The Unspoken Vows, 59th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Electra): This afternoon, on a sunny, spring-like (70°) day here in Atlanta, I got in a good 10½-mile walk along the Chattahoochee-Cochran Shoals-Sope Creek trails. When I got home, I saw the disgusting news on the meeting among Ukraine's President Zelensky and the boorish, preening oligarchs currently mismanaging the U.S. government.

I think I've made already my opinion of Mumps pretty apparent here, but I've never been more ashamed of amerika than I am right now. 

Trump: You’re right now not in a very good position. You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. And he happens to be right about. You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us you start having cards.

Zelensky: I’m not playing cards. I’m very serious, Mr. President. I’m very serious. I’m the president in a war—

Trump: You’re playing cards. You’re playing cards. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III. You’re gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.

Vance: Have you said ‘thank you’ once this entire meeting? No. In this entire meeting, have you said ‘thank you’? You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who is trying to save your country.

Zelensky: Please. You think that if you will speak very loudly about the war, you—

Trump: He’s not speaking loudly. He’s not speaking loudly. Your country is in big trouble. Wait a minute.

Zelensky: Can I answer?

Trump: No. No. You’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble.

I think it's very telling that Vance refers to American Democrats and not Putin's Russia as "the opposition." Trump and Vance tried to beat up a war hero on live TV and ended up looking like petulant little bullies while losing their coveted minerals deal with Ukraine in the process. 

Zelensky has stood strong, rallying his country, faced a powerful invading army that greatly outnumbers Ukraine's own, faced threats to his personals safety and calls to surrender, lived amid bombs and carnage, all while building global support for his cause. 

Rebecca Solnit points out that Trump and Vance weren't only trying to extort Zelensky, they were demanding personal submission, which is a reminder that everything they do is first and foremost about their "sad, sleazy insatiable egos." They wanted him to grovel and beg and to sing their praise, as if he were some Republican congressman from the Bible Belt. They teamed up, demanding answers and interrupting and talking over him when he tried to answer. 

For the record, Zelensky has thanked the US for its support many times. It's a dark day for amerika.

 

Broom Day, 58th of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Deneb): 

No, Mumps, you will not be mandating anything to me. Apparently there's some confusion on your part about the relationship we have. You work for me. I'm not your servant or your slave. I will not be talked down to, I will not be mandated to, I will not be forced to do anything against my will. You are my employee. It's not your place. Get it straight. - We, the People 

The words above are from an internet meme making the rounds, but I couldn't say it better myself, except for maybe "I bow to no king." 

The carrot-colored curmudgeon infesting the White House with his Nazi-sympathizing cohorts are actively taking apart the U.S. government, and it will already take years, possibly generations, to put all the pieces back together again. We've certainly squandered whatever reserve of good will we've had left in the world. My only solace is that I've only got about 10 more years left to this existence (I'm fast approaching my shelf-life expiration date), and the last five will probably be of limited cognizance anyway. It's the children I feel sorriest for.

The weather's been terrific here in Georgia the past few days, the hourly schedule for next month's Big Ears festival has finally dropped, and I'm continuing my alternate day walking/sitting routine, but all of that seems pointless or at best irrelevant in light of Mumps' dismantling of the American dream. 

Another internet meme: walk 39 miles in the month of March in memory of Jimmy Carter, our 39th president. At my current pace, I should get in at least 117 miles in March, or three Jimmy Carters, but I'll take even 0.3 Carters for one Mumps any day.

The Crippled Vison, 57th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Castor): I've spent much of the past week-and-a-half reiterating an ever-growing litany of the most egregious of Mumps' recent actions. But that activity loses sight on his long, long history of other disgusting behaviors.  

Let's not forget that he formerly owned a fraudulent University and, long intent on scamming poor people, is now permanently barred, along with his children, of ever operating a charity again. His basic business practice has famously been to stiff his creditors. To this day, he continues to profit from his own businesses by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns.  

He's proudly bragged, on camera, about his history of sexual abuse, from peeking into teenage girls' dressing rooms at his tacky beauty pageants to grabbing women "by the pussy" because, as a star, he can get away with it.  He's also bragged that he could get away with shooting a man on Fifth Avenue in the face if he wanted, and that he doesn't read books.  

He's manufactured false stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center. When the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, he angrily said that they should still be in prison anyway. He's mocked the disabled and when he saw an 80-year old man fall off a stage and hit his head at one of his country clubs, he said, "Oh my God, that’s disgusting" and turned away, later complaining that the.blood had stained the white marble floor. 

He's told his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys for them, if necessary. At one rally, he instructed staff to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold. He's separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1,500 kids, and opened a tent-city incarceration camp in the Texas desert, explaining that they’re just “animals.”

He's apparently unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win. He said it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and has started fights with countries from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and, quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea. 

Now, he's replacing expertise from all layers of government with people who make money off of eliminating protections in the very industries they're supposed to be regulating, and installing blindly loyal but inexperienced political appointees into various position in the military and the Department of Justice.

 

Body of Love, 56th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Betelgeuse): Yesterday, Mumps lied to the camera about European aide to Ukraine with French President Macron sitting right next to him. After Macron corrected him, Mumps just repeated the lie. Meanwhile, in the UN, in a stunning reversal of over 50 years of alliances and principals, the United States joined North Kora, Belarus, and Russia in refusing to vote in favor of a non-binding agreement to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Mumps had previously claimed that Ukraine somehow started the war with the invading Russian army, calling Zelensky an unelected “dictator” who took money from the U.S. to go to war with Russia, and demanded half of Ukraine's mineral wealth in exchange for providing military support. 

Mumps spread a lie that U.S.AID had shipped $100M of condoms to Hamas. Mumps suggested the U.S. should take over the Gaza strip and "own it," displacing all of the native Palestinians to create some sort of Middle East Malibu in an act of ethnic cleansing. Mumps hinted at taking over Greenland and Panama using military force and suggested Canada should become the 51st state. Mump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China and then lifted the tariffs on our North American neighbors after they repeated pledges that they had already made. Mumps withdrew the U.S. from both the Paris climate-change treaty and the World Health Organization.

Despite being the most unpopular president at this point in his term since polling began, Mumps posted a picture to social media of himself wearing a crown on his head and the words, "Long live the king." Mumps has spent roughly a third of his time in office playing golf on his own for-profit courses at considerable expense of taxpayer money for travel, logistics, and security. He personally profits from the money spent on each of the trips, and it's been estimated that his trips to the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500 cost taxpayers $25M. 

After firing the workers in charge of U.S. nuclear-weapon safety, Mumps realized that those workers were actually kind of important but didn't know how to call them back. The very same thing happened after Mumps fired Agriculture workers who were combatting the avian flu. Mumps proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Denali and then threw a hissy fit when the AP didn't adopt his new names. Mumps blamed the L.A. wildfire crisis on some imaginary "giant faucet" in northern California and then ordered 2.2 billion gallons of water dumped from the state's reservoirs onto Central Valley farmland that didn't need it and where it won't benefit firefighters at all (but will cause problems this summer when droughts begin). 

Mumps replaced a four-star general as Secretary of Defense with an inexperienced, alcoholic, black-out drunk Fox & Friends weekend host. Mumps named a vaccine denier to head HHS, a Russian asset now directs National Intelligence, a conspiracy theorist is the new FBI chief, and a far-right podcaster is now the FBI's Deputy Director. Mumps fired the African-American four-star general chairing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling him a D.E.I hire, and replaced him with a white, three-star general. The first female commander of the U.S. Navy was fired as well for the same spurious reason. After a tragic air accident, Mumps blamed the incident on "DEI," even as he admitted he had no evidence but just "common sense." 

Mumps pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of the convicted January 6 rioters, including the most violent felons who pled guilty to attacking and, in some cases, killing police officers.  Mumps tried to end the constitutional birthright citizenship of those born on American soil. Finally, there's Mumps' "greatest hit," the continued Big Lie that the free and fair 2020 election was somehow "rigged" against him, despite the absence of a shred of evidence and multiple lost court cases. 

Meanwhile, the price for a dozen eggs in Georgia is still around $6.00.

I was without internet most of today - it went down shortly after 11:00 am and wasn't restored until nearly 5:00 pm. No web, no Spotify, no NTS radio, no Netflix, and even my video games wouldn't start.  First world problems, I know, but the most frustrating thing is I'll never know why it went down or why it took so long to come back.   

 

The Unrecovered Ocean, 55th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Atlas): The hackers are striking back with their blows against the empire. Today, as HUD workers arrived at headquarters for their mandatory return to the office, an AI-generated video of Trump fellating Musk's toes played on screens throughout the building on a continuous loop, along with the title "Long Live the Real King." No one knew how to shut it off, and managers had to rush employees to every floor to manually unplug the screens. Also, someone replaced "Mar-a-Lago" on Google Maps with "Kremlin Headquarters." The reviews, such as "the drinks taste like urine," were hilarious before the nerdlings at Google discovered the switch and took it down.

In the off-chance that you don't understand the reference for the foot-fetish video, Mumps (Musk and Trump), despite being the most unpopular president at this point in his term since polling began, posted a picture to social media of himself wearing a crown on his head and the words, "Long live the king." Mumps has spent roughly a third of his time in office playing golf on his own for-profit courses at considerable expense of taxpayer money for travel, logistics, and security. He personally profits from the money spent on each of the trips, and it's been estimated that his trips to the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500 cost taxpayers $25M. 

Mumps claimed that Ukraine had somehow started the war with the invading Russian army and falsely called Zelensky an unelected “dictator” who took money from the U.S. to go to war with Russia. Mumps is demanding half of Ukraine's mineral wealth in exchange for providing military support. Mumps spread a lie that U.S.AID had shipped $100M of condoms to Hamas. Mumps suggested the U.S. should take over the Gaza strip and "own it," displacing all of the native Palestinians to create some sort of Middle East Malibu in an act of ethnic cleansing. Mumps hinted at taking over Greenland and Panama using military force and suggested Canada should become the 51st state. Mump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China and then lifted the tariffs on our North American neighbors after they repeated pledges that they had already made. Mumps withdrew the U.S. from both the Paris climate-change treaty and the World Health Organization.

After firing the workers in charge of U.S. nuclear-weapon safety, Mumps realized that those workers were actually kind of important but didn't know how to call them back. The very same thing happened after Mumps fired Agriculture workers who were combatting the avian flu. Mumps proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Denali and then threw a hissy fit when the AP didn't adopt his new names. Mumps blamed the L.A. wildfire crisis on some imaginary "giant faucet" in northern California and then ordered 2.2 billion gallons of water dumped from the state's reservoirs onto Central Valley farmland that didn't need it and where it won't benefit firefighters at all (but will cause problems this summer when droughts begin). 

Mumps replaced a four-star general as Secretary of Defense with an inexperienced, alcoholic, black-out drunk Fox & Friends weekend host. Mumps named a vaccine denier to head HHS, a Russian asset now directs National Intelligence, a conspiracy theorist is the new FBI chief, and a far-right podcaster is now the FBI's Deputy Director. Mumps fired the African-American four-star general chairing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling him a D.E.I hire, and replaced him with a white, three-star general. The first female commander of the U.S. Navy was fired as well for the same spurious reason. After a tragic air accident, Mumps blamed the incident on "DEI," even as he admitted he had no evidence but just "common sense." 

Mumps pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of the convicted January 6 rioters, including the most violent felons who pled guilty to attacking and, in some cases, killing police officers.  Mumps tried to end the constitutional birthright citizenship of those born on American soil. Finally, there's Mumps' "greatest hit," the continued Big Lie that the free and fair 2020 election was somehow "rigged" against him, despite the absence of a shred of evidence and multiple lost court cases. 

Meanwhile, the price for a dozen eggs in Georgia is now around $6.00 but remember, eggs are always cheaper the day after Easter.

 

The White Spheres, 54th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Helios): A useful portmanteau of "Musk" and "Trump" is "Mumps," which is appropriate in these days of viral epidemics and a vaccine skeptic/conspiracy nut heading the Department of Health and Human Services. "Trusk" is the obvious alternative, but that sounds too much like "trust" of which there is not a lot going either way - of the American people for their leadership or the leadership for the American people.

Since the two are nearly indistinguishable these days, we can revise our daily and ever-growing mantra to use the name Mumps instead of Musk and/or Trump. Mumps posted a picture of himself to social media wearing a crown on his head and the words, "Long live the king." Mumps has spent roughly a third of his time in office playing golf on his own for-profit courses at considerable expense of taxpayer money for travel, logistics, and security. Mumps personally profits from the money spent on each of the trips. Mumps claimed that Ukraine had somehow started the war with the invading Russian army and falsely called Zelensky an unelected “dictator” who took money from the U.S. to go to war with Russia. Mumps is demanding half of Ukraine's mineral wealth in exchange for providing military support. Mumps spread a lie that U.S.AID had shipped $100M of condoms to Hamas. Mumps suggested the U.S. should take over the Gaza strip and "own it," displacing all of the native Palestinians to create some sort of Middle East Malibu. Mumps hinted at taking over Greenland and Panama using military force and suggested Canada should become the 51st state. Mump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China and then lifted the tariffs on our North American neighbors after they repeated pledges that they had already made. After firing the workers in charge of U.S. nuclear-weapon safety, Mumps realized that those workers were actually kind of important but didn't know how to call them back. The very same thing happened after Mumps fired Agriculture workers who were combatting the avian flu. Mumps proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Denali and then threw a hissy fit when the AP didn't adopt his new names. Mumps blamed the L.A. wildfire crisis on some imaginary "giant faucet" in northern California and then ordered 2.2 billion gallons of water dumped from the state's reservoirs onto Central Valley farmland that didn't need it and where it won't benefit firefighters at all (but will cause problems this summer when droughts begin). Mumps replaced a four-star general as Secretary of Defense with an inexperienced, alcoholic, black-out drunk Fox & Friends weekend host. Mumps named a vaccine denier to head HHS, a Russian asset now directs National Intelligence, and a conspiracy theorist is the new FBI chief. Mumps fired the African-American four-star general chairing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling him a D.E.I hire, and replaced him with a white, three-star general. The first female commander of the U.S. Navy was fired as well for the same spurious reason. Mumps pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of the convicted January 6 rioters, including the most violent felons who pled guilty to attacking and, in some cases, killing police officers. Mumps withdrew the U.S. from both the Paris climate-change treaty and the World Health Organization. Mumps tried to end the constitutional birthright citizenship of those born on American soil. After a tragic air accident, Mumps blamed the incident on "DEI," even as he admitted he had no evidence but just "common sense." Finally, there's Mumps' "greatest hit," the continued Big Lie that the free and fair 2020 election was somehow "rigged" against him, despite the absence of a shred of evidence and multiple lost court cases.  

The Greek stoic Epictetus said the way to happiness is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. Changing the actions of Mumps is clearly beyond my power but it is very much within my power to remind people of his criminality, his vulgarity, his lack of intelligence, and his narcissism. It is my hope that pointing out their fragility and ineptitude, and reminding people of it, will contribute in some small way to political resistance and ultimately to an end to this unconstitutional and contemptuous regime. Le roi est mort and a luta continua.      

Approval of a president's performance has always differed across party lines. Before Trump took office in 2017, the gap in approval between parties during a president's first February in office ranged from 21 to 60 points. In 2017, the gap rose to 79 points under Trump and increased to 84 points in 2021 under Biden. It is now at a record-high 89 points for Mumps, and that 89-point gap is the real "Gulf of America." I don't see that gulf closing any time soon.

The Supernatural Bride, 53rd Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Electra): Trump spent nine of his first 30 days in office, or roughly a third of his time, playing golf on one or another of his courses at an expense to taxpayers of $10.7 million. By visiting his own for-profit businesses, Trump directs government spending to follow him there and profits off the trips. 

The $10.7M total is based on a 2019 GAO calculation of $3,383,250 per trip to Mar-a-Lago during his first term. About one-third of that is the flight cost of Air Force One for the round trip, with additional expenses for flying down vehicles, including two presidential limousines, for Trump’s motorcade, and reimbursing the Coast Guard for stationing a gunship off the coast in the Atlantic Ocean and heavily armed boats in the Intracoastal. The costs are based on 2017 dollars and are probably even higher today. 

Last night, he fired the African-American four-star general who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling him a DEI hire, and replaced him with a white, largely unknown, retired three-star general. The first female commander of the U.S. Navy was fired as well for the same spurious reason.

We need to add these events to our ever-growing list of the Stable Genius' most stupid actions since taking office just last month: 

• He posted a picture of himself to social media wearing a crown on his head and with the words "Long live the king."  
• He has spent roughly a third of his time in office playing golf on his own for-profit courses at considerable expense of taxpayer money for travel, logistics, and security. Trump personally profits from the money spent on each of the trips.
• He claimed that Ukraine had somehow started the war with the invading Russian army and falsely called Zelensky an unelected “dictator” who took money from the U.S. to go to war with Russia.
• He's demanding half of Ukraine's mineral wealth in exchange for providing military support. 
• He spread a lie that U.S.AID had shipped $100M of condoms to Hamas.
• He suggested the U.S. should take over the Gaza strip and "own it," displacing all of the native Palestinians to create some sort of Middle East Malibu. 
• He hinted at taking over Greenland and Panama using military force and suggested Canada should become the 51st state. 
• He imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China and then lifted the tariffs on our North American neighbors after they repeated pledges that they had already made. 
• After firing the workers in charge of U.S. nuclear-weapon safety, he realized that those workers were actually kind of important but didn't know how to call them back.
• The very same thing happened after he fired Agriculture workers who were combatting the avian flu. 
• He proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Denali and then threw a hissy fit when the AP didn't adopt his new names. 
• He blamed the L.A. wildfire crisis on some imaginary "giant faucet" in northern California and then ordered 2.2 billion gallons of water dumped from the state's reservoirs onto Central Valley farmland that didn't need it and where it won't benefit firefighters at all (but will cause problems this summer when droughts begin). 
• He replaced a four-star general as Secretary of Defense with an inexperienced, alcoholic, black-out drunk Fox & Friends weekend host.
• He's named a vaccine denier to head HHS, a Russian asset now directs National Intelligence, and a conspiracy theorist is the new FBI chief.   
• He fired the African-American four-star general chairing the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling him a D.E.I hire, and replaced him with a white, three-star general. The first female commander of the U.S. Navy was fired as well for the same spurious reason.
• He pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of the convicted January 6 rioters, including the most violent felons who pled guilty to attacking and, in some cases, killing police officers. 
• He withdrew the U.S. from both the Paris climate-change treaty and the World Health Organization.
• He tried to end the constitutional birthright citizenship of those born on American soil. 
• After a tragic air accident, he blamed the incident on "DEI," even as he admitted he had no evidence but just "common sense." 
• Finally, there's his "greatest hit," the continued Big Lie that the free and fair 2020 election was somehow "rigged" against him, despite the absence of a shred of evidence and multiple lost court cases.

Invisible Half Man, 52nd Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Deneb): He thought he was the King of America, where they pour Coca Cola just like vintage wine. Now I try hard not to become hysterical but I'm not sure if I'm laughing or crying (Elvis Costello, Brilliant Mistake, 1986). 

The Hanford nuclear site in Washington state was used from World War II through the Cold War to produce two-thirds of the nation’s plutonium for nuclear weapons, leading to major contamination. An unfortunate legacy of the Oppenheimer years, it's been called "the most radioactive site in the Western Hemisphere" because it can't compete with Chernobyl (hey, it's hard to beat the king, man). A friend of mine who worked for the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR, pronounced "Attsa Doctor!") visited the site in the 1980s and described it in a letter as "beautiful countryside, friendly people, millions of gallons of contaminated groundwater." 

Now Trump and his DOGGIE have fired more than a dozen Department of Energy workers at the Hanford site, and at least 30 more federal workers there took buyouts. The employees  included safety engineers, environmental scientists, and employees who protect workers’ rights and are responsible for negotiating with regulators to make sure the environmental cleanup is completed within federal standards. What could possibly go wrong with limited supervision and expertise at one of the globe's most radioactive sites?

Meanwhile, Trump’s approval rating (45%) is below 50% according to the non-partisan Gallup poll, meaning that more Americans disapprove of his performance than approve. This underwater approval rate is all the more remarkable coming as it is during the "honeymoon" period of his first month in office and is a full 15 points below the average mid-February historical rate for all other presidents since 1953. It's even lower than his own first post-inauguration reading of 47% in 2017. For the record, Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy (72%) and Jimmy Carter (71%) had the highest approvals at this point in their terms.

Trump’s ratings on the specific issues and actions of his administration in the first weeks of his presidency are similarly underwater, including immigration (46%), foreign affairs (44%), foreign trade (42%) and the economy (42%). Meanwhile, only 40% of Americans approve of his handling of the situations in Ukraine and in the Middle East.

As a nation, we're becoming increasingly polarized. Before Trump's first term in office, the gap in approval between political parties during a President' first February in office ranged from 21 to 60 points. In 2017, that gap rose to 79 points for Trump, increased further to 84 points in 2021 for Biden, and is now at a record-high 89 points for Trump.

Despite his low approval ratings, Trump recently posted a picture of himself to social media wearing a crown on his head and the words "Long live the king."  It was obvious trolling, a fine idea at the time, as Elvis Costello would say, but now it's a brilliant mistake. The ever-lengthening list of Trump's "brilliant mistakes" is remarkable as the Stable Genius managed all this in only his first month in office. 

He falsely claimed that Ukraine had somehow started the war with the invading Russian army and called Zelensky a “dictator” who took money from the U.S. to go to war with Russia, and is demanding half of Ukraine's mineral wealth in exchange for providing military support. He spread a lie that U.S.AID had shipped $100M of condoms to Hamas and suggested the U.S. should take over the Gaza strip and "own it," displacing all of the native Palestinians to create some sort of Middle East Malibu. He also hinted at taking over Greenland and Panama using military force, and suggested Canada become the 51st state. He imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China and then lifted the tariffs on our North American neighbors after they repeated pledges that they had already made. After firing the workers in charge of U.S. nuclear-weapon safety, he realized that those workers were actually kind of important but didn't know how to call them back, and then the very same thing happened with fired Agriculture workers who were combatting the avian flu. He proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Denali and then threw a hissy fit when the AP didn't adopt his new names. He blamed the L.A. wildfire crisis on some imaginary "giant faucet" in northern California and then ordered 2.2 billion gallons of water dumped from the state's reservoirs onto Central Valley farmland that didn't need it and where it won't benefit firefighters at all (but will cause problems this summer when droughts begin). He replaced a four-star general at DOD with an inexperienced, alcoholic, black-out drunk Fox & Friends weekend host, and pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of the convicted January 6 rioters, including the most violent felons who pled guilty to attacking and, in some cases, killing police officers. He withdrew the U.S. from both the Paris climate-change treaty and the World Health Organization, and tried to end the constitutional birthright citizenship of those born on American soil. After a tragic air accident, he blamed the incident on "DEI," even as he admitted he had no evidence but just "common sense," and of course his "greatest hit," the continued Big Lie that the free and fair 2020 election was somehow "rigged" against him, despite the absence of a shred of evidence and multiple lost court cases.   

The latest injury on top of all the insults occurred yesterday when the Republican Senate approved Trump nominee and MAGA conspiracy theorist Kash Patel to lead the FBI. All of Trump's nominees were reprehensible, but three candidates in particular stood out for their vileness - RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, and Patel as the FBI Chief. Now all three have been confirmed and I'm just nauseous.    

He thought he was the King of America but it was just a boulevard of broken dreams, a trick they do with mirrors and with chemicals. I wish that I could push a button and talk in the past and not the present tense and watch this hurting feeling disappear.

 

Day of Footfall, 51st Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Castor):  Two-thirds of the Earth’s surface experienced record heat in 2024, yet another blast of cold arctic air has moved down here into the American South - the wind-chill factor right now makes the outdoor temperature feel like 9° F (-13° C). We normally get one "polar vortex" cold-weather blast a year down here, but this is now our third, and this morning I saw a long-term forecast that predicts a fourth is heading this way in early March. I live in a drafty pile of bricks on a hill which manages to stay pleasantly cool in the summertime, but is ill equipped to withstand these arctic blasts. I hate winter. 

I'm not happy with the weather, but I hate these modern times, too. I hate the MAGA movement and all it represents, and the people who elected that urine-soaked cockroach now infesting the White House. It took me a while, but with Trump and MAGA's help, I now hate the United States, that imperialist oligarchy founded on the twin pillars of slavery and genocide. 

For several days now, I've been posting pictures with the motto, "I bow to no king." It might have seemed over the top, an immature overreaction to things I don't like, but just yesterday, Trump posted a picture to social media of himself wearing a crown and the words "long live the king." Can you imagine the reaction if Joe Biden had done that? If Obama had done that?

Lest we forget, let's recite the latest updated version of my now-daily mantra of Trump's malfeasance and incompetence:  

Trump has falsely claimed that Ukraine had somehow started the war with the invading Russian army and called Zelensky a “dictator” who took money from the U.S. to go to war with Russia, and is demanding half of Ukraine's mineral wealth in exchange for providing any military support. He falsely claimed that U.S.AID had shipped $100M of condoms to Hamas and suggested the U.S. should take over the Gaza strip and "own it," displacing all of the native Palestinians to create some sort of Middle East Malibu. He also hinted at taking over Greenland and Panama using military force, and suggested Canada become the 51st state. He imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China and then lifted the tariffs on our North American neighbors after they repeated pledges that they had already made. He had the American workers in charge of U.S. nuclear-weapon safety fired and then after realizing that those workers were actually kind of important, found out they didn't know how to call them back, and then the very same thing happened with Agriculture workers who were researching the avian flu. He proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Denali and then threw a hissy fit when the AP didn't adopt his new names. He blamed the L.A. wildfire crisis on some imaginary "giant faucet" in northern California and then ordered 2.2 billion gallons of water dumped from the state's reservoirs onto Central Valley farmland that didn't need it and where it won't benefit firefighters at all (but will cause problems this summer when droughts begin). He replaced a four-star general at DOD with an inexperienced, alcoholic, black-out drunk Fox & Friends weekend host, and pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of the convicted January 6 rioters, including the most violent felons who pled guilty to attacking, and in some cases killing, police officers. Although two-thirds of the Earth’s surface experienced record heat in 2024, he withdrew the U.S. from both the Paris climate-change treaty and the World Health Organization, and tried to end the constitutional birthright citizenship of those born on American soil. After a tragic air accident, he blamed the incident on "DEI," even as he admitted he had no evidence but just "common sense," and of course his "greatest hit," the continued Big Lie that the free and fair 2020 election was somehow "rigged" against him, despite the absence of a shred of evidence and multiple lost court cases.   

As William S. Burroughs would have pointed out, Trump has finally vulgarized and falsified the American dream, that last and greatest of human hopes, to the point where the bare lies are finally shining through.  And that's the beauty of living in difficult times of crisis - all the bullshit is blown away and things are finally revealed as they truly are. 

A monk once asked Zen Master Joshu, “When times of great difficulties come upon us, how should we meet them?”

Joshu answered, “Welcome.”

 

Speech in the Glade, 50th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Betelgeuse): 

A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization.

A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial problems is a sick civilization.

A civilization that plays fast and loose with its principles is a dying civilization.

So wrote Martinique poet and politician Aimé Césaire in his Discourse on Colonialism in 1955. Césaire went on to point out that so-called European, or "western," civilization, shaped as it is by two centuries of bourgeois rule, is incapable of solving the two major problems to which its existence has given rise: the problem of the proletariat and the colonial problem. Western civilization, he concluded, is indefensible.

After Trump and his Musk DOGGIE fired the workers in charge of nuclear weapon safety last week and then realized what those workers were doing was actually kind of important but they didn't know how to call them back, recent reporting tells us the same thing happened with Agriculture workers who were researching the avian flu. It almost seems like indiscriminately firing government employees with no idea of what they actually do isn't that great an idea. 

I don't mean to mindlessly recycle the contents of previous posts, but the true, astonishing breadth of the idiocy of the Trump administration is really only appreciated when all of its actions are viewed together. The mainstream press focuses only on the most recent outrage and when viewed alone, the reaction is often, "Okay, that's dumb, but not really that big a deal." For example, in just the past 24 hours, Trump suggested that Ukraine had somehow started the war with the invading Russian army and called Zelensky a “dictator” who, he claimed, took money from the U.S. to go to war with Russia. Zelensky pointed out that Trump is living in a misinformation bubble.

Okay, that's bad, but previously, Trump claimed the U.S. will take over the Gaza strip and "own it," displacing all of the native Palestinians, to create some sort of Middle East Malibu. He proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Denali and then threw a hissy fit when the AP didn't adopt his new names. He hinted at military takeovers of Greenland and Panama, and suggested Canada become the 51st state. He blamed the L.A. wildfire crisis on some imaginary "giant faucet" in northern California and then ordered 2.2 billion gallons of water dumped from the state's reservoir onto Central Valley farmland that didn't need it and where it won't benefit firefighters at all (but will cause problems this summer when droughts begin). He replaced a four-star general at DOD with an inexperienced, alcoholic, black-out drunk Fox & Friends weekend host, imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China and then lifted the tariffs on our North American neighbors after they repeated pledges they had already made, and pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of the convicted January 6 rioters, including the most violent. He withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate-change treaty and the World Health Organization, and tried to end the constitutional birthright citizenship of those born on American soil. 

Idiotic. Indefensible. Decadent, sick, and dying.

There's light at the end of the tunnel, though. Frustrated about the delays of getting two new Air Force One jets (Daddy wants new toys), Trump has empowered Musk to explore "drastic options" to get Boeing to deliver them faster. Given Boeing's recent disastrous record with flawed engineering, a rush job by an understaffed company may result in Boeing jets that could bring an end to this nightmare administration. 

 

Lessening Heart Hums, 49th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Atlas): The incompetence has been truly breathtaking. 

I really, really, really do not want this blog to devolve into daily anti-Trump screeds. But a person whose house is on fire may not want to talk only about "call the Fire Department," and "how did the flames spread so fast?" and "let's get the fuck out of here." In a crisis, conversations about the crisis are all but inevitable.

This is the time and this is the record of the time. Writing about the weather, my daily walks, some movie I watched on television last night, my dipshit "new, revised" calendar,  or video games seems pretty pointless when the house is burning down. Let's put the fire out first and then we can talk about anything else that rises in our minds.

Trump and his pet DOGGIE (actually, DOGGIE and his pet Trump) are dismantling the government and laying off its employees en masse with little or no idea of what those agencies or people actually do and the harm of their layoff actions. Sadly, even if the effort were to stop right now, this very instant, it may take a long time, maybe as long as a generation, to repair the damage already done. The damage to global climate will probably never be fixed. "Trump Cuts Target Next Generation of Scientists and Public Health Leaders," according to a New York Times headline, which further notes that a core group of so-called disease detectives, who track outbreaks, was apparently spared, but other young researchers are out of jobs. The workers in charge of nuclear weapon safety were fired, and after it was realized that they were actually kind of important, the administration discovered they didn't know how to call them back, as they had already terminated their email accounts and didn't know how to access other records on their whereabouts.

Meanwhile, we are blundering our way into a financial crisis, as an op-ed in today's Times claims.

The Vice President, DOD Secretary, and Secretary of State made royal asses of themselves in Europe. The Veep delivered a blistering attack on the leaders of European countries to their faces, a move calculated to win street cred on Fox News and with the MAGA base, but which infuriated and alienated our allies. Among the charges leveled were that Germany was unfairly excluding far-right neo-Nazi groups from public discourse, but the move backfired, at least in Germany, where the fringe support of fascism actually decreased following his statements. The alcoholic, black-out drunk Defense Secretary told NATO that they should consider Ukraine's admission to NATO and keeping of their pre-2014 borders "off the table" in any truce negotiations with Russia. In other words, our opening position on negotiations with Putin should be unconditional surrender. And then, the Secretary of State began formal negotiations with Russia without any Ukrainian presence, but with Saudi Arabia instead for some reason. Meanwhile, Trump floated the idea that Ukraine should consider giving the U.S. half of its mineral rights in exchange for American support. 

There have been four fatal plane crashes since Trump took office and sacked the FAA, eventually (but only after the first crash) replacing the director with one of his own loyal stooges. Trump blamed the first one on DEI (i.e., women and persons of color), but everyone know the fault was on him, and he hopes we quickly forget the rest of the crashes. 

Trump tried to engineer a deal with the disgraced and criminally indicted mayor of New York City to conditionally pardon his crimes in exchange for cooperation on mass deportation of immigrants, but the deal was so obvious and stupid that a number of Department of Justice officials involved have resigned in protest, the Governor is considering using her executive powers to remove the compromised mayor from office, and the city is in administrative chaos.

Trump has proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Denali, blamed the L.A. wildfire crises on some imaginary "giant faucet" in northern California and then ordered 2.2 billion gallons of water dumped from the state's reservoir onto Central Valley farmland that didn't need it and where it won't benefit firefighters at all (but will cause problems this summer when droughts begin), replaced a four-star general at DOD with the inexperienced, alcoholic, black-out drunk Fox & Friends weekend host, imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, and then lifted the tariffs on our North American neighbors after they repeated pledges they had already made, pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of the convicted January 6 rioters, including the most violent, withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate-change treaty and the World Health Organization, said the U.S. will take over the Gaza strip and "own it," including displacing all of the native Palestinians, and tried to end the constitutional birthright citizenship of those born on American soil. Stable genius, my ass!    

This is what happens when stupid people elect a stupid man for president. Yes, I know that I just called half the American population stupid, but as Steven Wright once noted, "Half the people you know are below average." The below-average half are the ones that voted for Trump and brought on this wave of administrative incompetence.

Quickwint Sidelong Blur, 48th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Helios): According to a headline article in today's Guardian, Trump’s flurry of executive orders expanding his presidential powers, coupled with Musk's DOGGIE (Department of Government Inefficiency) campaign to cut billions of dollars in federal spending through massive job cuts, amount to a coup, plain and simple, and are a threat to American democracy.  

Welcome to the struggle, comrades. 

Claims that Trump and Musk are going after waste, fraud and abuse are just a smokescreen for their real intentions. Even though Trump has praised DOGGIE’s cost cutting as vital to curbing spending, one of his first moves in office was to fire 17 Inspectors General, veteran agency watchdogs whose very jobs are to ferret out waste, fraud, and abuse in federal departments. The firings occurred despite laws protecting IGs passed by Congress less than three years ago, and were done without giving Congress the legally required 30-days’ notice and specific justifications for each firing.

The IG for USAID was fired almost immediately after he had issued a highly critical report warning of serious economic repercussions of the sweeping job cuts that DOGGIE had made. The agency’s mission is to provide humanitarian aid and fund assistance and tech projects in developing countries, but Musk has called USAID a “criminal organization” and an “arm of the criminal left globalists." 

In response to their firings, eight of the IGs, including ones from the Departments of Defense, Education, and Health and Human Services, filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement, arguing their terminations violated federal laws designed to protect them from interference with their jobs. 

The DOGGIE operations and the IG firings are blatant examples of executive power overreach. The Guardian quotes Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), as likening Trump’s firing of the IGs to firing cops before you rob a bank. Whitehouse said, “It’s pretty clear that what’s going on here is a very deliberate effort to create as much wreckage in the government as they can manage with a view to helping out the big Trump donors and special interests who find government obnoxious in various ways.”

Nineteen state Attorney Generals have sued to halt DOGGIE from accessing sensitive documents with details about tens of millions of Americans who get Social Security checks, tax refunds, and other payments, arguing that DOGGIE was violating the Administrative Procedures Act. The lawsuit prompted a New York judge to issue a temporary order halting DOGGIE from accessing the Treasury payments system.

Musk and Trump lashed back by charging judicial interference. On Twitter, Musk claimed the judge was corrupt and that he should be impeached "NOW.” Trump agreed, saying, “It seems hard to believe that a judge could say, ‘We don’t want you to do that,’ so maybe we have to look at the judges because I think that’s a very serious violation.” As Arizona’s Attorney General, Kris Mayes, said, “In the US, we appeal rulings we disagree with – we don’t ignore court orders or threaten judges with impeachment just because we don’t like the decision. 

"This is a coup, plain and simple,” he claimed. 

Trump’s and Musk’s charges of improper judicial interference and other actions pose dangers to the rule of law and the US Constitution. Trump has not only granted Musk and DOGGIE extraordinary power over federal agency operations with little public oversight and accountability, but he also violated the constitution’s appointments clause by establishing DOGGIE without Congressional approval.

The president is openly violating the Constitution by taking power from Congress and handing it to an unelected billionaire. Under our constitutional separations of powers, each co-equal branch of government serves as a check on the others. Yet congressional Republicans seem more than willing to cede their constitutional powers in service of Trump and Musk’s political agenda. 

The American people are being gaslighted by Trump and Musk. There's no evidence DOGGIE actually discovered billions of dollars of waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption. If they had, they would have provided the specifics. But they can’t provide them and they won’t. At worst, what they might have seen ae some things that might raise some questions, but they haven’t bothered to seek explanations from anyone with relevant knowledge.

As the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Musk has received billions of dollars in federal contracts. As a “special government employee” Musk’s post is a temporary position that bypasses the disclosure requirements for full-time federal employees. Without giving up his many private-sector roles, he is clearly in a conflict of interest as he wrecks the various agencies that have oversight of aspects of his business operations and as Trump removes the IGs who might find fault with the contracts the government hands out to Musk's companies.

Musk, in addition to claims of being the world's richest man, was also Trump's biggest campaign donor. Quid pro quo much, gentlemen?

The Painted Timbers, 47th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Electra): Last night, as a part of its much publicized 50-year anniversary, Saturday Night Live aired its very first episode from 1975. I watched it all, and there's 90 minutes of my life I'm never getting back again.

I had forgotten how thuddingly unfunny the show was, even back then. It's fairly well recognized now that the show is painfully unfunny, but boomer legend how that show used to be great "back in the day."  

It  wasn't. I didn't laugh last night once the entire show. The brief Andy Kauffman bit was amusing in its quirky way, but was more weird than funny. I also remembered a fair number of the skits, although I honestly don't know if I remember them from first seeing them 50 years ago on t.v., or from subsequent replays on talk shows, YouTube, etc. 

I also forgot how short the bits were back then. One of the many things that make the current version so painful to watch is that the skits go on and on for way too long, well past the point of amusement. At least the old version kept them short and sweet.

But I do remember the cultural impact the show had in its time. Long before the internet, the show was a weekly generator of catch phrases and the equivalent of memes. The week following each episode, everyone would be dropping lines like, "Well, excuuuuse me!" and "land shark" into their conversations to show their hipness bona fides. Look, before the internet, email, and social media, back in the days of the monoculture, it was all we had. Up to that point, there was virtually no representation at all of pot-smoking, hip young people on television - not in any positive light, a least. Early SNL, while it still hadn't yet openly embraced the rock 'n' roll, drug culture, dropped enough references that certain viewers knew the writers were "one of us." IYKYK.

The show lasted for 50 years not because it was so funny, not because it was so good, but because there was nothing else on television during its timeslot and would always win the ratings for late-night Saturdays. It was cheap to produce and could always find advertisers, so no one ever pulled the plug on that cash cow. So as NBC continues to beat its chest over its "cultural phenomenon," just remember - it really was never very funny.      

 

Descent of the Host, 46th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Deneb):  For those of you keeping score at home, this is my 6,094th post to WDW. I probably should have said something last year when I reached 6,000, but I hadn't noticed at the time, and I probably won't when I hit 7,000 sometime in 2027 (?). should I live that long.

Should the world last that long. I'm at the stage now in this second Trump presidency where I wake up each morning dreading to learn what stupid-ass shit the Cheeto did overnight. The latest embarrassments, though, weren't by the Orange One himself  but by his minions. Over in Europe, our alcoholic, black-out drunk Secretary of Defense gave away all of Ukraine's negotiating leverage by telling the European military leaders that Ukraine getting back the territory seized by Russia and of ever joining NATO should be considered off the table. So our opening position in the ceasefire negotiations is, um, unconditional surrender? Then our Vice President, once he got on stage, gave a blistering denouncement of the state of European democracy, as if America were still the shining example of fair and free elections and as if his boss hadn't tried to engineer a coup a mere four years ago.

I'm embarrassed to be an America with representation like that. The men are a disgrace to their country and to the offices they hold. We're not even one full month into the presidency, and the thought of 47 more months fills me with existential dread.

Day of the Inn Dweller, 45th of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Castor): I got my steps in today (6.8 miles) but I missed last Wednesday. It had rained all that day, hard and persistently, with no chance of letting up. In fact, it only increased in intensity as the day went on, climaxing in a thunderstorm and torrential downpour around 11:00 pm.  The rain lasted until around sunrise on Thursday morning. 

According to the National Weather Service, a fine government bureau which should definitely stay open and not be shut down, 3.97 inches of rain fell on Monday, Tuesday, and mostly Wednesday, before it finally blew over on Thursday morning.   

Peachtree Creek apparently jumped its banks again from all the rain. There was sediment on the ground in places where the loop trail around the Bobby Jones Golf Course nears the creek, ranging from fine sand to silt and slippery mud. The footpath that goes beneath the Northside Drive bridge over the creek was nearly impassible because of the thick, slick mud. According to the USGS, another fine government bureau, the creek crested at 17.67 feet early on Thursday morning. For comparison, it crested at 23.75 feet on September 27 following Hurricane Helene. 

Here's a graph of the creek levels for the past six months. The first big peak is Helene and the last one was Wednesday. 

Helene aside, the creek hadn't been this high since last March, and even then, it was a whole 0.5-foot lower. The rising water levels must have put quite the scare in the homeowners near the creek, who are still recovering from the flooding following Helene, although I don't think the water quite reached their homes. 

Two points here: first, in these days when government agencies that don't serve the direct needs of Elon Musk are being shut down, it's important to note how some departments operating on a miniscule percentage of the federal budget still provide useful (and free) data for our lives. Second, in these days of climate change and increasing storm frequency, it's worth noting how "only" slightly less than four inches of rain took us right to the precipice of damaging floods.

We might not be so lucky next time.

 

The Invading Past, 44th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Betelgeuse):  Today, the day after Gabbard Day, the Senate voted along party lines to confirm vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, the NIH, and the CDC. Not a single Democrat voted for Kennedy and Mitch McConnell was the sole Republican vote against him. 

Vaccine skepticism has led to measles outbreaks in various places across the U.S. Bird flu is causing the price of eggs, a big campaign issue, to soar to record heights, and has already crossed over to humans - according to the journal Nature, at least 68 people in North America have already become ill from the disease and at least one person has died. 

But the Trump administration response has been to withdraw the U.S. from the WHO, freeze research funding, and appoint a lunatic-fringe figure to lead our national health agencies.

We're fucked. When's that comet coming, again?

Day of the Cat, 43rd of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Atlas): I promised myself at the start of this second Trump term that I wasn't going to allow myself to get all worked up and emotional over each and every little daily outrage. Sure, terrible things are going to happen - that's what you get with a Trump presidency - and he's going to name some terrible people for his cabinet. Expect it and there's nothing you can do it about it anyway. No point in flying off the handle over each and every incompetent and conflicted person nominated, or so I reasoned.

But among all the incompetent and conflicted grifters, there were three names that stood out as just so breathtakingly inappropriate that it couldn't go without comment - RFK Jr. for HHS, Kash Patel for FBI, and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence. All the rest are terrible, too, but those three are so shockingly inappropriate that it just goes to a whole other level.

And then today, Senate Republicans voted straight down the party line to approve Gabbard. Our entire national intelligence apparatus is now in the untested and inexperienced hands of a Putin sympathizer and admirer of global dictators.

Fuck you, America. You voted for this - you looked at the candidates for president and chose the obvious and obnoxious grifter, the twice-impeached, multiply convicted felon who tried to engineer a coup to stay in office after he was voted out the last time. Now our national defense secrets and intelligence gathering operations are in the hands of a person who very likely could decide to leak them to our foreign adversaries.

We're fucked and it's all our own fault.

 

Fifth Ocean, 42nd Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Helios): I think most people, or at least most thinking people, recognize that we are now in nothing short of a coup here in America. The president is shutting down and dismantling the various branches and bureaucracies of government, taking power and authority away from both chambers of Congress, the Department of Justice, and the judiciary. He's demanding full authority and allowing no checks and balances, accountable to no one. The simple word for this state of affairs is dictatorship, but you can also call it oligarchy, authoritarianism, or even fascism.

I never thought I'd live to see the day that fascism became the American form of government, but here we are.

I'm not a reporter of a journalist and there are others covering the current state of affairs much better than I can. I recommend reading Rebecca Solnit or Heather Cox Richardson, both of whom I've quoted quite liberally here in recent months, for a more detailed and cogent day-by-day dissection of what's happening. These are the times and this is the record of the times, and clearly my previous decision to talk only about the environmental issues (climate change, pollution, regulatory enforcement) is woefully insufficient to address the scope of the threat we're facing. 

A sick, profoundly stupid, and greedy narcissist has taken over the country and is ruining it with astonishing speed. Oligarchical wannabes and sycophants are empowering him and lining up to grab pieces and crumbs of the empire as he tears it apart. If he doesn't drag us into a thermonuclear Third World War first, climate change, dead oceans, and pollution will probably kill us all first. 

My only selfish solace is that I'm so old I'll probably be dead anyway before the worst of it happens, but I'm profoundly unhappy with this country and full of anger. 

How's your day going?

The Infant Footprint, 41st day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Electra):

ashes, my burnt hut
but wonderful the cherry
blooming on my hill

by Hokushi (Tachibana Genjiro, 1665-1718), as translated by R.H. Blyth. On his death bed, Hokushi wrote:

I write, erase, rewrite,
erase again and then
a poppy blooms   

(translation by Yoel Hoffmann)

Fourth Ocean, 40th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Deneb): After just a couple of weeks commenting on the environmental and climate actions and misdeeds by the Trump administration, I'm already exhausted. There's just so much! Their actions are disgusting but even as I point out the hypocrisy and corruption on one issue, I'm left with a nagging feeling that I'm ignoring other activities that are just as bad or even worse.

Is anyone else cheering for the 2032 meteor strike at this point?  

 

   

 

The White Sun, 39th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Castor): This country was founded on slavery and genocide by wealthy, white, misogynistic plantation owners. Our current socio-economic infrastructure was created by late 19th and early 20th Century oligarchs, robber barons, and tycoons.   

If you're at all surprised by the appalling current events, what sort of tree did you expect to grow out of that tainted soil?    

 

The Doubletake Walk, 38th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Betelgeuse): Even as I froze my ass off here in Atlanta last month, the planet as a whole had its warmest January on record.

The warmth was apparently something of a surprise to climate scientists as it occurred during La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean, which tend to lower the globe’s average temperature. Because of La Niña, researchers were expecting this year to be slightly cooler than the past two years, both of which experienced the opposite, El Niño, pattern. 

However, last month was much warmer than usual in northern Canada, Alaska and Siberia, as well as parts of Australia and Antarctica. Abnormally high temperatures above Hudson Bay and the Labrador Sea helped shrink Arctic sea ice to a record low for January.

Among the lessons here: just because you're cold, don't assume everyone else on Earth is. Same holds if you're warm. Or, for that matter, well-fed or hungry, rich or poor, happy or sad. 

 

Third Ocean, 37th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Atlas): Today, we enter the seventh week of the 525th year of the Modern Era. Already in this terrible year, we've lost Sam Moore of Sam & Dave, musician Susan Alcorn, director David Lynch, playwright Richard Foreman, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, feminist Cecile Richards, my Mom, and even baseball legend Bob Uecker. Impermanence is swift. In the past six weeks, the United States has threatened military action in Panama, Greenland, and Gaza. Global warming is racing unchecked toward the planetary tipping point, even as the U.S. pulls out of the Paris agreement and official American policy is to increase the use of fossil fuels. An unelected billionaire with business interests all over the world, including with adversaries of the U.S., has been allowed unfettered access to the most sensitive of federal financial databases and files. Meanwhile, the President is purging nearly the entire government of its competent career civil servants, including my daughter who works at CDC.

Only 55 more weeks to go (my New Revised Universal Solar Calendar has six-day weeks).

Out on my alternating-day walk two weeks ago, I was wearing three layers of fleece, gloves, a hat, and Bluetooth headphones as earmuffs. Tuesday, I was out in shorts and a t-shirt.  Seasons change, sure, but one could get whiplash from changes this abrupt. We're in what's known in the South as the "false spring" season, unusual warmth but with more cold wintery temperatures sure to come (although none are forecast for the next 10 days). 

It was so warm I couldn't sleep last night and eventually realized it was because of all the layers of wintertime blankets I had piled on the bed. I stripped off the comforter and one other blanket and was immediately more comfortable, but the cycle had already been broken and I found it difficult to get back to sleep. After the alarm went off, I found it difficult to get up. I wound up laying in bed, alternating between attempting to start my day and then falling back to sleep, until 11:30. I'm all messed up right now, and doubt I'll get my steps in today, even though it's officially a "walking day" in my alternating walking/sitting daily cycle.

I'm all messed up right now and don't have anything more to say than what I've already written above.

The Ancient Village, 36th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Helios): EPA is demoting the career employees who oversee scientific research, enforcement of pollution laws, and hazardous waste cleanups, according to reporting in The New York Times. The  nonpartisan positions will be filled by political appointees

The move would give Trump more influence over various aspects of the agency like climate change research and enforcement, and make it easier for the administration to bypass Congress. While those formally overseeing sections of the EPA must be confirmed by the Senate, the new appointees could assume the role of acting department heads, circumventing the need for congressional approval.

During the election campaign, Trump’s supporters claimed they would be better prepared to swiftly begin dismantling the EPA, the agency that played a central role in the Biden administration’s strategy to combat climate change.

Trump has stocked the agency with political appointees who have worked as lawyers and lobbyists for the oil and chemical industries.  Lee Zeldin, the newly approved agency administrator, has expressed doubts about the severity of climate change and said he does not support the 2015 Paris agreement. David Fotouhi, his nominee for deputy administrator, was a lawyer who had challenged a ban on asbestos. Aaron Szabo, who is expected to be the top air-pollution regulator, was a lobbyist for both the oil and chemical industries. Nancy Beck, who is serving as a senior adviser on chemical safety and pollution, was a longtime chemical industry lobbyist.

At the same time, there have been aggressive moves to deplete the EPA work force. In recent days, the Trump administration warned more than 1,100 agency employees who had been hired within the past year that they could be “immediately” terminated at any time.

The change to the senior management ranks affects the EPA's Office of Research and Development, the agency’s scientific research arm, the Office of Enforcement and Compliance, which is responsible for enforcing the country’s environmental laws, and the Office of Land and Emergency Management, which oversees cleanups at the nation’s most contaminated sites and responds to environmental emergencies. The Office of Mission Support, which manages human resources but also grants and contracts, is also affected.

Prior to the Trump administration, career employees held the second-in-command positions of “principal deputy assistant administrator.” Those career staff members automatically became the acting heads of their divisions in the absence of a Senate-confirmed assistant administrator to lead it. But last week, the people serving in those roles were informed that their job titles would be changed. Their salaries and benefits would not change, they were told, but they would be moved to the position of “deputy assistant administrator,” which is effectively a demotion. The change is expected to take effect this week. 

Many of the changes at the EPA were mapped out in Project 2025, a conservative policy playbook that Mr. Trump plausibly claims he had not read (he doesn't read much of anything). It calls for putting in place “reform-minded” political appointees to lead virtually all parts of the agency, including the scientific and enforcement functions. 

The moves at EPA, when viewed alongside everything else taking place, are yet another attack on public servants who have dedicated their careers to public health and environmental protection.

The Laden Bough, 35th Day of Childwinter, 525 M.E. (Electra): As temperatures at the North Pole soared to more than 20° C (68° F) above average on Sunday, rising above the temperature for ice to melt, a recent study headed by climate scientist James Hansen of Columbia University, warned that the pace of global warming has been significantly underestimated. 

Temperatures north of Svalbard in Norway had already risen to 18° C warmer than the 1991–2020 average on Saturday, with actual temperatures close to ice’s melting point of 0° C (32° F). By Sunday, the temperature anomaly had risen to more than 20° C.

The burning of fossil fuels has warmed the planet by about 1.3° C since preindustrial times, but the poles are warming much faster as reflective sea ice melts. Since 1979, the Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the global average, and extreme heat has become hotter and more common. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) defined a scenario which gave a 50% chance to keep warming under 2° C. "That scenario is now impossible,” according to Hansen. “The 2° C target is dead, because the global energy use is rising, and it will continue to rise.”  Hansen first sounded the alarm about climate change in testimony he gave to the UN in 1988.

The world’s nations pledged in Paris in 2015 to keep global temperature rise below 2° C above preindustrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5° C. However, the climate crisis has already supercharged extreme weather across the world with just 1.3° C of heating on average. While 2° C would be far worse, on his first day in office, Trump announced that the US would withdraw from the Paris agreements.

The unusually mild polar temperatures seen in the middle of the winter were linked to a deep low-pressure system over Iceland, which was directing a strong flow of warm air towards the north pole. Abnormally warm seas in the north-east Atlantic further strengthened the wind-driven warming. Temperatures rising above freezing in the Arctic are of particular concern because polar ice, which reflects away warming solar radiation, gets melted.

Hansen's recent study, published in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, stated, “Failure to be realistic in climate assessment and failure to call out the fecklessness of current policies to stem global warming is not helpful to young people.”

The primary cause of the increase in temperatures over the last two years is deforestation and the relentless rise in CO₂ emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. The peak of the El Niño climate cycle in 2024 added an extra temperature boost. However, these two factors do not fully explain the extreme temperatures, or their persistence after the El Niño ended in mid-2024. This left climate scientists wondering if there was another factor not previously accounted for, or if the extra heat was an unusual but temporary natural variation.

A key focus has been on emissions from shipping. For decades, the sulphate particles produced by ships burning fuel have blocked some sunlight from reaching the Earth’s surface, suppressing temperatures. But in 2020, new anti-pollution regulations came into force, sharply cutting the level of the aerosol particles. This led to more heat from the sun reaching the surface

Hansen is concerned that the accelerated global heating will increase ice melting in the Arctic and as a result, shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the primary system of ocean currents that moves water within the Atlantic Ocean. “If AMOC is allowed to shut down, it will lock in major problems including sea level rise of several meters – thus, we describe AMOC shutdown as the ‘point of no return’.” The estimate on the timing of an AMOC collapse is 2050.

However, Hansen said the point of no return could be avoided, based on the growing conviction of young people that they should follow the science. He called for a carbon fee and dividend policy, where all fossil fuels are taxed and the revenue returned to the public. "The basic problem," he noted, "is that the waste products of fossil fuels are still dumped in the air free of charge.”