After nearly 24 hours of chaos due to a memo freezing federal assistance, along with the portal for Medicaid assistance being shut down in 50 states, a district court issued an order staying the freeze subject to a hearing next week. (This could set up a much larger battle over the Impoundment Act and separation of powers). The Trump Administration immediately tried to blame the media for the chaos and confusion their own wide-sweeping order and accompanying actions has caused.

To add further fuel to the fire, an email was sent to millions of federal employees offering 8 months severance pay for those who agree to resign by February 6:

Fork in the Road

Frequently Asked Questions

Below is the email that was sent to federal employees on January 28, 2025 presenting a deferred resignation offer. If you did not respond to that email and wish to accept the deferred resignation offer, you may do so by following these steps.

1) Send a email to hr@opm.gov from your government account. Only an email from your .gov or .mil account will be accepted.

2) Type the word “Resign” into the “Subject” line of the email. Hit “Send”.

Imagine spending years in public service, only to receive an email saying things were about to get more difficult in the workplace, but that you can end it all by replying with a single word—“resign”—within days.

Commentators on social media quickly pointed out that the tone, wording and even title (“Fork in the Road”) of the email mirrored an email Elon Musk sent to Twitter employees back when he took over that company.

Compare for yourself. Here’s Musk’s email:

Subject: A Fork in the Road

Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.

Twitter will also be much more engineering-driven. Design and product management will still be very important and report to me, but those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway.

At its heart, Twitter is a software and servers company, so I think this makes sense.

If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below:

Anyone who has not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow (Thursday) will receive three months of severance.

Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful.

Elon

Now compare it to yesterday’s email:

2) Performance culture: The federal workforce should be comprised of the best America has to offer. We will insist on excellence at every level – our performance standards will be updated to reward and promote those that exceed expectations and address in a fair and open way those who do not meet the high standards which the taxpayers of this country have a right to demand.

3) More streamlined and flexible workforce: While a few agencies and even branches of the military are likely to see increases in the size of their workforce, the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force. These actions are lilkely to include the use of furloughs and the reclassifications to at-will status for a substantial number of federal employees.

4) Enhanced standards of conduct: The federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work. Employees will be subject to enhanced standards of suitability and conduct as we move forward.

Whichever path you choose, we thank you for your service to The United States of America.
********
Upon review of the below deferred resignation letter, if you wish to resign:

1) Select “Reply” to this email. You must reply from your government account. A reply from an account other than your .gov or .mil account will not be accepted.

2) Type the word “Resign” into the body of this reply email. Hit “Send”.

THE LAST DAY TO ACCEPT THE DEFERRED RESIGNATION PROGRAM IS FEBRUARY 6, 2025.

In a CBS interview, JD Vance put on display exactly why Trump picked him to be Vice President. He basically does what he’s told, even if contradicts his own positions from even weeks ago:

* Only weeks after saying violent Jan. 6 insurrectionists should “obviously” not be pardoned, Vance defended the release of violent Jan. 6 insurrectionists as “the right decision”

* The Yale Law grad defended the blatantly unconstitutional attack on birthright citizenship, saying—“just because we were founded by immigrants doesn't mean that, 240 years later, that we have to have the dumbest immigration policy in the world” (it’s in the Constitution, bud)

* And even though Trump had promised that if he won, “I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one,” Vance laid out a different timetable: “It's going to take a little bit of time…Rome wasn't built in a day.”

Amid a flurry of additional actions and orders, the Trump administration ordered federal workers to “report” on one another as to who was working in diversity and equity positions, which have been slated for elimination.

Thousands of emails were sent stating: “We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.” Workers were told to report on one another about such situations—“failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences.”

While most of the orders and policies that Trump rescinded in his opening act were those of the Biden Administration, one order he eviscerated goes back 60 years—to the LBJ presidency, and the heart of the civil rights era.

Consistent with the newly passed Civil Rights Act of 1964, LBJ signed this order in 1965, which prohibited federal contractors “from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” While Trump and his allies frame their actions as stopping some new wave of “DEI”, this 60-year old order was adhered to by “five GOP presidents—including Trump during his first term.” (Axios). It’s been at the heart of progress in civil rights ever since its signing.

Now, it’s gone.

And in a true warping of the role of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the new acting chair said she will use the EEOC to “root[] out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination.”

That’s right—while the EEOC’s historic mission has been to root out workplace discrimination against women and racial minorities, its new mission will be to punish efforts to remedy that past and ongoing discrimination.

On Inauguration Eve, yet another sign of a massive social media channel aligning with Donald Trump to serve their mutual interests.

This episode was every bit as egregious as developments with Twitter and Facebook, with TikTok (and, we must assume, the Chinese government)…

1) going along with the headfake of shutting down early (even as Biden had said he would not enforce the shutdown)…

“Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”

and 2) only to re-open hours later, and explicitly crediting Donald Trump:

"Welcome back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.! You can continue to create, share and discover all the things you love on TikTok."

No coincidence, TikTok’s CEO will be Trump’s guest at today’s inauguration.

To make matters worse, it looks as if Trump’s long-term plan is to maneuver to get TikTok into, as he calls it, “good hands”—with the US government also getting a 50% stake:

"I'm asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security. The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.
Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations.
I would like the United States to have a 50 per cent ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say [sic] up. Without U.S. approval, there is no TikTok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, maybe trillions.
Therefore my initial thought is a joint venture between the current owners and/or new owners whereby the U.S. gets a 50% ownership in a joint venture set up between the U.S. and whichever purchase we so choose."

A massive social media channel in a Trump government’s hands, with his private allies also involved?

Disaster.

This week, Trump’s nominee to be Treasury Secretary stated in his confirmation hearing that extending the $4 trillion Trump tax cuts was “the single most important economic issue of the day.”

This would essentially double down on the tax cuts from Trump’s first term, which did the following:

“delivered a tax cut for the richest 0.1 percent of Americans that was 277 times larger han the one teachers and firefighters got, nearly doubling billionaire wealth in this country and spiking inequality.

Meanwhile, corporations got a 40 percent discount on their taxes, which they used to send record stock buybacks to their wealthy shareholders and pad their profits while they overcharged consumers on everything from gas to groceries.

The bill never delivered the wage gains or economic growth Trump promised. But it did add $1.9 trillion to the deficit.”

As confirmation hearings continued for Trump’s cabinet nominees, Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi refused to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. She also ducked other questions, from her willingness to prosecute Trump’s “enemies” or stand up to illegal orders.

As economist Anders Aslund posted: “The first hearings with Hegseth, Rubio & Bond have clarified that nobody dares to contradict Trump on any point, while they dare to lie enormously.”

Hours of hearings exposed numerous problems as to the fitness of Pete Hegseth to serve as US Secretary of Defense. His long and disturbing history of disqualifying personal and professional behavior have been well documented, as have many of his past statements ands writings about war crimes (which he seems to be OK with), banning women from combat, and criticism of NATO.

But his testimony yesterday also revealed so much: a lack of experience managing large organizations (he acknowledged managing 100 at most); basic knowledge of the role of the Defense Secretary and the world (he couldn’t name the countries of ASEAN); an unwillingness to commit to abiding by the Constitution when faced with illegal orders; and a refusal to commit to not “shoot[ing] protesters in the legs” if ordered to do so. The last question is not a hypothetical—in his first term, Trump asked his Secretary of Defense Mark Esper why US soldiers couldn’t shoot domestic protesters in the legs.

All indications are that Hegseth will be confirmed despite all these problems.

This is not a test of Pete Hegseth. He’s already failed. Wholly unfit.

It is a test of the US Senate, and checks and balances. And it now looks pretty clear that the GOP Senate will fail the test.

Donald Trump has run them all over.

The question is: how low will Trump have to go for the GOP majority to do its job?

The New Yorker released a report showing the “unprecedented” ends to which the Trump administration is going to ensure that their controversial nominee for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, gets confirmed. As the headline and opening sentences summarize, Hegseth supporters have “intimidated potential witnesses and suppressed the FBI background check.”

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-pressure-campaign-to-get-pete-hegseth-confirmed-as-defense-secretary

Vice president-elect JD Vance unwittingly showed how much the lawless MAGA world is in charge by his near immediate flip-flop on whether or not Trump will pardon violent January 6 offenders.

He started out the day on Fox News, saying that “[i]f you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”

Amid an instant backlash to this so-called “betrayal,” Vance immediately walked back his comments: “I’ve been defending these guys for years…I assure you, we care about people unjustly locked up. Yes, that includes people provoked and it includes people who got a garbage trial.”

The tension between different right-wing factions—the tech bros vs. the MAGA far right—continued to escalate. Steve Bannon vowed to stop Musk from having White House access, calling him an “evil guy.”

STEVE BANNON: ‘I WILL DO ANYTHING’ TO KEEP ELON MUSK OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE
By Thomas D. Williams, PH.D. | 11 Jan 2025

ROME -- Former Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon has declared war on Elon Musk, vowing to have the tech billionaire kicked out of the White House by the time Donald Trump is inaugurated.

“I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera this week. “He will not have a blue pass to the White House, he will not have full access to the White House, he will be like any other person.”

“He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down,” Bannon added. “Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it; I’m not prepared to tolerate it anymore.”

The final jobs report of 2024 showed another 256,000 jobs added in December 2024, with unemployment dipping to 4.1%. It was the 48th month in a row of growth, the second longest on record, and makes Joe Biden the first president in history to not have a single month with job losses.

Remember these numbers.

Trump inherited a strong economy in 2016-2017, and by 2019, his policies had already squandered it. Ohio lost jobs between January 2019 and January 2020 (before COVID hit), the first year of job loss since the Great Recession. Since he’s promising the same policies (or even more extreme ones), I expect the same squandering to happen.

In a 5-4 decision allowing a New York sentencing hearing to move forward, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to become the first convicted felon to assume the office of the presidency.

Tragically, wildfires are ravaging communities across the Los Angeles area, leading to deaths, injuries, evacuations and the destruction of thousands of homes. Photos from the scenes, both the fires and their aftermath, are devastating. Hearing from friends there, heartbreaking.

Even as the blazes burn, Donald Trump and his right-wing allies have turned the tragedies into the ugliest of partisan politics, personally attacking politicians they consider their enemies…

"One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground. It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum [sic] should resign. This is all his fault!!!"

…disseminating misinformation, and attacking LA’s fire chief, the city’s first woman and LGBTQ chief, as a so-called “DEI” Fire Chief.

Reminder: amid tragedy, whenever a public leader is not a white male, the “DEI” attack comes fast and furious from the right. Same thing happened after the tragic bridge collapse in Maryland, even as Gov. Moore and Mayor Scott (who was attacked as a “DEI Mayor” amid their response to the unfolding tragedy).

On the one hand, I agree with Gov. Moore that amid crises, we “have no time for this foolishness.”

At the same time, the entire trend is truly stomach-churning.

Perhaps the wildest day yet, with Trump suggesting that both economic pressure and military force are potential options to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal, while circulating maps of Canada as a 51st state.

On the ever declining media front, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg announced that fact checking was too “political,” and would be eliminated from the nation’s most used social network, among other changes.

Needles to say, Trump‘s reckless rhetoric both undermines NATO (of which both Canada and Denmark are members), and essentially takes the autocrats’ side in how nations should behave when it comes to territorial temptation. All a huge boost to Russia and China.

As for Zuckerberg, someone needs to introduce him to Hannah Arendt, who explained how the attack on truth works in autocratic systems:

“The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lies will now be accepted as truth, and the truth be defamed as lies, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world—and the category of truth vs. falsehood is among the mental means to this end—is being destroyed."

Unlike four years prior, the peaceful transfer of power occurred efficiently and quickly on Capitol Hill with the official counting of the electoral ballots, and the Vice President’s declaration that Donald Trump gained a majority.

Apparently never satisfied with a normal moment, Trump used the day to once again cast his eyes up North, declaring that “Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st state.” He then touted all the ways Canada would benefit from merging into the United States:

"Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned. If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!"

Meanwhile, Don Jr. is traveling to Greenland, following weeks of his father publicly saying they too should become part of the United States.

Through posts and interviews, Trump and his political allies make clear that their plan on assuming office is “shock and awe”—rushing forward their plans into an immediate flurry of executive orders, followed by, as Trump put it, “one powerful Bill” combining all of his major policy proposals at once.

As always, he promises to pay for the added costs with tariffs.

A brutal terrorist attack in the opening hours of 2025 killed at least 15 people in New Orleans, while injuring dozens more. Before noon, with details still sparse but with FOX News airing false information that the terrorist had crossed the border days before, President-elect Trump messaged that his prior statement that “the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in this country…turned out to be true” in New Orleans.

Hours later, the terrorist who committed the act was revealed to be a native of Texas and a military veteran, who said in a video that he was inspired by ISIS.

Fox retracted its original false report. But despite his original statement being exposed as false, Trump later messaged that the attack was due to “open borders,” and blamed the DOJ, FBI and Democratic officials for failing to do their job.

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump spent New Year’s Eve celebrating together at Mar a Lago.

Trying to avert another chaotic food fight, Trump endorsed Mike Johnson in his bid to be House Speaker again. Elon Musk also endorsed Johnson shortly after Trump’s statement, but then muddied the waters by amplifying a tweet casting doubt on Johnson’s chances by a Johnson opponent.

In an effort to regain control of the narrative and end the public infighting, Trump’s incoming Chief of Staff sent a memo to Cabinet and administration nominees that they should refrain from social media posts without prior approval from Trump’s future White House counsel. Apparently this order had been made previously and violated.

This order presumably does not apply to either Elon Musk or Vivek Ramaswamy, whose “nominations” to run the bizarre and undefined “DOGE” do not require Congressional approval. But of course, it’s their tweets that set off the MAGA civil war in the first place.

Media accounts emerged of a disturbing act of political and racial violence clearly motivated by Trumpian rhetoric. A Colorado man has been charged with following (for 40 miles) and allegedly assaulting a television reporter of Pacific Island descent. “This is Trump's America now," the man said amid the alleged incident. “[A]re you even a U.S. citizen?…I'm a Marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!" Once the assailant caught up to his victim, he allegedly put him in a headlock before others stepped in.

The incident follows other recent acts of right-wing violence and vigilantism, including a letter circulated in a rural Oregon community calling upon citizens to track and report people of color as suspected undocumented immigrants to be “rounded up.”

As Eric Larsen describes in “A Garden of Beasts,” this type of sporadic violence emerged amid Hitler’s rise in Germany. I summarized this earlier this month: “Early on in their stay, perhaps the most pressing issue the new Ambassador faces is the rise in sporadic violence against Jews, Jewish-Americans, and soon, Americans in general who refuse to signal their support for Hitler. The acts of violence and hate—punches, beatings, stabbings, violent mobs—creep into every day life. And local authorities do little to nothing to stop them. That onset of regular violence—random as to its timing and location, but systematic and targeted as to the perpetrators and victims—and its ultimate normalization, is a sign that something dark is overtaking German society. Suicides also increase, another ominous indicator.”

In the battle between Elon, Vivek and billionaire tech bros vs. his MAGA base, Trump sides with the bros. He explains that he uses HB-1 visas to staff his own properties, a statement that warrants closer examination.

President-Elect Trump focused his Christmas Day message on his latest obsession: acquiring large chunks of North and Central America—including the Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal (where we lost 38,000 people in its building 110 years ago), always making certain that the United States puts in Billions of Dollars in “repair” money, but will have absolutely nothing to say about “anything.” Also, to Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, whose Citizens’ Taxes are far too high, but if Canada was to become our 51st State, their Taxes would be cut by more than 60%, their businesses would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other Country anywhere in the World. Likewise, to the people of Greenland, which is needed by the United States for National Security purposes and, who want the U.S. to be there, and we will!...

…Page 2: Merry Christmas to the Radical Left Lunatics, who are constantly trying to obstruct our Court System and our Elections, and are always going after the Great Citizens and Patriots of the United States but, in particular, their Political Opponent, ME. They know that their only chance of survival is getting pardons from a man who has absolutely no idea what he is doing. Also, to the 37 most violent criminals, who killed, raped, and plundered like virtually no one before them, but were just given, incredibly, a pardon by Sleepy Joe Biden. I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky “souls” but, instead, will say, GO TO HELL! We had the Greatest Election in the History of our Country, a bright light is now shining over the U.S.A. and, in 26 days, we will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Dec 25, 2024, 2:43 PM

Trump’s messaging about grabbing other countries’ land helps Putin and other autocrats in two ways: it sows global chaos, and dilutes the value of territorial integrity. If the leader of the United States can so casually discuss acquiring or seizing territory of other countries because it serves US interests, then….

You get the point.

Numerous media outlets reported that the Trump Administration plans to remove the United States from the World Health Organization on Trump’s first day in office. The United States is the largest funder of the WHO, and its withdrawal would likely undermine global pandemic surveillance, response and coordination. The US absence would also leave the organization subject to the influence of other major nations, such as China.

The House reached a bipartisan budget agreement to keep funding the government and avoid the looming shutdown. When Speaker Johnson spoke to the media after the passage of the deal, he made it clear that he had talked to Elon Musk about it 15 minutes before talking to Trump.

Trump had threatened to primary any Republican who voted for a “deal” that did not include a debt ceiling extension, this deal did not have an extension. Yet 170 Republicans voted for it.

Perhaps more than any day yet, Day 18 foretold the future we should expect when it comes to the operation of the federal government:

Elon Musk, not elected to anything, used X to initiate repeated attacks on the end-of-year budget deal in Congress that would curtail a government shutdown. He threatened to oppose any supportive House Republican in their next primary, prompting GOP House members to publicly signal their opposition. Hours later, Trump and Vance followed, also announcing their opposition. The deal is now dead, two days before a looming shutdown.

In part due to the uncertainty and dysfunction, the Dow Jones fell almost 1,000 points—timed almost exactly when the drama began to unfold on social media.

Truly a bizarre and dysfunctional sequence of events. But no doubt a harbinger of the future.

This quote from FDR in 1936 feels as apropos as ever: “It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over Government itself.”

The trend of major media outlets—from The Washington Post to well-known MCNBC hosts—kowtowing to Trump’s bullying continues. The latest took place with ABC settling a defamation suit by Donald Trump, stemming from George Stephanopoulous’ reporting on the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit—using the exact same word (“rape”) that the judge who had overseen the case had used. To settle the case, ABC will now donate $15 mullion to Trump’s presidential library, and $1 million in legal fees.

As the Public Notice Substack explains, “Trump’s playbook here is the same as authoritarian strongman Victor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary. Orban has comprehensively attacked media outlets, filing lawsuits, and starving them of public advertising dollars unless they displayed sufficient loyalty.”

Another day, another round of dramatic cuts (floated, at least) to core government services touching every corner of America. A Washington Post story reported that Trump is openly suggesting that the US Postal Service be privatized. And the Trump transition team is also discussing the rolling back of bank regulations, including the elimination of the FDIC, which insures bank deposits and was a critical and successful reform following the Great Depression.

Beyond Elon Musk, prominent billionaires are all lining up in fealty to Trump. It was revealed that Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have both forked over a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration, while Google co-founder Sergey Brin dined with Trump at Mar a Lago.

Because he owns The Washington Post, Bezos would know more than anyone that one of the first scandals in the first Trump term was the excess and graft involved in Trump’s inauguration operation, orchestrated by the cast of shady characters who put it all together. The $107 million raised and spent was more than the double what Obama’s inaugurations had cost, even though the Trump festivities were less extensive. Millions of dollars (far beyond the cost of the inauguration) went unaccounted for while millions more ended up in the pockets of cronies, including more than a million in Trump’s own hotel business.

As for those business leaders cozying up to Trump to curry favor, they might want to read “Garden of Beasts” to see the effectiveness of their strategy (or ask Justin Trudeau). As I wrote several weeks ago:

“For….business leaders or journalists or others, who decide to go along with the program, either out of fear or greed or assuming you can ultimately control those leaders; or betting that you will fare better by muting criticisms as opposed to airing them loudly and clearly...know that did NOT work. History is painfully clear about that. In fact, you are often the first targets of retribution.”

Amid the chaos surrounding Trump’s parade of controversial nominees, one effect of his “flood the zone” strategy has been the scant attention being paid to his most dangerous pick when it comes to our national security. And the pick we can safely say Russian President Vladimir Putin would most value:
Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.
Amid the Hegseth and Gaetz and RFK firestorms, Gabbard has gotten far less attention. Even though, again, a tainted selection as DNI would be a catastrophe for our nation’s and other nations’ security, as well as our alliances and standing in the world.
Yesterday, a sizable group of [nearly 100] national security experts wrote a letter warning of this risk: among other concerns, they wrote: “Her sympathy for dictators like Vladimir Putin and Assad raises questions about her judgment and fitness.”