What Has Our Attention?
The Devil is in the Details
Sometimes delving into the details reveals more than the big picture. HCR (click) shows how the senseless dismantling of our nation’s emergency management system impacts ordinary people. As a former first responder, I know about the detailed and nuanced planning that goes into preparing, responding, and recovering from emergencies. The Trump administration sees only bloated bureaucracy “the deep state”; I see planning and readiness. Think about your local firehouse. It’s a garage with very expensive trucks parked facing out with a full tank of fuel and thousands of dollars worth of tools and equipment. All of it is unused and idle almost all the time. Seems wasteful, doesn’t it?
But on that truck, every piece of equipment is in its place, cleaned, checked out, and service-ready. That’s so that when your home is burning, firefighters have what they need for rescue and firefighting and can deploy it quickly. Similar preparations were in place for the disaster that happened on the Guadalupe River. The weather service had tools to estimate rainfall and predict flash floods. They had planned for communications to local officials who could warn those in the path of the water. But things went terribly wrong. The individual who should have received the warning and transmitted it to the locals was retired early in Trump’s cost-cutting drive for DOGE. The locals weren’t warned for a critical three hours. To see how rapidly water rises, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqXXbjN-hhs
You first see a side channel of the river, dry except for the mud. Then you see the leading edge of a flow of water. Thirty-seven minutes later, you see a river, a quarter mile across, the bridge inundated as a house floats up to it! I try to imagine trying to evacuate a camp full of girls in less than half an hour as those waters surged.
In the aftermath, FEMA terminated the contracts for the phone banks taking calls for assistance from flood victims. They had run out of money to pay them.
It took Christy Noem three days to mobilize the Federal recovery. The Trump administration is lying and covering up these successive failures, and there are doubtless many more that I don’t know about yet.
Ignorant, incompetent, criminally negligent, inhumanly cruel. As a Quaker, I try not to have a hateful heart. But when I see the Trump administration undermining and destroying humane systems that took years and thousands of hours of training to build, systems that keep us safe, my blood boils.
The justification? We need the tax cuts. We need a bigger, meaner, ICE.
Three Months
Since March, I have been writing to my reps in Congress daily. Most of them are posted here. I reviewed those notes today, and the drive toward authoritarianism is very clear.
It is not just Donald J. Trump. There is a cult behind him that is far more dangerous. He is useful, for now, because he is shameless and easily manipulated to move thier game forward. Keep an eye on Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, and JD Vance. The only question is whether, before the midterms, they can consolidate so much power in the executive branch that the outcome of the midterms won’t matter.
Part of this attack on democracy is the assault on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. If they can establish the power of the President to use the military to prevent demonstrations, and at the same time, they can use harassment with litigation and investigations to suppress the media, this assault will succeed.
Next, like China and other totalitarian governments, he will act to suppress communication among dissidents. As the compromised Washington Post’s banner still proclaims, “Democracy dies in Darkness.”
This is really happening. Will the sleeping giant awake in time?
Attention Fatigue
The antidote for news fatigue may be simply minding what has your attention. “Flood the zone with sh*t” has been the strategy of the GOP in 2025. It has been practiced for many years, but is at a fever pitch since #47 took office and began implementing Project 2025. Doug Muder explains how he thinks it works and suggests what you can do about it in the talk below. The clip is set to play his advice for coping. You may want to listen to the whole talk if the idea that your attention is being captured and manipulated is foreign to you.
“Whatever has your attention, has you.” ~Willis Elliott
Political strategists have long understood that controlling the media’s news cycle was central to manipulating what citizens see and hear about you and your adversaries. The GOP has been far more effective than the democrats, both in terms of developing Fox News and Sinclair as propaganda organs, and in generating outrage, shock, and fear to rapidly grab attention and rapidly shift it successively from one issue to another. The firehose flow of emotionally wrenching information keeps the public off balance and unable to fully grasp what’s real and what’s hype.
It’s not matter of getting the facts right, or interpreting them with critical thinking. It’s about regaining willful control over what has and holds attention. Can we learn to be mindful in the flooded zone?
The Hidden Hand That Makes Billionaires Possible
We are all in this together, even Elon.
There’s a myth we tell ourselves in America—that the wealthiest among us are entirely self-made, that their success comes purely from their own hard work, intelligence, and risk-taking. You hear it all the time, often from the billionaires themselves. They built their companies “from scratch.” They “earned every penny.” And when the subject of taxation comes up, they argue that it’s unfair for the government to “confiscate” the wealth they created and give it to those who haven’t worked as hard.
It’s a compelling story. But it’s also incomplete.
Elon Musk didn’t build Tesla and SpaceX in a vacuum. Jeff Bezos didn’t create Amazon out of thin air. Even the late Steve Jobs, the genius behind Apple, didn’t succeed in isolation. Every billionaire, every entrepreneur, every corporate empire stands on a foundation of public investments, social systems, and infrastructure that made their success possible.
The Roads, Wires, and Networks They Didn’t Build
Start with the basics. Without roads, bridges, airports, and railways, businesses couldn’t transport goods. Without an educated workforce, companies couldn’t hire skilled employees. Without a functioning legal system to enforce contracts and protect intellectual property, innovation would be too risky.
But let’s go even deeper.
The internet—without which companies like PayPal, Amazon, and Google wouldn’t even exist—was created with government funding. It started as ARPANET, a project of the U.S. Department of Defense. The same goes for GPS, touchscreen technology, and countless other breakthroughs that companies later turned into billion-dollar industries.
Elon Musk, now the world’s richest man, got his start with PayPal, an online payment platform that was only possible because of the internet and a stable financial system backed by government regulations and consumer protections. His later ventures, Tesla and SpaceX, have received billions in government subsidies, research grants, and contracts. And yet, he rails against the very taxes that support the system that made his success possible.
The Myth of the Self-Made Man
The idea that billionaires “did it all themselves” ignores the millions of people whose labor keeps their companies running and the social programs that keep their customers able to buy products. Amazon’s entire business model depends on reliable roads, an educated workforce, and customers with disposable income. Walmart thrives in towns with a strong middle class. Tesla cars aren’t selling in countries with extreme poverty.
If the economy collapses, so does their wealth. That’s why government stimulus programs—so often criticized as “handouts” for regular people—are quietly welcomed by big business when things go south. During the 2008 financial crisis, banks got massive bailouts to keep them afloat. During the COVID-19 pandemic, government relief checks kept people spending, which in turn kept businesses from sinking.
The True Purpose of Taxes
When billionaires and corporations push for tax cuts, they frame it as a moral issue. They argue that it’s unfair to take what they’ve “earned” and give it to the undeserving. But taxation isn’t about punishing success—it’s about maintaining the system that allows success to happen in the first place.
Progressive taxation funds the infrastructure, education, healthcare, and social stability that create the conditions for prosperity. When done right, it prevents economic stagnation, reduces poverty, and ensures that opportunity is available to more than just the lucky few.
If taxes were really the enemy of success, why do countries with strong public investments—like Denmark, Sweden, and Germany—continue to rank among the world’s most competitive economies? Why do billionaires still flourish in places with high taxes and strong safety nets?
Investing in the Future
No one is saying billionaires shouldn’t be rewarded for their vision, leadership, or innovation. But let’s stop pretending that they did it alone. They benefited from the roads they didn’t pave, the schools they didn’t fund, and the technology they didn’t invent. They thrived in an economy kept stable by government protections and social investments.
And when they argue that taxes are unfair, maybe we should ask: unfair to whom?
A society that supports its people—through education, infrastructure, healthcare, and fair wages—is not just good for the poor. It’s good for the wealthy, too. Because without it, there would be no wealth to accumulate.
There’s a reason …
This thirty-minute interview explores how we are being manipulated into anticipatory compliance contrary to our deeply held values. The GOP fell into line first, and now they are coming for the rest of us.
Look What’s Going Down
Free Press
The administration is attacking the funding of listener-supported non-commercial radio by attacking the long tradition of acknowledging funding provided by businesses. The intent is to put a chill on non-promotional sponsorship announcements. You have heard them; they tell you the name of the business and something about what they do, but there is no call to action or promotional claims. Attacking stations and networks like PBS, NPR, and WHYY has only one purpose: to suppress news and opinions that don’t conform to the alternative facts of the administration’s propaganda machine.
In parallel with this, high journalistic quality news media are being replaced with low quality sources that spread conspiracy theories and the administration’s deceptions.
Will they seek to suppress or disrupt internet communications? Access to the Internet is in the hands of the FCC, now led by a GOP loyalist.
Justice
The purging of the FBI, and the Justice Department of those deemed not loyal to the President is clearly a move intended to tip the scales of justice to serve #47 instead of the people.
Separation of Powers
The Supreme Court has been made partisan; Congress fails in its role of advice and consent by approving nominees whose character, inexperience, and partisan loyalty make them obviously unsuited for elevation to powerful and critical office.
Law
The President is immune from prosecution. If they do his bidding, his cronies are all but assured of pardons. The Inspectors General, our watchdogs, have been dismissed. Agency leadership that follows the law, in defiance of #47 gets furloughed.
It’s already tyranny!
The behavior of Putin’s legislators, no dissent unless #47 gives it the nod, is what we are seeing in the GOP Senate and House.
Read what Timothy Snyder says about all of this. It’s expert opinion, not media hysterics.
What I Read
I shake my head at how I move through the day doing normal things while America is being eaten from within. Momentous, lawless, destructive, world-shaping events are happening by the hour. I go to my board meetings, update websites, and write this little offering for friends and relatives. There is a surreal quality to the ordinary. Life since the inauguration of #47 has been a nightmare, and the dread of what’s next permeates my mood. Yet people do the trivial, ordinary hum-drum stuff, exchange pleasantries, and generally go about business as usual.
Many have given up on mainstream media. I don’t listen to or watch the news except for the online on-demand NPR news. However, I have certain news analysts I have found to be trustworthy and good filterers of the flood-the-zone hype, shock, and outrage.
- Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American
- Joyce Vance Civil Discourse
- Robert Reich (His Blog)
- Doug Muder Weekly Sift
- David Kurtz Talking Points Memo
- Judd Legum Popular Information
- Chris Baxter Spotlight PA
Each day you can scan two or three of these in just a few minutes and understand what is important to know about.
Why it’s a Coup
“The ongoing actions by Musk and his followers are a coup because the individuals seizing power have no right to it. Elon Musk was elected to no office and there is no office that would give him the authority to do what he is doing. It is all illegal. It is also a coup in its intended effects: to undo democratic practice and violate human rights.” So says Timothy Snyder, esteemed author of On Tyranny and Freedom.
Snyder has spent his life studying how freedom is won and lost. Dismiss him at your peril.
Read more on Substack: Timothy Snyder
