My kids are raising small kids that will be going to school after Trump is out. I sent them a text. Politics are largely avoided in our group messages.
This Trump plan to cut the department of education is bad. It will cut funding for most states, a lot for the South. University research is cut severely for 4 years. Grad schools will suffer. You two may need to plan well for your kids by middle school. The states will have quite a lot variation. I was in 8-9 schools through high school. I was in three high schools my freshman year. I survived by being smart and actually liking many subjects.
I can’t get past this basic math issue:
If the Federal government’s funding (apparently, averaging about 8-10% of public school budgets) is now decreased or eliminated, then … unless states and cities are willing to do with less … or can magically decrease costs through aggressively ferreting out the Chimerical Waste, Fraud, and Abuse … how will they avoid increasing either income, sales, or property taxes in order to avoid the shortfall?
In some sense that is a legit aspect of the plan. Many on the more traditional right want a small federal government like it was in e.g. 1790. Anything that amounts to feds taxing the public (people or corporations) and passing the money back to the states would be better done by the states themselves.
Of course that’s mostly a fig leaf; their next step is to prevent the states from raising that money either.
Ultimately it’s about “I’m well-off enough to provide for me & my kids; sucks to be anyone poorer than me.”
Now the rationale of the current administration is mere nihilism and vandalism, with zero intellectual, constitutional, or logical underpinnings. But a lot of the cheering from the sidelines is coming from folks thinking like I described at the top of this post.
Actually it’s more that “the facts show we are wrong, therefore people must be kept ignorant”.
It can be both.
Updates and backtracks, aka “The Trump Two-Step.”
Pentagon restores webpages of Black veterans, Navajo Code Talkers and others after outcry
The longer I endure this presidency, the more accurate and prescient the song Bulls On Parade by Rage Against the Machine becomes:
That song was written in 1996.
They will avoid any of those evil socialist money grabs by cutting school budgets, firing teachers, reducing the number of subjects taught (art? music? who needs that crap? other than the band for football games), cramming more kids into each class, etc. As it is, any time there’s a need to pass a bond issue to pay for, say, a new school building, it’s always a ferocious battle between the we need this and hell no, no more taxes camps.
Trump signed an executive order threatening a law firm because one of its lawyers worked on the hush money trial. The law firm has now “acknowledged the wrongdoing” by that lawyer and is giving Trump $40 million dollars worth of pro bono legal work. Trump is rescinding the executive order. “Nice law firm you got there. Be a shame if something happened to it.” Straight up extortion.
Trump withdraws order targeting Paul Weiss, says law firm promised free legal work | Reuters
That is beyond repulsive. donnie’s wannabe gangster schtick is only slightly less disgraceful then the entities tripping over themselves to be the first to put the salve on the carbuncle that is his presidency, upon the ass that is the US.
Beautiful! This needs to be on a t-shirt!
The Revenge Tour…
Trump’s overflowing grudge list
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/21/trump-retaliation-revenge-biden-security-clearance
LONG article (free). Lists them all. Wow, he is pissed off at everyone and is out to punish!
Two months into his term, President Trump is growing more defiant, creative and ruthless in his pursuit of a central campaign promise: exacting revenge on his political enemies.
Why it matters: From Day One, Trump has delighted in settling scores through the stroke of his pen — breathing life into his MAGA mantra: “I am your retribution.”
The big picture: In the final days of the 2024 campaign, Axios identified a list of perceived adversaries who fit what Trump ominously described as “the enemies from within.”
- As president, he has taken steps to retaliate against virtually all of them.
- White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields told Axios: “As President Trump has made clear, his only retribution is success — and his historic achievements and soaring approval ratings prove it.”
…
Couldn’t resist adding this other Axios story. 
Trump suggests sending Tesla vandals to El Salvador prisons
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/21/trump-musk-tesla-protests-el-salvador-prisons
President Trump on Friday suggested sending anti-Tesla protesters to a notorious prison in El Salvador if convicted.
Why it matters: Trump has put the full weight of the U.S. government behind defending and promoting “first buddy” Elon Musk’s car company, which has seen both its sales and stock price slump.
…
What they’re saying: “I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla. Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Friday morning.
…
Pure graft and corruption-
The White House rescinded the order on Thursday after a meeting between Trump and Brad Karp, the chairman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison & Wharton.
In a post on Truth Social, the president said the firm had agreed to a series of concessions, including the promise to provide “the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services over the course of President Trump’s term to support the Administration’s initiatives”.
It added that Paul Weiss would commit to “merit-based” hiring and promotion, and “will not adopt, use, or pursue any DEI policies”.
Trump’s order last week had cancelled contracts with the firms citing Trump’s orders to wipe out any initiatives aimed at Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) within the federal government.
Interesting from your llink
It seems likely to me that either the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison approach (bribe the President) will work, or the Perkins Coie strategy (act like the rule of law still applies) will work One company is betting that the U.S. is still basically a democracy, or will again be one soon, and the other is betting that the the U.S. will remain a personal loyalty regime for years to some. And I have no idea who is more likely to win their bet.
Law firms and lawyers will often cut their losses, entering a plea bargain or settling out of court because it’s cheaper than mounting a defense. One would think $40-million would provide a pretty hefty defense.
What I found interesting is this from the Reuter’s article about the case that I posted above.
This case and the Perkins Coie case are not, of course, about DEI or national security. They are about getting Trump’s enemies to admit that they were wrong. That’s all Trump cares about. He got Karp to say that Pomerantz was wrong to investigate him and he wants Perkins Coie to say they were wrong to work with the traitor Crooked Hillary. We are going to see a lot more of these kinds of things as Trump tries to rewrite history to show that he was an unfairly persecuted patriot who is definitely not a loser. I believe he is planning to investigate the 2020 election and it will be interesting to see what kinds of pressure he puts on people to get the result he wants from that.
Trump just revoked security clearances for many major people: Trump Revokes Security Clearances For Biden, Former VP Harris, And Hillary Clinton In Sweeping Memo
- President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
- Vice President Kamala Harris
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken
- National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
- Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco
- New York Attorney General Letitia James
- Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
- Former Rep. Liz Cheney
- Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger
- Fiona Hill (former National Security Council official)
- Alexander Vindman (retired Army Lt. Colonel)
- Attorney Mark Zaid
- Attorney Norman Eisen
- Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann
- As well as any member of the Biden family holding access to classified information.
This is not good, folks.
If you believed it would be heard in a real court, then yes.
If what you’re actually defending against is continuous baseless raids by the IRS, and a continuous barage of press attacks against any and all of your clients, and summary arrest for your senior partners, well, paying $40M in protection might be a bargain.
Until they come back next month and want another $40M.
We do not live in the same country we used to. We will probably not live long enough to see a return to something 2020 us would recognize.
Absolutely true.
I’m still not quite that pessimistic, but the spineless MAGA Congress doesn’t give me much hope.
We live in troubled times, I’m afraid not entirely unlike 1930s Germany. I could never have believed it would happen, but here we are.
Of course the Nazis at the time thought it was the greatest thing ever. And here we are. Again.
Fortunately for the rest of us, they can’t make us buy Teslas. I really think the damage to the brand is irreparable.