Week 32
By
and Zooey is wondering why he has to put up with this.
Last night, social media lit up with speculation about whether Donald Trump had died. He hadn’t been seen in public, and there were a variety of auguries that could be made to point to his death. Much giddiness, although the people I follow on Bluesky seemed aware that it was all speculation. The conversation there was also very indirect. There’s been a lot of indirect references for the past week or so. Discussion on X seems to have been more direct. A trending topic was “Is Trump dead?” This morning a photo emerged of Trump emerging to play golf, so we’re back to the sameold sameold.
A midweek pick-me-up of three televised hours of Cabinet members doing their imitation of North Korean governmental figures was one of the auguries. It was generally agreed that special envoy Steve Witkoff outdid the group with his insistence that the “Noble” prize committee recognize Trump.
More uproar and pushback this week.
Governor J.B. Pritzker told Trump not to send the National Guard to Chicago, and other Illinois politicians and others – I think I saw the Chicago chief of police – have echoed the message. Pritzker says that nobody from the administration has talked to him or anyone in Illinois about it. The administration counters with leaks of alleged plans.
Trump tried to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, on a pretext cooked up by real estate heir and Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte, who is using his access to records to find what he calls mortgage fraud in the records for people Trump doesn’t like. Maybe Pulte Homes is susceptible to the same sort of pressures that have hurt Tesla.
Cook is fighting the firing in court. A hearing was held Friday.
Also fired was the head of the CDC, Susan Monarez. Three other CDC executives quit in sympathy, and the staff turned out to honor them publicly. The cause is said to have been a disagreement with RFK Jr. on vaccine policcy, but I haven’t seen a full discussion of that situation, which seems to have spanned most of the week and perhaps more before that.
RFK Jr. has nominated his deputy, Jim O’Neill, whose expertise lies in puffing up Peter Thiel’s seasteading fantasy, to replace Monarez.
Folk associated with the CDC are demanding that RFK Jr. be fired. A number of members of Congress, including Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, are supporting that demand.
The National Guard presence in DC was upgraded by having some of them carry guns, but they are also picking up litter and spreading mulch in place of the fired National Park Service employees.
ICE took two people away from fighting a forest fire in Washington State and raided a high school football game.
On the other hand, the Florida concentration camp was shut down, and it seems like the court order is being obeyed.
Europe continues to negotiate with Iran, because Trump’s bombings didn’t end that situation. Europe wants an agreement with Iran in 30 days or they will invoke the “snapback” provision of the JCPOA to put sanctions back in place.
James Fallows has a particularly good summary of the bad and good this week.
Follow the court-watchers for the details of the lawsuits. Chris Geidner (LawDork, Bluesky), Roger Parloff (Lawfare, Bluesky), and the Just Security tracker.
As usual, keep it to things that have actually happened, not hypotheticals. What is actually happening is bad enough.
Caring for yourself and loved ones is resistance too. Post your pets. I am working on finding a piano teacher and have ordered three Kitty Holsters and leashes because Zooey is becoming more interested in going outside.
176 more weeks to go. What are you doing?
Previous weeks: Week 10, Week 20, Week 30, Week 31