Hello to the Steady community. First, I want to thank you for your passionate engagement. Comments on our last post, “One Man,” were prolific — some of the most ever for a Steady post. Naturally, I encourage more. While most comments were positive, a few of you asked why we chose to give so much copy to former President Trump’s failures rather than highlight President Biden’s accomplishments.
In response, please allow me to say that we never take the position that we are right all of the time. We make mistakes. Journalism is a humbling craft. With that always in mind, we do the best we can.
But please know that any presidential candidate facing 91 felony indictments is going to get a lot of my attention. To ignore his behavior is to normalize it.
That being said, it’s no secret that President Biden has struggled to gain traction for his political and legislative accomplishments. To understand why, let’s start at the very beginning.
The transition from one presidential administration to another is often judged by what kind of country the outgoing president leaves for his successor. When President Obama left office in January 2017, he handed incoming President Trump the reins of a country with a thriving economy. Four years later, President Biden took over a country whose economy was in questionable if not outright dangerous condition. By any reasonable analysis, America overall was in the worst shape it had been in for generations: economically, physically and psychologically. Yes, we were coming out of a pandemic, but one that Trump exacerbated by gross mismanagement, making President Biden’s job even harder.
From day one, Biden was behind. But unlike Trump, he had a plan, an agenda that was more than simply undoing his predecessor’s policies. Biden is an old-school Democratic politician who believes it is the government’s job to help Americans. He isn’t flashy, and neither are his policy initiatives. But many have gotten the job done. For example, you probably don’t know about the thousands of infrastructure projects launched in the last three years that are currently rebuilding America. Clean water and road repair often don’t get the attention they deserve.
In January 2021, unemployment was at 6.4% — almost double what it is today. The employment rate was a paltry 57.4%, lower than during the recession of 2008. Consumption of goods and services was way down across the board. Yes, gas prices were low, but any Econ 101 student knows that is because demand was down during the pandemic. Few of us could go anywhere. Trump, of course, took credit for this slight positive and blamed Biden for the rise in gasoline prices when people started driving and flying again. Many economists say the subsequent surge in gas prices was made worse by a Trump-brokered deal to cut production during the pandemic. Then demand returned, and production couldn’t get going fast enough.
By any measure, Biden’s first two years in office were some of the most productive in half a century. He guided the country out of a debilitating pandemic by funding testing, treatment, and a coordinated vaccination plan. He got the last U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. (That should and could have been done less chaotically. But at least it got done.) He passed massive spending bills that have transformed the social safety net: bringing down inflation, fixing the country’s crumbling infrastructure, getting back on track to curtail climate change, and forgiving student loan debt. He reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act and even got (very) modest gun reform through Congress.
Admittedly, the second half of his term has not been as productive. That is in large part because he has been stymied by a fractured, Republican-led (I use that term loosely) House of Representatives. But the work he was able to do during the first two years has paid off. The recession so many were predicting hasn’t come to pass. Instead, the economy is booming, driven by high consumer spending. According to The Washington Post, “Government policy played an important role in supporting the economy last year. The Biden administration’s efforts to fund new infrastructure and clean energy projects have created new jobs and spurred $640 billion in private investments around the country.” The child poverty rate is down. Inflation is in check.
We return to the question: Why isn’t Biden getting more credit, or any at all? Why do polls show that many Americans don’t know about his successes, and when told, are angry they didn’t know?
One reason is that grocery prices and the cost of home buying, about which people are reminded daily, remain high. Another is that immigration remains a high-profile, dangerous mess, and Biden has been ineffective in dealing with it.
But it is also true that we live in a clickbait, “gotcha” world where screaming and riling people up has become the norm, the expectation. Trump is cash money for media companies. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. And good old-fashioned governing isn’t as interesting to audiences. It doesn’t break through the noise — and there is a lot of noise. All of which helps Trump and hurts Biden.
None of this necessarily means Biden’s reelection chances are doomed. There is still a long way to go, and much is unpredictable. What we’ve tried to do with this post is perhaps add a little perspective about the campaign to this point.
Here at Steady, we hope we can help keep the conversation going about what is real and what is bluster.
Please feel free to join in the conversation below.
The Steady newsletter is supported by the Steady community. Please consider subscribing if you aren’t already a member.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
It’s difficult to tell who was more surprised by President Biden’s State of the Union performance Thursday night: Democrats in the chamber, whose emotions ranged from relieved to almost giddy. Or Republicans, who have been selling the president as doddering, decrepit, and unfit, watching that narrative evaporate. In what was perhaps the most important speech of his political career, Biden showed he was not just alive and well, but up to the challenge of a second term.
Sure, the health of either candidate could change, but for at least this political moment, President Biden came across as hale, fit, and ready.
For those watching at home, it was a chance to counter an image perpetrated by Republicans and many in the media that the president is not mentally or physically qualified for a second term. For those who hadn’t seen Biden speak in a while, or only on social media clips designed to make him look old, it was a first-rate oration, in both tone and substance.
For the 60-plus minute speech, Biden was focused, sharp, energetic, and at times funny. He was even willing to engage Republicans who heckled him — a moment he handled deftly, despite being nudged off script. House Speaker Mike Johnson had privately asked for decorum from his colleagues. He didn’t get it. Instead, several Republicans verbally taunted the president, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who showed up in Trump campaign garb.
At the beginning of the speech, when the television audience was at its largest, Biden took dead aim at his opponent without ever mentioning his name. He hammered home what a second Trump administration would mean to democracy.
“My purpose tonight is to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either. Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today.”
Biden also called out his opponent for cozying up to the Russians.
“Wasn’t long ago when a Republican president named Ronald Reagan thundered, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’ Now … now my predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin, quote, ‘Do whatever the hell you want.’ That’s a quote. A former president actually said that, bowing down to a Russian leader. I think it’s outrageous, it’s dangerous, and it’s unacceptable.”
You know what else many people found to be outrageous? The reaction of Republicans who sat on their hands when Biden spoke those words. Or maybe you think it’s not that surprising.
There is no doubt this was a campaign speech wrapped up as a State of the Union address. Biden was criticized by the right for politicizing it. But as we have written before, we are living in a time when nearly everything seems political.
Biden is a natural, highly experienced campaigner, and he seemed to revel in the moment. And the public responded. The president’s campaign reported the speech accounted for the largest fundraising haul since Biden declared he was running for reelection.
“I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while. And when you get to my age, certain things become clearer than ever before. My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined America: Honesty. Decency. Dignity. Equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor."
A post-speech flash poll by CNN found a sizable shift in the electorate. After the address, 62 percent of people polled said Biden’s policies will move the country in the right direction. Prior to the speech, that number was just 45 percent.
A caveat, please: I have watched at least the last 60 State of the Union addresses. Their impact on the public consciousness is often short-lived. How this will apply to the oldest presidential candidate in history defying expectations, we shall see.
On Friday, Biden was back on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania with more positive economic news to emphasize. The U.S. added 275,000 jobs in February. The Biden campaign, which has a lot more cash on hand than Trump, announced a big ad buy, $30 million, in swing states.
Speaking of money, today, Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of the former president, was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee. The former president, who currently owes almost half a billion dollars in legal judgments and more in ensuing legal fees, has been using donor money from the RNC to pay his battalion of lawyers. On Friday, Trump posted a $91.6 million bond to appeal the judgment in the case of E. Jean Carroll, the woman he was found to have sexually abused and then defamed.
With that in mind, one line from last night’s speech seemed to be meant for an audience of one. “You can’t love your country only when you win.”
Democrats would love for this president to earn the title “Fighting Joe Biden.” To fully earn that he must come from behind and win in November.
To support my team’s efforts to protect our democracy through the power of independent journalism, please consider joining as a paid subscriber. It keeps Steady sustainable and available to all.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,821
It’s difficult to tell who was more surprised by President Biden’s State of the Union performance Thursday night: Democrats in the chamber, whose emotions ranged from relieved to almost giddy. Or Republicans, who have been selling the president as doddering, decrepit, and unfit, watching that narrative evaporate. In what was perhaps the most important speech of his political career, Biden showed he was not just alive and well, but up to the challenge of a second term.
Sure, the health of either candidate could change, but for at least this political moment, President Biden came across as hale, fit, and ready.
For those watching at home, it was a chance to counter an image perpetrated by Republicans and many in the media that the president is not mentally or physically qualified for a second term. For those who hadn’t seen Biden speak in a while, or only on social media clips designed to make him look old, it was a first-rate oration, in both tone and substance.
For the 60-plus minute speech, Biden was focused, sharp, energetic, and at times funny. He was even willing to engage Republicans who heckled him — a moment he handled deftly, despite being nudged off script. House Speaker Mike Johnson had privately asked for decorum from his colleagues. He didn’t get it. Instead, several Republicans verbally taunted the president, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who showed up in Trump campaign garb.
At the beginning of the speech, when the television audience was at its largest, Biden took dead aim at his opponent without ever mentioning his name. He hammered home what a second Trump administration would mean to democracy.
“My purpose tonight is to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either. Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today.”
Biden also called out his opponent for cozying up to the Russians.
“Wasn’t long ago when a Republican president named Ronald Reagan thundered, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’ Now … now my predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin, quote, ‘Do whatever the hell you want.’ That’s a quote. A former president actually said that, bowing down to a Russian leader. I think it’s outrageous, it’s dangerous, and it’s unacceptable.”
You know what else many people found to be outrageous? The reaction of Republicans who sat on their hands when Biden spoke those words. Or maybe you think it’s not that surprising.
There is no doubt this was a campaign speech wrapped up as a State of the Union address. Biden was criticized by the right for politicizing it. But as we have written before, we are living in a time when nearly everything seems political.
Biden is a natural, highly experienced campaigner, and he seemed to revel in the moment. And the public responded. The president’s campaign reported the speech accounted for the largest fundraising haul since Biden declared he was running for reelection.
“I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while. And when you get to my age, certain things become clearer than ever before. My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined America: Honesty. Decency. Dignity. Equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor."
A post-speech flash poll by CNN found a sizable shift in the electorate. After the address, 62 percent of people polled said Biden’s policies will move the country in the right direction. Prior to the speech, that number was just 45 percent.
A caveat, please: I have watched at least the last 60 State of the Union addresses. Their impact on the public consciousness is often short-lived. How this will apply to the oldest presidential candidate in history defying expectations, we shall see.
On Friday, Biden was back on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania with more positive economic news to emphasize. The U.S. added 275,000 jobs in February. The Biden campaign, which has a lot more cash on hand than Trump, announced a big ad buy, $30 million, in swing states.
Speaking of money, today, Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of the former president, was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee. The former president, who currently owes almost half a billion dollars in legal judgments and more in ensuing legal fees, has been using donor money from the RNC to pay his battalion of lawyers. On Friday, Trump posted a $91.6 million bond to appeal the judgment in the case of E. Jean Carroll, the woman he was found to have sexually abused and then defamed.
With that in mind, one line from last night’s speech seemed to be meant for an audience of one. “You can’t love your country only when you win.”
Democrats would love for this president to earn the title “Fighting Joe Biden.” To fully earn that he must come from behind and win in November.
To support my team’s efforts to protect our democracy through the power of independent journalism, please consider joining as a paid subscriber. It keeps Steady sustainable and available to all.
Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire, cannot secure a bond to cover a $454 million judgment against him. This could mean the seizure of any number of his properties as soon as next week.
One can imagine how humiliating this is for the Republican frontrunner, a man who wears his net worth on his sleeve and whose self-worth is intrinsically tied to money.
Trump is appealing the February 16 judgment against him for lying about and inflating the value of his properties to lenders and insurance companies. He must either give the full amount to the court to be held in escrow or get a bond. In a filing with the New York appellate court today, his attorneys admitted Trump faces “insurmountable difficulties” in obtaining the bond. A whopping 30 surety companies have rejected his requests. The lawyers described his chances of success as “a practical impossibility.”
The appellate court has been asked to pause the judgment or significantly reduce it to $100 million. If it fails to rule by March 25, New York State Attorney General Letitia James can start seizing Trump’s properties immediately.
You may wonder why Trump does not just use his vast real estate holdings, like Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago, as collateral. Bond companies prefer more liquid assets, like securities, of which he does not have enough — especially for a bond of this size. And it’s not only $454 million. If he could get the bond, it would be 120% of the $454 million plus 2% interest for two years upfront, so closer to $600 million.
This is on top of the $91.6 million bond he was able to secure to cover the judgment in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, which he is also appealing.
For the first time in more than six months, presidential tracking polls show President Biden and Trump in a dead heat. Trump had been leading since September.
Credit: The Economist, March 18, 2024
So why the sudden Biden surge? The easiest explanation may be that “crazy” is finally catching up to Trump.
Since he spends most of the workweek defending himself in courts around the country, Trump’s campaigning has been limited to weekend rallies. Saturday night found him in Ohio, where he spewed this doozy: “Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.” He seemed to have gone off script, as he had just been talking about Chinese competition in the car industry.
He also now calls the January 6 insurrectionists who are currently serving prison time “hostages.” And he said he would pardon all of them on day one of his second term. Imagine hundreds of convicted insurrectionists suddenly being freed. A group of Americans polled by CBS News didn’t think much of the idea. The electorate doesn’t embrace the former president's approval of political violence and those who perpetrate it.
Sixty-two percent of all voters oppose the pardons, according to a CBS News poll. A Data for Progress poll shows that 57% of independents are less likely to vote for a candidate who approves of the January 6 attacks. Even a majority of self-described MAGA Republicans — 57% — don’t support the conduct of the rioters, according to CBS News.
Now, once you have read and perhaps mentally digested all of the above, it’s time to evoke our mantra: steady. Polls are at most simply a moment’s snapshot of how people say they are thinking. It’s usually a mistake to make too much of them.
Trump’s money problems appear to be real, and that’s not a good sign for him. But court delays and loans could grant him some relief yet. And who knows how that will affect the election, if at all.
Trump looks politically weaker right now, but that is not necessarily a permanent condition. With the election still months away, we need to remind ourselves that everyone who cares about the country needs to pay attention and get involved. Politics is incremental, and electorates are fickle. Though President Biden will need more to win, momentum appears to have moved in his direction, at least for the moment.
If you support independent journalism bringing you critical information to protect our democracy, please consider upgrading as a supporting member. It allows me to keep Steady sustainable and free for those who cannot afford it, especially in an election season where we need everyone to see it. Thank you.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Who’s Minding Musk? Nobody, and that’s a problem DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY AUG 5
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Credit: Getty Images Imagine having the ability to instantly lob information, true or not, to millions of people across the globe. Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly known as Twitter), has that ability. One would hope that with that power would come responsibility. In a perfect world, the owners of social media companies would be fair-minded and objective. Alas.
For all the talk of social media reform after 2016 and the Facebook fiasco when misinformation ran rampant across that platform, it now appears that Musk has decided not only to support the Republican candidate for president but to personally help spread misinformation about voting and the election.
Plus, in 2024, Musk has more powerful tools than Facebook ever imagined eight years ago. Artificial intelligence is coming into its own, and the dangers it presents to our democracy are profound.
Musk has recently released an AI chatbot, which, if you don’t know, is basically a computer that can simulate a human conversation. Musk named his Grok, and within hours of President Biden bowing out of the race, it created a post that read: “The ballot deadline has passed for several states for the 2024 election,” naming nine states: Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington. The message suggested that Kamala Harris had missed the filing deadline to get on the ballot in those states.
This is 100% false and was shared with millions of users on X.
Secretaries of state in five of the nine states have written a letter to Musk urging him to “immediately implement changes” to Grok. I’m not holding my breath.
When Grok was launched late last year, Musk called it the anti-“woke” chatbot — his characterization. He said he wanted the AI search assistant to “answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.” Those other AI systems, powered by OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft, are specifically designed to avoid controversial topics.
But it’s not just Grok that is pushing out lies. Musk himself reposted a manipulated version of Harris’s first campaign video. It featured an altered voice track that sounds just like Harris. In it “she” says she didn’t “know the first thing about running the country” and that she is the “ultimate diversity hire.” Musk tagged the video as “amazing” and didn’t include a disclaimer. His post has garnered 135 million views, so far. It has not been taken down.
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Talk about strange bedfellows. Over the years, there has been no love lost between Musk and Donald Trump. As recently as May, Trump was a vociferous and vocal proponent of the oil and gas industry. Remember the Mar-a-Lago get-together where he promised to end Biden’s green energy initiatives, including his electric vehicle policies, in exchange for $1 billion in campaign contributions?
Apparently Musk and Trump have mended some pretty tall fences. For his part, Musk has promised lots of cash to the pro-Trump America PAC. Maybe Trump didn’t get what he asked for from his oil and gas friends.
In exchange, Trump now thinks electric vehicles are “incredible.” What a shocker. At a rally in Georgia on Sunday, Trump told his supporters, “I’m for electric cars. I have to be because, you know, Elon endorsed me very strongly. So, I have no choice.”
The Musk-backed America PAC is already helping Trump in swing states. The PAC’s website is tricking people into sharing personal data. The site promises to help people register to vote, but when a user enters a zip code in a battleground state, after also giving their name and phone number, they are directed to a page that says “thank you.” They are then asked to “complete the form below.” But there is no form. And there is no redirection to a voter registration site.
The Michigan secretary of state is investigating Musk and the PAC. “Every citizen should know exactly how their personal information is being used by PACs, especially if an entity is claiming it will help people register to vote in Michigan or any other state,” a spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office said.
In 2022, President Barack Obama gave a speech at Stanford University about the dangers of artificial intelligence, foreseeing that “regulation has to be part of the answer” to combating online disinformation. His closing thought is a reminder that AI can be a help as well as a hindrance — but that it can’t exist in a vacuum.
“The internet is a tool. Social media is a tool. At the end of the day, tools don’t control us. We control them. And we can remake them. It’s up to each of us to decide what we value and then use the tools we’ve been given to advance those values,” Obama said.
For all intents and purposes, social media has become our town square — but unlike most communities, it has no sheriff, and it very much needs one. In his or her absence it is up to us, social media’s users, to be wary consumers.
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,821
^^^ another great article from Dan Rather!
The Unholy Trinity, Trump/Vance/Musk
"Don't give in to the lies. Don't give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth. And to hope."
-Jim Acosta
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,821
Also, Dan's letter today is a reminder to my why I do not support X and definitely why I will never have a Tesla.
"Don't give in to the lies. Don't give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth. And to hope."
-Jim Acosta
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,821
Trump’s Most Dangerous Move Yet? Politicizing the military Dan Rather and Team Steady Feb 25
Donald Trump has abruptly fired several high-ranking members of the U.S. military command. And his new, personally loyal secretary of defense promises a culture shift for the armed forces, with politics at its core. This is among Trump’s most reckless decisions to date, if not THE most. And that’s saying something, given his second term so far.
Not to minimize the firing of thousands of government employees, including people who were working to keep bird flu from spreading to humans and those who were ensuring the country’s nuclear weapons are kept safe, etc., etc. All of this reeks of authoritarianism, with a capital A.
If you’re looking for a legitimate reason for the firings, good luck. Here’s the bottom line: Trump purged the U.S. military leadership of officers he believes are loyal to the Constitution, instead of to him personally. This is a very big deal, with short- and long- term consequences for America’s defense.
Beginning last Friday, Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown Jr. The dubious firings continued with five additional high-level terminations, including the Navy’s top admiral and the Air Force vice chief of staff. Trump’s endgame has become blatantly obvious across the executive branch and the military: be unblinkingly loyal to me or be fired.
The top U.S. military leadership is nonpartisan by design. Traditionally, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the country’s most senior military position, serves a four-year term that straddles administrations. Brown was appointed by President Biden in 2023, after Trump nominated him in 2020 to be the Air Force chief of staff.
Though no reason was given for Brown’s ouster, he has been criticized by some Republicans for being too “woke” because of his commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. New Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth suggested in his book The War on Warriors that Brown, a four-star general with four decades of service and experience, got his many promotions because of his race. General Brown is Black.
Brown’s replacement, General Dan Caine, is a retired three-star general whom Trump met in Iraq in 2018. In an oft-told story, Trump recounts that Caine put on a red MAGA baseball cap while in uniform and said, “I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir.”
If the story is true, and that’s a big if — former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who was on the trip, said it never happened — Caine’s quote is disqualifying. So is wearing the hat.
Next on Trump’s hit list were the Judge Advocates General (JAG). JAGs are the Army, Navy, and Air Force’s top lawyers. They are the backstop for the military, someone to tell commanders that a certain president is about to do something illegal.
You may remember former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, from Trump’s first term. Esper has said Trump asked if the U.S. military could shoot civilians who protested George Floyd’s murder. According to Esper, Trump asked then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley, “Can’t you just shoot them, shoot them in the legs or something?”
Esper and Milley told the president no. Who will tell him no next time?
Senator Jack Reed, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Army major, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” to discuss the terminations.
“What was also startling in the weekend was firing all the advocate generals of the armed forces. If you’re going to break the law, the first thing you do is you get rid of the lawyers. So we’re looking at a very dangerous undermining of the values of our military,” Reed said.
Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who ran for Senate in 2020, took to social media to explain the move. “Here’s what is going on. When you start firing the military’s top lawyers, that means you are getting ready to order the military to do unlawful things. Trump replaces those JAGs with men who will justify any future unlawful and unethical actions that he wants the military to do.”
Hegseth has done nothing to dispel these suppositions. The firing of the JAG corps was about making sure they “don’t exist to be roadblocks to anything that happens,” Hegseth said on Fox. That’s not saying the quiet part out loud. That’s admitting the likely illegal part on national television.
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David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, raised the alarm on Bluesky. “Trump tried a seizure of power in 2021. It didn’t work, because he relied only on a violent mob. The military and FBI stayed loyal to the Constitution. This time, with approval of the Republican Senate, Trump has installed anti-constitutional putschists at FBI, DoD, and Pentagon.”
Don’t worry if you don’t know what a putschist is — I had to look it up. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a putschist is a person who believes that a government should be removed by force.
Democratic Party attorney Mark Elias echoed Frum’s warning. “Now that Trump has captured the intelligence services, the Justice Department, and the FBI, the military is the last piece he needs to establish the foundations for authoritarian control of the U.S. government.”
All of this on the heels of Elon Musk’s dismantling of two agencies crucial to supporting and promoting democracy around the world: the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
NED was created by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. Republicans in Congress have supported the NGO, and many have served on its board. According to its website, NED “has remained on the leading edge of democratic struggles everywhere, while evolving into a multifaceted institution that is a hub of activity, resources, and intellectual exchange for activists, practitioners and scholars of democracy the world over.”
In other words, USAID and NED work to combat authoritarianism around the world. No wonder Trump and Musk want to shutter them.
The closing of these agencies and the firings at the Pentagon have nothing to do with efficiency or DEI. They have everything to do with wanting leadership in government and the military that will do whatever is ordered, legal or otherwise. And what might all of this mean if Trump should decide to force an illegal third term for himself? A question to ponder as we consider these latest moves with the country’s armed forces.
To support my team’s efforts to protect our democracy through the power of independent journalism, please consider joining as a paid subscriber. It keeps Steady sustainable and accessible for all. Thank you.
No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,821
^^^ Dan's latest letter today reads like an endgame outline. At this point, it is going to take some very strong push back if we want Democracy to survive. I guess lot of people are OK with that. What a fucking shame that is.
"Don't give in to the lies. Don't give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth. And to hope."
The Bully-in-Chief Targets an Ally Zelenskyy resists and refuses to kiss the ring Dan Rather and Team Steady Mar 1
We try not to react to every White House event involving the new president, as we like to take a little time to digest what has happened and provide thoughtful analysis. But there’s not much to analyze about the president’s shocking behavior on Friday.
It was a new low for American diplomacy in my lifetime. There are few words that are family-friendly enough to describe what happened. Embarrassing. Horrifying. Mortifying.
People who witnessed or have watched Trump and JD Vance’s behavior toward a visiting head of state have said it made them everything from appalled to nauseous.
Here’s what happened: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was scheduled to meet with Trump and Vance at the White House before a joint news conference and then a signing ceremony for a minerals-for-money deal. It never got past a one-sided shouting match in the Oval Office.
In what looked like a rehearsed and choreographed tag-team effort, Trump berated and lectured Zelenskyy while Vance egged him on. In front of cameras, Trump harangued Zelenskyy for supposedly not being grateful for U.S. aid and not acceding to American demands to end the war.
According to CNN’s fact checkers, Zelenskyy has thanked presidents Biden and Trump, and the American people, 33 times since the war began three years ago.
The whole thing today appeared to be a setup, a trap sprung on a wounded ally. Whatever it was, it will remain, through history, a stain on America’s reputation.
This reporter has covered hundreds of photo opportunities in the Oval Office over many administrations. Such are almost always dignified occasions. Today this tradition was sullied for the benefit of the MAGA faithful and the Kremlin.
Peter Baker of The New York Times described the meeting in shocked terms. “I have covered the White House since 1996. There has never been an Oval Office meeting in front of cameras like this one in all that time. Never has an American president lectured the leader of an ally in public like this, much less a leader that is fighting off invaders.”
If the point was for Trump’s friends in Russia to see his performance, message received. Cheers erupted in Moscow. A former Russian president praised Trump for his treatment of Zelenskyy.
At one point, Trump openly threatened the Ukrainian president. “You’re either going to make a deal or you’re out,” Trump yelled. A short time later, Zelenskyy left the White House.
The absurdity of the moment concluded with Trump, a former reality TV actor, saying, “This is going to make great television.”
To think the world’s security rests on this man’s judgment.
Even if you’ve seen the exchange or pieces of it, you may want to watch it again. And ponder anew what kind of country we are becoming.
All content on Steady is free for all subscribers. This is possible because of the generosity of our paid subscribers. Thank you to everyone who supports the Steady community.
No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,821
The Bully-in-Chief Targets an Ally Zelenskyy resists and refuses to kiss the ring Dan Rather and Team Steady Mar 1
We try not to react to every White House event involving the new president, as we like to take a little time to digest what has happened and provide thoughtful analysis. But there’s not much to analyze about the president’s shocking behavior on Friday.
It was a new low for American diplomacy in my lifetime. There are few words that are family-friendly enough to describe what happened. Embarrassing. Horrifying. Mortifying.
People who witnessed or have watched Trump and JD Vance’s behavior toward a visiting head of state have said it made them everything from appalled to nauseous.
Here’s what happened: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was scheduled to meet with Trump and Vance at the White House before a joint news conference and then a signing ceremony for a minerals-for-money deal. It never got past a one-sided shouting match in the Oval Office.
In what looked like a rehearsed and choreographed tag-team effort, Trump berated and lectured Zelenskyy while Vance egged him on. In front of cameras, Trump harangued Zelenskyy for supposedly not being grateful for U.S. aid and not acceding to American demands to end the war.
According to CNN’s fact checkers, Zelenskyy has thanked presidents Biden and Trump, and the American people, 33 times since the war began three years ago.
The whole thing today appeared to be a setup, a trap sprung on a wounded ally. Whatever it was, it will remain, through history, a stain on America’s reputation.
This reporter has covered hundreds of photo opportunities in the Oval Office over many administrations. Such are almost always dignified occasions. Today this tradition was sullied for the benefit of the MAGA faithful and the Kremlin.
Peter Baker of The New York Times described the meeting in shocked terms. “I have covered the White House since 1996. There has never been an Oval Office meeting in front of cameras like this one in all that time. Never has an American president lectured the leader of an ally in public like this, much less a leader that is fighting off invaders.”
If the point was for Trump’s friends in Russia to see his performance, message received. Cheers erupted in Moscow. A former Russian president praised Trump for his treatment of Zelenskyy.
At one point, Trump openly threatened the Ukrainian president. “You’re either going to make a deal or you’re out,” Trump yelled. A short time later, Zelenskyy left the White House.
The absurdity of the moment concluded with Trump, a former reality TV actor, saying, “This is going to make great television.”
To think the world’s security rests on this man’s judgment.
Even if you’ve seen the exchange or pieces of it, you may want to watch it again. And ponder anew what kind of country we are becoming.
All content on Steady is free for all subscribers. This is possible because of the generosity of our paid subscribers. Thank you to everyone who supports the Steady community.
No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading.
Imagine how horrible all this must be for someone with the class, brains, dignity, and love for his country that Mr. Rather has. It's got to be tough. But the man is a rock.
"Don't give in to the lies. Don't give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth. And to hope."
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Quietly Fixing the Mess
Hello to the Steady community. First, I want to thank you for your passionate engagement. Comments on our last post, “One Man,” were prolific — some of the most ever for a Steady post. Naturally, I encourage more. While most comments were positive, a few of you asked why we chose to give so much copy to former President Trump’s failures rather than highlight President Biden’s accomplishments.
In response, please allow me to say that we never take the position that we are right all of the time. We make mistakes. Journalism is a humbling craft. With that always in mind, we do the best we can.
But please know that any presidential candidate facing 91 felony indictments is going to get a lot of my attention. To ignore his behavior is to normalize it.
That being said, it’s no secret that President Biden has struggled to gain traction for his political and legislative accomplishments. To understand why, let’s start at the very beginning.
The transition from one presidential administration to another is often judged by what kind of country the outgoing president leaves for his successor. When President Obama left office in January 2017, he handed incoming President Trump the reins of a country with a thriving economy. Four years later, President Biden took over a country whose economy was in questionable if not outright dangerous condition. By any reasonable analysis, America overall was in the worst shape it had been in for generations: economically, physically and psychologically. Yes, we were coming out of a pandemic, but one that Trump exacerbated by gross mismanagement, making President Biden’s job even harder.
From day one, Biden was behind. But unlike Trump, he had a plan, an agenda that was more than simply undoing his predecessor’s policies. Biden is an old-school Democratic politician who believes it is the government’s job to help Americans. He isn’t flashy, and neither are his policy initiatives. But many have gotten the job done. For example, you probably don’t know about the thousands of infrastructure projects launched in the last three years that are currently rebuilding America. Clean water and road repair often don’t get the attention they deserve.
In January 2021, unemployment was at 6.4% — almost double what it is today. The employment rate was a paltry 57.4%, lower than during the recession of 2008. Consumption of goods and services was way down across the board. Yes, gas prices were low, but any Econ 101 student knows that is because demand was down during the pandemic. Few of us could go anywhere. Trump, of course, took credit for this slight positive and blamed Biden for the rise in gasoline prices when people started driving and flying again. Many economists say the subsequent surge in gas prices was made worse by a Trump-brokered deal to cut production during the pandemic. Then demand returned, and production couldn’t get going fast enough.
By any measure, Biden’s first two years in office were some of the most productive in half a century. He guided the country out of a debilitating pandemic by funding testing, treatment, and a coordinated vaccination plan. He got the last U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. (That should and could have been done less chaotically. But at least it got done.) He passed massive spending bills that have transformed the social safety net: bringing down inflation, fixing the country’s crumbling infrastructure, getting back on track to curtail climate change, and forgiving student loan debt. He reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act and even got (very) modest gun reform through Congress.
Admittedly, the second half of his term has not been as productive. That is in large part because he has been stymied by a fractured, Republican-led (I use that term loosely) House of Representatives. But the work he was able to do during the first two years has paid off. The recession so many were predicting hasn’t come to pass. Instead, the economy is booming, driven by high consumer spending. According to The Washington Post, “Government policy played an important role in supporting the economy last year. The Biden administration’s efforts to fund new infrastructure and clean energy projects have created new jobs and spurred $640 billion in private investments around the country.” The child poverty rate is down. Inflation is in check.
We return to the question: Why isn’t Biden getting more credit, or any at all? Why do polls show that many Americans don’t know about his successes, and when told, are angry they didn’t know?
One reason is that grocery prices and the cost of home buying, about which people are reminded daily, remain high. Another is that immigration remains a high-profile, dangerous mess, and Biden has been ineffective in dealing with it.
But it is also true that we live in a clickbait, “gotcha” world where screaming and riling people up has become the norm, the expectation. Trump is cash money for media companies. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. And good old-fashioned governing isn’t as interesting to audiences. It doesn’t break through the noise — and there is a lot of noise. All of which helps Trump and hurts Biden.
None of this necessarily means Biden’s reelection chances are doomed. There is still a long way to go, and much is unpredictable. What we’ve tried to do with this post is perhaps add a little perspective about the campaign to this point.
Here at Steady, we hope we can help keep the conversation going about what is real and what is bluster.
Please feel free to join in the conversation below.
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President Biden Upends the GOP Narrative
How he got the job done
It’s difficult to tell who was more surprised by President Biden’s State of the Union performance Thursday night: Democrats in the chamber, whose emotions ranged from relieved to almost giddy. Or Republicans, who have been selling the president as doddering, decrepit, and unfit, watching that narrative evaporate. In what was perhaps the most important speech of his political career, Biden showed he was not just alive and well, but up to the challenge of a second term.
Sure, the health of either candidate could change, but for at least this political moment, President Biden came across as hale, fit, and ready.
For those watching at home, it was a chance to counter an image perpetrated by Republicans and many in the media that the president is not mentally or physically qualified for a second term. For those who hadn’t seen Biden speak in a while, or only on social media clips designed to make him look old, it was a first-rate oration, in both tone and substance.
For the 60-plus minute speech, Biden was focused, sharp, energetic, and at times funny. He was even willing to engage Republicans who heckled him — a moment he handled deftly, despite being nudged off script. House Speaker Mike Johnson had privately asked for decorum from his colleagues. He didn’t get it. Instead, several Republicans verbally taunted the president, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who showed up in Trump campaign garb.
At the beginning of the speech, when the television audience was at its largest, Biden took dead aim at his opponent without ever mentioning his name. He hammered home what a second Trump administration would mean to democracy.
Biden also called out his opponent for cozying up to the Russians.
You know what else many people found to be outrageous? The reaction of Republicans who sat on their hands when Biden spoke those words. Or maybe you think it’s not that surprising.
There is no doubt this was a campaign speech wrapped up as a State of the Union address. Biden was criticized by the right for politicizing it. But as we have written before, we are living in a time when nearly everything seems political.
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Biden is a natural, highly experienced campaigner, and he seemed to revel in the moment. And the public responded. The president’s campaign reported the speech accounted for the largest fundraising haul since Biden declared he was running for reelection.
A post-speech flash poll by CNN found a sizable shift in the electorate. After the address, 62 percent of people polled said Biden’s policies will move the country in the right direction. Prior to the speech, that number was just 45 percent.
A caveat, please: I have watched at least the last 60 State of the Union addresses. Their impact on the public consciousness is often short-lived. How this will apply to the oldest presidential candidate in history defying expectations, we shall see.
On Friday, Biden was back on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania with more positive economic news to emphasize. The U.S. added 275,000 jobs in February. The Biden campaign, which has a lot more cash on hand than Trump, announced a big ad buy, $30 million, in swing states.
Speaking of money, today, Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of the former president, was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee. The former president, who currently owes almost half a billion dollars in legal judgments and more in ensuing legal fees, has been using donor money from the RNC to pay his battalion of lawyers. On Friday, Trump posted a $91.6 million bond to appeal the judgment in the case of E. Jean Carroll, the woman he was found to have sexually abused and then defamed.
With that in mind, one line from last night’s speech seemed to be meant for an audience of one. “You can’t love your country only when you win.”
Democrats would love for this president to earn the title “Fighting Joe Biden.” To fully earn that he must come from behind and win in November.
To support my team’s efforts to protect our democracy through the power of independent journalism, please consider joining as a paid subscriber. It keeps Steady sustainable and available to all.
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you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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I subscribed to Mr. Rather's blog through STEADY recently, Best expenditure of the year for me!
The (High) Price of Humiliation
Don’t look now, but are the polls moving?
Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire, cannot secure a bond to cover a $454 million judgment against him. This could mean the seizure of any number of his properties as soon as next week.
One can imagine how humiliating this is for the Republican frontrunner, a man who wears his net worth on his sleeve and whose self-worth is intrinsically tied to money.
Trump is appealing the February 16 judgment against him for lying about and inflating the value of his properties to lenders and insurance companies. He must either give the full amount to the court to be held in escrow or get a bond. In a filing with the New York appellate court today, his attorneys admitted Trump faces “insurmountable difficulties” in obtaining the bond. A whopping 30 surety companies have rejected his requests. The lawyers described his chances of success as “a practical impossibility.”
The appellate court has been asked to pause the judgment or significantly reduce it to $100 million. If it fails to rule by March 25, New York State Attorney General Letitia James can start seizing Trump’s properties immediately.
You may wonder why Trump does not just use his vast real estate holdings, like Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago, as collateral. Bond companies prefer more liquid assets, like securities, of which he does not have enough — especially for a bond of this size. And it’s not only $454 million. If he could get the bond, it would be 120% of the $454 million plus 2% interest for two years upfront, so closer to $600 million.
This is on top of the $91.6 million bond he was able to secure to cover the judgment in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, which he is also appealing.
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It wasn’t the only bad news he got today.
For the first time in more than six months, presidential tracking polls show President Biden and Trump in a dead heat. Trump had been leading since September.
So why the sudden Biden surge? The easiest explanation may be that “crazy” is finally catching up to Trump.
Since he spends most of the workweek defending himself in courts around the country, Trump’s campaigning has been limited to weekend rallies. Saturday night found him in Ohio, where he spewed this doozy: “Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.” He seemed to have gone off script, as he had just been talking about Chinese competition in the car industry.
He also now calls the January 6 insurrectionists who are currently serving prison time “hostages.” And he said he would pardon all of them on day one of his second term. Imagine hundreds of convicted insurrectionists suddenly being freed. A group of Americans polled by CBS News didn’t think much of the idea. The electorate doesn’t embrace the former president's approval of political violence and those who perpetrate it.
Sixty-two percent of all voters oppose the pardons, according to a CBS News poll. A Data for Progress poll shows that 57% of independents are less likely to vote for a candidate who approves of the January 6 attacks. Even a majority of self-described MAGA Republicans — 57% — don’t support the conduct of the rioters, according to CBS News.
Now, once you have read and perhaps mentally digested all of the above, it’s time to evoke our mantra: steady. Polls are at most simply a moment’s snapshot of how people say they are thinking. It’s usually a mistake to make too much of them.
Trump’s money problems appear to be real, and that’s not a good sign for him. But court delays and loans could grant him some relief yet. And who knows how that will affect the election, if at all.
Trump looks politically weaker right now, but that is not necessarily a permanent condition. With the election still months away, we need to remind ourselves that everyone who cares about the country needs to pay attention and get involved. Politics is incremental, and electorates are fickle. Though President Biden will need more to win, momentum appears to have moved in his direction, at least for the moment.
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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Who’s Minding Musk?
Nobody, and that’s a problem
DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY
AUG 5
READ IN APP
Credit: Getty Images
Imagine having the ability to instantly lob information, true or not, to millions of people across the globe. Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly known as Twitter), has that ability. One would hope that with that power would come responsibility. In a perfect world, the owners of social media companies would be fair-minded and objective. Alas.
For all the talk of social media reform after 2016 and the Facebook fiasco when misinformation ran rampant across that platform, it now appears that Musk has decided not only to support the Republican candidate for president but to personally help spread misinformation about voting and the election.
Plus, in 2024, Musk has more powerful tools than Facebook ever imagined eight years ago. Artificial intelligence is coming into its own, and the dangers it presents to our democracy are profound.
Musk has recently released an AI chatbot, which, if you don’t know, is basically a computer that can simulate a human conversation. Musk named his Grok, and within hours of President Biden bowing out of the race, it created a post that read: “The ballot deadline has passed for several states for the 2024 election,” naming nine states: Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington. The message suggested that Kamala Harris had missed the filing deadline to get on the ballot in those states.
This is 100% false and was shared with millions of users on X.
Secretaries of state in five of the nine states have written a letter to Musk urging him to “immediately implement changes” to Grok. I’m not holding my breath.
When Grok was launched late last year, Musk called it the anti-“woke” chatbot — his characterization. He said he wanted the AI search assistant to “answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.” Those other AI systems, powered by OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft, are specifically designed to avoid controversial topics.
But it’s not just Grok that is pushing out lies. Musk himself reposted a manipulated version of Harris’s first campaign video. It featured an altered voice track that sounds just like Harris. In it “she” says she didn’t “know the first thing about running the country” and that she is the “ultimate diversity hire.” Musk tagged the video as “amazing” and didn’t include a disclaimer. His post has garnered 135 million views, so far. It has not been taken down.
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Talk about strange bedfellows. Over the years, there has been no love lost between Musk and Donald Trump. As recently as May, Trump was a vociferous and vocal proponent of the oil and gas industry. Remember the Mar-a-Lago get-together where he promised to end Biden’s green energy initiatives, including his electric vehicle policies, in exchange for $1 billion in campaign contributions?
Apparently Musk and Trump have mended some pretty tall fences. For his part, Musk has promised lots of cash to the pro-Trump America PAC. Maybe Trump didn’t get what he asked for from his oil and gas friends.
In exchange, Trump now thinks electric vehicles are “incredible.” What a shocker. At a rally in Georgia on Sunday, Trump told his supporters, “I’m for electric cars. I have to be because, you know, Elon endorsed me very strongly. So, I have no choice.”
The Musk-backed America PAC is already helping Trump in swing states. The PAC’s website is tricking people into sharing personal data. The site promises to help people register to vote, but when a user enters a zip code in a battleground state, after also giving their name and phone number, they are directed to a page that says “thank you.” They are then asked to “complete the form below.” But there is no form. And there is no redirection to a voter registration site.
The Michigan secretary of state is investigating Musk and the PAC. “Every citizen should know exactly how their personal information is being used by PACs, especially if an entity is claiming it will help people register to vote in Michigan or any other state,” a spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office said.
In 2022, President Barack Obama gave a speech at Stanford University about the dangers of artificial intelligence, foreseeing that “regulation has to be part of the answer” to combating online disinformation. His closing thought is a reminder that AI can be a help as well as a hindrance — but that it can’t exist in a vacuum.
“The internet is a tool. Social media is a tool. At the end of the day, tools don’t control us. We control them. And we can remake them. It’s up to each of us to decide what we value and then use the tools we’ve been given to advance those values,” Obama said.
For all intents and purposes, social media has become our town square — but unlike most communities, it has no sheriff, and it very much needs one. In his or her absence it is up to us, social media’s users, to be wary consumers.
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memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Trump’s Most Dangerous Move Yet?
Politicizing the military
Dan Rather and Team Steady
Feb 25
Donald Trump has abruptly fired several high-ranking members of the U.S. military command. And his new, personally loyal secretary of defense promises a culture shift for the armed forces, with politics at its core. This is among Trump’s most reckless decisions to date, if not THE most. And that’s saying something, given his second term so far.
Not to minimize the firing of thousands of government employees, including people who were working to keep bird flu from spreading to humans and those who were ensuring the country’s nuclear weapons are kept safe, etc., etc. All of this reeks of authoritarianism, with a capital A.
If you’re looking for a legitimate reason for the firings, good luck. Here’s the bottom line: Trump purged the U.S. military leadership of officers he believes are loyal to the Constitution, instead of to him personally. This is a very big deal, with short- and long- term consequences for America’s defense.
Beginning last Friday, Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown Jr. The dubious firings continued with five additional high-level terminations, including the Navy’s top admiral and the Air Force vice chief of staff. Trump’s endgame has become blatantly obvious across the executive branch and the military: be unblinkingly loyal to me or be fired.
The top U.S. military leadership is nonpartisan by design. Traditionally, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the country’s most senior military position, serves a four-year term that straddles administrations. Brown was appointed by President Biden in 2023, after Trump nominated him in 2020 to be the Air Force chief of staff.
Though no reason was given for Brown’s ouster, he has been criticized by some Republicans for being too “woke” because of his commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. New Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth suggested in his book The War on Warriors that Brown, a four-star general with four decades of service and experience, got his many promotions because of his race. General Brown is Black.
Brown’s replacement, General Dan Caine, is a retired three-star general whom Trump met in Iraq in 2018. In an oft-told story, Trump recounts that Caine put on a red MAGA baseball cap while in uniform and said, “I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir.”
If the story is true, and that’s a big if — former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who was on the trip, said it never happened — Caine’s quote is disqualifying. So is wearing the hat.
Next on Trump’s hit list were the Judge Advocates General (JAG). JAGs are the Army, Navy, and Air Force’s top lawyers. They are the backstop for the military, someone to tell commanders that a certain president is about to do something illegal.
You may remember former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, from Trump’s first term. Esper has said Trump asked if the U.S. military could shoot civilians who protested George Floyd’s murder. According to Esper, Trump asked then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley, “Can’t you just shoot them, shoot them in the legs or something?”
Esper and Milley told the president no. Who will tell him no next time?
Senator Jack Reed, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Army major, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” to discuss the terminations.
“What was also startling in the weekend was firing all the advocate generals of the armed forces. If you’re going to break the law, the first thing you do is you get rid of the lawyers. So we’re looking at a very dangerous undermining of the values of our military,” Reed said.
Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who ran for Senate in 2020, took to social media to explain the move. “Here’s what is going on. When you start firing the military’s top lawyers, that means you are getting ready to order the military to do unlawful things. Trump replaces those JAGs with men who will justify any future unlawful and unethical actions that he wants the military to do.”
Hegseth has done nothing to dispel these suppositions. The firing of the JAG corps was about making sure they “don’t exist to be roadblocks to anything that happens,” Hegseth said on Fox. That’s not saying the quiet part out loud. That’s admitting the likely illegal part on national television.
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David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, raised the alarm on Bluesky. “Trump tried a seizure of power in 2021. It didn’t work, because he relied only on a violent mob. The military and FBI stayed loyal to the Constitution. This time, with approval of the Republican Senate, Trump has installed anti-constitutional putschists at FBI, DoD, and Pentagon.”
Don’t worry if you don’t know what a putschist is — I had to look it up. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a putschist is a person who believes that a government should be removed by force.
Democratic Party attorney Mark Elias echoed Frum’s warning. “Now that Trump has captured the intelligence services, the Justice Department, and the FBI, the military is the last piece he needs to establish the foundations for authoritarian control of the U.S. government.”
All of this on the heels of Elon Musk’s dismantling of two agencies crucial to supporting and promoting democracy around the world: the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
NED was created by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. Republicans in Congress have supported the NGO, and many have served on its board. According to its website, NED “has remained on the leading edge of democratic struggles everywhere, while evolving into a multifaceted institution that is a hub of activity, resources, and intellectual exchange for activists, practitioners and scholars of democracy the world over.”
In other words, USAID and NED work to combat authoritarianism around the world. No wonder Trump and Musk want to shutter them.
The closing of these agencies and the firings at the Pentagon have nothing to do with efficiency or DEI. They have everything to do with wanting leadership in government and the military that will do whatever is ordered, legal or otherwise. And what might all of this mean if Trump should decide to force an illegal third term for himself? A question to ponder as we consider these latest moves with the country’s armed forces.
To support my team’s efforts to protect our democracy through the power of independent journalism, please consider joining as a paid subscriber. It keeps Steady sustainable and accessible for all. Thank you.
No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading.
Stay Steady,
Dan
© 2025 Dan Rather
3939 Bee Cave Rd., Bldg. C-100, Austin, Texas 78746
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The Bully-in-Chief Targets an Ally
Zelenskyy resists and refuses to kiss the ring
Dan Rather and Team Steady
Mar 1
We try not to react to every White House event involving the new president, as we like to take a little time to digest what has happened and provide thoughtful analysis. But there’s not much to analyze about the president’s shocking behavior on Friday.
It was a new low for American diplomacy in my lifetime. There are few words that are family-friendly enough to describe what happened. Embarrassing. Horrifying. Mortifying.
People who witnessed or have watched Trump and JD Vance’s behavior toward a visiting head of state have said it made them everything from appalled to nauseous.
Here’s what happened: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was scheduled to meet with Trump and Vance at the White House before a joint news conference and then a signing ceremony for a minerals-for-money deal. It never got past a one-sided shouting match in the Oval Office.
In what looked like a rehearsed and choreographed tag-team effort, Trump berated and lectured Zelenskyy while Vance egged him on. In front of cameras, Trump harangued Zelenskyy for supposedly not being grateful for U.S. aid and not acceding to American demands to end the war.
According to CNN’s fact checkers, Zelenskyy has thanked presidents Biden and Trump, and the American people, 33 times since the war began three years ago.
The whole thing today appeared to be a setup, a trap sprung on a wounded ally. Whatever it was, it will remain, through history, a stain on America’s reputation.
This reporter has covered hundreds of photo opportunities in the Oval Office over many administrations. Such are almost always dignified occasions. Today this tradition was sullied for the benefit of the MAGA faithful and the Kremlin.
Peter Baker of The New York Times described the meeting in shocked terms. “I have covered the White House since 1996. There has never been an Oval Office meeting in front of cameras like this one in all that time. Never has an American president lectured the leader of an ally in public like this, much less a leader that is fighting off invaders.”
If the point was for Trump’s friends in Russia to see his performance, message received. Cheers erupted in Moscow. A former Russian president praised Trump for his treatment of Zelenskyy.
At one point, Trump openly threatened the Ukrainian president. “You’re either going to make a deal or you’re out,” Trump yelled. A short time later, Zelenskyy left the White House.
The absurdity of the moment concluded with Trump, a former reality TV actor, saying, “This is going to make great television.”
To think the world’s security rests on this man’s judgment.
Even if you’ve seen the exchange or pieces of it, you may want to watch it again. And ponder anew what kind of country we are becoming.
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Dan
© 2025 Dan Rather
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Imagine how horrible all this must be for someone with the class, brains, dignity, and love for his country that Mr. Rather has. It's got to be tough. But the man is a rock.