100 Days into an Attack on Democracy
Reflecting on 100 chaotic days of Trump's presidency and its impact on rights and culture.
We’re a hundred days into what is arguably the worst presidency in American history. A hundred days of democracy being under attack day after day. A hundred days of way too many sleepless nights. A hundred days of not knowing if I’ll have my rights the next day or if I’ll be lucky enough to see courts overturning this dictatorial madness.
Suffice it to say, I’ve really needed the MLB Network since baseball season came back in late March. Up until then, I’d say it was what I thought was a healthy mix of sports and news. But nowadays, even a little news can be way too much news for one’s mental health.
Monday officially kicked off the start of Kentucky Derby week. Appropriately, I watched the new Netflix documentary series, Race for the Crown, over the weekend. Unfortunately, the doc series could have been stronger. It offers a verité look at the Sport of Kings but follows very few individuals. There’s a small amount of analysts that appear as talking heads, but it’s not the people that one would think.
Tariffs cannot escape the news. Sen. Mitch McConnell addressed the subject alongside Northern Kentucky business owners in Kentucky.
In Kentucky, 16.3% of the state's gross domestic product is reliant on exports, the third largest percentage in the country, according to a recent study by the National Association of Realtors. And imports into the state are equal to 32.3% of the state's GDP, the highest percentage in the nation.
McConnell’s belief is that the convicted felon is not getting any alternate viewpoints regarding tariffs. The Senate is fighting back but it’s not a surprise that the White House is threatening to veto any act that goes against its demand to tax American businesses and consumers. It is not a tax on foreign countries but on consumers—nobody in this administration learned anything in their economics classes, let alone American history.
The administration is of the fakakta belief that the “Liberation Day” tariffs will stablilize the economy. It will only lead to a recession, if not a depression. Ports are already drying up and when they lose traffic, people will get laid off. This is only going to trickle down as other ports begin drying up. If it’s global, we’re going to see a repeat of what happened in the 1930s with another major economic depression.
Speaking of, Amazon is reportedly going to be displaying the amount of money added onto a price as a result of the tariffs. The White House didn’t respond in kind to yet another billionaire turning on them. Press Secretary White House Barbie—as many have taken to calling her—referred to the reported news as “a hostile and political act by Amazon.” (UPDATE: After publishing this newsletter, Amazon denied the reports.)
Federal cuts targeting the Institute of Museum and Library Services are already having an impact on museum and libraries depended on grants and such for their budget. In Illinois, these cuts are already impacting the budget for the interlibrary loan program.
RAILS and the Illinois Heartland Library System, the state’s other major library delivery service that reaches southern and central parts of Illinois, receive about $2.5 million annually for delivery services, about one-third of their budgets, through IMLS funding. Though the state was told to expect this year’s award around April 20, the program officer who oversees Illinois funding has been terminated and the money has not yet arrived, according to a spokesman for Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.
The Department of Justice is seeing a mass exodus, especially in the Civil Rights division. We’ve seen how the administration already gutted the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which shows how they are not serious about combatting antisemitism. But then again, we knew that. We just didn’t think they would “combat” it through detaining people without any due process or strip schools of funding as a means of control. That’s not how democracy or a nation of laws and order works.
How does this help our country when it comes to civil rights? It doesn’t…not when their idea of combatting antisemitism requires ignoring due process and thus scapegoating Jews in the process.
Since being sworn in this month, civil rights director Harmeet K. Dhillon has redirected her staff to focus on combating antisemitism, anti-Christian bias, the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports and what Trump and his allies have described as Democrats’ “woke ideology.”
What about civil rights in general? Oh, it gets much worse.
The division changed mission statements across its sections to focus less on racial discrimination and more on fighting diversity initiatives and what the administration sees as bias against Christians. And department officials reassigned more than a dozen career staffers — including section chiefs overseeing police brutality, disability and voting rights cases — to areas outside of their legal expertise.
The Thunderbolts* review embargo lifts at 12 PM ET/9 AM PT this morning. I’ll have my review of Another Simple Favor online Tuesday morning ahead of its Prime Video launch on May 1. The Four Seasons, an eight-episode miniseries, will also be available to stream on Netflix on May 1.
In the Jewish calendar, tonight begins the first of back-to-back holidays, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’Atzmaut. They mark Israeli Memorial Day and Israeli Independence Day.
May 1st marks the start of Jewish American Heritage Month. The first JAHM took place in 2006 following bipartisan resolutions passing both the House and Senate. As such, I’ll be celebrating Jewish contributions throughout the month on Solzy at the Movies.