Most of the focus is on Medicaid cuts and other social programs, but they are also gutting critical research science, education, and climate/meteorological modeling and assessment:
So much for being the global leader in science or making even mouth-noises about abating or adapting to the impacts of climate heating.
It’s not even going to be a net benefit for Alaska. This is purely about her getting short term gains to benefit her 2028 reelection campaign and not getting slammed by the AK Republican Party for not supporting Trump. She’s putting her own career over duty to country and even the long term benefit of her constituents.
This has been happening for the last eight years and yet the corporate media is still reluctant to let the ‘F-word’ pass their lips for fear of sounding hyperbolic even when Trump openly declares that he’s going to be a dictator and muses about a third term with GOP operatives musing about Constitutional loopholes which could legally justifying it. Historians and scholars of autocracy and fascism are leaving the country because of the clear historical parallels they are witnesses. This is happening in real time, and virtually nobody in a position of authority is doing anything to effectively halt it, certainly not the oligarch class who are jockeying with each other to supplicate Trump and fête with ‘gifts’ in the form of contributing to his inaugural festivities and buying millions of dollars of ‘TRUMP Coin’ and other dubious crypto ‘investments’ in what is the most naked display of corruption in the history of the country.
This assumes that Republicans are concerned about playing on a fair field for future elections instead of ramping up voter suppression, gerrymandering the fuck out of districts in states they control, and just denying the validity of any election where they lose.
But there are plenty who aren’t resisting all that much, and from the top down. Adam Schiff can make his cute ‘walk & talk’ videos critiquing the Trump administration but he’s still accepting big bags of money by the same cryptobros who are also boosting Trump in hope of getting government backing for their fake money scams. Chuck Schumer is still waiting for Trump’s approval rating to drop below some magical threshold. John Fetterman is a MAGA Republican in all but name. For the few senators and representatives who are actively and energetically speaking out (and sometimes getting removed, detained, and handcuffed) for asking questions, most are just keeping their heads down and hoping to keep networking for post-government consluting opportunities and use ‘insider information’ to make canny investments. Yes, I do mean Nancy Pelosi, Ro Khanna, and John Hickenlooper, among others.
Stranger