We Need A Shadow Cabinet, Plus

Oh, there will be a little pain, will there, plus

Secretary of Shadow (credit Weldon Berger)

We need a shadow cabinet

This is a bad idea in a way—one can’t count on Democrats to appoint people who aren’t just in it for the press; who don’t necessarily know shit about shit but who the leadership want to promote for one reason or another, or who have the clout to get themselves appointed for something other than expertise.

Assuming that objection could be overcome by good appointments and some party discipline (another potential fault line), a shadow government would have the benefit of focusing party messaging. Tariffs bad in this respect, industry capture of food inspectors bad in that respect, oligarchs seizing control of the treasury in every respect, and so on.

You would see one person, or perhaps one person and a deputy, advancing a particular position across all the press and other news outlets. It’d help to have people capable of going on Fox and other reactionary outfits and holding their own in the manner of Bernie Sanders or, even though I’m not fond of him because he’s an inveterate bullshitter and corporate champion, Pete Buttigieg.

Given the parlous descent of some institutional press organizations into quasi-state media operations, or at least Trump apologist operations, Fox whisperers would be useful there as well. Chuck Todd may be leaving the building, but the building remains populated by chucktodds.

Are there enough plain-spoken, forceful Democrats with adequate subject matter expertise to go around? There are, but getting them recognized by their colleagues and training the press to put them at the front of the Rolodex (everybody has a Rolodex, even if it’s one of the newfangled electronic ones) would be challenging.

That the new administration is speeding toward the public doom so rapidly and visibly as to become undeniable could mitigate some of the likely hazards of the plot although not the desire of people outside the shadow cabinet begging for or accepting teevee hits to counter the presumed sensible message.

For instance, only 18 Democrats voted against oil company shill and hater of public lands Doug Burgum for interior secretary, and some of the ones who voted for him would be happy to go on the tube and explain why corporate despoliation is good, actually.

Regardless the hazards, this is a thing worth doing that can be done.

Probably won’t be, though.

Oh, there will be a little pain, will there

I see lots of people saying that Trump doesn’t understand how tariffs work, but I’m not so sure that he simply doesn’t care whether people in the U.S. who aren’t him suffer the consequences so long as they hurt the countries he’s pissed off at. After all, he’s been here before, and he recognizes that they’re gonna sting domestically, and he doesn’t at this point give a fuck.

In any event it won’t hurt him politically in any enduring fashion—he’s only there for one term unless the 22nd Amendment goes bye-bye and he lives all the way through this one, and a third term wouldn’t make him any more vulnerable other than physically, one way or the other. I mean, a third term would indicate that we’re toast anyway.

The tariffs aren’t meant to take effect until Tuesday, which gives Trump a brief window in which to declare victory before the deed is done and carnage ensues, something he can also do at any time during the process if the heat gets too high for whatever reason.

I was thinking the new head of government might object to ongoing tariffs if Canada whacks Teslas, but he might not feel the sting so much now that he literally controls the treasury, which even the venerably purblind New York Times recognizes that he does, although they either don’t know or didn’t care to mention who gave his treasury moles the requisite background checks and security clearances. The reporters just seemed to take for granted that that stuff is all kosher, if that’s not a banned word.

Wish we had a workable shadow commerce secretary. Wish we had a workable shadow treasury secretary. (Trump’s treasury guy, the one who just gave the treasury machine to Musk, got confirmed with a lotta Democratic support, and the commerce guy probably will too because some Democrats recognize billionaires as a protected class.)

Plus, the view from abroad

I’ve not dug in to the overseas press much since the inauguration, but Garrett Graff, whom I will always resent because he beat the BTC News White House guy into the Bush administration press room by a bit when he was first blogging, has written a good piece on how our little oligarchy and autocracy problem might be viewed from afar. The piece also reflects how our own press write about similar situations when they unfold in countries we don’t like.

Musk Junta Seizes Key Governmental Offices
February 1, 2025
By William Boot

WASHINGTON, D.C. — What started Thursday as a political purge of the internal security services accelerated Friday into a full-blown coup, as elite technical units aligned with media oligarch Elon Musk moved to seize key systems at the national treasury, block outside access to federal personnel records, and take offline governmental communication networks.

With rapidity that has stunned even longtime political observers, forces loyal to Musk’s junta have established him as the all-but undisputed unelected head of government in just a matter of days, unwinding the longtime democracy’s constitutional system and its proud nearly 250-year-old tradition of the rule of law. Having secured themselves in key ministries and in a building adjacent to the presidential office complex, Musk’s forces have begun issuing directives to civil service workers and forcing the resignation of officials deemed insufficiently loyal, like the head of the country’s aviation authority.

The G-7 country’s newly installed president, a mid-level oligarch named Donald Trump, appeared amid Musk’s moves to be increasingly merely a figurehead head of state.

Nice touch, that “mid-level oligarch” thing. The entire piece is worth a read, not least because it’s more or less accurate.

Plus—Deny, Defend, Delay

Republicans sent out a handy cheat sheet in 2009 to help their then-minority members obstruct the Senate.

Comfort Music

I don’t wanna listen to anything new right now, nor anything normal either. I mentioned God Speed You! Black Emperor whenever the other day was, and that’s who I went with this morning. “Asunder, Sweet” is from the morning’s first album, 2015’s Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress, and “Rockets fall on Rocket Falls” is from 2002’s Yanqui U.X.O.

Like it, share it

The latter if the former. I’m also partial to comments.

Subscribe!

If you’ve not already; either free or not, you get much the same thing either way. Better for me if you pay, though.

Be well; take care.