The next four years will be a nightmare. On Sundays, I'll be highlighting a few articles and ideas that I've found useful—and that might help us figure out how to get through it all.
The first days of the new Trump administration produced less "shock and awe" than expected in terms of immigration raids, but plenty of Trumpy play-acting orchestrated to delight racists, tech bros, and Sharpie collectors.
In order to win the election, Trump had loudly disavowed the "absolutely ridiculous and abysmal" policies laid out in Project 2025.
But—surprise!—he spent Week One back at the White House personally endorsing many of them.
With his Sharpie working faster than his brain, Trump signed dozens of shocking, awful Executive Orders designed to terrorize the vulnerable, spread disease, destroy the planet, increase the price of eggs, and give Christo-Fascists more ways to "End Big Government" by making it bigger and more intrusive.
Meanwhile, even if Commandant Tom Homan got off to a slower than expected start, that doesn't mean ICE enforcement won't become more shocking and more awful in the days and weeks ahead.
ICE Understands the Assignment
Trump's executive orders have expanded ICE's ability to arrest and detain unlawful migrants on US soil.
Areas previously deemed "sensitive," such as schools, hospitals and churches are no longer off-limits.
State and local police will be increasingly involved in immigration enforcement duties.
To make sure ICE knew who they were targeting, Trump told Sean Hannity this week "that you can tell how much 'trouble' immigrants are going to be for the country based on the 'look' of them."
In New Jersey, that message was heard loud and clear.
On Thursday, as PIX 11 reported, ICE raided a Newark seafood depot, zeroing in exclusively on the company's Hispanic workers.
Three people were detained in the raid, including a US citizen and military veteran whose military ID was rejected by the agents.
As NJ101.5 reported:
U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J. 12th District, denounced the raid by "jackbooted thugs," calling it a "callous disregard for the laws of New Jersey, the rights of our residents, and the Constitution of the United States.”
"After pardoning violent insurrectionists, Trump orders ICE agents to detain and harass innocent people, including a veteran who served our country. This is the reality of Trump’s reign of terror, but it’s not the America generations have fought for," Watson Coleman said.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka noted that ICE raided the "local establishment" without a warrant and said: "This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees ‘the right of the people be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures."
Current law states that ICE does need a warrant to enter a business establishment and make arrests on the premises.
But in the new regime, the law won't help you. Which is why Democrats must...
Impeach Trump Now!
It's may seem as pointless as opposing Pete Hegseth's nomination.
But hear Jason Sattler out:
The pardons of the January 6th rioters and coup plotters are the greatest single betrayal by an American president in our history. It doesn’t matter how many people voted for Donald Trump. It doesn’t matter that there’s no hope of real accountability with Republicans controlling Congress and the Constitution, making removal impossible with today’s Republican Party. Democrats should still obviously introduce articles of impeachment...
They should do this because it’s the right thing to do.
They should do it because no matter how bad you think January 6th was and the role the people he just pardoned played in that attack on your ability to rule yourself, it was worse.
They should do it because the men Trump pardoned will do horrible and illegal things likely involving horrible violence, for that’s what they were pardoned to do.
But they should also do it because of the pardons that will inevitably come that could "legalize" now unthinkable atrocities.
Read more:
Democrats need to let America know the emergency has begun
Why impeachment is the only option. The pardons of the January 6th rioters and coup plotters are the greatest single betrayal by an American president in our history. It doesn’t matter how many people voted for Donald Trump. It doesn’t matter that there’s no hope of real
Jason Sattler
"A Disgusting Inaugural"
Jared Yates Sexton watched the whole inauguration and I didn't.
"Make no bones about it, this was a fascistic event," he writes.
You can find his full inauguration commentary at the link below. Until then, here are some of points of note.
On Trump's speech:
The chosen rhetorical device of the day was that a “Golden Age” was dawning in America, a period of strength and success and power that would replace the former era of humiliation and decline. This is the most tried and true method of fascistic narrative construction, especially when that “Golden Age” is resulting from strength, cruelty, a clear cut delineation between in groups and out groups, and mobilization against a hated enemy that “betrayed” a nation endowed with special characteristics and innate superiority.
On Musk's Nazi salute:
Undoubtedly you’d heard about or seen what Elon Musk did... you saw our media tap-dance around it... at this point, we should understand this is how the corporate-owned media class will choose to cover such things.
On the oligarchs in the front row:
We know why they were there. They were keeping an eye on their investment.
This was a stark reminder of exactly what we’re facing... This is their government now. They’ve owned it for a long time, have enjoyed getting historically rich feeding off of the needs and resources of empire, but this current push is an attempt to finalize the deal. Musk bought MAGA for a relatively measly sum. The rest are investing as the sham continues and grows. As of the time of this article, the major platforms are all in and either actively promoting Trump and censoring opposition or beginning the process.
It’s not a coup. It’s a hostile takeover.
Read the whole article here:
A Repulsive Regime: Thoughts From a Disgusting Inaugural
I watched every minute of this debacle. It was worse than I even expected.
Jared Yates Sexton
The Broligarchs' "Dark Vision"
America's tech centibillionaires already have enough untaxed riches and enough uncrunched data to outlive several carbon-based lifeforms.
What more could they possibly want?
In Vox, Sigal Samuel explains "the real reason" they are supporting Trump:
For the broligarchs this is about much more than just maintaining and growing their riches. It’s about ideology. An ideology inspired by science fiction and fantasy. An ideology that says they are supermen, and supermen should not be subject to rules, because they’re doing something incredibly important: remaking the world in their image.
Samuel also does something I like to do quite often, which is quote Gil Duran, author of the Nerd Reich newsletter, who sums it up thus:
“The idea is to build power over the long term by controlling money, politics, technology, and land.”
Read the full article here:
The broligarchs have a vision for the new Trump term. It’s darker than you think.
The real reason Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos are supporting Trump.
Sigal Samuel
ICYMI: I also explained the real reason the broligarchs are supporting Trump here and "why Meta went MAGA" here.
And if you think I don't write enough about Elon Musk, this week Judd Legum's Popular Information newsletter launched a whole new publication: Musk Watch.
Finally this week, some ideas about what to do when you need a break from it all...
Coping with "Trump Depression"
"Trump Depression is Real" writes SHERO's Amee Vanderpool.
This time around feels different. We aren’t all laughing incredulously at the mockery Trump is making of our political system this time, because we are all very tired and we have seen it all before....
There are so many reasons to feel depressed or unmotivated, and the barrage of nihilist action we have seen from the Trump administration this past week could dampen anyone’s spirits...
On Bluesky yesterday, I sent out a post asking people how they dealt with depression, and I got a lot of interesting answers from people who, I am assuming, are struggling with this kind of feeling a lot.
Some of the feedback she received is incorporated in her January 23 article which you can read here:
Trump Depression is Real
I have been rationing my sense of all-encompassing doom to get me past the election and through the holidays.
Amee Vanderpool
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P.S. This really is the time to get off X once and for all. Please find me on Bluesky and these other places.
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