the imbroglio 2.0

At Slate today, Ian Prasad Philbrick surveys the field of pundits and prognosticators and wonders: “Where does the chronic impulse to forecast Trump’s imminent downfall come from?” Well, it’s not like there aren’t a million reasons he *should* fall. As Philbirck notes, critics have predicted the end again and again:

It happened after the release of the Access Hollywood tape, when dozens of Republican elected officials rescinded their support over Trump’s comments bragging about grabbing women’s genitals. The end was again nigh in May 2017, when former CBS anchor Dan Rather declared that “the curtain may be coming down on this act of this tragedy” after Robert Mueller started investigating Trump’s ties to Russia. After Trump equivocated over a deadly white-supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, the journalist Matt Taibbi called it “the final stake through the Grinch-heart of his presidency.” An FBI raid on the office of longtime Trump fixer Michael Cohen the following year emboldened then-New Yorker writer Adam Davidson to argue that “we are now in the end stages of the Trump presidency.“ This fellow finally, totally discredited himself,” an “exhilarated” Sen. Mitch McConnell told a New York Times reporter hours after a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol. “Donald Trump is now forever disgraced,” the historian Brenda Wineapple opined in the Times after the House committee investigating Jan. 6 referred him for criminal prosecution. Weeks before Trump won the 2024 election, the Republican pollster Frank Luntz predicted that his debate performance against Kamala Harris would cost the former president the race. 

This is what makes those of us who still believe in the U.S. Constitution — in justice, in principles in fairness, and in morality — so insane. No one should still have popular support after *any* of these episodes, let alone all of them. The world is upside down when a “leader” can do all of this and still get more votes than his opponent and maintain the support of his party and all of the sycophants around him. 

The world is truly upside down when this person can go to war against another country for no reason he or anyone else can identify, spending over a billion dollars per day of our money, killing our fellow Americans, and even aiding this so-called “enemy” by lifting sanctions to allow them to profit from their oil to the tune of $14 billion (which they will certainly spend to attempt to kill more Americans or damage American interests), and still… still, this person maintains his position, the support of his party, and the support of most of the people who voted for him. 

Seriously people, what will it take for this demagogue to be dethroned? 

Little Donnie and the MAGAts are at war with Iran because, they claim, Iran is the enemy. So why is Little Donnie helping the enemy? 

The Trump administration said on Thursday that it planned to remove sanctions on Iranian oil, an unorthodox move intended to lower surging crude prices, which have hurt U.S. consumers and helped Iran profit. The strategy would be a sharp reversal from years of maximum-pressure sanctions aimed to cripple Iran’s economy.

How is this not treason? Oh, wait, it IS treason! 

Or, could it be that Iran is not an enemy? Then why are we wasting a billion dollars a day bombing Iran, killing Iranians and destroying the world economy? 

As David Kurtz of TPM puts it:

Shoring up your adversary in an armed conflict you initiated in a desperate attempt to mitigate the consequences of your elective war may forever stand as the paramount example of Donald Trump putting his personal and political interests above the national interest.

Which is true, but also just another example of how we have become inured to the treasonous criminality of the U.S. government. The U.S. has become a rogue and lawless state and its leaders are sending our troops to fight and die while at the same time providing material aid and support to the same forces our troops are fighting. Insanity doesn’t even begin to describe this. Language is inadequate to the task of capturing how truly evil and insane this really is, so let’s just call it what it is — treason! — and begin the appropriate proceedings immediately. (But this time, convict!)

Whether I like it or not, I’m pretty much compelled to read the news every day adn sometimes I read something that I simply must share because of how it clarifies the current situation or for what it memorializes or for how it inspires. Yesterday was one of those days when reading Heather Cox Richardson’s account of how citizens in Surprise, Arizona, are reacting to ICE buying a giant warehouse the size of 7 football fields, in their community. ICE hasn’t said exactly why it bought the building, but it’s a good bet it’s to house prisoners before deporting them. Government officials in Surprise said they don’t know what ICE plans to do with the building but, “It’s important to note, Federal projects are not subject to local regulations, such as zoning.”

The citizens of Surprise aren’t having that:

On Tuesday, February 3, more than a thousand people turned out for the Surprise City Council meeting to oppose the establishment of the federal detention center. One of the speakers reminded the council of Ohrdruf, the first Nazi camp liberated by U.S. troops, on April 4, 1945. He said:

“The U.S. Army brought the leading citizens of Ohrdruf to tour the facility, which turned out to be part of the Buchenwald network of concentration camps. A U.S. Army colonel told the German civilians who viewed the scenes without muttering a word that they were to blame. One of the Germans replied that what happened in the camp was ‘done by a few people,’ and ‘you cannot blame us all.’ And the American, who could have been any one of our grandfathers, said: ‘This was done by those that the German people chose to lead them, and all are responsible.’

“The morning after the tour, the mayor of Ohrdruf killed himself. And maybe he did not know the full extent of the outrages that were committed in his community, but he knew enough. And we don’t know exactly how ICE will use this warehouse. But we know enough. I ask you to consider what the mayor of Ohrdruf might have thought before he died. Maybe he felt like a victim. He might have thought, ‘How is this my fault? I had no jurisdiction over this.’ Maybe he would have said, ‘This site was not subject to local zoning, what could I do?’ But I think, when he reflected on the suffering that occurred at this camp, just outside of town, that those words would have sounded hollow even to him. Because in his heart he knew, as we do, that we are all responsible for what happens in our community.”

We are all responsible. We can’t just be “good Germans” and go along with things we know are wrong. I don’t know what the good people of Surprise, Arizona can do to stop this detention center, but they have taken the first steps. Getting the word out that this is happening is another step. Encouraging every other community where ICE tries to build a new camp or prison to mobilize against it is another step. Lending our voices and our money to the effort is another. One step at a time, it must continue. We are all responsible so we all have to do whatever we can. 

Bruce Springsteen wrote and released a great song this week that everyone needs to hear: The Streets of Minneapolis (YT link, but it’s also available on Apple Music, and probably elsewhere). It would be fantastic if this became the number one song in the country with wall to wall play everywhere, but that seems like too much to hope for. Still, let’s do our part — play and share!

 In a similar vein, though apparently largely produced via AI(?) is ICE, F**K You by scaredketchup. It definitely captures the moment. 

Finally, everyone’s favorite singers, the Marsh Family, has released Minnesota, an adaptation of “San Francisco (Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair).” Also great.