On Our "Virtual Route 99" (Special Month End Edition): On the Month That Was
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After spending five glorious weeks in Chile’s sunny southern hemisphere summer, I’ve returned home to SW Washington where it is raining and dipping into the 30s at night.
That I can live with.
What unnerves me is the feeling that I have been immediately plunged back into a whirling cesspool of political excrement, in a country where there’s a new piece of shockingly bad news by the hour, and when the future of the republic still hangs precariously in the balance over the next three years.
And mind you, I’m coming back from Chile where an extreme right winger and admirer of Pinochet will take the presidential chair a month from now, and yet there is a serene placidity and lack of craziness there of the sort we are plagued with here. A lot of people don’t like president-elect Jose Antonio Kast but nobody is talking about the destruction of the democratic order that has taken 30 years to rebuild after Pinochet lost his dictatorship. Chile is in for a conservative rollback and democratic backlash but not a destruction of the system.
I warn you then that this post might be all over the place because during my absence I did follow the US news but it was hard to grasp the big picture. I picked it up in fragments that were hard to piece together. Yet, after being back for only 5 days the situation is still not clear nor predictable. I, therefore, will proceed piece by piece and try to make sense of at least something.
A couple of parallels with Chile. Both good and bad. Countless Chileans expressed their shock and horror over the video clips of ICE brutality they saw. Many said the same thing to me: this looks like the DINA, Pinochet’s unaccountable secret police who broke bones and doors dragging all kinds of people into detention and torture centers and eventually “disappearing” them, executing them and throwing them in lime pits in the desert and even tossing a few living prisoners into the Pacific Ocean from helicopters. How can this be happening in the USA I was asked repeatedly. My answer was always the same: Did you forget about DINA? Americans are not morally superior to Chileans, why the suprise?
On the other hand, in presidential elections a few months ago, extreme rightist rich guy Jose Antonio Kast won a landslide 58% of the vote against the center left incumbent coalition. Chile’s economy was in pretty good shape but had experienced the same global post-COVID inflation as everywhere else. In the meantime 700,000 Venezuelans fleeing the repressive regime in Venezuela became national scapegoat “migrants” and the Right, with great success ran a fear campaign very much in tune and in scope with MAGA’s satanization of our own migrants.
The outgoing President Gabriel Boric, bearded and tattooed, elected when he was 35 years old was a calming serious voice who kept in close touch with “the people,” doubled the minimum wage, increased the pitiful pensions for the elderly, built new housing, and set a reasonable, inclusive democratic tone in a country that still remains traumatized by Pinochet’s 17 year long dictatorship and is now suffering PTSD about “crime” (mostly from “migrants”) which is about the only topic in the mainstream media which is owned outright by the right wing oligarchy and its adjunct political mafia. More than anything, Boric, who led a student revolt 15 years ago, is the embodiment of decency and humility.
But the dreaded “kitchen table politics” mixed with fear won out over recent political history. It’s a sad indicator that so many people, here and there, are treated as transactional robots with no moral values and are willing to trade an extra bowl of soup for their civil liberties. and often just the empty promise of that extra bowl.
If 58% of Chileans, who have lived through a brutal dictatorship, after witnessing and or suffering its bloody repression, can bring themselves to vote for one of the dictator’s better dressed and better educated acolytes is rather depressing. Chile is now a country that is still searching for the remains of a thousand victims of Pinochet, and has several “memory” venues that underline Pinochet’s bloody legacy, while one of his apologists is about to be inaugurated. It rather boggles the mind.
There’s also a couple of lessons here for us that are not easy to digest. First is the quasi-misanthropic and growing notion that too many people value crumbs of personal material support over the democratic and decent values of the greater society. (No I don’t think Kast will be successful because Kast is not even promising any “kitchen table” crumbs.) His promises boil down to two: he will stop inflation (which has already slowed) and crime (which is on he downswing) and are in fact impossible to do much about. His to-be cabinet is talking about abolishing Chile’s half-assed pro abortion law that took 50 years to achieve. Some of his more excitable allies are talking about outlawing gay marriage and stiffening divorce laws that took a century to realize. But, of course, there will be aggressive “modernization” which translates into radical de-regulation of an economy so unequal that you can buy lunch in a cheap café with a credit card and request four installment payments to pay it off.
How any of this will materially improve the lives of average Chileans is beyond me and in fact overwhelms me. I also predict he will quickly become as unpopular as Trump as he’s also basically just running a con that millions will see through. And the financial dirty dealings among the already corrupt ruling class will turn into a thousand blossoms of scandal.
Which brings me to Trump. His regime is in total chaos. The DHS is collapsing under the incompetence and inhumanity of Kristi Noem. Grand juries are now denying convictions of his innocent opponents and political rivals. The Congress is slowly stirring back to life and some 39 GOP reps have announced their retirement. Trump no longer has a reliable House majority. DHS funding is under attack. And even if a few Republicans show some more stones and caucus with the Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries could be elected Speaker before the midterms sweep Democrats into office.
The Department of Justice has become witch-hunt central for the wannabe dictator and is headed by a screaming meemie who was no doubt trawled out of a Florida swamp covered in ghastly slime and mud before being cleaned up and appointed.
A few more words about said Attorney General Pam Bondi. Better than anybody else in this administration including King Trump, best embodies and displays the ethos of a military dictatorship. She is a belligerent and rampant liar, a vile creature who appears before congressional hearings, smugly refusing to answer any questions, ignoring the constitution, and then proceeds to unleash filthy ad hominem attacks on her Democratic interlocutors. She has already dismantled the DOJ and now she is happily defecating over her supposed congressional overseers. A few Democrats have pushed back but not nearly strongly enough. I’m waiting for them to interrupt her hellish ad hominem attacks and say “Hey, lady, we are your overseers and we are not going to tolerate your abusive and insulting tactics so shut the fuck up or get the fuck out of here.”
She will definitely nose out Ice Barbie to be the first to be impeached by a Democratic House because Kristi Noem is more likely to get fired before the midterms… though it will be for all the wrong reasons. And it is my greatest wish and desire that if the Democrats score a trifecta in 2028 they will organize a mini-Nuremberg and sit Bondi and the rest of the criminal cabinet in the dock for prosecution. It might not come to that, but I think some sort of prosecution of these miscreants after 2028 is a near certainty…. if nothing else over the farcical and bald-faced Epstein cover-up. They belong in prison and many of them will face the same fate as dozens of Pinochet’s collaborators have, even if it took 40 years to collar and convict them. In Chile there are still arrests and trials of war criminals 30 years after the fall of the dictatorship.
The sea of corruption currently flooding the U.S. is at unprecedented high tide. The Mad King has broken every constitutional stricture and God knows how many laws in existence and he and his two despicable blockhead sons have pocketed as much as $3.4 billion dollars since January. Then there’s another $10 billion he’s about to take in from the taxpayers by suing his own government for having released his tax returns from 10 years ago showing he made $750 dollars in taxable income. There will be no trial or no contest as Trump controls the agencies he is suing and the IRS director has already said he’s ready to cut the check as soon as Trump decides on the final figure. Period.
Bondi is definitely headed for prison. She is leading the transparent cover-up of the Epstein debacle which is not about to go away and is destined to engulf a whole lot of Trump cronies. It is far worse than Watergate and when the DOJ turns back to Democratic there will be a shitstorm of federal indictments. You can count on that. Bondi is but a third rate John Mitchell in drag.
See if you can get through this despicable 10 minue display of her hubris and arrogance and profound disrespect for democratic process she showed last week. What a repulsive POS and a national embarrassment. She needs to be tied down and administered shock therapy.
Now comes truly breathtaking news from last week. I used ChatGPI for the details on Trump filing trademarks for any airport named for him. I am now going to directly quote the bot as it neatly organizes the scandal and I see no need to rewrite the same info:
Trademark filings — not patents — have been submitted by DTTM OPERATIONS, LLC, a company affiliated with the Trump Organization, for potential airport names including “President Donald J. Trump International Airport”, “Donald J. Trump International Airport”, and the airport code “DJT”. These trademark applications were filed on February 13 and 14, 2026, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The move coincides with a Florida legislative effort, Senate Bill 706, which could allow the renaming of Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) to honor President Donald Trump. The bill requires a licensing agreement with the rights holder of the name, though it mandates the name be used at no cost to Palm Beach County.
Trump Organization’s statement emphasized that the President and his family will not receive any royalties or financial benefit from the airport’s potential renaming. They claim the filings are intended to prevent misuse of the name by “bad actors,” citing the Trump brand as the “most infringed trademark in the world.”
Legal experts, including trademark attorney Josh Gerben, describe these actions as “completely unprecedented”, noting that airport names are typically controlled by public authorities, not private entities. The trademarks could cover airport-related merchandise like clothing, luggage, watches, and handbags.
How can this swindle occur in the light of day without rousing millions of peasants with pitchforks eludes me. Bottom line, some gaggle of MAGAs, maybe the Palm Beach crew, is bound to try and honor the King with an airport or two and zillions will flow to Trump for the licensing for at least all the elated merch, motels and roadways. He also pushing for the Washington DC baseball stadium to be named for him and had made no secret he’d like to be added to Mt. Rushmore. It’s quite unbelievable and yet it is. (I’m sort of hoping that Bobby Kennedy gets a West Wing toilet seat christened for him to memorialize his self-professed days of sniffing coke off toilet rims).
All that said, I am conflicted about predicting the future, whether or not Trump loses one or even both houses of Congress. Yes, his popularity is falling, most recently to about 34%. That’s good news. Will that transfer over to the congressional races? Most probably, but not necessarily. We are still headed for very choppy waters as it means that somewhere between a third and 40 percent of the population still support him. And be advised, the Democratic approval rate is is about the same miserable level as Trump’s and they are headed for victory in November only because they are Not MAGA.
And given the recent landslide election of Kast in Chile, I am hesitant, to say the least, that even a wholesale defeat in the next two elections will mean the end of MAGA.
When you put two drops of red dye in a cup of water you no longer have a glass of water with two drops of color. You have a full glass of pink water. Kast won, in great part, because the wholesome democratic spirit of social justice in Chile had been permanently crippled and hobbled by 17 years of ruthless dictatorship. 21 year old voters know next to nothing about Chile’s once formidable level of popular mobilization.
Likewise the last decade of the Trump era has indelibly polluted America, and will persist for some time to come. Years for sure, maybe decades. Decency, mutual respect, rule of law, democratic procedures, empathy for the poor, rational political discourse, the way we look at our neighbors and other communities have all been severely eroded. And they will not easily be repaired either by a feckless Democratic Party or by a population in which half has become mesmerized by a senile and corrupt idiot backed by corrupt and greedy oligarchs who toy with them like pawns as they spend their time scrolling Tick Tock.
For the life of me I don’t understand what Trump supporters think they are getting out of the deal except for vicarious validation for their irrational and base racial and misdirected class hatreds. Other than that, what? Even the much touted Trump tariffs which he promised would bring in a wave of new high paid manufacturing jobs has belly flopped. Industrial production has actually fallen since their insane imposition and what do the Red-Hatted white working class guys make of that?
The only true bright light of this past year has been the exemplary and resolute resistance by the heroic and fearless people of Minneapolis in opposing the military takeover of their city by a gang of violent and homicidal government brown shirts. The solidarity the overwhelmingly white population has shown for foreign migrants is inspiring and deasl a heavy blow to the misguided disease of identity politics. You will notice, I hope, that none of that resistance was led by any prominent elected Democratic officials though a few joined the tail of the movement. This is what people power looks like and we need a whole lot more. It’s our only real hope.
I am not willing to give up and hope you will not either. The consequences of the Trump autocracy so far have been disastrous and in the short run they are going to get worse. Whatever the outcome of the midterms – and they are important — Trump and his fellow gangsters are not about to quietly surrender to a Democratic House and then go gently into the night. Are you kidding me? Nature itself tells me that a Big Bang of some sort is in the cards and we need to organize our communities and prepare for a prolonged brutal battle to maintain the Republic.
My slogan of the month: Two, Three, Many Minneapolises. Either that or surrender the democratic republic.
P.S. A few words about Reverend Jesse Jackson who I met and interviewed several times and spent a couple of days with him when I wrote a profile of him. I also voted for him and contributed to his 1984 and 1988 presidential runs. He had a heroic side to him that inspired millions and that influence will persist. But like Noam Chomsky, now embroiled in the Epstein tar pit, Jesse was, alas, a human being with his own share of failures and shortcomings. There was a side to him that was supremely ego-centered and his tactics of raising money from big corporations on the basis of soft political blackmail was less than admirable. When I last had close contact with him about 25 years ago or so he was embarked on a questionable campaign to get big contributions and even working. partnerships with some of the more disagreeable Wall Street corporate CEO’s. He was a complicated nan whose arrogance was often difficult to penetrate and tolerate.
Overall, I think the balance of his life was an absolute net positive but we should not canonize anybody — that’s the job of the Pope. I wrote a long profile on Jackson on why he should NOT run for president a third time, I believe in 2000. Can’t pin down the year as somehow….somehow…. that article which was somewhat critical of The Reverend is no longer to be found in the archives of The Nation…..hmmmm.
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More importantly, if you are interested in Jackson’s complicated life I heartily recommend you find a copy of Jesse: The Life and Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson, reported and written over a 10 year period by my beloved and departed mentor Marshall Frady, one of the most talented wordsmiths and thinkers who has gone greatly undervalued as he had few peers. It is by far the best of all JJ biographies and vividly brings to life the multiple aspects of this extraordinary leader. Marshall and I spent about two months together in Mexico in 1974 on a crazy quest to interview Fidel Castro for Playboy. We also rented typewriters and we were both writing book proposals that both got published. I learned SO MUCH from him in that brief period that every time I sit down to write I still feel him next to me and offering the best of advice. He died way too young in 2004. I suggest you buy his Jesse book and see how insightful prose is turned into soaring captivating poetry... A truly marvelous read. And, yes, I miss him. I also miss Jesse’s voice in our national politics.
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LIBERATION SLAY
The Supreme Court crushed Donald Trump’s favorite economic policy like an empty soda can, showing even conservative justices have limits with his authoritarian overreach.
When President Donald Trump unveiled hefty worldwide tariffs last year, he dubbed the occasion “Liberation Day.” The real liberation, however, occurred today — at the hands of some unlikely liberators. The conservative-packed Supreme Court slapped down Trump’s tariff regime, in a 6-3 ruling that upends the president’s signature policy.
“The Framers did not vest any part of the taxing power in the Executive Branch,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote today. “The President enjoys no inherent authority to impose tariffs during peacetime.”
Thwarting Trump’s tariffs limits his power over the economy, and also blunts his favorite foreign policy sword. He has brandished tariffs, and the threat of tariffs, to scare foreign countries into doing his bidding. Now, the court is saying he needs a new trick.
Trump promised to find one. In a defiant press conference this afternoon, the president slammed the decision and insisted he could still tax trade using other legal tricks. The ruling left him “numerous other ways,” he said, announcing plans to sign an order to impose a new 10 percent global tariff over the existing rates.
“We’re going forward. We’ll be able to take in more money,” Trump boasted. “I don’t think the court meant it.” It remains to be seen whether the courts will stop the new trade gimmicks as well.
His refusal to take “no” for an answer spells future turbulence for the economy. Businesses hate uncertainty and regulatory chaos. Importers are already wondering how they’ll get a refund on the $133 billion they splashed out on the nullified tariffs. Trump said today that resolving this issue will take years of courtroom wrangling.
Fresh economic data this morning also raised new anxieties: U.S. fourth quarter GDP growth was revised downward sharply, the pace of inflation quickened in December, and Americans still think the economy sucks.
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But for now, even Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief.
The Constitution’s checks and balances “still work,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) tweeted. He later tweeted an AI-generated picture of himself and the Supreme Court justices looking at the Constitution, with the caption: “Article One is clear.” One legal expert called this ruling the most striking example of the court holding a president to account in over half a century.
Former Vice President Mike Pence celebrated Trump’s defeat, tweeting that the ruling “is a Victory for the American People and a Win for the Separation of Powers enshrined in the Constitution of the United States.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) lauded the ruling, adding that it will prevent future leaders from misusing presidential powers. “This ruling will also prevent a future President such as AOC from using emergency powers to enact socialism,” he tweeted. Okay, pal, whatever helps you sleep at night!
“I keep seeing people say that the SCOTUS ruling on tariffs will help Trump by taking economic matches from the baby. That’s wrong,” Crooked’s Dan Pfeiffer tweeted. “It’s almost certainly going to make his political problems worse, because the ruling shines a light on the tariffs, and he is going to use other authorities to raise people’s prices.”
Crooked’s Tommy Vietor joined Dan to discuss the ruling this afternoon. Check it out here.
Read: Message Box: The Supreme Court Just Made Trump's Biggest Problem Worse
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WHAT ELSE? 
Donald Trump hinted that the U.S. could strike Iran soon, suggesting he might give the country 10 to 15 days to make a deal to curb its nuclear program. He’s considering an initial strike on the country, in an effort to force Iran to make a deal, the Wall Street Journal reports. This might be a stressful weekend!
Wannabe strongman alert: The Trump administration hung a huge banner of the president’s face on the Department of Justice building. They aren’t even hiding the fact that Trump has weaponized the DOJ to go after his enemies. “Points for honesty here,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein tweeted. Nothing says “small dictator energy” like hanging a huge sign of your own face on the country’s chief law enforcement HQ. Good grief.
The Trump administration is rolling back limits on the amount of mercury and hazardous air toxics that power plants can produce. This comes a day after Trump signed an executive order to boost production of an herbicide that has been linked to cancer. America is gonna be soooo healthy again!
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s husband was banned from the department’s headquarters after he was accused of sexually assaulting female staffers, the New York Times reports. The White House and Labor Department didn’t respond to What A Day’s request for comment.
LIGHT AT THE END… 
The DOJ is struggling to find legitimate examples of voter fraud, and Donald Trump is growing frustrated, the Washington Post reports. “The efforts so far haven’t yielded results, in large part because the types of rampant voter fraud that the Trump administration describes have never been found,” the outlet writes. Love to hear it!
Trump called on the Pentagon to release more files related to UFOs, after former President Barack Obama said he believes aliens are probably real (while clarifying he has no evidence they’ve ever visited us). “I don’t know if they’re real or not,” Trump said, joking, “I may get [Obama] out of trouble by declassifying.” Honestly, “The X-Files” lover in me is excited.
Figure skater Alysa Liu won the gold medal. It’s the first time an American woman has won first place in Olympic figure skating since 2002 — before she was born. Her joyful and creative winning performance is earning her worldwide praise. “I think my story is more important than anything,” the 20-year-old said. “To me. That’s what I hold dear, and this journey has been incredible, and my life has just been — I have no complaints. I’m just so grateful for everything.”
A giant pig with “maximum confidence” broke into a North Carolina home in search of snacks, before a police officer hauled her away. “After a short standoff involving a pack of crackers and some highly questionable negotiations, deputies successfully convinced the sus-pig-ious individual to surrender,” the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a statement. The New York Post came up with a clever name for this crime: “Bacon and entering.”
Meet Remi!
“She lives in Washington, D.C. and had a snow-related mishap. As a result, she is very much against ICE. She wants it off the streets, the sidewalks, and the lawn.” Get well soon, Remi!
— Ross
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