Day One of the Next Administration.

The November election won't stop Trump from issuing dictatorial executive orders, and he's not going to sign any bills the upcoming Democratic House and Senate pass, no matter what they are, so we're going to have to put up with an increasingly erratic and weird Executive Branch over the next two years.

It may, frankly, get much, much more worse.  There's literally nothing I'd put past Trump whatsoever.

Assuming we all make it to January 20, 2029, it's going to be a priority for the incoming administration to act quickly.  Republicans, having taken a drubbing in 2026 and 2028, will be back on the conservative bandwagon and howling about anything a Democratic administration does.

So, looking forward, what should it do on day 1?

The very first thing it should do is an omnibus executive order wiping out every standing executive order and declaring any issued by Trump a nullity. This should be done partially on the legal premise that Trump was not a legitimate President and all actions he took, including executive actions and appointments to Federal office are null, void, and of no effect.

Any executive orders that were worth doing can be preserved in a following order, or the same order.

Yes this means that over 5,000 Federal employees that were Trump appointees would lose their offices immediately, including sitting judges.

And it means that every single military officer commissioned during Trump's interregnum would lose their commissions.  They can be recommissioned in a following order, but it would have to be a conditional order so that if they were deemed disloyal or associated with the criminal war in Iran, they would be removed.

On day one, the incoming President should order that any officer complicit in the illegal war against Iran be court-martialed appropriately, including every current member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

All the Joint Chiefs should be removed.  The senior positions should be filled with Reserve and National Guard officers.

Every member of the Space Force should be transferred into the Air Force.  Eliminating the Space Force would take an act of Congress, but that doesn't mean it's absurd presence really has to be tolerated.  Former Space Force personnel would report to their stations with Air Force insignia within six hours of the order, as they otherwise came on duty.

Taking a page out of the conservative agenda (I am conservative), women should be removed from combat MOS's.  Basic training should be strictly segregated by gender.  All Air Force basic training should be transferred to the Army.

On Day 1 Lt. Gen. William H. "Butch" Graham Jr., head of the Army Corps of Engineers, should be summoned to appear as soon as the inauguration is over.  He should be given an order to cause the demolition and removal of the Ball Room with in 24 hours of receiving the order.  The same shall apply to the Triumphal Arch.  Within an additional 48 hours, the subterranean bunker complex shall be filled with cement.

The helipad should be broken up and restored to grass.  A dedicated Marine Corps helicopter and dedicated Air Force aircraft for Presidential use shall be halted and those aircraft, all of them, returned to conventional service use within their respective branches.  Likewise the Rose Garden paver shall be removed.  All the gilded crap shall be tossed out within four hours of the inauguration and the interior of the impacted areas restored within twelve hours.  The gilded equestrian statutes shall have the gold removed within 48 hours.  The rhino lining in the reflecting pool shall be removed with in 48 hours.

All Federal lands subject to mineral exploration including petroleum exploration shall be withdrawn from the same, something well within the President's authority.  Biden's order on electric vehicles shall be restored and expanded.

Federal lands removed from withdrawal by Trump shall immediately restored to their prior status.

Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino should be summoned (the current Postmaster General's appointment is illegitimate) and ordered to restore the 671 sorting machines that were dismantled in the first Trump administration back into service within one week.  If they are not available, and they likely are not, he will be ordered to cause their replacement within one month.

Federal offices which have been relocated, such as the Interior's, shall be ordered back to their original quarters within one week of the inauguration. As the order to move them was invalid, all costs associated with the moves to and from other locations shall be ordered to be recovered by the U.S. Attorney's Civil Division by those causing the moves to occur, including Donald Trump.

All use of government property during the interregnum of an improper and personal nature, such as Trump's use of government aircraft, shall likewise be subject to a suit for recovery.

The complete Epstein files shall be released along with an order that anyone implicated in them shall be sought for prosecution, no matter who it is.

All existing "emergencies" which have been declared in place by prior Presidents shall be declared over and any authority extended under them eliminated.  Any order allowing the imposition of tariffs by the President shall be declared over.

All combat operations in place by the United States anywhere would be ordered over within an hour of the inauguration.  Restoring the status quo ante in the Persian Gulf is now almost impossible, so how to proceed on this would be tricky in the extreme.  The best course may be to immediately ask for an international convention on the topic.

Military aid, and frankly any aid, to Israel would be terminated.  The country has been there since 1947 and can make it on its own.  Israel has a right to exist, but it's situation does not involve a vital interest of the United States.

Likewise, pulling out militarily in the Middle East should be ordered to be commenced.  It would take some time, but it should be done.

All military missions to Venezuela would be withdrawn within twelve hours of the inauguration and the legitimate elected head of state recognized as the proper one.

All extrajudicial killings by the U.S. military in the Pacific and Caribbean would be ordered halted and anyone participating in them, right down to the E1 level, ordered to be prosecuted.

All "pardons" issued by Trump would be declared null, void, and of no effect, with anyone released from jail ordered to be returned. An illegitimate President cannot issue a pardon.

The production of penneys would be ordered resumed.

Currency bearing Donald Trump's signature would be ordered to be recovered through the banking system for destruction.

Trump's name would be stricken from anything it attached to during his "second term".

There's be a lot more to do, but that's what ought to happen on the very first day.

The Aerodrome: New White House helipad.

The Aerodrome: New White House helipad.:   At least to some degree, of all the vandalization that Trump has done to the White House, perhaps this is not completely offensive. Report...

New White House helipad.

 

At least to some degree, of all the vandalization that Trump has done to the White House, perhaps this is not completely offensive.

Reportedly this was put in because the new Sikorsky VH-92A used as Marine Corps 1 was scorching the lawn, which raises the question of why the President requires such a heavy duty helicopter, or a helicopter at all.  The Canadian and British prime ministers do not have dedicated helicopters.

Also worth noting, a mile of sod on the National Mall is now ripped up, thanks to the 250th Hootenanny that Trump caused to occur.

Friday, September 10, 1976. A bad day for aviation.

176 people were killed in a collision between a British Airways Trident and a Yugoslavian DC-9 near Zagreb.

The Fighters for Free Croatia hijacked TWA Flight 355 that was flying between New York and Montreal.  A different group hijacked an Indian Airlines flight between New Delhi to Mumbai.

South Africa relaxed rules applying to "coloureds" but not black Africans.

Dalton and Cleo Trumbo at House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, 1947. 

Dalton Trumbo, blacklisted screenwriter who was originally from Colorado, died at age 70 in Los Angeles.  A Communist, some of his screenplays were credited to fronts during the McCarthy Era.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 7, 1976. Mao dies.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, China, Communism, Mao Zedong, People's Republic of China, People's Republic of China v. Republic of China

Monday, September 6, 1976. The defection of Viktor Belenko.

It was Labor Day in the U.S.

I would have been 13 years old. We probably went dove hunting, and maybe fishing.

Mig 25.

Soviet Air Force Lieutenant Viktor Belenko defected with his Mig 25 to Japan.  He would receive asylum in the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life, during which he constantly feared being assassinated by the Soviets/Russians.  He died in 2023 in Illinois at age 76.

The Mig 25 was widely feared by Western nations and the defection was a windfall and a deflation as the plane turned out to be much cruder than imagined. For a time there was suspicion that the defection was itself a deception operation by the Soviet Union.

I recall this event occurring.

Vietnam disclosed the names and fates of twelve Missing In Action aviators who had been killed after being shot down during the Vietnam War.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 5, 1976. The Muppet Show.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, Blog Mirror, television, Uncle Mike

Sunday, September 1, 1946. Greek and Cambodian elections.

The left wing Democratic Party won a majority in Cambodia's first election.

The Greek population voted to retain the Greek monarchy.  The election made the front page in cartoon form of the Rocky Mountain News.

And the War Assets Administration was advertising aircraft for sale.

Hawaiian sugar workers went on strike.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 31, 1946. "Hiroshima".

Labels: 1940s, 1946, French League of Nation Mandates, It was because of World War Two, Japan (Hiroshima), Lebanon, The written word, War Crimes, World War Two

Saturday, August 17, 1946. All The King's Men.

 

Published on this day in 1946.

The novel was a fictionalized account of the rise and fall of Huey Long.

Soviet physicist Pyotr L. Kapitsa was removed from his posts and put under house arrest over his feud with Beria.

First Sergeant Lawrence Lambert, U.S. Army Air Force,  became the first person in United States to test an ejection seat by being ejected mid flight.

It was a brave act, but it should be noted that both German and Swedish developers had already introduced ejection seats.  The very first use of one occured on January 13, 1942, when Henkel test pilot Helmut Schenk was forced to use one while making a test flight of a He 280.

Last edition:

Friday, August 16, 1946. Direct Action Day and the founding of the KDP (ارتی دیموکراتی کوردستان).

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Australia, Bangladesh, Catholic, China, Communism, Harry S. Truman, India, Kurdish Democratic Party, Kurdistan, Manchukuo, Pakistan, religion, Unions, War Crimes

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 148th Edition. The Aerodrome: Substitute. The C-32A and Donald Trump.

The Aerodrome: Substitute. The C-32A and Donald Trump.: It's been revealed (leaked?) that Trump flew out of Turkey not an an older Air Force One, as he'd claimed, but on a C-32A . The C-32...

We'll note something that wasn't noted when this was originally posted.  The report of an Iranian threat was from Israel. The CIA regarded had "low confidence in the report.

Hmmm. . .

Well, it's not like most of us have to worry about such threats in general.  I guess I can't, therefore, gauge the reaction to it.  It is interesting that man with such fatalistic comments about the threat of death earlier has this reaction. .   or is it?  We're sometimes told that when threats happen, as in the January 6 insurrection when Trump tried to go down to his fellow Confederates, the Secret Service will completely take over.

It also sort of puts the whole who goes, and who risks getting killed matter, in a different light.  Or does it?

Well, with all of this, I don't believe there was ever an Iranian threat.  I suspect that Israel was picking up background noise from Iran.  It's not impossible that a rogue Iranian unit might have attempted to assassinate Trump, and of course he made himself an Iranian target by participating in the assassination of their leadership.  But I bet there was never a central effort to do it.

Indeed, it's not in their best interests.  Iran is a lot better off with Trump in charge.  The incompetence of the Trump Administration and the abject cowardice of the Republican Party has proven to be their best ally.  They'll dictate terms to us by November which the Trump Administration will accept.

Substitute. The C-32A and Donald Trump.

It's been revealed (leaked?) that Trump flew out of Turkey not an an older Air Force One, as he'd claimed, but on a C-32A .

The C-32A is a militarized 757.

This would indicate that the Iranian threat against Trump must have been deemed fairly serious, which would necessarily give rise to the question of whether or not the threat still exists.  

This behavior would suggest it does:

We didn’t have Avenger air defense missiles in Kuwait and Jordan and Saudi Arabia, but Trump has them at his Bedminster golf club

While I'm a frequent Trump critic, and don't even believe he's actually a legitimate President, I don't blame the efforts to sneak Trump out on another plane if the threats were deemed credible.  I do regard the stationing of AAA at a New Jersey golf course to be questionable while we're running out of AAA in the Middle East due to Trump's illegal war there.  He could just skip golfing or risk it.

Perhaps of more interest is who was put on the catering van to make the switch in aircraft with Trump. They were Dan Scavino, Walt Nauta and Natalie Harp.  The only one you may have heard of is Harp, whose a tall blond fitting into the general Trump harem appearance profile and who has some sort of flunky job with Trump.  The White House Press Corps rode the substituted Air Force One back as did some senior White House officials.

Now, I'm not saying everyone should have been on the 757.  I do find it interesting that the figures who were allowed to ride the substitute C-32A were not really important people.  I'm also not saying that Harp and Trump are doing anything illicit, although I do find Harp to be an odd figure.

I also wonder if every President would have taken this option.  I suspect not, but I suspect some would have.

I'm also noting how embarrassing this is. The claimed most powerful military in the world has been defeated by Iran, whose Air Force is so depleted it rarely gets anything in the air, although contrary to some claims, it has during this war, having put an F-14 in the skies on at least one occasion.

It's an existential defeat.

Last edition:

CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 147th Edition. Have we reached an "Is Paris burning?" moment?

Labels: 119th Congress, 1940s, 1943, 1944, 1945, 2020s, 2026, Beer Hall Putsch, Disease, Donald Trump, It was because of COVID 19, law, Lies, Ötzi, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., The Second Trump Administration, World War Two, Zeitgeist

The Aerodrome: Thursday, August 8, 1946. First flight of the B-36.

The Aerodrome: Thursday, August 8, 1946. First flight of the B-36.: B-36 (right) next to a B-29. The Convair B-36 Peacemaker was flown by the United States Air Force for the first time. It had originally been...

Thursday, August 8, 1946. First flight of the B-36.

B-36 (right) next to a B-29.

The Convair B-36 Peacemaker was flown by the United States Air Force for the first time. It had originally been conceived of as a bomber that could reach Japan from Hawaii.  It became the US's first dedicated nuclear strategic bomber.

An absolutely massive airplane, it would have a short service life, being retired in 1959 with the onset of the B-52.  It was never flown in combat.

Gen. Billy Mitchell received a posthumous Medal of Honor.  He was also posthumously promoted to Major General.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 7, 1946. The Dardanelles Crisis commences.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Dardanelles, Harry S. Truman, Joseph Stalin, The Cold War, Turkey, USSR

Monday, August 5, 1946. Neil Armstrong becomes a private pilot.

Neil Armstrong of Wapakoneta, age 16, earned his student pilot's certificate flying an Aeronca Champion airplane.

Aeronca Champion.

It was actually his 16th birthday.

Last edition:

Friday, August 2, 1946. Vlasov executed.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Andrey Vlasov, Art, Cartoons, Collaborators, George S. Patton, German Wehrmacht, Nazi Germany, Operation Keelhaul, Personalities, Red Army, Refugees, Russian Liberation Army, Tennessee, World War Two

Thursday, August 1, 1946. Battle of Athens.

By Brian Stansberry (photographer) - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3739488

A large-scale citizen uprising in Athens and Etowah Tennessee broke out over police corruption and voter intimidation.  Organized veterans were the main figures in the uprising, and the result would permanently change the existing controlled and corrupt system in the region.

Returning GIs being reformers of corruption was a common feature of the post war U.S.

The Atomic Energy Commission was established.

The Fulbright Scholarship was created.

Scandinavian Airlines was founded as a consortium of the flag carriers of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 31, 1946. Cracking Venona.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Aircraft, Clement Attlee, Diplomacy, Espionage, Harry S. Truman, Palestine, Personalities, USSR, Venona Files

Wednesday, July 31, 1946. Cracking Venona.

American cryptanalyst Meredith Gardner made a breakthrough, identifying the ciphers used for spelling English words, in a team project to crack Soviet espionage codes used in the United States.

His work remained secret for decades, and he personally felt badly about how it was used in the McCarthy era.  He died at age 89 in 2002.

The stillborn Morrison-Grady Plan was proposed by Herbert Morrison of Britain and Henry F. Grady of the U.S., providing for the division of Palestine into three districts.

President Truman and Prime Minister Attlee would both endorse it, but it had no support from Arabs or Jews.

President Truman signed legislation creating the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.

Philippine Airlines made its first transpacific flight.

Last edition:

Monday, July 29, 1946. Anping Incident.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Anping Incident, China, Chinese Civil War, International Military Tribunal for the Far East, Operation Beleaguer, People's Liberation Army, United States Marine Corps, War Crimes

Friday, July 26, 1946. OPA back in business.

A restored Office of Price Administration issued orders restoring price controls but with less restrictions on raising prices.

Trans Pacific Airlines, laster Aloha Airlines, came into existence.  It continued operations until 2008.

Robert H. Jackson delivered his closing argument at the Nuremberg Trials.

Last edition:

Thursday, July 25, 1946. Crossroads Baker.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Bikini Atoll, Comedians, entertainment, Ethnicities, Georgia, Operation Crossroads, Racism, U.S. Navy, Weapons

Tuesday, July 23, 1946. Last of the POWs sent home.

The United States released the last of 375,000 German POWs it had held in the United States, embarking 1,385 of them on the General Yates after transporting them from Camp Shanks, New York.

About ten POWs who had escaped during the war remained at large and were never accounted for.

The Zaibatsu, the Japanese corporations that had financed Japan's war effort, were abolished.

Many of them would be reconstituted starting in 1953, including Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo.

Frances Ramsden and her standard poodles were on the cover of Look.

Ramsden was a model who had a very brief acting career, appearing in only three films. She later married Egyptian millionaire Adel Sabit, a cousin of King Farouk, but had to abandon Cairo due to that association. She divorced in 1975 and returned to California, where she spent the remainder of her life, passing away in 2000 at the age of 80.

The prior day's bombing of the King David Hotel made the front page of American newspapers.

It's interesting that the press referred to the Irgun as "terrorists".  The label is appropriate in varying degrees, but the attack on the King David Hotel might have been a legitimate attack, in the context of a legitimate war, if this war is regarded as that.  Terrorism itself is never justified.

The original goal of the mission was to destroy materials that identified those who had participated in the destruction of bridges a bit earlier in the uprising.

Of course, the ultimate question is whether the uprising itself was justified.  I don't feel that it was.  It's certainly the case that the failure to accommodate both the Arab and Jewish populations has resulted in 80 years of strife, although such an accommodation may not have been possible.

United Airlines addressed its customers.

United is in the news again today, looking for a solution for its customers who do not wish to fly into Insurrectionist Seditionist Narcissist International Airport in Palm Beach.

An interesting surplus item.

Last edition:

Monday, July 22, 1946. The bombing of the King David Hotel.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Haganah, Irgun, Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine, Palestine, Zionism

Sunday, July 21, 1946. Rationing bread.

The British Ministry of Food, with the approval of the House of Commons, put bread rationing in effect in the United Kingdom.  It was the first time that had occured in the country's history.

Britain continued to deal with food shortages for quite some time after the Second World War.  Bread rationing, which had not occurred during the war, would last until July 1948.  Other types of wartime rationing would continue on and be phased out, with the last rationing ending in 1954.

An oddity of this is that British health was noted to have improved due to rationing.  We don't often think of this occurring, but it did.  Likewise, it was noted that German soldiers in Allied hospitals, who had been getting by on thin rations, recovered from their wounds more quickly than well fed American ones.

Lieutenant Commander James J. Davidson landed a FH-1 Phantom on the deck of the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, becoming the first American to land a jet aircraft on a carrier.

President Gualberto Villarroel of Bolivia was murdered by a mob that stormed the presidential palace.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 10, 1946. "Report of the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack".

Labels: 1940s, 1941, 1946, 79th Congress, Army, China, Chinese Civil War, Imperial Japanese Navy, Nationalist Chinese Army, Pearl Harbor Hawaii, People's Liberation Army, U.S. Navy, World War Two