Edition #1146

Monday. And here we are.

“Attention is the beginning of devotion.” Mary Oliver, quoted in Sojourners.

Well, not so much of the latest grift, but certainly somewhere in the neighborhood of a grift. DOE filings in a lawsuit admit that much of the funding cuts for energy grants across the country were concentrated in states that did not vote for Trump in 2024, and that that fact was the sole criterion for the decisions. To quote from the Department of Energy’s court filings, “With one exception, the two hundred eighty-four terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-causing senators.” The document went further in admitting that none of the terminations were “based on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction or performance=based factor.” While I am sure that someone can find some rare example of a past president making some such determination strictly on vindictive grounds, I have never seen such gross and blatant behavior. And those Republicans who merely sit on their hands or shrug their shoulders, you should be ashamed. Regardless of how you may have felt about Biden, he was proud of the fact that his infrastructure bill benefited Republican districts more than Democratic ones. He understood that he was president of the United States of America, not the United States of Those That Voted For Me. Fucking child.

Just a quick note to express my shock, absolute shock, that Trump called off the massive military campaign that he was threatening against those reasonable, rational, and very nice scumbag sickos in Iran. I was sure that he meant it this time, and I would assume the Iranians were shaking in their boots. But for now, just the status quo of whatever it is we are calling this period of war, but not war.

I mentioned this last week in a Nugget, but I thought I should emphasize it a bit more. In reacting to the rise of Trump as the nominee in 2016, many moderate, or at least not extreme, Republicans made an effort to excuse or minimize Trump’s obvious flaws and ignorance. The line that was usually thrown out was something to the effect that “I like some of his policies, even if I don’t like his personality.” It was a desperate move intended to insulate them from what the rest of us saw as clear dangers to our country. Time and time again, there were instances where, as some event was unfolding, more establishment figures in the GOP would categorically reject what others saw as the imminent actions of an out-of-control president, stating that that eventuality would be unacceptable. Only to have to twist themselves into pretzels when that eventuality became reality. In the process, the party has become something that most conservatives would have rejected out of hand prior to Trump. As most of us know, placating a bully does nothing but make them stronger and more aggressive. While my conservative friends will still defend the indefensible, I fear that this is a lesson still not learned on the other side of the aisle.

……………….The DSA –

Here is my warning to my liberal friends. You are making the same mistake with a tolerance for the political leanings and policies advocated by those on the far left who are either Democratic Socialists of America members, or just adjacent. A big tent has to have some limits. Liberals are right to deride the Republicans for tolerating far-right bigotry and antisemitism, Nazi leaning trollers, and the like. But by the same token, those advocating a socialist agenda (means of production socialism), open borders, disbanding police, emptying prisons, as well as their own brand of antisemitism and racism, couched in anticolonialism, need to be dismissed from the ranks. Keeping them aligned with the same mealy-mouthed “I like some of their policies” is inviting the same complete takeover that we have witnessed on the other side. And maybe I am wrong. Maybe many of you like the idea of socialism, of some utopian vision where somehow human nature completely changes from the realities of the past three hundred thousand years. Maybe you see that every instance where socialism has been tried and failed spectacularly as proof that the wrong people were attempting it. Maybe you just cannot recognize that while socialism sounds good, it will always fail, or maybe you believe that you can control those extreme voices over time.

…………………Homeless…politically –

And my motivation here is completely personal and selfish. I am politically homeless. The Republicans are nothing but the cult of Trump with no ability to be anything else for the foreseeable future. And the Democrats have pulled further to the left than I can tolerate, with a growing faction that, if given the reins of power, would destroy our country just as soundly as Trump is on his way to doing now, if only in a different direction. And given the fact that the fastest-growing political identity in the country is “independent,” I know I am not alone.

While not off the naïve simplicity of the DSA agenda yet, let’s call out one of their most ineffective policy priorities. The fact is that we have a severe housing shortage in this country. In my mind, the main cause of this situation is the layer upon layer of well-meaning policies and regulations that were pushed by liberals and conservatives alike, although more on the liberal side. Environmental laws that allow anyone, regardless of expertise, to challenge a development cause many delays, additional costs, or just kill projects entirely. The result is fewer, but more expensive, housing options. So the DSA would like to do away with the capitalist motivation and put all housing into the hands of the government. The short message is that they will do away with landlords, as if the landlord is an evil that can and should be banished from the face of the earth. But all this will do is to substitute out a private party in favor of a public one. There will still be a landlord; there has to be. Someone has to be responsible for building, maintaining, and operating housing. Someone has to be reachable and accountable when a tenant has an issue. But now, somehow, the DSA thinks that it will all be roses and ice cream if it is in the hands of a governmental agency. And without the profit motive to keep tenants happy enough to not want to leave, and to attract new tenants as necessary, will tenants even have a choice as to where they can live? Will they be able to move if their building is not being adequately managed? Will public housing provide the amenities that tenants are currently looking for, or would be in the future? Maybe so. But it will be up to their new landlords, and without any incentive to do so, I have my doubts. In either case, welcome to the new landlords…same as the old.

Oops! It seems that Trump threw in another condition to the deal he signed last week with the Saudis for a nuclear power deal. Whereas it seemed that the Saudis were going to get what they wanted all along without having to give the long-anticipated demand for normalization of relations with Israel, Trump declared an oopsie. Apparently, after signing the deal, which delivers US civilian nuclear power technology, a possibility of Saudi enrichment capabilities in the future, and none of the usual international safeguards and inspection protocols, someone remembered that this carrot used to be tied to better relations with America’s closest ally in the region, Israel. So the condition to the deal of joining the Abraham Accords was thrown out there. Not sure how far that will go without having Israel satisfy the long-standing Saudi requirement of an Israeli commitment to a time-sensitive and legitimate path to an independent Palestinian state. Will this go anywhere, or is it more of the bluster before moving on strategy that is common nowadays?

The other night, fish was on the docket. I had trout, and the bride had salmon, as is her wont. Yes, the artichoke and garlic bread were there as well. You know me too well.

Yeah, I just checked before scheduling this to go out, and nothing new is happening. Quiet weekend, except that the Pentagon got the message and is now accurately reporting casualties in our ongoing war with Iran. Transparency, right? Stay healthy and be good to each other.

Me.