The Fascist March Continues
Each day seems worse, with rising authoritarianism, military shakeups, and more
I wake up every day thinking that it cannot possibly get any worse and then, like clockwork, it gets worse. The past 16 months have been full of worries, especially given the surge of antisemitism, and those worries are only amplifying in other ways.
It’s bad enough that inciting an insurrection against American democracy wasn’t a dealbreaker for over half of voting Americans. But what’s worse? He’s remaking the executive branch in his own image—one of authoritarianism. There have been many cuts across the federal government, especially in agencies were Elon Musk or his companies are being investigated. If his meddling isn’t a conflict of interest, I don’t know what is.
Speaking of Elon, OPM sent out an email to all federal employees asking them for five things that they did last week? Unions and agencies are telling their employees to not respond. It’s not in the email but Musk, as one would expect, said that failure to respond would result in resignation.
A terrible move this weekend was the firing of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other military officers. His expected replacement is remarkably unqualified but I wouldn’t expect anything less. It’s bad enough that other cuts are being expected at the Pentagon. What happened to America having a strong military?
What’s been really ugly to watch during the past week is watching him fully comply with Putin. We all know that Russia invaded Ukraine. Anyone saying otherwise is a liar. The idea that Ukraine invaded Russia is a complete lie. The idea that Zelenskyy is a dictator is a complete lie. The convicted felon is lying so much that the New York Post has turned against him.
I’m hopeful that we’re going to start seeing some more daylight between his administration and elected Republicans in Congress. The retiring Mitch McConnell is against the growing isolationism in his own party. Will he use his final 23 months in office to speak his mind and fight with the administration? I hope so. We know others exist but they just need to grow a backbone and get over the worry about whether they’ll be attacked by the felon or his supporters for having disagreements.
MSNBC is revamping their lineup after this week. How much of it is ratings-based and how much is in capitulation to the insurrectionist, I don’t know. The Weekend’s Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele are taking over the 7 PM ET slot. They’ll have two hours on Monday and an hour on Tuesday-Friday night. Out are Joy Reid and Alex Wagner. Joy Reid’s show being cancelled is quite the shock. She’s been in the timeslot since replacing Chris Matthews in 2020.
Rachel Maddow will return to once-a-week after the first 100 days are up. Wagner had taken over the slot in recent months. It’s expected that Jen Psaki will take the slot but we’ll see.
In the next few days, I’ll be publishing my thoughts on Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants. The H.W. Brands book was first published in 2018. I finished reading the book on Shabbos before immediately starting on another Brands book, The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom. I’ve got a few more Brands books in the reading pile.