The buck stops here
Indignity Vol. 5, No. 17
CURRENT EVENTS DEP'T.
Donald Trump Dictates Who Gets Money
DONALD TRUMP DIDN'T want to be the democratically elected president of the United States. He hated that he'd lost the popular vote two times running, but that's not the same thing, and winning the popular vote didn't fix it. Trump wanted to smash the entire system that put him out of the White House—the idea that the office of the presidency existed apart from the person of the president, that the position he'd attained could be taken away and given to someone else, that there were laws and strictures and systems that transcended one person's (specifically, his) desires. The January 6 coup attempt was not a substitute for an election; the 2024 election was a substitute for, or continuation of, the coup.
The news about Trump's unilateral federal grant-spending shutdown was confusing in its particulars—did Medicaid funding access for the states get shut off by fiat, by overreaction, or by pure regrettable accident?—but simple in principle. Eight days into the Trump administration, the government could no longer be relied on. Money authorized by Congress and budgeted for specific purposes was being yanked away, and the majority in Congress had nothing to say in defense of its own powers. This followed on all the other suspensions and cancellations and freezes and reassignments Trump had already deployed: cutting off HIV treatment for millions of people under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief; ordering a halt to land-mine clearing operations worldwide; canceling flights for Afghan refugees who'd already been vetted and approved to enter the country; suspending the publication of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
On paper, the grant spending has been briefly restored, thanks to a federal judge putting a stay on Trump's order. That stay was issued today shortly ahead of 5 p.m., the hour the shutdown was scheduled to begin, and is due to last to next Monday. Will federal operations carry on in an orderly manner until then? The Medicaid freeze-out happened hours before the order was even supposed to take effect—just as the Afghan refugees were ditched in transit days in advance of the formal shutdown of the refugee program.
The executive branch now operates at the whim of the president, or on people's best guess about what the whim of the president might be. So far, Congress agrees to whatever the chief executive tells it to agree to. Laws are beside the point; even Trump's executive orders work through thematic interpretation, not the particulars of the text.
Whatever this may turn out to be, it's not the same system of government that the country had nine days ago, let alone four or eight years ago. States may sue and judges may intervene on their behalf, but the balance of powers is broken. Civil servants who wanted to serve some public interest have been sent home from work, and this evening the administration announced an unfunded and extralegal offer to buy out any and all of them who don't like the new arrangement.
Trump promised his supporters a dictatorship, and they cheered, and it was all a big joke or a figure of speech, and now suddenly Trump has the power to decide how much of a joke it was. He jokes about taking another term, too. By the most benevolent—and still fully unconstitutional—account, what Trump did with federal grant spending was to order it stopped until he could review it and give it permission to resume. There are no routine transactions or fixed obligations, only what the ruler chooses to allow.
WEATHER REVIEWS
New York City, January 27, 2025
★★★★ The rooftops were a solid arrangement of black boxes and triangles and stairsteps, stretched around the brightening yellow rim of the predawn sky like the frieze inside a planetarium. The sky stayed clear as the daylight grew dazzling. Wind boomed briefly in the ears yet the smell of weed refused to be borne away with it. The surface of a traffic-control box was overloaded with the detail of its raised letters and scraps of posted bills; every chip in the paint of a water fountain and every grain of grit on the manhole cover below stood out; but the buildings downtown were blurred over by a salt-colored haze. Scraps of icy snow lay barely touching the black mud, a gap of melted space working its way between. The broken surface of the snow on the slope and the benches with the sun behind them were all contrast, so monochromatic that it was startling to look up and away and encounter the blue sky again and the red on the head of a woodpecker. A mallard, cheek glowing green, shifted its weight on the ice, and its orange feet with their splayed translucent webbing slipped a little. A gull spun in a single loop, high and brilliant. Tourists peered down through the bleary plexiglass shelter of the top deck of a bus. The eyes wanted to stay outside but it was time for the fingertips to come in.
EASY LISTENING DEP'T.
HERE IS TODAY'S Indignity Morning Podcast.
Tom Scocca
Click on this box to find the Indignity Morning Podcast archive.
TOM SCOCCA
ADVICE DEP'T.
GOT SOMETHING YOU need to justify to yourself, or to the world at large? Other columnists are here to judge you, but The Sophist is here to tell you why you’re right. Direct your questions to The Sophist, at indignity@indignity.net, and get the answers you want.
SANDWICH RECIPES DEP'T.
WE PRESENT INSTRUCTIONS in aid of the assembly of sandwiches selected from A Selection Of Tested Recipes, compiled by The Ladies of the Howe Red Cross Branch, Howe, Indiana, published in 1917 and available at archive.org for the delectation of all.
PIMENTO
1 can pimentoes, 3 dill or 1/2 dozen sweet pickles; grind through chopper; add enough mayonnaise and peanut butter to spread.
PIQUANT SANDWICHES
Combine 1 cup Seeded Raisins, 2–3 cup cold boiled ham, 1/4 cup sweet cucumber pickles and put through food chopper. Add 1 teaspoon lemon juice and mix with mayonnaise to spreading consistency.
CHICKEN SANDWICHES
1 c chopped chicken
1/4 c mayonnaise
Spread on thin slices of bread
CELERY SANDWICHES
1 c celery
1/4 c nuts chopped fine.
1/4 c olives
Moisten with mayonnaise
SARDINE SANDWICHES
1 can sardines, 1 small onion, few olives (chopped). Add mayonnaise or olive oil dressing.
If you decide to prepare and attempt to enjoy a sandwich inspired by this offering, be sure to send a picture to indignity@indignity.net.
