News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead...
If U.S. journalists were covering another country...
"I’ve long believed that the American media would be more clear-eyed about the rise and return of Donald Trump if it was happening overseas in a foreign country, where we’re used to foreign correspondents writing with more incisive authority. Having watched with growing alarm the developments of the last 24 and 36 hours in Washington, I thought I’d take a stab at just such a dispatch."
That's how the author starts off this remarkable newsletter post, and the first imagined paragraphs of the dispatch go this way:
What started Thursday as a political purge of the internal security services accelerated Friday into a full-blown coup, as elite technical units aligned with media oligarch Elon Musk moved to seize key systems at the national treasury, block outside access to federal personnel records, and take offline governmental communication networks.
With rapidity that has stunned even longtime political observers, forces loyal to Musk’s junta have established him as the all-but undisputed unelected head of government in just a matter of days, unwinding the longtime democracy’s constitutional system and its proud nearly 250-year-old tradition of the rule of law. Having secured themselves in key ministries and in a building adjacent to the presidential office complex, Musk’s forces have begun issuing directives to civil service workers and forcing the resignation of officials deemed insufficiently loyal, like the head of the country’s aviation authority.
What should scare the hell out of you is that none of this is hyperbole. It's what is actually happening in Washington right now. And the situation grows more dire by the hour as Trump, Musk, and their extremist apparatchiks move faster and faster to wreak havoc in our democracy, our economy, and our society.
What's the "mainstream" press doing about all this? Damned little, to no one's surprise.
The New York Times has only started to notice what's happening. It's doing so in the standard Times way of normalizing the extremism ever-so politely. The Washington Post, which was ahead of the Times on a key happening – Musk's takeover of the agency that literally pays the nation's bills – was only slightly more alarmed.
The Democratic office-holders, meanwhile, are demonstrating pure weakness. Writing stern letters isn't going to help, at all. See below for some wise ideas on what they could do if they had even a hint of a clue, which I desperately hope they'll have soon.
I don’t expect a federal judge to start smacking Elon Musk around and I don’t expect a sad sack Musk to glumly apologize to the judge and go along his way back to Texas. But in a situation like this, when laws are being broken at such high velocity you’re looking more than anything else to get into court with a live argument. And this is a very live argument. As I noted above, this is fundamentally a battle over public opinion. But critical to a battle over public opinion in an onslaught such as this is slowing things down as much as possible, throwing as much sand in the gears as possible. That stretches out the amount of time people have to get an understanding of what’s happening. It increases their visibility into what’s happening. It also focuses attention, rightly, on Elon Musk who is much more unpopular than Donald Trump. Getting into court — getting into court on a lot of fronts — is one of the ways you do that.
Churchill had a clear message: 1) We’re never going to give up. Literally, never. 2) We’re going to battle back with these tools. And 3) Finally, we’re going to win. In other words, a path back — even over the obstacles of uncertainty, odds and maybe even logic. We’re going to get from here to there. And we’re really not hearing that yet from Democratic leaders in Washington. And the truth is, the odds are wildly better for them than they were for the British in the Fall of 1940. And making that case is required above and beyond making whatever the right moves are on the ground. Not doing it is sowing demoralization and sending a lot of people the message that Democratic leadership in Washington doesn’t recognize the gravity of the situation.
Talking Points memo has been must-read political journalism since its founding more than two decades ago. Its editor posts some of smartest analysis you'll find anywhere – and, as the twoposts above show, some of the wisest advice to people who still care enough about the American experiment to want to help save it.
Please read both pieces, and please understand that we are close to a precipice. It isn't just our duty to care. It's our duty to act.
There's also the reality that the people who do resist, at least as long as America is government by a radical right-wing regime, have no career-advancement prospects.
The FBI has done all kinds of rogue stuff during my adult life. It's hardly been a consistent a poster child for honor and integrity, as political targets like Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Panthers, and protesters against the Vietnam War, could have testified.
But what Trump and his apparatchiks are doing, if they get away with it, will turn an agency that has many honest employees into one of a thug regime's enforcement arms. Imagine an FBI that is filled with the worst people, and a mandate to abuse its considerable power. That's Trump's goal, and to the extent that internal resistance works, that's better than the alternative.
Trump has launched what is going to be a ruinous trade war with major trading partners including – to the absolute bafflement of anyone who's been paying attention – Canada. That nation has immediately responded with sanctions of its own.
I recommend that you listen to this speech by a visibly furious Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau. as he discussed the debacle with his nation's people – and to Americans who might hear it.
Canada's moves will hurt some American companies, and the people who work for them. But from my perspective, Canada has picked the wrong way to retaliate.
A smarter way: Take a look at Cory Doctorow's essay from several weeks ago. He advocates punching American business where it would really hurt – taking a whack at the Big Tech monopolies and the routine theft they help other companies do to customers via grossly abused "intellectual property" laws. Here's some of what Cory recommends:
What's standing in the way of a Canadian industrial policy that focuses on raiding the sky-high margins of American monopolists with third-party add-ons, mods and jailbreaks?
Only the IP laws that Canada has agreed to in order to get tariff-free access to American markets. You know, the access that Trump has promised to end...
Canada should tear up these laws – and not impose tariffs on American goods. That way, Canadians can still buy cheap American goods, and then they can save billions of dollars every year on the consumables, parts, software, and service for those goods.
This is hurting American big business where it hurts – in the ongoing rents it extracts from Canadians through IP laws like Bill C-11 (the law that bans jailbreaking). Canada could become a global high-tech export powerhouse, selling "complementary" goods that disenshittify all the worst practices of US tech monopolists, from car parts to insulin pumps.
Unfortunately, Trudeau chose the old-fashioned kind of retaliation. I fear he's setting Canada up for worse trouble than the U.S. faces, and that his nation will find itself forced to give in to Trump's pure-power moves.
How I put this together
This newsletter is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money. For more details, please read my About page.
Please send your suggestions
I spend a lot of time looking for essential coverage, and hope you'll help me by letting me know about the good stuff you find. Let me know.
Subscribe
Was this forwarded to you? If you would like to have your own free subscription, please click here.
Josh Marshall
Josh Marshall
Ken Dilanian
