It’s incredibly weird how many people around Trump seem to get an unhealthy pleasure from other people’s pain, distress, and humiliation. It seems abnormal.

🧵 It’s weird and twisted how fixated they are on a brutal Salvadoran prison, and taking photos with people behind bars, and bent-over shaved men. (Even caging children at the border, back in Trump One.)

Here’s how Trump betrays his voters:

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1.  Tariffs add thousands of dollars in added costs to families every year — north of 3 grand already, before more retaliatory tariffs. 2.  The market rout trashes 401ks and pensions — ~$2 trillion lost already.

3.  Families counting on Medicaid get hit for nursing home, childbirth expenses — could be as bad as $800 billion.

Trumpsters pretend that the courts are out of line, even that judges should be impeached when they don’t like the rulings, but that’s hogwash. Even Chief Justice Roberts is calling out that crap, which is saying something. What’s actually happening is a pattern of very bad, even dangerous, courtroom conduct by Trump lawyers, I guess thinking that being MAGA entitles them to special rules and privileges — but not so. Here are examples.

I voted against the horrible MAGA “continuing resolution” — a fake and partisan CR loaded up with executive power for Trump. I hated it. But respected colleagues voted otherwise, and not just to “cave in” versus “stand up.” 🧵 I did a lot research into how a shutdown might play out, and there was lots to fear; not least that the Trump/Musk/Vought axis of MAGA extremists would love a shutdown, and want a long one, and use it to cruel advantage. What was there to fear?

Here’s how I think the Social Security attack plan works: 🧵 One: Trump and his vassals tell lies that there’s no plan to cut Social Security.

As we struggle with the Trumpian assault on America, there is a way home, and there is broad public agreement on its elements. Whatever the immediate issues and outrages, we must persistently and relentlessly pursue the pathway home. 1.   Get rid of dark money in politics. Getting this corrupting toxin out of our elections enjoys powerful public support all across the country; even slightly better in red-leaning districts. Yet most voters don’t know who opposes and who defends dark money.

This week’s 5-4 win for federal funding was less notable for the 5 than for the 4.

This was payment for contracts the government had agreed to where the work contracted for had been properly performed. How was that not 9-0?

🧵 The short answer is that it had the irresistible odor of MAGA, Musk and Trump. It was a Project 2025 thing, funded by the creepy far-right billionaires who also funded the capture of the Court; same network behind the justices’ Billionaire Gifts Program.

Many Democrats are asking what the path forward is, calling for a period of reflection. “Where did we go wrong? What is the way back?” Well, how about looking right in front of our own noses. For years, creepy billionaires funded (and enjoyed) the destruction of America’s political money limits, and launched billions in corrupting dark money into American elections. Despite massive public reaction against that, Democrats basically let it happen.

After the Trump/Musk/Russia smash-and-grab through government agencies, we are going to need to rebuild. It’s not as hard as you may think. 1.   Get the dark money out of politics. There is way too much secret corruption from billionaires and giant corporate interests.

This all began years ago, when a bunch of fossil fuel billionaires saw trouble ahead for their pollution and their pollute-for-free business model, so they began a covert operation to bring industry influence to bear on U.S. politics. Climate denial was born. The science was clear. Even Exxon’s scientists knew. The predictions have proven deadly accurate. But when science encounters politics in Congress, politics wins, so fossil fuel went to work to corrupt Congress, deny the science, and mislead the public.

There always was Trump/Russia. There still is Trump/Russia.

The early actions of the Trump administration signal the continuing force of Trump/Russia.

Feel free to add to the list, but here’s my list.

Note: It’s only been a month. 1.  Russia’s apologist Tulsi Gabbard is selected and confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, the person who controls what gets to the president from our intelligence services. Her appointment is cheered in Russia’s state-controlled media.

As we land in Munich, the stable geniuses of the Trump administration are in full disarray. Maybe we’ll use troops against Russia, says one. Maybe we’ll get Ukraine to concede to Russia sovereign territory that Russia invaded, says another.

If you’re a big polluter, and you can destroy the government that protects people from your pollution, that’s a win for you.

And if you paid to get Trump in, you see it as the political reward you’re due. If you’re a giant corporation, and you can destroy the government that taxes you, and also cause your employees to cling to you like a raft in the storm you created, that’s a win for you. And if you paid to get Trump in, you can see it as your political reward.

We’re voting on Hegseth and here’s what we know. The only Democrat to see his FBI background investigation said it was “inadequate.” The Republican chair said he got “three briefings” from the FBI. That’s all we know. Everything else is secret. “Three briefings” likely means there were supplemental background investigations after the original standard “full field” background investigation, which would also be consistent with recent allegations and the background investigation schedule.

This was no normal inauguration of an American president. President Trump gave a cadre of billionaires seats of honor on the dais, and he is handing them the power of the federal government to loot the hardworking people who pay their taxes and keep this country running.

Once again, we are telling a story leaving out the true democracy-destroying villain.🧵

One good man’s age was a sideshow to the real story. Yes, the President’s age was a factor, and his spectacular debate failure, and his soft promise to serve one term.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi… But the real failure was not identifying the corrupt oligarchy sooner, and making it the villain early on in his democracy narrative.

Three big things got way too little attention, until his terrific-but-too-late final presidential address.

We will be watching to see whether the collapse of a trembling home insurance market accelerates after this added shock.

We had multiple hearings in @SenateBudget on this danger, which fossil-fuel-funded Republicans of course refused to take seriously.
bloomberg.com/features/2024-… Here’s how it works: climate change makes risk unpredictable; risk makes insurance unaffordable or unavailable; no insurance makes mortgages unavailable; without mortgages property values crash; cascading like 2008 into general economy.

Let’s look at the recent refusal of the Judicial Conference to “refer” Clarence Thomas to the AG for a “willfulness” determination about his multiple and repeated disclosure violations. A referral could lead to fines, and even “false statement” charges. Where does the referral requirement come from? It is federal law, from a statute passed many years ago by Congress and signed into law by the President, and never until now challenged by the Judicial Conference.

Oh, boy! The WSJ PolluterPage isn’t interested in accountability for its favorite SCOTUS justices.

Let’s review some of the “phantom” disclosure violations the WSJ PolluterPage doesn’t think anyone should know about. 🧵 1. “Another” $25K to Thomas’s spouse, from Court-fixer Leonard Leo. Not reported.

If this was “another,” how many other payments were there? Were any services rendered, or was it a gift for his benefit? If for his benefit, should’ve been disclosed.

Maybe Think Of It This Way: The anti-vaxxers are fond of saying that they don’t want to forbid or do away with vaccines like polio and smallpox; that they’ll still be available. That misleads from the actual point.

🧵 Many vaccines — polio, measles, DPT, rubella, chickenpox, mumps — are required for all children attending school. The reason is that vaccines work not just by increasing individual disease resistance, but by suppressing the underlying communicable disease.

And on the debt limit, dots are not hard to connect. The debt limit is what Republicans constantly use to extort concessions that they can’t win with votes. Democrats (yours truly particularly) want to be rid of it: “a bear trap in the bedroom.” But Republicans always WANT the debt limit, to use for political extortion (“nice little economy you got here . . . .”). So what’s up with this strange (for them) new Republican desire to get rid of it? Hint: it’s not about the debt limit.