Special Edition: Responding to the Joint Address Lie Machine:
What You All Heard Tuesday Was A Lot of Grievances and Complaints And Very Little Substance and Vision For the Country. Okie Dokie.
Feel free to check the past Biden Era archives and follow the editions to come in the Trump Era on Substack, Medium, and LinkedIn (First Come, First Serve!).
This is time for Democrats to screw decorum and screw the niceties of procedure.
The United States is in a 5-alarm fire for the soul of its nation and its democracy. It’s high time—as some Democrats are already starting to do—to take the moment seriously and grind the government to a halt to prevent the attempted transformation of America into a corporate, kleptocratic, plutocratic, autocratic oligarchy. America wanted a change in fairness and affordability, not government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.
America is in need of so many things, but it’s not in need of the further consolidation of wealth and the monopolization of industry.
So here is our multiple choice quiz for the anti-Trump coalition as a whole: What should those interested in saving out country and democracy do?
A. Protest and attend rallies
B. Call US Senators and Representatives in your state and outside your state
C. Donate time/money to local or national Democratic organizations
D. Talk to your neighbors and friends
E. Volunteer for phone banking
F. Call into traditional conservative talk radio shows
G. Maybe even run for office yourself
H. All of the above
You guessed it. H is the correct answer.
Need proof that this can and is in fact having an effect and working? Just look at how Congressional Republicans, who were in love with Musk for the first month, are acting. Now, they are demanding access and answers.
Republican congressional town halls have been canceled due to the pressure and volume of attendees.
Trump’s approval rating is sliding downward across the board, and multiple polls all show him underwater by 5-8 points.
The mass firings have been partially stayed thanks to the lawsuits of individual agency heads and to court orders reversing these dangerous actions.
Now let’s recap more underappreciated stories of the week in another lightning round:
Lina Khan-style trustbusting has officially come to an end in the Trump Administration
Private equity is looting the affordable housing fund—story courtesy of Lever Reports
Israel’s war in Gaza has destroyed local farmland and killed livestock via Dropsite News
Elon Musk’s DOGE firings are impacting 11 federal agencies conducting 32 ongoing investigations into his private companies
Can’t Trump get his act together? Either do tariffs or don’t do tariffs.
USAID shuttering will cost millions in income for Midwestern farmers
Here is why cryptocurrency spent $134 million in campaign contributions in 2024 via Robert Reich
And George Floyd killer Derek Chauvin might be pardoned by Donald Trump
Now onto the Joint Address itself:
It was not a joint address to the country, or even to the entire Congress. It was a presidential address—or rather, a campaign rally—solely for Trump. Not even for Trump voters; Trump himself.
Trump wasn’t addressing the country’s needs when he was talking about the weaponization of justice, or the attacks on transgender people, or “woke” and “DEI.”
Let’s not take the bait. Instead, let’s do a little contrast between Trump’s own campaign promises vs. what he is actually doing and prioritizing.
Trump claimed in 2024 that he had no idea of Project 2025 at all. He told voters routinely he had no affiliation to it, even though their plans for mass deportations, detention camp construction, legal immigration curbs, and private mercenaries had very “strange” similarities to his own.
That is obviously false now as many executive orders and imperial-like decrees commonly use language and entire sections that echo the goals of that Heritage Foundation blueprint.
(By the way, Heritage also has another ideological manifesto in Project Esther that you may hear more about in the days and weeks to come).
Trump campaigned on the #1 issue of voters: reigning in inflation and economic pain. It was the issue that he himself credits for his presidential victory in 2024 (though certainly not a mandate in the Electoral College or the popular vote).
I am not sure if inflation was mentioned more than 3 times in this past address. No concrete plan was outlined to lower prices at all. Nothing about corporate price-gouging, or supply chain bottlenecks, or the spread of inflationary-causing diseases like bird flu. Nothing about the inflationary tax cuts and corporate welfare for the wealthy that will be paid off of spending cuts to social services, the safety net, and widely popular government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
But hey, those tariffs will be great for doing exactly what Americans don’t want: jack up prices for working class consumers and offer reprieves to Corporate America and Wall Street because tariffs are regressive taxes that inflict pain on the poor. It is one thing to do strategic tariffs in coordination and in sync with other partners on trade adversaries. It’s another to do tariffs across the board alone, especially on allies like Canada and Mexico.
If we are going to treat allies like this, why would anyone want to be allies with us in the first place? Use your supposed common sense, Donald.
Economic pain will also worsen with the help of the Department of Government Efficiency. They, as you all know, are working around the clock to gut the civil service and cement the American Oligarchy. Trump has empowered Elon Musk and other DOGE allies to tear into everything from healthcare programs, climate action responses, educational agencies, manufacturing workforce training, agriculture supports, infrastructure & transportation funds, labor organizing rights, consumer financial fraud safety, special education, student loans, veterans services, and affordable housing, to foreign aid, national park services, museum building, historical landmarks, nuclear safety, CDC disease detection, free tax-filing systems, weather services staff, the US Postal Service, PEPFAR, FEMA assistance, immigration judges, anti-fentanyl equipment testers, power grid employment, IRS callers, 9/11 responders, air traffic control, cancer research, school meals, and small federal government contractors.
All the while, Musk and other oligarchs like him are able to influence the government with private contracts to companies like Tesla, X, Meta, Amazon, Blue Origin, Oracle, OpenAI, Apple, TikTok, SpaceX, and Starlink. That really is Russia-style oligarchy, my friends.
We know the story here. Trickle-down tax cuts, budget austerity, and government privatization is a story that does not end well and will not end well.
Interestingly, Trump talked about repealing the CHIPS Act and credited himself for the improvements in the economy that started under…Biden.
Trump also proclaims himself to be on the side of law enforcement. Yet, he pardoned 1,500+ convicted criminals for their role in the attempted January 6, 2021 coup, some of whom have been arrested again and/or have committed violent crimes with fatal consequences. “Back the Blue unless they stand against you.”
He indeed pardoned and commuted the sentences of drug traffickers and fentanyl drug dealers, and his allies, and possibly Trump himself, advocated on behalf of Andrew Tate, a prominent sex offender, human trafficker, and player in organized crime.
Finally, Trump promised peace to the world, and has failed on both counts. His sunbathing buddy Netanyahu talks about having Israel annexing the West Bank, all while Mr. “Art of the Deal” waxes poetically about reconverting Gaza into real estate by dislocating the millions of Palestinian civilians who call that area their homeland.
Likewise in Ukraine, Trump flopped on a peace deal even though he promised a conclusion to the war by Day One of his presidency, if not earlier.
Instead, he may provoke conflict by trying to take the Panama Canal, seize Canada, and control Greenland.
So far, Trump has failed to even try to accomplish his campaign objectives, and I doubt he intends to do so in the next 4 years. Either way, we will keep track of those campaign promises here.
Trump talks a good talk as a brander, but at the end of the day, his actual actions are worth less than one of his Trump Steaks. He is a master distractor. And that portends real trouble for the next 4 years. Watch.