It’s another spring. Five springs ago was the start of the old scourge, the pandemic. This spring we have the new scourge of the Trump administration. Both had/are having an effect on everyone around the globe. Both moved/are moving fast and caused/are causing major damage.
You might say: wow, I’m not sure if I want to read all this! I understand. If you want to scroll quickly down to the World section…wait, that’s not too cheerful either….to the…ok, maybe scroll down to the bottom. Or come back in five years and read this in perspective! Whatever you do, I don’t mind. For those of you who can manage, let’s start with the old scourge.
Pandemic: there’s been much focus in the news on the 5th Anniversary of lockdown. The Toronto Star did a piece on how the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown taught us all some lessons. On the other hand, The Washington Post asked, Five years after covid pandemic: Have we learned anything? and wondered why we are so good at forgeting the pandemic lockdown. To help us remember, WaPo also did this piece on powerful photos that captured their pandemic struggles and then asked, where are they now? Over at the New York Times they presented this, Covid-19: Enduring Images of a Global Crisis, 5 Years On and this: a coronavirus timeline. The CBC weighed in with this: Five years after pandemic began, COVID-19 has left death, illness, isolation in its wake.
The pandemic was a massive event in our lives. It is good that many are choosing not to simply act like it never happened. If you choose to look, you can still see markers of the pandemic everywhere. You can still see remnants of COVID warnings still on doors and sidewalks.
Not all pandemic markers are visible. So many people died of COVID that Social Security in the U.S. ended up with a surplus of funds. And while for many of us, life has gone back to normal, those with long COVID continue to suffer. Likewise, young people were often deeply affected by what happened. The Times talked to teenagers and asked them how the pandemic has changed them. And not just young people: public servants confessed on how sharing science about COVID put them in the crosshairs.
One of the weirdest parts about the pandemic is that it likely led to people resisting getting vaccines, possibly because they felt the COVID-19 vaccines were forced upon them. It appears that vaccination rates are declining and measles cases are climbing. And if that’s not bad enough, here are the preventable diseases could re-emerge next.
There’s some discussions around bringing back waste water surveillance in Canada to look for measles. It’s sad to say, but I hope that comes true. Meanwhile, there is a spring dose of a covid 19 vaccine coming available. Consider getting it, even if you’re in parts of the world, like the U.S., that is having the mildest Covid winter on record. Let’s make sure the old scourge doesn’t return.
On the topic of returning, people like Jamie Dimon wants everyone to return to office. (Like Elon Musk, he says and does a lot of stupid things.) So do other business leaders. Meanwhile people who study this, like the IMF, says working from home continues to lead to increased productivity. I guess CEOs consider increased productivity a bad thing. Funny that.
Trump 2.0: Trump 2.0 is the new scourge and definitely not a funny thing. He and his team have only been in office for a few months, and already they have hastily imposed MAGA rule on the government. Trump quickly assembled his MAGA picks for new White House term, and other than Matt Gaetz (who seems to have been universally reviled) he got most of them through, including such gems as Kristi Noem (his pick for homeland security secretary) and the DOGE boys, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Whoops, did we say Vivek? He was there for a hot minute before he stepped down. Meanwhile, ‘Uncle’ Elon Musk went straight to work, bring a team of such luminaries as teenager “Big Balls” to take a chainsaw to the Federal Government. The DOGE team hacked their way throughout the various parts of the government, doing so much damage that it is hard to keep up. Thankfully people like the staff at TIME have provided summaries.
Meanwhile there has been some pushback from tech workers against Musk’s efforts. In some cases it has led to physical standoffs at the entrances of buildings before staff took DOGE to court. Like with many of Trump and his team, the legal proceedings have led to setbacks, including 3 court losses in 90 minutes.
What will be the impact of this? It’s almost too difficult to say, since it will cause damage in a multitude of ways, including potential loses for the GOP in upcoming elections. Which is why Republicans are pressing the House leadership for help as they face pressure over DOGE cuts at home. So much pressure, in fact, that the leadership told them not to hold Town Halls.
You might think: the US government is too big and this slash-and-burn approach is the only way to shrink it. Let Al Gore via this Doonesbury comic for March 16, 2025 explain otherwise. Newsweek has more on this.
You might also think: at least all those lost jobs will mean the government is going to be flush with cash now. Alas, tax revenue could drop by 10 percent amid turmoil at IRS. The only people who are going to be flush with cash due to DOGE are rich people. Rich people like Musk, who helps himself to government funds by making sure his company Starlink gets an FAA contract (which, of course, raises new conflict of interest concerns).
Musk is not the only one enriching himself while all this turmoil is going on. The Times reported that early Crypto Traders had speedy profits from the crypto Trump Coin. Meanwhile, many others suffered losses. (For more on that, see this: The ‘Crypto Punks’ Behind Trump’s Murky New Business Venture.) And crypto is just one way the Trump gang will grab that bag. As one story wrote, ‘the gloves are off’: Trump appears poised to cash in from his presidency in new ways.
Enrichment is not the only thing Trump is after. Retribution is another. Every group some consider “elites” have been attacked by Trump and his team. Recently he’s been going after Big Law firms, for example. Especially those who were somehow involved in his pre-election trials. It’s weird to think what would have happened if he lost the election, since the Special Counsel Report said: Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case. It seems Trump thinks of it every day, and has been acting accordingly.
Despite people like Timothy Snyder warning people: Do Not Obey In Advance, people have been doing exactly that. Because of Trump’s war on D.E.I., companies like Google have decided to end their DEI hiring goals. The staff at WaPo were so ‘Deeply alarmed’ by the changes at their paper that they requested a meeting with the owner, Jeff Bezos. I doubt it made any more difference than the massive subscription cancellations. Politicians that Trump did not like were removed from special committees like the House Intelligence Committee. Others tried to win favour with Trump by doing such weird things as hiring Daniel Penny to work at a Venture Capital Firm (whose founder naturally backed Trump).
Though not directly due to some action of Trump, there was lots of changes over at the left leaning MSNBC after the election. Rashida Jones, the MSNBC President, resigned. Then there was a MSNBC “Bloodbath” of non-white anchors after Joy Reid was forced out. Strange times.
The World: Trump’s actions have not been limited to the U.S. One of the first and oddest things he did was to decide to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Naturally Google fell in line and now we have the Gulf of America on Google maps. That was odd but mostly harmless.
The tariffs he’s been slapping on everyone have not been harmless. Which tariffs, you ask? There have been so many I have lost count. You likely did too. Thankfully AP has put together a timeline.
By the way, if you are like Trump and think that tariffs are paid by other countries, here is your reminder that the only people paying them is Americans: What is a tariff and who pays it?
Here in Canada, the many tariffs and other threats that Trump is hurling our way has had a big impact on the country. Canadians everywhere have rallied to oppose these Trumpian efforts with the ‘Elbows Up’ cry. You hear it from Mike Myers, who started it, to the every day Canadian, who among other things, have stopped buying American products and have stopped travelling to the U.S. The annexation threats led the Canadian prime minister Trudeau to say ‘you can’t take our country’ after a big hockey win over the U.S.
Or I should say the former prime minister. Trudeau stepped down after months of polling badly, to be replaced by Mark Carney. Carney has taken up the torch of rallying the country to oppose Trump which has led to a resurgence of the federal Liberal party. A party once doomed to defeat could form the next government on April 28th.
Other than Canada, Trump has also threatened Greenland and Panama. If you are asking, “why???” this explains it. This is an alternative explanation: American Foreign Policy Is Being Run by the Dumbest $%&*@#! Alive.
That’s alternative explaination is just one perspective on Trump. Many others are trying to get in front of the whirlwind of Trumpian events and try and make sense of it all. Naveet Alang had some thoughts on what it is like living through an inflection point. Bluntly, Bill Gates called Elon Musk’s embrace of far-right politicians abroad ‘insane shit’. Others are looking back to Nazi Germany, the way the Atlantic did with this piece: How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days. The great actor Joel Grey had similar thoughts, here: ‘Cabaret’ Was a Warning. It’s Time to Heed It. (Related was this piece on how the Germans thought they were free.)
My own belief is the actions of authoritarian governments elsewhere provide clues to where the Trump government will go. Actions like a new anti-LGBTQ+ bill in Hungary that would ban Budapest Pride event and allow the use of facial recognition software. Or the arrest in Turkey of Istanbul’s mayor, a key rival of President Erdogan. There are signs everywhere in the world right now: you don’t have to turn back to Nazi Germany.
Israel: not everything happening in the world revolves around Trump. The Netanyahu regime continues to wage a War that won’t end and not just in Gaza. The Israeli army recently demolished West Bank apartment buildings, displaces tens of thousands of Palestinians. As always, I watch the Times to keep up on this.
Nearby, Syria is continuing to change post civil war. Korea could have had a civil war after it almost succumbed to martial law. I think it is still struggling with that.
Also struggling is Los Angeles. Here’s the mayors plan for dealing with the devestation of the LA fires and her plan for rebuild. (More on that, here: Visualizing the Los Angeles wildfires in maps and charts. Plus, RIP David Lynch, a great citizen of that city. Here’s a really good study of him: David Lynch was America’s greatest conservative filmmaker.)
In other news: Oscar season came and went. The film “Emilia Perez” had the most nominations and seemed destined to sweep. And then, destiny took a turn. To see why, read about the rise and fall of Emilia Perez and how it went so wrong. As for other things going wrong, the film, ‘Joker: Folie à Deux, was fated to lose $150 Million to $200 Million after bombing at the Box Office. Also bombing recently have been Marvel movies. Which is no doubt why Robert Downey Jr is set to return to Marvel as Doctor Doom.
In sports news, Chicago also bombed as the Blues piled outdoor misery on the in a 6-2 beating during the recent NHL’s Winter Classic. Glad to see that the Classic is still going on as an annual event.
Not bombing but succeeding has been the Apple TV hit, Severance. If you are fed up with work, you should know ‘Severance’ Season 2 puts things in perspective. You should also know it’s great. I can’t wait for season 3.
Finally: one of my favorite Canadian candies,Cherry Blossom, is going away for good. That’s sad.
This was good: 7 planets aligned in the sky above me recently.
Don’t forget with all this news that The news ≠ your life. Also don’t forget this:
As always, thanks for reading this. See you again in Summer. Meanwhile, enjoy Spring.
Smart People I Know 