100 days

NOTE: Thursday 8 p.m. MSNBC special about/with Federal Employees affected by the DOGE actions in the first 100 days.  Also, see post on Law Day published Thursday, May 1, 2025.

At the beginning of the 100 days I made a decision to save the news section of each days Minnesota Star Tribune.  The above photo is of the pile, the most recent (April 30) on top.  Anything additional I might have to say is superfluous.  The papers will go in a box, labeled, and I won’t be the one to throw them out.  They are the day to day evidence of the 100 days of Jan. 20 – April 30, 2025 which includes, best I can tell,  139 Executive Orders signed by the President.  The link lists all of the Executive Orders filed as required in the Federal Register.

I came across what appears to be a credible source of the record of Executive Orders by Presidents.  It speaks for itself.  Remember, this 100 days is compared against previous Presidents entire terms of four or eight years in most cases.  The list starts with Richard Nixon, and includes the last ten U.S. presidents.  (It is worth your time to go to the About page for this source, and listen to the approximately three minute video by Steve Ballmer, founder, former CEO of Microsoft.)

In addition, on his first day in office #47 pardoned 1,500 people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter from an American for April 29 give another perspective on the first 100 days here.

*

I have only two pieces of advice: 1) the solution is in the hands of each and every one of us, wherever we live, whoever we know, whoever we are.  The ball is in our court.  Period.  2) wherever you live, get to know your local member of the U.S. Congress – get on his/her mailing list; and for sure follow the performance of your U.S. Senators.  It is also very important to know your areas State Representative and Senator, and Governor.  Political decisions have huge consequences.  Pay attention to who you vote for in any election, and vote in all of them.  Get in action.

What we are living in now was created by our collective selves, and it is incumbent on each of us to do what a little bit more than what we think is the minimum we can do: something once a day, one person at a time, will make an immense amount of difference two years from now.  There were, after all, 75,000,000 of us who actually voted for an alternative in November (see below); there were 90,000,000 or so eligible voters who didn’t vote at all, and about 2 1/2  million who voted for fringe candidates who could not win.

*

Brad recently sent on a recent commentary Mark Twain quotes Shelly Fisher Fishkin 2025 from the April 15, 2025, San Francisco Chronicle: quotations of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) included in Shelley Fisher Fishkin just published book about Mark Twain.  The quotations are very interesting.  Clemens time of influence was roughly from the time of the Civil War to the end of Teddy Roosevelts presidency, much of this time period is called the “gilded age”.  He lived  1835-1910.

*

Here is the graphic I printed when the voting totals were finalized back in January.

Re-shared is another graphic I did back in January.  Numbers thrown around with abandon are incomprehensible to most of us.  This is intended to get a little context.  At the end I add a comment about the price of eggs in January.  I went to the same store on April 30 and the general price range is consistent with the price range 3 1/2 months ago.

Wealth