Month: February 2025

“It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone. And that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.”

“The Long Twilight Struggle.” Babylon 5, created and written by J. Michael Straczynski, Season 2, Episode 20, 1995.

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Here’s what I’ve found interesting:

• Musk-Trump destroys systems that took generations to create;
• The weaponization of trauma against federal employees;
• White House press corps should send in the interns;
• Local news’ great coverage of the impact of Musk-Trump cuts;
• Let’s make Tesla toxic;
• Montana bill would charge women for trafficking their own fetus;
• Nazis ushered in fascism by burning trans literature;
• SCOTUS sides with innocent person;
• California’s Prop 30 taxes expire in 2030; and
• Let’s not allow Trump to rewrite the history of the January 6, 2021, insurrection he instigated.

Here we go. I’m glad you’re here.

#1

‘They Were Careless People’: Taking Moments to Tear Down What Has Taken Lifetimes to Create. (James Fallows, Breaking the News, Link to Article)

Last week the eminent China scholar Orville Schell likened this moment’s all-fronts Trump-Musk disruption of American institutions to the early years of the catastrophic Cultural Revolution under Chairman Mao. “Trump may lack Mao’s skills as a writer and theorist,” Schell wrote, “but he possesses the same animal instinct to confound opponents and maintain authority by being unpredictable to the point of madness”:

<snip>

It is impossible to keep up with the barrage of daily shocks and dislocations. Of course this is by design. The nonstop flow of outrages also makes it easier for members of the quisling Congress to avoid commenting on any of them in particular—for instance, the US siding with Russia and North Korea in a major UN vote this week, and siding against all its traditional allies. By tomorrow, reporters will have something else to ask about.

So let me focus on one dull-sounding development that sooner or later will be killing people. Yes, I could be talking about changes in Medicaid or in vaccine coverage or in cancer research, or about the USAID shutdowns that have already left many people dead overseas. Or lots more.

But instead I’m talking about the sudden attack on part of the invisible infrastructure that has kept air travelers so safe in the skies.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

When James Fallows isn’t providing analysis of our press or political speeches, he often shares what he’s learned from his years of flying planes.

Fallows draws from this expertise to discuss how the Musk-Trump regime’s destruction of federal institutions could set in place the “accident chain” for a crash in the future.

Fallows notes that making a complex system safe takes expertise and stability. It takes decades to build up what the United States had with our commercial aviation industry and the safety culture that our aviation systems have produced.

It won’t take long to destroy the delicate combination of institutions that makes it so safe to fly in the United States. Musk and DOGE have shut down safety committees, fired staff key to our air traffic control systems, and left federal employees in a state of trauma and unease.

Fallows details the aviation sector in his article, but he notes that experts in many other fields—health care, research, disaster relief, foreign aid—could share similar stories and warnings.

Federal agencies have been keeping us safe for decades. Musk and his tech-bro followers are now crashing and burning through our systems and likely creating problems that will only become apparent when something catastrophically fails.

It will not be easy to put these systems back together. Democrats should be telling this story to make sure the right people are held accountable for what is likely coming.

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#2

The Weaponization of Trauma (Rachael Dietkus, Can We Still Govern?, Link to Article)

I am a current federal employee with the United States Digital Corps. I was required to be interviewed by a member of the DOGE team and am also on the termination list of employees due to probationary status. I wrote this in my personal capacity, but the perspectives I share are deeply connected to my professional responsibility to advance ethical, trauma-informed practices in public sector innovation.

TL;DR: The forced mass terminations and agency restructuring under the Trump administration have activated psychological and emotional distress among federal workers. Employees report hypervigilance, institutional betrayal, physiological symptoms of stress, loss of identity, grief, and collective trauma.

The administration’s rhetoric explicitly frames these actions as an intentional effort to induce trauma, as evidenced by Russell Vought’s statement: “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”

The following analysis applies trauma frameworks to understand the impact of these upheavals.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told us what he wanted to do to our federal workers. We should not forget how Vought and Regent Elon Musk’s DOGE tech-bros are treating people who were dedicated to improving our lives.

I am glad we have this first-hand account of the human toll created by the Musk-Trump-Vought destruction of our federal agencies. It is vital to remember that each announcement of layoffs or terminations involves real people with mortgages, children, and health concerns. They have done nothing to deserve the disrespect and chaos they face.

Vought has described himself as a Christian Nationalist, and he seeks to bring Christianity into all parts of our society and government.

I’d like to know what part of Jesus’ teachings is consistent with wanting other humans “to be traumatically affected?” I don’t remember that being a part of the Sermon on the Mount.

Vought is a dangerous person trying to impose his heretical religious views on the rest of us. The trauma won’t stop with federal workers if he has his way.

#3

Send the Interns (Jay Rosen, Press Think, Link to Article)

When I say #sendtheinterns I mean it literally: take a bold decision to put your most junior people in the briefing room. Recognize that the real story is elsewhere, and most likely hidden. That’s why the experienced reporters need to be taken out of the White House, and put on other assignments.

Look: they can’t visit culture war upon you if they don’t know where you are. The press has to become less predictable. It has to stop functioning as a hate object. This means giving something up. The dream of the White House briefing room and the Presidential press conference is that accountability can be transacted in dramatic and televisable moments: the perfect question that puts the President or his designate on the spot, and lets the public see — as if in a flash — who they are led by. This was always an illusion. Crumbling for decades, it has become comically unsustainable under Trump.

Please note: I am not saying that as a beat the White House is unimportant, or that its pronouncements can be ignored. I’m not saying: devote less attention to Trump. Rather: change the terms of this relationship. Make yourself more elusive. In the theater of resentment where you play such a crucial part, relinquish that part.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

NYU Journalism Professor Jay Rosen first suggested that media outlets #sendtheinterns to the White House press briefings with this article at the beginning of the first Trump Administration. That didn’t happen.

However, given Trump’s attacks on the Associated Press, ABC, CBS, the Des Moines Register, and other reporters, Rosen reminded people of his suggestion.

I think it has much merit, especially now that the Trump White House is taking over the media pool assignments from the White House Correspondents Association.

Trump gives reporters access and sound bites but otherwise insults reporters and is engaged in a war against the stewards of the First Amendment.

White House reporters have ways to fight back. Rosen notes that very little news comes from the briefings, so the lead correspondents could spend that time more productively.

Trump loves his media coverage. He may react to having the press briefing downgraded. Reporters can reset the rules of engagement.

As Reporters Without Borders has explained, press freedom is under siege after the first month of Trump 47. Our press outlets need to do something. Or they can continue to be lied to in press briefings and belittled at every opportunity while our First Amendment rights slip away.

#4

Local news deserves high marks for coverage of the doge fallout (Jennifer Schulze, Indistinct Chatter, Link to Article)

Local news is doing what it does best: build trust by reporting on stories local residents can verify with their own eyes. Recently, much of that reporting has focused on the local impact of the reckless actions of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Fired USDA bird flu scientists. Shuttered Head Start programs. Angry voters confronting GOP Congressmen about doge. It’s all part of a monumental story playing out every day on trusted local news outlets from the TV newscasts in Chicago, to newspapers in Kansas and digital news sites stretching from Nevada to New Hampshire.

I’ve spent my journalism career working in local newsrooms and I’m very impressed by the quality of work. It’s timely, often gut wrenching and impactful. Equally, in an era when people doubt the news, it feels authentic.

One of the biggest stories across America is the growing anger aimed at Musk and Trump revealed in numerous town hall meetings this week. In Yucca Valley, California, the Hi-Desert Star witnessed the shouts of’ ‘no kings’ and ‘do your job’ at Republican Congressman Jay Obernolte’s Saturday morning town hall. In Milwaukee, TMJ4 was there as the crowd booed claims that Doge was proving successful. In Tulsa, News on 6 reported on calls for congressional hearings. In Georgia, multiple news outlets covered the overflow crowd that jeered Republican Rich McCormick especially when he compared the crowd to the January 6th rioters.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Local news outlets have been suffering greatly over the past 15-20 years. It isn’t a loss of classified ads and subscribers. It is also hedge fund buyers loading them with debt before they strip them for parts.

That is why we should tip our caps to all of the outstanding coverage we have seen the past couple of weeks as voters protest the Musk-Trump regime’s coup against our federal agencies.

Voters are unhappy and demanding that their representatives do their Article I jobs and place guardrails on the Musk-Trump regime. Voters do not want their Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid cut. Voters do not want to hear that their Congressional representatives have no power to stop what Musk and his DOGE tech-bros are doing to our federal agencies.

I am glad that national outlets are picking up these local stories. However, we need to figure out ways to secure the future of local reporting. Rich liberals could do a bunch of good by endowing publications in news deserts and then getting out of the way (unlike that space and defense contractor who has decided to ruin the Washington Post’s reputation).

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#5

Make Tesla Toxic (Evan Sutton, Ctrl Alt Right Delete, Link to Article)

But how do regular people with limited resources extract a price from a rising fascist movement?

The first answer is everything we can think of. No one who’s lived their whole life in the United States has ever faced something like this, and none of us knows for sure what’s going to derail the march toward fascism. In times like these, we should foster creative actions, not wag our fingers or tut-tut ideas.

But there is a very specific target that deserves special focus—Tesla Motors.

Tesla is the basis of Elon Musk’s mystique and his wealth. His stake in the company is worth around $145 billion at today’s valuation—more than a third of his total net worth.

Elon clearly isn’t scared about the legal consequences of his actions. Why should he be? The courts have never held him accountable in any meaningful way before, and now he’s protected by an increasingly authoritarian regime.

But legal consequences aren’t the only cost an effective resistance can make opponents pay.

The first thing you need to know is that Tesla Motors is a house of cards.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Many people have lost quite a bit of money shorting Tesla since the start of the pandemic. By any typical measure, the company is overvalued—it is worth more than the next 11 automobile companies combined.

So much of Tesla’s value is based on the belief that Elon Musk is a visionary with a special ability to see the company continue to grow like a technology stock.

But sales have already slowed. And European sales have plummeted since Musk tied himself so closely to Trump and other right-wing causes.

Musk has been working diligently to alienate the people most likely to want to buy an electric vehicle. Meanwhile, other auto companies have caught up to Tesla—and even provided less expensive models in key markets like China.

So, if one wants to hurt Musk, breaking the spell Tesla has on the market is one way to do so. We’ve seen a growth in protests at Tesla dealerships. People are dumping the stock. And people who can’t sell or get out of a lease are putting stickers on their cars to share that they bought it before “Elon went crazy.”

There is more people can do, and Sutton outlines steps people can take to hit Elon Musk financially.

The overvalued Tesla stock is the basis for much of Musk’s power. The marketplace has an opportunity to have an impact.

Musk losing a significant amount of his financial power may, in turn, give Trump (or his advisors) the opportunity to teach him one of the oldest lessons in politics—smart leaders delegate unpopular decisions to others and then use them as a scapegoat to regain their popularity.

Machiavelli diagnosed this dynamic when he wrote in Chapter 19 of The Prince, “From it a noteworthy lesson may be drawn: princes should delegate unpopular duties to others while dispensing all favors directly themselves.”

I doubt Trump is aware of the political philosophy. But he’s a master at using and scapegoating people. Musk’s unpopular overreaching has also upset enough other Trump Administration appointees that the metaphorical knives are starting to emerge.

#6

Montana Bill Would Charge Women for ‘Trafficking’ Their Own Fetus (Jessica Valenti, Abortion, Every Day, Link to Article)

For the past two years, we’ve watched Republicans push ‘abortion trafficking’ laws to restrict minors’ ability to leave their states for care. And for just as long, I’ve warned that this was never going to stop at teens—that what happens to young people today comes for the rest of us tomorrow.

Well, tomorrow is here. Montana Republicans have introduced a first-of-its-kind bill that would criminalize women for getting certain out-of-state abortions, accusing them of ‘trafficking’ their own fetuses.

And regardless of what happens in Montana, this bill has stark implications for the whole country. Republicans have broken a legislative seal—signaling that they’re coming for women’s right to travel.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

This is the first legislative effort to criminalize women’s travel. And we need to treat it as a serious threat.

The bill may not pass in Montana. But other states are likely to pick up the baton. We have seen this dynamic with forced-birth bills for decades.

Forced-birth extremists are working with conservative legal groups and outside organizations to create an environment where these outrageous ideas are normalized.

The legislation, as Valenti explains, is also a backdoor way of establishing fetal personhood as a legal concept.

Travel restrictions may have started with teens. But like all of these ideas, forced-birth activists will work to expand them to every person who can become pregnant.

It is easier to defeat these bills the earlier we find out about them. I’m glad that Valenti is serving as a major hub to distribute information about what the forced-birth extremists are doing to restrict women’s rights to reproductive healthcare.

#7

Nazis Burned Trans Books To Usher In Fascism: Now Trump Does The Same (Erin Reed, Erin in the Morning, Link to Article)

Nearly a century ago, Nazis raided the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft—the Institute of Sexology—a pioneering research institution and clinic founded by Magnus Hirschfeld, a forefather of transgender research. The institute housed tens of thousands of books, research notes, and data documenting the first decades of scientific study on transgender and queer people. Long before the labor camps and mass killings, the Nazis identified Hirschfeld as a primary enemy, targeting his work in the early rise of fascism. That night, in Berlin’s Bebelplatz Square, they burned his institute’s collection in a now-infamous spectacle, immortalized in history books yet often stripped of the context of who, exactly, was targeted. Now, President Trump is doing the same—digitally burning records of transgender people and pressuring nonprofits to follow suit.

And those digital fires have spread. Within days of Trump’s anti-trans executive orders, the word “transgender” was erased from nearly every government website where it once appeared. CDC data on transgender health was stripped from its pages. The Stonewall National Monument—dedicated to the LGBTQ+ people who fought back against oppression, led by transgender activists—was purged of any mention of transgender people online. Even institutions and nonprofits serving LGBTQ+ communities, particularly those receiving federal funding, have been pressured into scrubbing “transgender” and “gender identity” from their materials. The Nazis would envy the speed and efficiency with which it was done.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Some of history’s rhymes are frightening. Anyone who thinks the Trump Regime is going to stop after they wipe out the existence of transgender people has not paid attention to numerous historical examples.

The attacks against trans people continue to grow. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a directive to permanently bar trans athletes from entering the United States if their visa applications misrepresent their birth sex. The United States is about to co-host the Women’s World Cup in 2027 and the Summer Olympics in 2028.

The directive is also vague enough that it could apply to non-athletes as well.

Rubio was confirmed to his position by a 99-0 vote. Yes, every Democrat voted for to confirm him. And this anti-trans directive is what that celebration of Senate norms has wrought. Did Democratic Senators think Rubio would stand up to Trump and stop some of his worst foreign policy initiatives?

So bleeping naive.

Senate Democrats have also agreed to more than 340 unanimous consent requests in 2025, speeding up the confirmations of many of Trump’s unqualified nominees. This situation is not normal, and Democrats should stop wishing and acting like it is. Are they an opposition party or the junior partner in an authoritarian government?

#8

SCOTUS Sides With Obviously Innocent Richard Glossip, Orders Oklahoma To Vacate His Conviction (Robyn Pennacchia, Wonkette, Link to Article)

In a rare moment of actually doing the right thing, the Supreme Court of the United States of America has determined that Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip should have his conviction vacated and be granted a new trial.

Glossip was convicted in 1997 of a murder he did not commit — the murder of Barry Von Treese, the owner of the Best Budget Inn where he worked as a manager. Another man named Justin Sneed actually committed the murder and Glossip was convicted of supposedly “hiring” him by promising they could split any money Sneed was able to steal afterwards.

<snip>

This morning, after having his execution date changed nine times, after eating three last meals, after years of insisting upon his (very obvious) innocence, after years of work from lawyers, activists and documentary filmmakers seeking to prove his innocence, after years of even Oklahoma Republicans arguing for his case to be overturned, SCOTUS has ordered the state of Oklahoma to vacate his conviction.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

It doesn’t happen often, so I will celebrate when the Supreme Court does the right thing.

Richard Glossip did not receive a fair trial because the prosecution did not correct testimony it knew to be false during the original trial.

There was no guarantee that the Supreme Court would see things this way. After all, it has recently made it much more difficult for innocent people to access the courts when new evidence is found and implicitly said that no Constitutional right is violated if an innocent person has to spend the rest of their life in jail after a wrongful conviction.

Glossip may now get the opportunity to receive the fair trial everyone deserves, particularly those facing the death penalty.

Prosecutors and police should face more significant sanctions for lying to the court or withholding evidence from the defense. I think police should be barred from lying to suspects during interrogations.

But those are conversations for another day. Now we can celebrate that a person with a compelling claim to be innocent of the charges that led to his capitol conviction can get a fair trial (if Oklahoma decides to pursue the case).

#9

Proposition 30 taxes expire in 2030 (Jason Sisney, #CABudget, Link to Article)

One of California’s voter-approved marginal tax rates for higher-income personal income tax (PIT) filers expires at the end of 2030. Absent legislative or voter action to extend these taxes, the state budget then will lose perhaps more than $10 billion of annual tax revenue. Compared to budgets under current tax law, deficits would increase by several billion dollars per year, and guaranteed school funding would decline by several billion dollars. From a perspective of prudent planning for tax and fiscal policy, a decision to extend the current taxes, modify them, or let them expire ideally would be made a few years prior to 2030.

Because the state’s multiyear budget forecasts only go out about four years, the deficit pressures from expiration of these voter-approved temporary taxes are not yet shown in those forecasts. Similarly, the forecasts do not account fully for deficit pressures from the 2030 end of the existing cap-and-trade authorization or the long-term decline of the state’s fuel taxes.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Here’s something my California readers will want to keep an eye on as the state budget debate develops.

I would love it if the Democrats would use their legislative supermajorities to extend the taxes. But I doubt they will since it would require taking a stand.

So, it would be prudent to have a ballot measure ready to go in 2026 to extend the Proposition 30 tax to protect school funding. I’m not confident the legislative leadership or Governor Newsom will see it that way, but we should not be blind as we edge closer to a budget cliff.

The Reality of the January 6, 2021, Insurrection

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:

On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump instigated a violent insurrection against the United States government.

People were hurt and police officers died protecting the Capitol. Vice President Pence and other elected officials just barely escaped danger. Our national streak of peaceful transfers of power ended.

It was not, as Trump claims, a “day of love.” And we must resist his efforts to rewrite the history of that dark day.

Post-Game Comments

Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:

“Beyond this, the adage that the opposition’s duty was to oppose was not Rayburn’s adage. He didn’t want to oppose simply for the sake of opposing. “Any jackass can kick a barn down,” he said. “But it takes a good carpenter to build one.” (Robert A. Caro, Master of the Senate)

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Thank you for reading my newsletter. Please let me know what you think about what you’ve read—and send me things you’ve found interesting! You can email me at craig@cheslog.com. 

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“It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone. And that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.”

“The Long Twilight Struggle.” Babylon 5, created and written by J. Michael Straczynski, Season 2, Episode 20, 1995.

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Here’s what I’ve found interesting:

• How to make Trump unpopular again by not allowing more GOP political layups;
• Democrats must address their gerontocracy problem;
• Silicon Valley’s plan to dismantle democracy;
• Republican SAVE Act could prevent many women from voting;
• Elon Musk is trying to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court seat;
• How a foreign reporter would write about last week (“King Donald I” Accelerates White Nationalist Purge of Military Leaders);
• 150-year-olds are not collecting Social Security benefits;
• Civil Servants are leading the resistance; and
• Let’s not allow Trump to rewrite the history of the January 6, 2021, insurrection he instigated.

Here we go. I’m glad you’re here.

#1

How to Make Trump Unpopular Again (Dan Pfeiffer, The Message Box, Link to Article)

Without adopting McConnell’s nihilism, we do need a similar approach. McConnell understood that his party’s success was inversely correlated with Obama’s. Unfortunately, politics is zero-sum. Mutually shared political victory between Republicans and Democrats does not exist.

Therefore, Democrats need to adopt a “no layups” rule. This is a concept borrowed from basketball. There are no easy shots. If the other team tries to make a layup, you foul them before they can. This is the mentality Democrats need. We must complicate everything for Trump and the Republicans and use every lever of power to slow things down and gum up the works. Time is the only non-renewable resource in politics. Every day that Trump doesn’t move his agenda is a day he won’t get back. This is what McConnell did to Obama and it’s what Democrats need to do to Trump.

The real test will come when government funding runs out and the debt limit expires. The Democratic approach must be in total opposition to any Republican proposal. We have all the leverage. If Republicans want Democratic votes, they must pay in concessions. This doesn’t mean we demand Medicare For All or an expansion of Social Security, but we can insist on concessions to protect many of the priorities being slashed by Musk and his minions.

To be clear, Democrats are not forcing a shutdown. Republicans have the votes to keep the government up and running. I am simply saying that Democrats shouldn’t bail out the Republicans due to some sense of civic duty.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:

Right before this recent Congressional district work period, Senate Democrats helped speed along the confirmations of several of President Trump’s nominees, including Tusli Gabard, Pam Bondi, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They did this by agreeing to unanimous consent requests so members could avoid being in session on Friday and be sure to get to the Munich Security Conference.

To quote the legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi:

I was under the impression we were facing the most difficult time for our Republic since the Civil War. It’s not just what I’m seeing the Musk-Trump regime do in the news—it’s also in all the fundraising appeals I am getting from Democrats and Democratic-related fundraising committees.

Yes, protecting our democracy and highlighting the Musk-Trump illegal activities may require staying in session on Fridays (and, gasp) weekends.

Yes, the Republicans enjoy a federal trifecta. But that doesn’t mean Democrats are without tools they can use.

This is where I find Pfeiffer’s use of the “no layups” metaphor helpful to describe reasonable expectations at this moment.

Democrats may not be able to win many votes, but they have many ways to slow down events—especially in the Senate. Democrats should start using all of these tools, at least until Elon Musk and his tech-bro followers at DOGE are brought under control.

That means objecting to every unanimous consent request. It means hard quorum calls that force 51 Senators to be present on the floor to conduct business. Republican Senators need to pay a cost for going along with Musk-Trump. Time is a nonrenewable resource, and Democrats should force Republicans to use every moment of it. Indivisible Co-Founder Ezra Levin used BlueSky to post the memo that former GOP Senator Judd Gregg sent to his colleagues in 2009 to try to stop the passage of universal healthcare. Democrats should use every one of those processes.

Republicans broke these norms years ago. They set the precedent.

While more Democrats have started fighting back since my last newsletter, we still need to see more from our leaders. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have been subpar (I hope Jeffries noted the protests aimed at him earlier this week while he made a baffling book tour appearance in Chicago).

We need our leaders to show us they care.

And we need to show them that we care. I have been calling my two U.S. Senators every day the past week to share my disappointment with their unwillingness to use their power to throw sand in the gears of the Musk-Trump regime. I’ve called my Member of Congress to encourage her to talk to her California Senate colleagues. Contacting local elected officials who have endorsed the Senators can help as well.

The 5 Calls app is an excellent way to make these calls about this issue or any other part of the current Constitutional emergency. There is something all of us can do, as dire as the situation seems.

Finally, regarding the gif image at the beginning of this newsletter, if you weren’t aware of what the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream did to help Rev. Raphael Warnock defeat their team’s co-owner, former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, in the 2020 Georgia special Senate election, I encourage you to read Elizabeth Williams’ article telling the story and to watch the outstanding Amazon Prime documentary Power of the Dream. Williams is the person blocking the shot and preventing an easy layup in the image above.

The Long Twilight Struggle is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider joining for free or becoming a paid subscriber to buy me coffee to drink while writing this newsletter.

#2

Democrats’ gerontocracy problem is front and center in the Trump era (Kyle Thorp, Chaotic Era, Link to Article)

The most powerful elected official in the Democratic Party at the moment uses a flip phone and does not send email. “I don’t do e-mails. I get them but I don’t do them,” Chuck Schumer told a local news outlet several years ago.

As U.S. Senate Minority Leader, Schumer is one of the most visible representatives of the Democratic Party’s brand and platform. He arguably has the greatest say over Democrats’ inside strategy to block or stall parts of President Trump’s agenda. And yet, “embarrassing,” “so unbelievably bad,” and “horrific,” are just a few of the words used by senior Senate Democratic staffers to describe Chuck Schumer these days.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve spoken with a half dozen current or former Democratic Senate Communications Directors, Legislative Directors, or Chiefs of Staff about Chuck Schumer and whether or not he is the right person to lead Democrats at this moment. Every person requested to speak on background, out of fear of losing their jobs or angering their friends. Each is in agreement that the Democratic leader has struggled to find his footing in the new Trump era, and should pass the torch to the next generation.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

So we’ve tried it Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s way. He seemed to think that if the Democrats held their fire against some of President Trump’s least objectionable nominees, that Republicans would go along with keeping the most dangerous of them from getting confirmed.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert K. Kennedy Jr., and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard demonstrate how terrible that strategy turned out to be.

I thought that Schumer may have wanted to take advantage of this moment to get revenge for all of the Republican obstruction that intensified when the nation had the gall to elect a non-white person to the presidency. But, no, apparently taking weekends off and letting Republican Senators help announce our national appeasement of Russia and China in Munich (of all cities) turned out to be a bigger priority.

It’s not just Schumer, of course. Leading Democrats still haven’t figured out how to center themselves on video calls and make sure they have decent enough lighting to appear professional on cable news interviews. Schumer put Senator Cory Booker in charge of organizing the Senate Democrats’ social media plan. It’s not going well. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries didn’t inspire confidence with his “God is still on the throne” thoughts and prayers.

What we’ve seen the first month of the Musk-Trump regime from Democrats has not been good enough. It’s time to try new strategies, and if the current leadership isn’t willing to do so, they should make the honorable choice and step down.

#3

Silicon Valley’s Plan to Dismantle Democracy (Mike Brock, Notes from the Circus, Link to Article)

DOGE is not about efficiency. It is about erasure. Democracy is being deleted in slow motion, replaced by proprietary technology and AI models. It is a coup, executed not with guns, but with backend migrations and database wipes.

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, marking the largest failure of an investment bank since the Great Depression. This event catalyzed the global financial crisis, leading to widespread economic hardship and a profound loss of faith in established institutions.

In the aftermath of the crisis, several key figures emerged who would go on to shape a new movement in American politics.

<skip>

The notion that traditional democratic governance was inefficient or outdated resonated with those who saw themselves as disruptors and innovators.

This intellectual throughline—from Mises to Hoppe to figures like Yarvin and Thiel—helps explain the emergence of what some have called “techno-libertarianism.” It represents a dangerous alignment of anti-democratic thought with immense technological and financial resources, posing significant challenges to traditional conceptions of democratic governance and civic responsibility.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

The emergence of techno-libertarianism, and its current alliance with white Christian nationalists, has put our democracy in its greatest danger since the Civil War.

Why is Silicon Valley shifting sharply to the right? Why are the PayPal mafia, who include Peter Thiel, so interested in spending money to create politicians like Vice President JD Vance?

They believe democracy is incompatible with freedom. They want to move our nation towards a new system where those with the most money and access to technology make the rules.

I think understanding these motives provides more context for what we are watching happen with our federal agencies.

It also may be related to why President Trump wants to dissolve the Presidio Trust. The Nerd Reich’s Gil Duran wonders if these people are looking to replace the park with one of its fascist cities (that they prefer to call Freedom Cities). I think that’s the likely plan. We shouldn’t be surprised when we see announcements to that effect. As Duran also explains, we also shouldn’t be surprised by the potential federalization of the Solano County land that the tech evangelists behind California Forever want to take over and create a new city.

They don’t believe in democracy. They know the American people didn’t vote for this. But they don’t care. They think they are the only ones with the right answers.

Duran has also created this YouTube video to explain what the Nerd Reich is trying to accomplish.

#4

How the SAVE Act Will Keep Women From Voting (Andra Watkins, For Such a Time As This, Link to Article)

For readers unfamiliar with the SAVE ACT, it requires Americans to present a birth certificate or passport THAT MATCHES THEIR LEGAL NAME when they register to vote.

Why does this matter? Because the majority of American women change their names when they marry. Their legal names do not match the name on their birth certificate.

Just over one half of Americans have a passport, and these numbers fall in Communities of Color, which would impact the ability of Women of Color to vote. The SAVE ACT could lead to a significant percentage of American women needing to obtain some new documentation to protect their right to vote.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Republicans have made passing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act (H.R. 22) one of their top priorities this Congress. It probably has something to do with how it would disenfranchise many women and people of color for the reasons Watkins explains in her post.

Watkins also provides suggestions and step-by-step instructions for what people who have changed their legal name can do to be ready in case this bill passes.

We know Republicans aren’t serious about protecting election integrity with these bills. It’s voter suppression that Chief Justice John Roberts and his radical Republican colleagues have demonstrated comfort with allowing.

If you’ve changed your legal name, I hope you’ll consider getting ready for what may be coming. Please share this information with others. I don’t think hoping the Senate Republicans refuse to change the filibuster rules to keep Democrats from preventing a vote on this bill is a smart bet.

We need to raise the alarm and make sure our elected officials aren’t asleep on about this issue.

Thank you for reading The Long Twilight Struggle. This post is public, so please share it with your family and friends.

#5

Elon Musk Is Trying to Buy Another Election (John Nichols, The Nation, Link to Article)

This week, a Musk-backed political action committee, Building America’s Future, bought a reported $1.5 million in advertising time on television stations across the state of Wisconsin, where one of the most critical elections of 2025 will be decided on April 1. The race is for an open seat on the state’s powerful Supreme Court, which currently has a 4–3 progressive majority. The senior member of the court, widely respected progressive Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, is standing down. Running to replace her are Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford, who is backed by Bradley and dozens of current and former jurists and court commissioners from across Wisconsin, and former Wisconsin attorney general Brad Schimel, a right-wing ally of former governor Scott Walker who was appointed to a Waukesha County judgeship after being defeated in his 2018 reelection bid for the AG post.

If Crawford wins, progressives will maintain their majority on a court that has been asked to prioritize cases involving abortion rights, labor rights, and free and fair elections. Since Wisconsin is an intensely contested battleground state where five of the last seven presidential contests have been decided by under 30,000 votes, the court’s decisions carry significant national implications.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Yeah, Elon Musk is trying to buy a Supreme Court seat in one of the most important electoral states in the country.

Judge Crawford will sustain the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s 4-3 progressive majority. She could use some donations to fight back against the authoritarian billionaire.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party is working hard to support Crawford’s candidacy. They’ve demonstrated they know how to win these court races. Click here to learn more about what they are doing.

I’m not thrilled that we have elections for judges. But that’s the current system, and I am not about to unilaterally disarm in this fight for our democracy for ideological reasons.

#6

“King Donald I” Accelerates White Nationalist Purge of Military Leaders (Garrett Graff, Doomsday Scenario, Link to Article)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a late Friday night purge, Donald Trump — America’s often ramblingly incoherent ceremonial commander-in-chief — fired three of this country’s top generals and admirals, the latest assault in weeks of efforts to install loyalists at top military and security posts and restore the primacy of the white male ruling class that has traditionally held power here since the country’s founding two centuries ago.

The purge included the nation’s groundbreaking and widely respected top four-star general, C.Q. Brown, who was the first of the country’s oppressed racial minority Black community to rise to head a branch of the military, and also removed the military’s top lawyers as well as the air force chief and the one female currently leading a military branch. The purge completes Trump’s removal of the both the first-ever and second-ever women to rise to the highest ranks of the military.

Traditionally, incoming US presidents remove precisely zero military leaders and the collective firings stand as all-but unprecedented in the 80-year history of the modern military, which prides itself on itself on studious political independence, but had looked increasingly inevitable since Trump installed a white Christian nationalist as defense minister who has been openly hostile to women serving in the military and who has cut back on recruiting Blacks to join.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Garrett Graff shares his fourth weekly dispatch describing our Constitutional crisis like a foreign correspondent would cover similar events in another country.

As Graff explains, foreign correspondents use sharper language and stronger judgments than most reporters have used in our country. This writing tactic helps to provide more context for what is happening while providing a quick review of what we’ve experienced in the past week.

This isn’t normal. I wish more reporters were like Graff here and not following the New York Times’ Peter Baker, who felt he should write an analysis seriously considering the prospect of Canada becoming the 51st state.

Reporters still insisting all of this is just a game between red and blue is how we end up without freedom of the press.

#7

No, 150-Year-Olds Aren’t Collecting Social Security Benefits (David Gilbert, Wired, Link to Article)

While no evidence was produced to back up this claim, it was picked up by right-wing commentators online, primarily on Musk’s own X platform, as well as being reported credibly by pro-Trump media outlets.

Computer programmers quickly claimed that the 150 figure was not evidence of fraud but rather the result of a weird quirk of the Social Security Administration’s benefits system, which was largely written in COBOL, a 60-year-old programming language that undergirds SSA’s databases as well as systems from many other US government agencies.

COBOL is rarely used today, and as such, Musk’s cadre of young engineers may well be unfamiliar with it.

Because COBOL does not have a date type, some implementations rely instead on a system whereby all dates are coded to a reference point. The most commonly used is May 20, 1875, as this was the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the Convention du Mètre.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

You may have seen Regent Elon Musk make his startling claim about the fraud he uncovered because of all these 150 year olds who are getting Social Security benefits.

That, of course, isn’t what’s happening. But rather than talk to people who know how the systems work, Musk and his team of tech-bros assumed it had to be fraud.

Several people on BlueSky have been noting that “everything is a conspiracy when you don’t know how anything works.” This is why an actual genius wouldn’t fire all the experts.

#8

Civil servants are leading the American resistance – with GameStop as a guide (Virginia Heffernan, The Guardian, Link to Article)

The most ferocious response to Elon Musk’s coup in the US is also the most disciplined. It’s a sustained act of civil disobedience by the civil service. Amid the malignant lies of the current regime, federal workers are steadily telling the truth.

This strategy is more methodical than it at first seems. Yes, the distress and anger among federal workers is palpable. But the more anarchy Donald Trump’s executive orders and Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) operation loose upon the world, the firmer the federal employees are standing. Their protest might even be seen as a political short squeeze.

Starting on 28 January, federal employees refused to leave their posts in spite of Musk’s campaign to bully them out. On the subreddit for federal employees, they exhorted each other not to quit. Their rallying cry soon became: “Hold the line, don’t resign.” Although 2 million workers were pressured to quit, only 75,000 of them took what looked like a sketchy “buyout” deal.

Then, this past week, when on the job mass firings started, staying at work became impossible. Thousands of employees, many of them with excellent performance reviews, were terminated on the hollow pretext that their “performance has not been adequate to justify further employment”.

But as these employees cleared out their desks, a vocal group refused to vacate their faith in the civil service’s excellence. They have, in short, opposed the lie that they and their colleagues are being fired for cause. In this way, they’ve converged on the policy that Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Soviet dissident, called “personal non-participation in lies”.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

We should not underestimate the personal pain that Regent Elon Musk and his DOGE disciples have created among our federal workers and the people who rely on their services to survive.

It will take decades to replace what has been lost.

Given the stakes, I am glad so many are continuing to fight. And this is one of the reasons I would like to see Democratic elected officials fight at least as hard as those who are losing their careers during this Constitutional emergency.

The Reality of the January 6, 2021, Insurrection

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:

On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump instigated a violent insurrection against the United States government.

People were hurt and police officers died protecting the Capitol. Vice President Pence and other elected officials just barely escaped danger. Our national streak of peaceful transfers of power ended.

It was not, as Trump claims, a “day of love.” And we must resist his efforts to rewrite the history of that dark day.

Post-Game Comments

Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:

“Maybe egg muffins *are* the perfect on-the-go breakfast but we are in a moment of unprecedented danger and our media organisations are unable to understand that normal service has been suspended. Even if the New York Times wants to continue using its favoured phrase “executive power grab” as opposed to “coup”, why not try out a bigger typeface than the one you’re using for recipes? News organisations actually do need to pick a side: do they think liberal democracy is better than autocracy? If so, maybe the muffins could temporarily be re-positioned below the fold?”—Carole Cadwalladr, How to Survive the Broligarchy, February 17, 2025, Link to Article

Thank you for reading! This post is public, so feel free to share it.

Thank you for reading my newsletter. Please let me know what you think about what you’ve read—and send me things you’ve found interesting! You can email me at craigcheslog@substack.com. 

The Long Twilight Struggle is free and supported voluntarily by its readers. If you liked what you read, please consider buying me a coffee to drink while I write it by becoming a paid subscriber or sponsor.

“It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone. And that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.”

“The Long Twilight Struggle.” Babylon 5, created and written by J. Michael Straczynski, Season 2, Episode 20, 1995.

---

Here’s what I’ve found interesting:

• Why, yes, people are working to save our democracy;
• How a foreign reporter would write about last week (“White Nationalist Forces Consolidate Power Alongside Musk’s Junta”);
• The MAGA feeding frenzy against our democracy is an assault coming from many directions;
• The media continues to fail us by missing the story of Elon Musk’s coup;
• Democratic State Attorneys General have been preparing for this situation;
• Wondering whether the credit rating agencies will take Musk’s payment system and Treasury bill attacks seriously;
• Suggestions about how to message against DOGE’s theft of our sovereignty;
• Are laws just vibes now; and
• Let’s not allow Trump to rewrite the history of the January 6, 2021, insurrection he instigated.

Here we go. I’m glad you’re here.

#1

Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything? (Sherrilyn Ifill, Sherrilyn’s Newsletter, Link to Article)

To overcome or even slow the momentum of the forces arrayed against us will require our resolve, and an ecosystem of resistance – litigation, activism, organizing, direct action, communications, political pressure, and our voices raised to speak truth to power. We may not be able to score a knock-out punch, but we can score a series of technical knockouts against our opponents to reduce the intensity of their efforts. This will take all of us, committing to do what we can.

To insist that nothing can be done is to surrender to the pull of inertia. To numb ourselves and settle for watching our country’s demise, rather than fight it. If this seems like an option to you it is only because you are unable to imagine how truly bad it can get for our families, our friends, and our communities. I am clear that it can and may become not just worse, but intolerable for many, many people, and that none of us will be immune. That recognition makes it clear to me that there is no option but to fight.

Despair and believing that you are powerless is a form of “obeying in advance” (Timothy Snyder’s term) which ensures the victory of autocracy. I understand the exhaustion, anger, the feeling of being overwhelmed and the grief that those of us who believe in democracy, equality and justice are experiencing right now. And painful as it is, I have accepted that there are no guarantees that we can overcome all that we are facing. But I do know that unless we fight, we cannot prevail.

Fortunately, many people are in fact “doing something.”

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

While sharing all the horrific events since President Trump’s election, I have not done enough to feature the work many people have done to fight back against these horrors. It’s time to start correcting that error.

As Ifill notes, far too many Democratic political leaders were slow to respond. However, resisting the ongoing Musk-Trump coup is not just their job. Many people are working every day to minimize the harm and set the stage for a potential democratic renewal.

The resistance to Musk-Trump must be a many-legged stool so it can continue to stand even if one or two legs partially collapse.

Ifill lists the various ways people are responding to the coup. There were rallies in all 50 states. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez confirmed, calls to our Representatives and Senators are making a difference on both sides of the aisle. Groups like Indivisible and new apps like 5Calls make contacting our federal elected officials easier. Federal workers are continuing to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution. As Ken White explained, people are helping out in their local communities, remembering that “kindness, decency, and fidelity to American values are defiance in the face of Trumpism.”

We are facing the most significant challenge to our Constitutional order since the traitors in the Confederate States of America launched their military effort to protect slavery.

Musk and Trump have a great deal of power, and the Republican Party and far too many judges appear unwilling to live up to their Constitutional checks-and-balances responsibilities.

So, we can’t expect to win every battle. However, our large coalition can win some of them and minimize the harm the Musk-Trump Administration intends to create.

I will work to compile a list of ways people can help to include in this newsletter going forward. Please email me at craig@cheslog.com if you have any suggestions for that list.

The Long Twilight Struggle is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider joining for free or becoming a paid subscriber to buy me coffee to drink while writing this newsletter.

#2

White Nationalist Forces Consolidate Power Alongside Musk’s Junta (Garrett Graff, Doomsday Scenario, Link to Article)

Two weeks into a fast-moving coup by a South African tech oligarch, the United States — which was already deep into planning for its 250^th birthday next year — hangs suspended this weekend in a liminal state somewhere between the constitutional republic it has been for 249 years and an authoritarian regime akin to Europe’s infamous fallen democracy, Hungary.

Following the alarming purges of the security services last week and the successful capture of the national treasury and other federal agencies by technical junta forces loyal to centibillionaire Elon Musk, the country’s constitutional system seemed to awaken from slumber this week.

Although by Monday Musk reigned unquestioned as head of the government, he appears content to allow the country’s elected president, Donald Trump, to remain the ceremonial head of state, and overall the political situation seemed to stabilize as the week progressed. Amid widening protests by opposition leaders and the public, damning media reports, and a flurry of court orders that blocked or slowed some of the most controversial power grabs, the country even appeared — at least temporarily — to pull back from the abyss.

Nevertheless, tensions remained high on the streets of the federal district known as Washington and uncertainty filled governmental offices.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Garrett Graff once again provides one of the best summaries of the ongoing Musk-Trump coup by taking a step back and recapping the previous week of our constitutional emergency in the way U.S. foreign correspondents would about other nations.

This remove provides clarity about what we are experiencing. So much can get lost in our national myths.

Graff’s article strips that away and leaves a clear view of the multifaceted attack on our Constitutional system. I hope he continues to write them.

#3

MAGA Feeding Frenzy Has Caused a Constitutional Crisis (Thomas Zimmer, Democracy Americana, Link to Article)

But the most plausible interpretation, I believe, is that it isn’t just one thing. The assault is coming from several directions. There are the reactionary elites mostly aligned with Heritage and Project 2025; there are the America First nativists; there are the techbro feudal barons. There is also, let’s not forget, Donald Trump as a slightly idiosyncratic factor, driven entirely by a sense of grievance, a desire for revenge, and his personal obsessions (tariffs, for instance; and the urge to install a politics of domination both domestically as well as on the world stage). All of these different factions of the Trumpist Right have been let loose on the government. Invoking the will of the president, they have declared themselves masters of the world. It is genuinely unclear how much coordination there is between them. Their actions add up to an often chaotic, but nevertheless comprehensive assault on the constitutional order. Less the execution of a single master plan – and more a MAGA feeding frenzy.

Let’s look at what these different factions have been up to, where they align, where we can discern their distinctive fingerprints, and where we might expect friction.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

I believe it is vital to remember that this attack against our Constitutional system is coming at us in several different ways. They aren’t just flooding the information zone with shit (as Steve Bannon famously declared). But we also see the people implementing Project 2025, others following Musk, and the always unpredictable grievance merchant Donald J. Trump.

Zimmer reviews how each of these groups is using the moment to achieve their goals. It is overwhelming. However, these groups are not ideologically consistent, and there will be contradictions and rivalries about which those of us resisting these efforts can seek to take advantage.

This is one of the reasons elected Democrats should take every opportunity to throw sand in the gears of these efforts. The longer the process takes, the better the chance these contradictions will lead to fights among the MAGA faithful.

#4

The Media Is Missing the Story: Elon Musk Is Staging a Coup (Parker Molloy, The Present Age, Link to Article)

This is what a coup looks like in 2025. It doesn’t require tanks in the streets or soldiers storming buildings. It just needs control of the bureaucratic machinery that makes government function. By seizing these mechanisms while Trump provides political cover, Musk is accumulating unprecedented power for an unelected individual. As president, even Trump should not have this kind of power.

The mainstream media’s failure to recognize this as a constitutional crisis is itself a crisis. When Treasury’s acting Deputy Secretary resigns after 30 years of service rather than grant Musk access to payment systems, that’s not just a personnel change — it’s a warning sign. When Musk baselessly claims that Treasury officials “literally never denied a payment” to terrorist groups, that’s not just political rhetoric — it’s laying groundwork for seizing control of federal payments.

We’ve seen this pattern before. As Jared Yates Sexton writes in his newsletter, this is about oligarchs using Trump as a figurehead while they strip government assets and consolidate power. Trump signs the orders, but it’s Musk and his allies who are writing them.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Far too much of our press is failing the Orwellian struggle to see what is in front of their nose. They continue to normalize what’s not normal in a democracy and both-sides issues where the choice is between authoritarianism and Constitutional democracy.

This is failing our democracy—it doesn’t matter if this dynamic exists because billionaire owners are seeking to protect their government contracts or if reporters only understand how to discuss politics by being stenographers.

Thankfully, some independent journalists and publications have risen to the moment. Wired, for example, has had scoop after scoop after the Musk coup of the federal government’s administrative and technological systems. Molloy shares a few other outlets doing great work right now. I plan to continue featuring them in this space.

Also, I think it would be great if some reporters read the two DOGE Executive Orders (the original one and the one Trump signed today) and note that Elon Musk is not legally in charge of DOGE even if we take what the president has authorized at face value. He’s officially a part-time unpaid consultant. As Andy Craig notes in this BlueSky thread, every story that calls Musk the “head, leader, or chair” of DOGE is misleading its readers or viewers.

This point has been important to Federalist Society members for years. Relatedly, as Professor Jacob Levy noted on BlueSky, “At this juncture it’s worth remembering that Aileen Cannon threw out the documents case against Trump on the theory (made up by Clarence Thomas in a dissent that no one joined) that Jack Smith, who *was* accountable to the Senate-confirmed AG, had no authority bc Congress hadn’t created the job.”

Yep. There’s some important news being made out there. I hope more reporters will try to find it.

Thank you for reading The Long Twilight Struggle. This post is public, so please share it with your family and friends.

#5

‘We saw this coming’: State attorneys general are ready for Trump 2.0 (Candice Norwood, The 19th, Link to Article)

Less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to significantly restrict birthright citizenship last week, nearly two dozen state attorneys general filed lawsuits seeking to block the order. Two days after that, a federal judge in Seattle issued a two-week pause on the measure as the court considers a more extensive hold on the policy.

This week, another federal judge temporarily blocked the administration’s attempt to freeze federal assistance and loans. This came after another joint lawsuit with 22 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia challenged the move.

This swift legal action from some of the country’s top law enforcement officials was months in the making, former Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum told The 19th.

“We saw this coming, even though we hoped it wouldn’t. We started preparing as the Democratic AGs almost two years ago for the potential eventuality,” Rosenblum said in an interview days after Trump’s inauguration. “I believe that there’s no group better prepared to push back where appropriate.”

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:

These Democratic Attorneys General have been active from Day 1 of the Trump Administration. They have been going to court to seek relief from a variety of illegal and unconstitutional Trump Administration executive orders and Musk Department of Government Efficiency decrees.

They have been successful and understand the crisis in ways some of their federal elected counterparts have been slow to acknowledge.

I am also intrigued that the Democratic AGs are seeking relief only for their states and not nationwide, which could end the Republican free-rider problem. Republicans should have to pay the political consequences for explaining in public how essential this “wasteful” government spending is for their states (Wonkette’s Gary Legum explains Republican U.S. Senator Katie Britt’s realization of this concept).

Democrats need to do everything they can to slow down this coup and force Republicans to own the unconstitutional actions of the Musk-Trump regime. It is great to see the Democratic Attorneys General doing their part.

#6

Watch The Credit-Ratings Agencies (Brian Beutler, Off Message, Link to Article)

But that is the niche they occupy, and will continue to occupy so long as people with money respond to their pronouncements. Institutional investors will adjust their decision making if S&P tells them certain rock-solid investments are actually shakier than they appear. They’ll demand higher interest rates, or put their money elsewhere.

That brings us to the present—the Trump administration’s claim of unchecked power to honor or disregard its payment obligations, its lawless and opaque meddling with the payment system the Treasury Department uses to honor American spending commitments, and the swift erosion of the rule of law.

If ratings agencies were able to detect political instability by watching contentious or irresponsible legislative fights play out, you’d think they’d be able to draw some conclusions based on the fiat transformation of the U.S. system of government from a democratic republic into whatever this is.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:

Remember when S&P reduced our national credit grade when Republicans held the Obama Administration hostage for concessions before increasing the national debt limit in 2011? Brian Beutler does. And we should as well.

What do the credit ratings agencies think about the Musk-Trump Administration’s decision to defy the Constitution and stop Congressionally mandated spending? What do they think about President Trump’s contention that some of the nation’s $36 trillion national debt may not be legitimate?

As Beutler explains, the current national debt limit problem—and whether the current debt still has the full faith and credit of U.S. taxpayers—is a far more serious crisis than the one S&P used to hit the Obama Administration.

Will the credit agencies react to it? Or will this be another example—as we learned when they backed mortgage-backed securities during the 2008 financial crisis—of their inability to do the job we expect them to do?

#7

Countering Musk’s DOGE Theft (Jason Sattler, Frame Lab, Link to Article)

What if a coup happened and nobody noticed?

That seems to be what’s occurring as Elon Musk and his shock troops roll through the federal government, cutting off congressionally mandated funding for essential services, threatening the lives, in one instance, of an 86-year-old woman in need of dialysis.

Most Democratic leaders chose to stay quiet on the sidelines over the last few weeks. Meanwhile, the press is proving incapable or unwilling to describe what is happening to our country. The New York Times reported on “Elon Musk and His Allies Storm Into Washington and Race to Reshape It,” which couched the story in Musk’s PR by noting that he is “reprising the playbook he used after buying Twitter in 2022.” The story failed to explain the utter lawlessness of approaching our representative government like it’s a private company you’ve just purchased. It also failed to note that Musk destroyed some 80% of said company’s value.

Compare that to Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan, who called Musk’s actions “an attack on the Constitution as profound as the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.”

Politics is a battle for brains. Most of us on the Democratic side still live in the 18th-century mentality that all we have to do is present the facts, and reason will solve everything. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Facts must be framed.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

National Democrats have had a messaging problem for, well, almost forever. They fail to understand that just repeating facts or passing great laws is no longer enough to secure electoral victories.

Democrats must consistently highlight how the Musk-Trump regime’s actions threaten essential services and the well-being of every person in the United States. What does cutting the National Institutes of Health mean? How does USAID help protect people in the United States?

We need to find these messages and repeat them over and over again. We also need to look not just at legacy press outlets but on social media.

Are Democrats up to the job? Some of them have proven to be, and hopefully they will lead whether or not the leadership is on board.

#8

Are laws just vibes now? (Don Moynihan, Can We Still Govern?, Link to Article)

So, yes, the effects of this change will be harmful, maybe dire. But there’s another reason the Trump administration shouldn’t be capping the NIH overhead rate, a simpler reason: It’s illegal.

A LAW ENACTED IN 2024, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act prohibits the administration from changing overhead rates without congressional approval. Congress, in its infinite wisdom, has reserved this to be a congressional power. The practice began in 2017, the last time that Trump tried to cut indirect rates, so there is no real doubt about congressional intent. When Project 2025—which President Trump insisted was unaffiliated with his policy agenda—proposed cutting indirect rates, the author of that section identified Congress as the relevant actor, not Trump.

That should be the end of the story.

But of course it won’t be. The Trump administration announcement made no reference to the law. This is becoming a distinct pattern: The White House issues an executive order, memo, or press release. The order makes a legal claim that grants the power to make sweeping changes. Everyone panics. Then someone points out it sounds pretty illegal, citing statute and precedent. [Update: 22 blue states have now sued on NIH]. But we still panic anyway, because we no longer believe the president considers himself bound by the law.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Many of the awful things the Musk-Trump Administration is attempting to do could be legal.

The Republican majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate could pass laws allowing much of what we are seeing. President Trump could then sign these bills into law.

At least, that’s what School House Rock taught us.

Yes, our government is inefficient. But it was designed by the founding generation to be inefficient to protect the people from tyranny. That’s why we have a separation of powers and checks and balances.

Elon Musk and the tech broligarchs may not approve. But the process of changing our government cannot legally be granted to an unpaid presidential advisor cosplaying as the head of a government department. The Constitution can be amended. Laws can be enacted.

And we should insist upon our Constitutional processes even if Republican legislators are too scared to live up to the Oaths they took to defend the Constitution and the inherent rights of our Article I institutions.

The Reality of the January 6, 2021, Insurrection

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:

On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump instigated a violent insurrection against the United States government.

People were hurt and police officers died protecting the Capitol. Vice President Pence and other elected officials just barely escaped danger. Our national streak of peaceful transfers of power ended.

It was not, as Trump claims, a “day of love.” And we must resist his efforts to rewrite the history of that dark day.

Post-Game Comments

Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:

“The politics of an authoritarian country are structured in a very primitive way: you are either for the regime or against it. All other political options have been completely obliterated.”— Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny.

Thank you for reading! This post is public, so feel free to share it.

Thank you for reading my newsletter. Please let me know what you think about what you’ve read—and send me things you’ve found interesting! You can email me at craig@cheslog.com. 

The Long Twilight Struggle is free and supported voluntarily by its readers. If you liked what you read, please consider buying me a coffee to drink while I write it by becoming a paid subscriber or sponsor.

“It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone. And that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.”

“The Long Twilight Struggle.” Babylon 5, created and written by J. Michael Straczynski, Season 2, Episode 20, 1995.

---

Here’s what I’ve found interesting:

• D.C. Democrats need to show some urgency or get out of the way;
• Suggestions for what an opposition party could do right now;
• The clarity provided by reporting about our Constitutional Emergency from the perspective of a foreign correspondent;
• How women’s sports were used as a trojan horse to attack the transgender community;
• Trump orders the release of Tulare water for no purpose;
• Shari Redstone is selling out 60 Minutes;
• RFK Jr. accidentally reveals Trump’s plans on abortion;
• The American Monarchist Tech Leaders love;
• Yes, headlights are brighter now; and
• Let’s not allow Trump to rewrite the history of the January 6, 2021, insurrection he instigated.

Here we go. I’m glad you’re here.

#1

In Tense Call, Governors Push Schumer to Fight Harder Against Trump (Reid J. Epstein, New York Times, Link to Article)

A group of six Democratic governors pressed Senator Chuck Schumer of New York during a tense call on Wednesday night to be more aggressive in fighting back against President Trump’s nominees and agenda, all but begging the minority leader to persuade Senate Democrats to block whatever they could.

The call, described in detailed notes as well as interviews with two participants and five other people briefed on the conversation, revealed the growing tensions among Democrats about how forcefully they should oppose Mr. Trump.

Senators reach deal to advance Cabinet nominees, avoid weekend session (Ted Barrett and Morgan Rimmer, CNN, Link to Article)

Bipartisan senators reached an agreement to cast three votes Thursday at 6:15 p.m.

The first will be to confirm Doug Burgum as Interior secretary.

The second will be to break a filibuster of Christopher Wright to be Energy secretary.

The third will be to break a filibuster of Doug Collins to be Veterans Affairs secretary.

By the agreement, confirmation on Wright and Collins will happen sometime Monday.

This means the Senate won’t be in Friday or over the weekend, which was possibly going to happen.

Comms Advice for Democratic Lawmakers (Charlotte Clymer, Charlotte’s Web Thoughts, Link to Article)

The past eleven days have seen a relentless avalanche of unconstitutional, illegal, and immoral actions by this administration—transparently cruel and horrific—and with few exceptions, the Democratic messaging to all of it has been incredibly weak.

We know you’re out of power. We understand you’re in the minority. We hear that, loud and clear.

What we’re not hearing is your anger. We’re not hearing your outrage. We’re wondering whether or not you actually hear us.

I have seen numerous statements from Democratic lawmakers this week that are embarrassingly subdued in tone and out-of-touch. A complete failure to read the room.

Why Are Democrats Suddenly Acting Like Cypher From ‘The Matrix’? (Stephen Robinson, The Play Typer Guy, Link to Article)

Nonetheless, Democrats seem stuck in a hopeless state of unexpected shock and awe, with no clear, coordinated response. (Senate Democrats are reportedly trying to figure out how to go viral in their communications when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is just down the hall.) Resistance appears futile, and even while Trump was issuing executive orders that are either illegal, immoral, or both, Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to uniformly reject all of Trump’s unqualified Cabinet nominees. Seven Democrats voted to confirm confessed dog murderer Kristi Noem as Trump’s secretary in charge of mass deportations.

Hakeem Jeffries is the worst version of Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) from The Matrix — a hokey leader who hand waves constant defeat with quasi-spiritual mumbo-jumbo. You almost understand why so many longtime, loyal Democrats are losing faith in Democratic leadership. Moms Demand Action founder and self-described “normie Democrat” Shannon Watts wrote in her newsletter, “Instead of speaking from a place of outrage, they’re going on Sunday cable shows and spewing consultant speak. Instead of pushing back on Trump’s reckless and dangerous orders, some are voting to pass his legislation and approve his cabinet picks. Instead of giving the 75 million voters who supported them their marching orders, they’re either ignoring us or sending emails asking for money.”

I’m not ready to start collaborating with the enemy, but I can understand now why Cypher from The Matrix (Joe Pantoliano) just gave up and sunk his teeth into some delicious imaginary steak.

“You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist,” he tells Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) during their dinner date. “I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.”

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Why are Democratic elected officials acting like it is a surprise that the Trump Administration was going to use shock and awe tactics to implement the Project 2025 agenda?

We’ve known about Project 2025 for two years. Trump supporters told us they were preparing many executive orders for the first week of the Administration. We knew the terrible nominees that we would see during hearings this month. For example, why were Democrats, as Marcy Wheeler explains, so unprepared to handle the Kash Patel hearings this week?

Why are Democrats cutting deals to make it easier to confirm Trump’s nominees while Elon Musk, a private citizen, is taking over personnel and budget programs and locking out civil servants from their computers? Shouldn’t there be some outrage? Some objections? Maybe a press conference?

Where is the urgency? Where is the anger? Why are Democratic political leaders acting like all of this is normal?

Democrats should be doing everything they can to object to what Trump and Musk are doing and throw every possible obstacle in their way to slow it down. Senate Democrats have more tools at their disposal since so much of that chamber’s functioning requires unanimous consent.

Senate Democrats should object to everything—no more unanimous consent agreements. There should be no deals while Musk is allowed to terrorize civil servants. There should be no deals while Trump signs executive orders that outline a genocide against transgender people.

Trump and Republicans need to pay a price for what they are doing.

If the current Democratic leaders would rather pretend it is 1997 and enjoy some Matrix-like steak dinners while remaining blissfully unaware, resigning is absolutely okay. I can respect that decision. What we face today may not be what they signed up to do.

But this ongoing capitulation is not acceptable. Democrats in Congress need to demonstrate that they care as much about our system of government as their voters do. Unless they have decided that ignorance is bliss, and they will go along with the end of our Republic.

Senate Democrats announced late Sunday that they will hold a press conference at 3:45 p.m. on Monday. I hope that is a belated start to some visible opposition to all of the extra-Constitutional crimes underway. However, Capitol Hill press conferences seemingly designed to get on the legacy television evening news are not the way to mobilize people in 2025.

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#2

What might an opposition party be doing right now? (Seth Masket, Tusk, Link to Article)

To quickly review what happened on Friday, private citizen Elon Musk and his former Twitter/X employees occupied the Office of Personnel Management and the Treasury Department and prevented federal employees from doing their jobs; Trump vowed to fire Department of Justice employees for the sole reason that they investigated the January 6th insurrection, and Trump pressured federal agencies to remove vital data pertaining to trans people from their websites. I believe these actions constitute a significant attack on democracy and the rule of law.

I don’t think I’m overreacting to these actions, but I’m quite confident the opposition party is under-reacting to them. With very few exceptions (possibly Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamie Raskin, and J.B. Pritzker), prominent Democratic leaders seem to be taking a very blasé attitude toward all this, complaining about the price of avocados and sending fundraising e-mails. I agree with Charlotte Clymer that “with few exceptions, the Democratic messaging to all of it has been incredibly weak.”

Okay, but what could they actually be doing? Democrats are in the minority in both the House and the Senate. They can’t run congressional hearings or subpoena people, they don’t control the FBI or any other federal law enforcement office, they can’t pass laws stopping this, etc. These are all fair points. But even a minority party in the House and (especially) the Senate has some power to direct attention, slow things down, and demand concessions.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

The tools are limited, but there are things Democrats can do to slow down some of the Trump-Musk atrocities.

As an added benefit, taking action will inspire Democratic supporters, who are also horrified by what they are seeing the Trump-Musk regime do in its opening weeks.

Grind the Senate to a halt. Give reporters something to cover with press stunts. Facilitate lawsuits.

Forget the norms. Republicans have broken all of those deals. As Masket reminds us, Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Pretending AL) shut down military promotions for months all by himself last year.

Rick Wilson wrote a thread describing what Senate Democrats should consider doing. These are good ideas. (I didn’t think about stoking rivalries among the MAGA leaders, but Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is easy enough to wind up.) Indivisible Co-Founder Ezra Levin shared the obstruction memo former Senator Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) wrote to his colleagues in 2009 about all of the ways they could use the Senate rules to obstruct the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Fight back. Give people something to follow. Make some news. Give people a reason to hope.

And we may even win a few important battles along the way.

#3

Musk’s Junta Establishes Him as Head of Government (Garrett Graff, Doomsday Scenario, Link to Article)

I’ve long believed that the American media would be more clear-eyed about the rise and return of Donald Trump if it was happening overseas in a foreign country, where we’re used to foreign correspondents writing with more incisive authority. Having watched with growing alarm the developments of the last 24 and 36 hours in Washington, I thought I’d take a stab at just such a dispatch. Here’s a story that should be written this weekend:

…

WASHINGTON, D.C. — What started Thursday as a political purge of the internal security services accelerated Friday into a full-blown coup, as elite technical units aligned with media oligarch Elon Musk moved to seize key systems at the national treasury, block outside access to federal personnel records, and take offline governmental communication networks.

With rapidity that has stunned even longtime political observers, forces loyal to Musk’s junta have established him as the all-but undisputed unelected head of government in just a matter of days, unwinding the longtime democracy’s constitutional system and its proud nearly 250-year-old tradition of the rule of law. Having secured themselves in key ministries and in a building adjacent to the presidential office complex, Musk’s forces have begun issuing directives to civil service workers and forcing the resignation of officials deemed insufficiently loyal, like the head of the country’s aviation authority.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Garrett Graff provides one of the best summaries I’ve seen about the past two weeks of events by taking a step back and reporting about our constitutional emergency in the way U.S. foreign correspondents would about other nations.

I hope you’ll read it. Besides, Graff will likely remind you of horrific events you missed or had forgotten about in the deluge.

#4

It was never about women’s sports (Lindsay Gibbs, Power Plays, Link to Article)

Trump and his team have made so many sweeping changes in such a short period of time that it’s impossible to even begin to process them all. But today I think it’s really important to focus in on his attacks on the transgender community.

These attacks are, of course, not surprising in the least. That doesn’t make them any less horrifying or damaging. The Republican party passed an onslaught of anti-transgender laws across the country during President Joe Biden’s term in office, and found success in the court of public opinion by framing all transgender rights issues around the false pretense of “protecting women’s sports.” Trump carried that message and momentum right into the White House.

But Trump’s first days in office prove what the transgender community and its allies have known all along: This was never about women’s sports.

It was about reinforcing traditional gender roles, asserting control over women’s bodies, and, most terrifyingly, eradicating transgender people from public life completely.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:

Do you know what word you won’t find in Trump’s genocidal executive orders targeting the transgender community? Sports.

Do you know what you will find? An effort to erase our trans and nonbinary neighbors from existence and an attempt to create fetal personhood.

No, these attacks are not about protecting someone who finished in a tie for fifth in her NCAA swimming meet (and, no, this person did not lose a national title as she sometimes implies during her frequent appearances on Fox News). They were also not about making sure a player didn’t have an unfair advantage in women’s volleyball while competing against red state university teams.

People bought that framing, though. Republicans made the inclusion of a few dozen (at most) trans athletes into an issue they spent over $200 million to attack Kamala Harris about in the last election.

But now we see what it was about. Not sports. Something much worse.

What do Republicans want instead? Jessica Kant explained it in a vital-to-understand BlueSky thread:

If you cannot call it what it is when all in a week: a government removes every mention of a group of people, destroys information about them en masse, bans their discussion in schools, restricts their ability to travel and starts seizing and refusing their official identification, when will you?

Our healthcare infrastructure has been gutted, criminalized, and threatened. Our scientists have been labeled criminals, our scientific literature destroyed. Medications many need to live banned. Our very physiology is officially decreed “mutilated”, legally lesser, or declared not to even exist.

Our ability to freely use public space rescinded, our bathroom use policed and criminalized, our literal freedom of expression declared legally obscene and our very depiction labeled pornography. Fired en masse from the military. Parents who love us declared collaborators and abusers.

The worst part? They told you they were going to do this YEARS ago, and you did nothing. We begged and you looked away.

There’s a word for this — use it.

Genocide. There it is. That’s the word. We need to understand what is happening and what the stakes are for all of us.

Because, as The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer explains, “Anyone naive enough to think that the government can deny fundamental rights to one group without putting another’s at risk is in for some nasty surprises.”

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#5

Trump’s emergency water order responsible for water dump from Tulare County lakes (Lois Henry, SJV Water, Link to Article)

The sudden announcement Thursday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that Kaweah and Success lakes would immediately begin dumping water was in response to President Trump’s Jan. 24 executive order mandating that federal officials exert all efforts to get more water to fight southern California wildfires, the Army Corps confirmed Friday.

“Consistent with the direction in the Executive Order on Emergency Measures to Provide Water Resources in California, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is releasing water from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Success Lake to ensure California has water available to respond to the wildfires,” wrote Gene Pawlik, a supervising public affairs specialist in the Army Corps’ Washington, D.C. office.

Indeed, President Trump boasted about the releases on his X page Friday posting a photo of a river and writing: “Photo of beautiful water flow that I just opened in California. Today, 1.6 billion gallons and, in 3 days, it will be 5.2 billion gallons. Everybody should be happy about this long fought Victory! I only wish they listened to me six years ago – There would have been no fire!”

Tulare County water managers were perplexed and frustrated, noting both physical and legal barriers that make it virtually impossible for Tulare County river water to be used for southern California fires.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:

Yeah, none of that water will help fight southern California fires. But farmers were expecting to have that water available to them this summer.

This is not how the California water system works. But I don’t think the president is listening to many experts.

Trump got a photo. Based on the political demographics of Central Valley farmers, Trump harmed his voters with this stunt.

I suspect this won’t be the last time we see this dynamic in play.

#6

Heartbreak for CBS News (Dan Rather, Steady, Link to Article)

Most of America’s biggest news organizations have, over the past 40 years, been swallowed up with merger after merger, and acquisition after acquisition — to the point where they are now tiny parts of immeasurably larger corporate entities. The priority for those entities is not news. Saying it again for those in the back: The corporate parents of news organizations do not care about news.

They care about stock price, profit margins, and increasing shareholder value. And those corporations may also have regulatory issues before multiple arms of the government concerning a vast array of business interests that have nothing to do with their newsrooms. And that is the case with CBS News’ parent company, Paramount Global.

Paramount is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar merger, which needs approval by the Federal Communications Commission, now run by Trump’s appointee. And Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder and board member, stands to make billions if the deal goes through. See where this is going?

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:

We have seen the billionaires who own press outlets capitulate to Trump since the election. The Washington Post. ABC. Meta/Facebook.

Now Paramount is going to settle one of the most frivolous of all lawsuits, about the editing of a promo for the interview 60 Minutes did with Vice President Kamala Harris. Priorities, after all. Shari Redstone needs to get her billions from the Ellison family in this sale before Paramount loses more value under her watch.

It’s clear the for-profit news business no longer serves our nation because the billionaires who own these institutions don’t consider them a public trust.

I would love to see some of these billionaires invest in the future of news. They could do so much by endowing nonprofits to manage these organizations and more local news efforts.

Instead they capitulate even as our country enters week three of the most serious Constitutional emergency it has faced since the Civil War. We have seen the billionaires who own press outlets capitulate to Trump since the election. The Washington Post. ABC. Meta/Facebook.

Now Paramount is going to settle one of the most frivolous of all lawsuits, about the editing of a promo for the interview 60 Minutes did with Vice President Kamala Harris. Shari Redstone needs to get her billions from the Ellison family in this sale before Paramount loses more value under her watch.

Priorities, after all.

It’s clear the for-profit news business no longer serves our nation because the billionaires who own these institutions don’t consider them a public trust.

I would love to see some of these billionaires invest in the future of news. They could do so much by endowing nonprofits with the funds required to secure these organizations and more local news efforts.

Instead, they capitulate even as our country enters week three of the most serious Constitutional emergency it has faced since the Civil War.

(Hat-tip to Tracy B. for sending me this article.)

#7

RFK Jr. Accidentally Reveals Trump’s Plan on Abortion (Jessica Valenti, Abortion, Every Day, Link to Article)

Here we go: At his confirmation hearing [last week], RFK Jr. revealed how the Trump administration is thinking about restricting abortion—dropping hints not just about mifepristone, but abortion ‘complication’ reporting, emergency abortions, and the possibility of a national ban. (Yes, really.)

Watch key excerpts here with more details below, and click to skip ahead to a particular section: Mifepristone, Abortion Reporting, Emergency Abortions, National Ban on ‘Late’ Abortions.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

If you care about women having the right to control their reproductive health care, I strongly encourage you to review what Jessica Valenti has captured about RFK Jr.’s positions on abortion-related issues.

RFK Jr. has to work to gain the confidence of the pro-forced birth movement because of his previous pro-choice record. So, while he tried to be careful, he did lay out the roadmap for making reproductive health care much more difficult for people to receive nationwide.

That’s right: living in a blue state won’t protect people from what RFK Jr. explained during his confirmation hearing.

He may have been subtle. But, as Valenti explains, the threat is all too real.

#8

The Dubious History of America’s Most Famous Monarchist (Jamelle Bouie, The New York Times, Link to Article)

We do not have kings in the American Republic, but we do have capitalists. And in particular, we have a set of capitalists who appear to be as skeptical of liberal democracy as any monarch. They want to hear that they are the indispensable men. They want to hear that their parochial business concerns are as vital and important as the national interest. Aggrieved by the give-and-take of democratic life, they want to hear that they are under siege by the nefarious and illegitimate forces of a vast conspiracy. And hungry for the kind of status that money can’t buy, they want to hear that they deserve to rule. Yarvin affirms their fears, flatters their fantasies and gives them a language with which to express their great ambitions.

Never mind that the actual substance of his ideas leaves much to be desired. Take his illuminating interview with The Times, in which he gives readers a crash course in his overall political vision. He makes a studied effort to appear as learned and erudite as possible. But linger just a little on his answers and you’ll see the extent to which they’re underproofed and overbaked.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

It is vital to understand who Curtis Yarvin is because the oligarchs around Donald Trump find him so interesting.

But, as Bouie helpfully explains, Yarvin doesn’t understand history, and his analysis is painfully inadequate.

But he tells the oligarchs that they should be in charge and gives them facile talking points to justify their efforts to ignore democratic institutions.

That makes him dangerous—and explains a lot about what the people around Trump are doing as they ignore our democratic norms and laws because they are above such niceties.

#9

Asleep at the Wheel in the Headlight Brightness Wars (Nate Rogers, The Ringer, Link to Article)

The sun had already set in Newfoundland, Canada, and Paul Gatto was working late to give me a presentation on headlights. This, it should be said, is not his job. Not even close, really. Gatto, 28, is a front-end developer by day, working for a weather application that’s used by the majority of Canadian meteorologists, he told me on a video call, occasionally hitting his e-cig or sipping on a Miller Lite. As to how he ended up as one of the primary forces in the movement to make car headlights less bright—a movement that’s become surprisingly robust in recent years—even Gatto can’t really explain.

“It is fucking weird,” he said. “I need something else to do with my spare time. This takes a lot of it.”

Gatto is the founder of the subreddit r/FuckYourHeadlights, the internet’s central hub for those at their wits’ end with the current state of headlights.

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING: 

Nope, you aren’t imagining things. The LED lights on many cars today are much brighter than their halogen predecessors.

You want details about how this has happened and why it may be impossible to remedy the problem in the near term? This is the story for you.

Just prepared to be frustrated and perhaps express an explative or three.

The Reality of the January 6, 2021, Insurrection

WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:

On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump instigated a violent insurrection against the United States government.

People were hurt and police officers died protecting the Capitol. Vice President Pence and other elected officials just barely escaped danger. Our national streak of peaceful transfers of power ended.

It was not, as Trump claims, a “day of love.” And we must resist his efforts to rewrite the history of that dark day.

Post-Game Comments

Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:

“I don’t think the D.E.I. backlash and anti-woke whining emanating from Republican state leaders is about free speech. Just like I don’t think the extreme abortion bans are about protecting life. Both are about control. In the case of anti-D.E.I. rhetoric, it’s about cultural control. We never told the truth in this country about its founding and who did the building. Only in the past few decades have we begun to approach telling the truth, and that tiny taste is proving too much for some. Either they truly fear their position being threatened by that truth, or they see profit in peddling fear to others, or both. Regardless, they know our memories and attention spans are short, and if they can miseducate another generation or two, they can shift the narrative for the long term and maintain that control.” (Baratunde Thurston, Puck, A.I., SVB & “Woke” Finance Fears.)

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