What A Day

Every day in T2.0 is a firehose of crazy. Yesterday they turned it on full blast.

Feb 28, 2025

We all knew going in that a second Trump admin would be an unmitigated shit show. That it has been is no surprise, other than just how much more insane it has been than T1.0. I think that most observers would agree that what the admin has done, or tried to do, in their first month is probably firmly on the “worst case scenario” side of the dark expectations that we all had going into this mess.

While I have already written a couple of essays about the volume of crazy that we are enduring, the events that have taken place over the 24-hour period starting late Wednesday night may be unprecedented in the sheer amount of shit that happened, and I am pretty sure that I haven’t even covered all of it below.

SCOTUS Bails Out the Government - For Now

Earlier this week federal judge Amir Ali ordered the government to immediately resume $2 billion in frozen federal foreign aid payments, giving a deadline of 11:59pm on Wednesday. This is not the first time that this judge has ordered these payments resumed, but the government has so far failed to act. Many were watching this to see if the government would blatantly ignore a direct court order, concerned with exactly what that would mean for the rule of law in the United State.

Turns out we will have to wait for that answer, at least for a bit, as the Supreme Court stepped in and ordered an Administrative Stay, pausing the order for the time being. I do wonder if Chief Justice John Roberts realizes the gravity of the situation and is trying to postpone the inevitable.

Welcome Home Andrew

I wrote a quick note yesterday about how the US Government pressured Romania into allowing Trump supporting and (alleged) human trafficking, sexually abusive kidnappers Andrew and Tristan Tate to leave the country that has had them in custody since late 2022. There have been a few developments here…

First, when asked if he instructed the government to intervene, Trump claimed that he knew nothing about the Tate’s being allowed to travel. Either he is straight lying or has people in his administration acting on his behalf in ways that are pissing off even the most fervent MAGA. (My money is on the former, because his mouth moved.)

Seriously, Florida Governor DeSantis responded thusly:

"We have no involvement in that," DeSantis said. "I read about it through the media."
"Florida is not a place where you're welcome with that type of conduct," the governor said.

MAGA Senator Josh Hawley wasn’t a fan either1:

As is becoming an interesting trend in T2.0, we are seeing divides between members of the cult. I can only hope the divisions can be deepened and eventually exploited.

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Weather Forecasts Aren’t Important, Right?

I know, I know, it’s a cliche at this point to razz meteorologists and their lack of accuracy. Thing is, there’s a lot that NOAA and NWS do that keeps people safe, on land, sea, and air. It’s pretty fucking important. So of course around 1,300 folks were fired from both organizations yesterday. This represents about 10% of the staff at the agency.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said on social media that the job cuts “are spectacularly short-sighted, and ultimately will deal a major self-inflicted wound to the public safety of Americans and the resiliency of the American economy to weather and climate-related disasters.”

SEC - It Just Means More

Before the $Trump ~~grift~~ coin miraculously appeared 72 hours before the inauguration, there was World Liberty Foundation (WLF), a crypto venture backed by the Trump family2. Back in 2023, a Chinese cryptocurrency Bro named Justin Sun got in a bit of trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission over some crypto shenanigans. What can a guy like this do to maybe help himself out? Well, glad you asked.

Sun bought about $30 million in crypto from WLF after Trump was elected, and, in a stunning turn of events that literally no one could have predicted the (allegedly independent) SEC dropped the charges.

Started/Going meme3:

To think: when folks said that Trump would literally sell the US Government if he won, they were accused of being alarmist.

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Thank You for Your Service (Not Really, Get Out)

Whatever your opinions of trans folks and their daily struggles, or how much they have been scapegoated by the right4, they are still people. If you don’t agree with me on this, you should probably unsubscribe. Some of these people serve in the United States military and have for quite some time. When T1.0 issued a ban on transgender people serving in the armed forces, it stopped new enlistees but any existing service member was allowed to stay.

T2.0 has had enough of that. Trump issued an Executive Order banning all trans persons from the military, including any who are actively serving. Unsurprisingly, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of a group of trans soldiers, and that lawsuit is still in process. One of the early results was the judge excoriating DoJ lawyers for the “unadulterated animus” present in the wording of the EO.

On Wednesday DoJ officials entered new language into the court record:

“Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service”
“The Department only recognizes two sexes: male and female,” the policy memo says. “An individual’s sex is immutable, unchanging during a person’s life. All service members will only serve in accordance with their sex.”

It is estimated that approximately 14,000 active-duty military are trans. Under the new guidelines these members would likely be kicked out of the military, regardless of how long or how well they have served. The assholes under Pete Hegseth like to say dumb shit like claiming that trans soldiers “reduce unit cohesion and fighting strength”. I would argue that forcibly removing people who volunteered to be in the armed forces and have performed admirably5 would have a far more deleterious effect on unit cohesion.

I guess you have to do war crimes or murders for Trump or Hegseth to stick up for you.

The Epstein Files or Look Over Here at This Shiny Thing

For whatever reason, the contents of the Super Mysterious and Obviously Salacious “Epstein Files” has been MAGA red meat ever since the dude was found choked out in his cell. Ignoring the fact that Epstein and Trump were friends for a lonnnng time, the Crazed Cult has built these files up into a legend, convinced that their release would result in each and every living Democrat being rounded up and put in camps. That made the somewhat surprising announcement6 that the files would be released “imminently” intriguing, to say the least. It got MAGA all hot and bothered, and X was probably blowing up with eager anticipation of perp walks and “pedo parades”.

Well, they released the files. Sort of. And by “released” I mean they had a photo op with (empty?) binders being held by such notable news icons as DC Draino and LibsOfTikTok. You read that right, rather than an actual release of info, T2.0 gathered some of the nuttiest of the MAGA nuts, erm, “influencers”, and gave them exclusive access. And by “files” I mean several items that were already public knowledge, along with Epstein’s phone book. Basically, not much new.

This… did not go over well.

GOPMAGA Representative Anna Paulina Luna (FL) was not impressed:

“Actor” Kevin Sorbo was apparently left a bit unsatisfied:

As far as distractions go, this one fell flat. Not much there there, ya know?

Fast Eddie and the Bondi DoJ Strike Again

T2.0 may have saved the “best” for last yesterday, or at least the Washington Post7 did. Late Thursday the Post dropped an exclusive that lays out how the T2.0 Department of Justice appears to have invented a criminal investigation out of thin air in order to attempt to impound federal funds that were already sent out. Further, Citibank appears to have locked those accounts without any court order to do so.

The link above is paywalled, but this thread on BlueSky gives you the gist of what’s going on.

Wow.

So That Was a Lot

I saw this post from Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who is no liberal snowflake, mind you, and thought that it was a decent summation:

You know it’s a batshit crazy day where at various points I am forced to agree with Dave Portnoy, Josh Hawley, Ron DeSantis, Ben Shapiro and Laura Fucking Loomer yet here we are. I never intended for this place to be a daily rehash of the news, because there are a lot of folks out there much better than I am at that, but today was… special.

Take Care and Stay Strong

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