Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop in Washington D.C., led a prayer at the National Cathedral on January 20, 2025, as part of Trump’s inauguration ceremonies (video below). Her prayer included a call for compassion and tolerance for LGBQTs and immigrants. Trump didn’t like it and s[...]
Archive for January, 2025
Trump amends Constitution!
King Donald the First, and Republicans generally, don’t like birthright citizenship. So, with a sweep of his pen, the king did away with it just moments after his coronation (see story here). Except not really, because courts have final say on this. The 14th Amendment says, “All persons [...]
January 20th, 2025 - 2:29 pm § in Donald Trump, Politics
Elon Musk’s odd salute
South African immigrant Elon Musk concluded a brief speech at Trump’s 2025 inauguration with a Strangelovian arm gesture reminiscent of a Nazi salute (video below). Less than a month earlier, Musk was in Germany endorsing the far-right AfD Party (story here), which critics compare to Nazis (st[...]
January 19th, 2025 - 7:38 pm § in Donald Trump, Politics
A tale of two portraits
These are Trump’s official portraits. 2017 […][...]
January 19th, 2025 - 7:26 pm § in Donald Trump, Politics
Trump’s bombast
Trump always wins at golf, even when he doesn’t play (story here). He’s also a big talker, and his talk invariably is about himself. He’s always the biggest, best, and brightest, a “very stable genius.” At his Washington, D.C., rally on January 19, 2025, a consolation e[...]
Would you live next to a nuclear plant approved by Trump?
There are reasons for “red tape.” Safety. Pollution. The neighbors. Trump has always been a blowhard, making impossible promises and delivering less. That’s not going to change. During the 2024 campaign, he promised voters “he would cut their electric and gasoline prices in h[...]
Why tech firms flock to Phoenix
“Arizona’s largest city has, for a variety of reasons, become the epicenter for semiconductor manufacturing,” CNBC reported on Sunday, January 19, 2025 (read story here). Taiwan Semiconductor alone, maker of highly advanced chips, plans to invest $65 billion in its facilities in Phoeni[...]
Did Trump win or Democrats lose?
It’s not a rhetorical question. It goes to what Democrats must do to win elections: Mobilize people who didn’t vote, or change their approach to voters. A popular media theme is that Trump won because Democratic turnout collapsed. But a Vox article here argues he won the arguments on inflat[...]
Is Trump right about tariffs?
The starting point of any discussion about tariffs is their bad reputation. Wikipedia says (here), “There is near unanimous consensus among economists that tariffs are self-defeating and have a negative effect on economic growth and economic welfare.” However, the same Wikipedia article [...]
GOP ex-legislator arrested for Covid relief fraud
Carolina Amesty, 30, a Venezuelan immigrant who served a single term in Florida’s legislature (read her bio here), is with embezzling $122,000 of Covid relief funds, an Orlando TV station reported on Friday, January 17, 2025 (read story here). She’s accused of diverting the money “[...]