Week 12

On April 12, 2025

At 1:35 pm

In General

693 Views

Clockwise: Zooey, Jose, and Luca examine the first desert centipede of the season to get into the house. The centipede is on the floor, about halfway between Luca’s and Jose’s heads. I like the idea of the three of them working together because, as @nuclearanthro says on Bluesky, Together is the only way we build liveable todays and tomorrows.

My report this week is spottier than usual. TARIFFS made up a lot of the news anyway, but Musk’s boys are still destroying the government.

Some things aren’t going quite as planned. For a variety of reasons, starting with there not being that many Central and South American gang members in the US, the rollout of MASS DEPORTATIONS has been much slower than Stephen Miller and Tom Homan had hoped. That is why they are picking up random people like Kilmar Abrego Garcia and abducting students. They want to generate fear.

I think that conflicts among the various factions of the administration are increasing, but they’re not very public yet.

Demonstrations are planned for next Saturday.

Here is this week’s YouGov poll. Remember when the media would loudly declare that DEMOCRATS HAVE TO DO SOMETHING because Biden’s popularity slipped a point? Trump is down 5 points since last week. Crickets. And his policies, as much as they may be called that, are less popular. This is important to keep in mind as the media stenograph his often illegal activities.

Follow the court-watchers for the lawsuits, now up to 186, including 4 closed. Chris Geidner (LawDork, Bluesky), Roger Parloff (Lawfare, Bluesky), and the Just Security tracker.

As usual, keep it to things that have actually happened, not hypotheticals. I think it’s important to stay grounded with what has happened. What is actually happening is bad enough, and hypotheticals confuse our sense of reality.

Caring for yourself and loved ones is resistance too. Post your pets.

Here’s what the Trump administration did this week, in no particular order

TARIFFS!
Elon’s incels continue to disassemble the government.
Resisted court orders to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia home from the El Salvador prison.
Brought several large law firms under their control. Josh Marshall is asking what those agreements look like, or if they are even written down. Good questions.

Continuing

Still measles in Texas and New Mexico. Numbers are going up in Texas.

Pushback

Base commander in Greenland repudiates Vance’s comments and is removed from duty. https://bsky.app/profile/kschake.bsky.social/post/3lmj3v5tkxk2k

196 more weeks to go. What are you doing? I have replaced the top photo.

Previous weeks: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8. Week 9, Week 10

Week 11