Murkowski... joined by grumpy old Mitchy McConnell,
still bitter over his treatment by MAGA during his tenure as Minority
Leader. Pete now says he will allow
women to served in the armed forces – but will they believe him? While red tape slows release
of American One Six criminals/hostages (but not Proud Boys Stewart and Tarrio
who leap out of prison and starts snuggling up to legislators), Hamas and
Israel trade more captives... four female Israeli soldiers for two hundred
Palestinians who, however, are made to wait at the border with the rest of
the refugees because Hamas wouldn’t free a fifth hostage. Rumor mongers monger that the next swap
might include an American. Bird flu is lifting prices
of eggs to $9/dozen and hoarding means supplies will keep shrinking. Deaths (of birds) are rising in 28 states,
a 4 year old human is killed among 67 people sickened... 100,000 ducks are
also euthanized. RFJ Junior screams as
raw milk is also condemned by still-functioning enemies of America like the
CDC, FDA and CIA (whose new director Ratfliffe agrees that Covid was caused
by China). Bridgestone closes Tennessee
tire plant, fires 200 workers while Wendy’s is replacing more of its staff
with AI robotic order-takers and fry-guise.
“It’s an assistant, not a replacement,” declares CEO Todd Penegor. |
|
Sunday,
January 26 , 2025 Dow: Closed |
Sunday talkshows feature Sen. Elise Slotkin (D-Mi) wonders aloud
whether Commander Pete will go along with any of Trump’s illegal orders and
says that former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard is not qualified “because she cozied
up to Assad and Putin.” (Even the
National Revew calls her “atrocious”!)
Not so dueling Chris Christie and Preet Bharara concur that POTUS is
“flooding the zone” with obviously unacceptable Eos to get the ones he wants
through... Preet says he wins if he passes them and wins if he loses so he
can reprise his victim role. Cranky old Chuck Grassley
now deemed the 4th vote to reject any appointees and he denounces
Trump’s “petty” withdrawal of Secret Service protection from enemies and says
POTUS and Biden were both wrong in issuing pardons, while Musk biographer
Walter Isaacson says Elon and Donnie have shown their proclivities for
vengeance. ABC’s roundtablers John
Sanger (Politico) says Trump is not a fluke but national defense is the one
place where “things can go wrong in 24 hours”; David Sanger (NYT) predicts
Little Marco will be his Big Hitman but Rachel Bade says he is burning
capital on dud nominees and floats a deal – let Putin conquer Ukraine and
America conquer Panama and Greenland.
Canada? On “Face the Nation” J.D.
promises Hegseth will be a “disruptor” and dismisses the NReview as “not
Relevant.” Sara Isgur, who blames
“liberal preachiness” for Trump’s election on NPR hopes he will have “mercy”
for birther families while MAGA asks where the mercy is for Americans who
can’t get medical aid because hospitals are “flooded with migrants”. A Florida man is first to be
arrested for threatening to kill President Trump. |
|
Monday,
January 27, 2025 Dow: 44,388.08 |
It’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Israel and Hamas reach a deal to let Palestinians back into what’s
left of their homes and communities in exchange for a fifth Israeli
hostage. Despite reports of returning
migrants to Brazil being beaten and forced to sit in their shit on US
warplanes, Colombia agrees to a deal to take their runaways after Trump
threatens more tariffs. On
cocaine? Chiefs edge Bills and Eagles
blow out Commanders to set up Super Bowl as the ads (featuring, of course,
the Clydesdales) begin rolling out.
Mel Gibson’s “Flight Risk” wins at the B.O. and Roxanne Shante gets a
Lifetime Grammy – for which she credits Nipsey Russell. Tuskeegee University calls
MAGA removal of Airmen from military
history as DEI a racist go-back and local Rep. Ensler (D-Al) introduces a
Congressional bill to restore their stolen valor. Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz, tell
their stories to celebrities like Ukraine’s Zelenskyy and U.K.’s King
Charles, warning that “we must never forget.”
One hopes that “maybe we can teach the next generation not to be so
angry.” But, speaking at a German
far-right rally, Musk said it’s time for the world to stop hating on Nazis. |
|
Tuesday,
January 28, 2025 Dow: 44,850.35 |
Chinese DeepSeek AI, cheaper, better and using less electricity than
Nvidia’s chips causes a tech meltdown, where they lose 600B and cause a
NASDAQ plunge (curiously, lifting the Dow... perhaps as investors get out of
AI and into something real. Stargate’s
Sam Altman, Musk’s bitter rival, calls this “a wake-up for America.” Trump’s rollout of EO’s hits
350 with no end in sight; the latest being an offer to shut down the government
by encouraging two million Federal workers to resign, taking buyouts for
eight months pay. Neither the immediate expense (enormous) or the outcome
(chaotic) bother him even as his temporary freeze is closing day care for
kids (and working moms), ending Meals on Wheels for seniors and Medicaid for
everybody. Following withdraway from
the World Health Org. (Who), adding to the winter bird and human flu comes a
new/old, expensive disease... tuberculosis. Secretary of Defense Pete
Hegseth marked his first day on the job by hinting that military bases renamed
under the Biden administration because they referenced Confederate officers
would revert to their original names, but also greenlighted the return of the
Tuskegee Airmen to DoD history. It’s a
rare application of common sense. Caroline Kennedy calls cousin Bobby Junior
a “predator” – RFK denies the appellation “Mister Measles”. As the Louvre also
deteriorates, Italy demands that France give them back the “Mona Lisa”. |
|
Wednesday,
January 29, 2025 Dow: 44,713.52 |
It’s Chinese New Years... and begins the Year of the Snake – and reptiles
are on the move: over there, over here. As Trump’s Funky Freeze
further “crushes” Americans (according to Rep. Pete Stauben@ (R-Pa) and the
lawyers gather to feast on the American carcass, Djonald UnFrozen declares a
freeze on the freeze, so long as he is given the right to send 30K migrants
to Gitmo to mix and mingle with terrorists.
Off to an ordinary prison: former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) for talking
turkey with Turkey in exchange for gold and cash he’d stuffed in his shoes. In a rare bipartisan move, Congress passes
and Trump signs the Laken Riley Act to lock up aliens who are real criminals. DoE says American students
are falling down in reading and math as music teacher Adrian Maclin named
Educator of the Year for his work with Tennessee choirboys and girls. If you can’t say it, sing it! |
|
@ |
|
THE DON JONES INDEX CHART
of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000 (REFLECTING…
approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013) Gains in indices as
improved are noted in GREEN. Negative/harmful indices in RED as are their designation. (Note – some of the indices where the total
went up created a realm where their value went down... and vice versa.) See a
further explanation of categories HERE |
ECONOMIC INDICES
|
(60%) |
|
||||||||
CATEGORY |
VALUE |
BASE |
RESULTS by PERCENTAGE |
SCORE |
OUR
SOURCES and COMMENTS |
|
||||
INCOME |
(24%) |
6/17/13 revised 1/1/22 |
LAST |
CHANGE |
NEXT |
LAST WEEK |
THIS WEEK |
THE WEEK’S CLOSING STATS... |
|
|
Wages (hrly. Per cap) |
9% |
1350 points |
1/16/25 |
+0.16% |
2/25 |
1,547.53 |
1,547.53 |
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages 30.62 |
|
|
Median Inc. (yearly) |
4% |
600 |
1/16/25 |
-0.07% |
1/30/25 |
737.36 |
737.36 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 43,313 |
|
|
Unempl. (BLS – in mi) |
4% |
600 |
1/16/25 |
+2.44% |
2/25 |
556.38 |
556.38 |
|
||
Official (DC – in mi) |
2% |
300 |
1/16/25 |
+0.30% |
1/30/25 |
228.46 |
228.46 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
7,057 |
|
|
Unofficl. (DC – in mi) |
2% |
300 |
1/16/25 |
+0.34% |
1/30/25 |
260.61 |
260.61 |
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 12,177
211 243 285 |
|
|
Workforce Participation Number Percent |
2% |
300 |
1/16/25 |
-0.011% -0.057% |
1/30/25 |
299.05 |
299.05 |
In
161,151 Out 11,156 Total: 262,307 61.436 |
|
|
WP %
(ycharts)* |
1% |
150 |
12/2/24 |