The gears of government slowed to a halt this week after President Trump axed major federal initiatives across Washington, causing even routine functions to hit the skids.
Friday, January 24, 2025
'Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations': Elon Musk cracks Holocaust jokes - Garnel says he is friend of Israel!
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/402810
“Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people will Goebbels anything down! Stop Gőring your enemies! His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler! Bet you did nazi that coming,” Musk posted Thursday, adding laughing-face emojis.
His post earned reprobation from Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, a group that took criticism days earlier for declaring that Musk’s hand gesture was not a Nazi symbol.
“We’ve said it hundreds of times before and we will say it again: the Holocaust was a singularly evil event, and it is inappropriate and offensive to make light of it,” Greenblatt wrote on X. Addressing Musk, he added, “The Holocaust is not a joke.”
Greenblatt’s own account had remained silent earlier in the week after Musk’s hand gesture; he’d also refrained from commenting on Musk during a panel on antisemitism earlier Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. An ADL spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about why Thursday’s post was denounced when the gesture wasn’t.
Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, denounced Musk’s jokes in stronger terms.
“Wordplay about Nazis isn’t funny. It isn’t clever. And it’s dangerous,” Deutch wrote on X. Addressing Musk, he added, “However you feel about the accusations being made against you, this is absolutely the wrong response. Nazi-themed ‘jokes’ are offensive and harmful. Don’t belittle the seriousness of the Holocaust; you give cover to those who seek to do the same.”
Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO, also responded to Musk’s jokes — with a laughing-face emoji. Yaccarino, who was hired by Musk, has pledged to curb antisemitism on the platform in the past.
Elon Musk is causing trouble in Europe. What’s in it for him?
“It’s interesting to see the similarities between he and (Trump); their ability to try to drive public opinion, especially, unfortunately by disseminating disinformation. Creating a lot of chaos, being disruptors,” Nelson said.
That chaos intensified after Musk made a gesture with his right arm on stage during a post-inauguration rally, which to some in Europe bore uncomfortable similarities to the Nazi or Roman salute used by fascist leaders in Germany and Italy. Musk has presented the reaction as a misinterpretation, writing on X that “the ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
Trump's War on the Truth Has Officially Gone Full Orwell
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a22547037/donald-trump-orwellian-truth-reality-eyes-ears/
“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”
This is almost a little too on-the-nose Orwellian. In 1984, George Orwell described the totalitarian government's ultimate demand of its subjects:
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
It has long been clear that the president is attempting to build a genuine authoritarian movement over which only his word has any power, and which he can use to ride roughshod over the institutions of democracy. So far, this attempt has been an unmitigated success, as his supporters inhabit the same infotainment vortex he does and other members of the Republican Party—which controls both Houses of Congress and has a constitutional duty to provide a check on the Executive Branch—bow to him out of craven fealty.
But none of that is actually the point. As Gessen explained beautifully, the point is to command power over reality itself. All this can be true at various times, or at the same time, if Trump says it is. Which is to say, we can't be sure that anything is true at all. In that environment, the only thing that matters is what powerful people say. Trump's war on the truth is an admittedly fascinating amalgam of vanity and crippling confirmation bias combined with a ferocious instinct for manipulation and deception. He is plummeting through the infotainment vortex, but he isn't gasping for air or grabbing at something to hang onto. He seems to thrive in the void.
Trump encourages people not to believe their eyes, ears or lungs
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/04/media/donald-trump-disbelief-reliable-sources/index.html
Don’t believe what you read, hear or see.
That’s what the Trump White House and the pro-Trump media are relying upon: Disbelief. Story after story calls to mind the old Marx Brothers line “Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”
The Rise of the Nazis Establishing Dictatorship │ The Plot to Destroy Democracy from Within (1918-1936)
When do every day social processes become more dangerous? Who is the first to notice? Are we really interested in, and able to, confront evil or do we embrace, assimilate, accommodate, and normalize evil? Why Germany? Why the Nazis? To what degree was support gained through coercion and/or consent?
Hitler was not inevitable. It would be a critical misunderstanding to buy the self-propagated Hitler myth that it was his “will” and genius that brought him to power. Hitler was always rescued by others who underestimated him, but utilized him for their own purposes. Indeed, many were drawn to Nazism and Hitler more for shortterm gain then an admiration of Hitler. What are the myths and realities about the Nazi rise to power and how does it challenge our understanding of our civic responsibilities in a democratic society?
Dissatisfaction led to a “hazardous adventure.” - Carl von Ossietzky1
Trump Leaves Former Aides Unprotected
The possibility of falling out of President Trump’s good graces is an occupational hazard for good people who serve in his Administration, but this looks like a new low: Mr. Trump reportedly has ordered an end to security protection for three former advisers who are living under threat of assassination by Iran. Pray it won’t happen, but what if one of them now gets attacked?
Donald Trump's Hannity Interview Fact Checked
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-hannity-interview-fact-checked-2019915
Despite the easy ride, Trump still peppered the conversation with a mixture of falsehoods that Newsweek's Fact Check team has assessed.
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Donald Trump Said He'd End Ukraine War in First 24 Hours. He Hasn't
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-trump-war-2018906
Elected officials are often accused of not keeping campaign promises, but Trump's rhetoric has set new standards of optimism. He said in May 2023 he could end the war in "24 hours"—and told a rally in June 2024 he could end the conflict even before he entered the White House.
But there has been a realignment of this goal as media outlets noted how the war continued to rage two days after he returned to the Oval Office.
Trump did not mention Ukraine in his inauguration speech on Tuesday but has since told reporters that Vladimir Putin would be destroying Russia by not agreeing to a deal, later saying had he been U.S. president at the time there would have been no invasion.
Musk’s straight-arm gesture embraced by right-wing extremists regardless of what he meant
https://apnews.com/article/musk-gesture-salute-antisemitism-0070dae53c7a73397b104ae645877535
Since Musk bought Twitter, now called X, the self-described “free speech absolutist” has faced criticism from hate-speech watchdogs for allowing extremist, dangerous and antisemitic comments to flourish on the social media platform. His response has been to attack his critics, suing one group unsuccessfully after advertisers fled X and threatening to sue another, the Anti-Defamation League, which urged calm at what it called a “delicate moment” in its statement Monday.
Kurt Braddock, a professor of communication at American University who studies extremism, radicalization and terrorism, said the gesture was a fascist salute and “people shouldn’t doubt what they saw.”
“I know what I saw, I know what the response to it was among elements of the extreme right including neo-Nazis, Braddock said. “And none of it is a laughing matter.”
Netanyahu defends Elon Musk after he’s accused of giving Nazi salute
https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-defends-elon-musk-after-hes-accused-of-giving-nazi-salute/
To some of his supporters and fans, the salute appeared to be a gesture of his gratitude that was distorted as clips were shared on social media. To many others, mostly among his critics but also including some on the far right, it bore an uncanny resemblance to the straight-armed, palm-down salute of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.
“I never imagined we would see the day when what appears to be a Heil Hitler salute would be made behind the Presidential seal,” Nadler tweeted. “This abhorrent gesture has no place in our society and belongs in the darkest chapters of human history. I urge all of my colleagues to unite in condemning this hateful gesture for what it is: antisemitism.”
Did Donald Trump define all Americans as females in his executive order?
https://www.jpost.com/omg/article-838803
According to his executive order, "female” means a person belonging at conception to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell, whereas "male” means a person belonging at conception to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.
Biologically, however, all fetuses at conception are female until about six or seven weeks of gestation.
The sexual organs (gonads) of a fetus remain undifferentiated up until this point, meaning that all fetal genitalia are female until 6-7 weeks post conception.
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