The Conversation -- April 14, 2025
Harvard Fights Back. Vimal Patel of the New York Times: “Harvard University said on Monday that it had rejected policy changes requested by the Trump administration, becoming the first university to directly refuse to comply with the administration’s demands and setting up a showdown between the federal government and the nation’s wealthiest university.... A letter the Trump administration sent to Harvard on Friday demanded that the university reduce the power of students and faculty members over the university’s affairs; report foreign students who commit conduct violations immediately to federal authorities; and bring in an outside party to ensure that each academic department is 'viewpoint diverse,' among other steps. The administration did not define what it meant by viewpoint diversity, but it has generally referred to seeking a range of political views, including conservative perspectives. 'No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,' said Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, in a statement to the university on Monday.” Politico's story is here.
From the Washington Post's live updates: “Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said Monday that he did not plan to return to Kilmar Abrego García to the United States. 'How can I return him to the United States?' Bukele asked Monday during a meeting with ... Donald Trump in the Oval Office. 'I smuggle him into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it.' The comments come a day after the Justice Department told a federal judge that it isn’t required to bring home a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Since Bukele struck a deal with Trump’s administration, he has accepted more than 200 Venezuelans deported from the U.S. in recent months and housed them in his country’s draconian mega-prison.... Donald Trump thanked ... Bukele on Monday for his participation in the Trump administration’s efforts to conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. 'You are helping us out, and we appreciate it,' Trump said in an Oval Office meeting with Bukele.... Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that the Trump administration was not bound to follow court orders to return Kilmar Abrego García from El Salvador, saying that 'no court in the United States has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States.'” ~~~
~~~ Update: The Washington Post's full story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: My suggestion to the judge overseeing Abrego's case: jail Marco for contempt of court. Then let's see how he "conducts foreign policy" from a federal lock-up. ~~~
~~~ Myah Ward & Eli Stokols of Politico: “The president deferred to his top administration officials Monday, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, senior adviser Stephen Miller and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to field questions about the administration’s intentions, in what appeared to be an orchestrated effort to deliver a forceful, consistent response. Bondi, sitting near Trump, said it is up to El Salvador to decide if they want to return him. 'That’s not up to us,' she said, pointing to the Supreme Court ruling. 'If they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.'... Ccritics and legal experts have argued that the case sets a dangerous precedent of allowing the executive branch the expansive and chilling power to imprison individuals in different countries without due process — especially as Trump continues to float sending U.S. citizens to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center. 'Home-growns are next. The home-growns,' Trump told Bukele. 'You gotta build about five more places. It’s not big enough.'... During the back and forth in the Oval Office, Trump criticized the reporter who pressed him on this matter, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, insulting her for 'low ratings' and stating that he’d prefer her to simply praise him for deporting 'criminals.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Note that Bondi, the attorney general of the United States, sat there like a potted plant while the POTUS* said he would send native-born U.S. citizens to El Salvador prisons. That is not legal. It also is not the first time Trump (and his dingbat press secretary!) has suggested it: ~~~
~~~ Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post (April 10): “... Donald Trump has repeatedly raised the idea of sending U.S. citizens who have been convicted of some crimes to prisons in other countries.... White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended [Trump's] comments..., telling reporters that in reference 'to the president’s idea for American citizens to potentially be deported, these would be heinous, violent criminals who have broken our nation’s laws repeatedly.' While immigration experts say there is no legal way for a person with U.S. citizenship to be deported, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor sounded a warning this month about the Trump administration’s stance on the matter in a dissenting opinion that referenced a case regarding the mistaken deportation of a Salvadoran immigrant in Maryland[:] 'The implication of the Government’s position is that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal.'...” ~~~
~~~ Trump, et al., are Full of It. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Some of ... [Donald] Trump’s top aides on Monday misstated several key facts involving the deportation of a Maryland man to El Salvador last month, blatantly contradicting other members of the administration who have maintained for weeks that his expulsion was an 'administrative error.' In remarks from the Oval Office and on television, Mr. Trump’s advisers suddenly declared that the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, had been lawfully sent to a prison in El Salvador. The White House also sought to portray a recent Supreme Court ruling in Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case as a victory when in fact the decision was a nuanced one. It partly found in favor of Mr. Abrego Garcia while also leaving open a loophole for the administration to avoid bringing him back from El Salvador. The efforts by the Trump administration to misrepresent the case came as President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador announced after a meeting with Mr. Trump that his government would not return Mr. Abrego Garcia to U.S. soil.” Read on, especially the parts about that hideous Stephen Miller. This is a gift link.
Constitutional Crisis, Ctd.: ✓. David Bauder of the AP: “Despite a court order, a reporter and photographer from The Associated Press were barred from an Oval Office news conference on Monday with ... Donald Trump and his counterpart from El Salvador, Nayib Bukele. Last week’s federal court decision forbidding the Trump administration from punishing the AP for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico was to take effect Monday. The administration is appealing the decision and arguing with the news outlet over whether it needs to change anything until those appeals are exhausted. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit set a Thursday hearing on Trump’s request that any changes be delayed while case is reviewed. The AP is fighting for more access as soon as possible.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~
~~~ Marie: It isn't enough that Boss Trump & his mob have created a constitutional crisis over the life-and-death matter of Mr. Abrego. Nope, they have to create another crisis over Trump's petulance over the AP's deciding against following his silly claim that he has renamed the Gulf of Mexico. They're enjoying these fights with the courts. They think they're showing off their manly dominance. And they think -- perhaps correctly -- that's there's nothing the courts can do to stop them from Article IIing their way right past the rest of the Constitution, especially the Amendments with all those annoying rights of citizens.
~~~ Marie: As an addendum to Oliver's critique, let me just add that among the many things Howard Lutnick gets wrong is his declaration that "you can't grow mangos in America." Yes, you can. With almost no effort at all, I produced a huge crop of tasty, juicy, two-pound mangoes in Southwest Florida every year -- and from one tree. My parents had done the same in Miami. There is hardly an easier, faster fruit tree to grow than the mango.
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Maeve Reston of the Washington Post: “Bernie Sanders launched the next round of his 'fighting oligarchy' tour Saturday in Los Angeles, where he and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) drew thousands of people to a park across from City Hall as they advanced their effort to build a 'working-class movement.' 'We are living in a moment of extraordinary danger, and how we respond to this moment will not only impact our lives but it will affect the lives of our kids and future generations,' Sanders said to a crowd that organizers said totaled 36,000 people. 'We are living in a moment where a handful of billionaires control the economic and political life of our country.' The Trump administration 'is moving us rapidly toward an authoritarian form of society — and Mr. Trump, we ain’t going there,' Sanders said to cheers... As he makes stops in red House districts in Utah, Idaho, Montana and several of the most competitive California districts over the next few days, Sanders will be meeting with potential candidates who share his vision and ideology — both independents and Democrats — as they weigh runs for office up and down the ballot in 2026. Sanders’s latest organizing effort is still taking shape, building off the energy that the independent Vermont senator has generated in rallies since ... Donald Trump’s inauguration.”
Minho Kim & Tim Balk of the New York Times: “The White House on Sunday released ... [Donald] Trump’s health report, which declares that Mr. Trump 'is fully fit to execute the duties' of the presidency while laying out a few conditions, such as high cholesterol, for which he has been treated and the report describes as 'well controlled.' The report, written by the president’s physician, Dr. Sean P. Barbabella, who is also a Navy captain, says that Mr. Trump 'remains in excellent health' and 'exhibits excellent cognitive and physical health.'” MB: Lest you think this is a real health report describing Trump's real physical condition, “It refers to Mr. Trump’s 'frequent victories in golf events' as an example of his 'active lifestyle' contributing to his physical and mental well-being.” Unless the patient is, say, Rory McIlroy, and the physical is given today, I doubt the report would mention anything about the super-duper quality of his golf game.
Mad King to Re-impose Tariffs He Just Cancelled. Tony Romm, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump signaled on Sunday that he would pursue new tariffs on the powerful computer chips inside smartphones and other technologies, just two days after his administration excluded a variety of electronics from the steep import taxes recently applied on goods arriving from China. The push came as Mr. Trump’s top economic advisers scrambled to explain their shifting strategy, after having insisted for weeks that they would shield no company or industry from any of the fees they have levied in a bid to reset U.S. trade relationships.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: What happened? Didn't Tim Apple pay enough tribute to the Dear Leader? This on-again/off-again/on-again chaos is INSANE. ~~~
~~~ Ah, a Fake "Clarification." Quinn Scanlan of ABC News: "Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the administration's decision Friday night to exempt a range of electronic devices from tariffs implemented earlier this month was only a temporary reprieve, with the secretary announcing that those items would be subject to 'semiconductor tariffs' that will likely come in 'a month or two.' 'All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they're going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored. We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, and we need to have flat panels -- we need to have these things made in America. We can't be reliant on Southeast Asia for all of the things that operate for us,' Lutnick told 'This Week' co-anchor Jonathan Karl. He continued, "So what [... Donald Trump's] doing is he's saying they're exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two. So these are coming soon.'" MB: Okay, big-tech manufacturers: Donnie has his hand out. Cross his palm. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update. An Even Faker "Clarification": "Donald Trump on Sunday announced that 'there was no tariff exception announced on Friday,' declaring, 'THOSE DAYS ARE OVER!' The President over the weekend took to Truth Social, writing, 'NOBODY is getting "off the hook" for the unfair Trade Balances, and Non Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!' 'There was no Tariff "exception" announced on Friday. These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff "bucket." The Fake News knows this, but refuses to report it,' Trump added. 'We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations.'"
Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: “China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, threatening to choke off supplies of components central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world. Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors. The official crackdown is part of China’s retaliation for ... [Donald] Trump’s sharp increase in tariffs that started on April 2.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Huizhong Wu & Aniruddha Ghosal of the AP: “China’s leader Xi Jinping said no one wins in a trade war as he kicked off a diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia on Monday, reiterating China’s commitment to global trade in contrast with U.S. ... Donald Trump’s latest tariffs moves. Although Trump has paused some tariffs, he has kept in place 145% duties on China, the world’s second-largest economy. 'There are no winners in a trade war, or a tariff war,' Xi wrote in an editorial jointly published in Vietnamese and Chinese official media. 'Our two countries should resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment.' Xi’s visit lets China show Southeast Asia it is a 'responsible superpower in the way that contrasts with the way the U.S. under President Donald Trump presents to the whole world,' said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: Donald “Trump will meet with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador at the White House on Monday as the administration ramps up its use of a notorious Salvadoran prison for holding migrants deported by the United States. In Mr. Bukele, who has referred to himself as the world’s 'coolest dictator,' Mr. Trump has found a willing partner in a plan for deportations with little or no due process. The removal of the migrants to the prison, known as CECOT, has become a flashpoint in the administration’s attempt to skirt normal immigration practice and the role of the courts in reviewing Mr. Trump’s executive power. Just a day before the meeting between the two leaders, the Trump administration once again tried to resist a federal judge’s order to bring back a Maryland man who was unlawfully deported to the prison. In a legal filing on Sunday, the Justice Department argued that the courts lacked the ability to dictate steps the White House should take to return the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, because only the president had the power to handle U.S. foreign policy.”
Josh Marcus of the Independent: “The U.S. has deported 10 more alleged Latin American gang members to El Salvador, where they will likely be detained in a notorious maximum-security prison accused of numerous human rights abuses. 'Last night, another 10 criminals from the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua Foreign Terrorist Organizations arrived in El Salvador,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X on Sunday, praising the collaboration between the Trump administration and Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele as an 'example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere.'” MB: Yet somehow in this excellent collaboration, Rubio is unable to secure the return of a man the U.S. erroneously sent to the same El Salvador prison. The U.S. plane that carried the ten people of the prison presumably was sitting on a tarmac near the prison, so there is no possible reason -- other than that the government lied to a federal judge that Kilmar Abrego García was alive and well and resident in the prison -- that the plane could not have picked up Abrego and brought him home to his family. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Olivia George & Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration said Sunday that it is not required to engage El Salvador’s government in efforts to facilitate the return of a Maryland man mistakenly deported to a notorious prison there, striking a defiant tone in responding to a federal judge’s order that plans be made to bring him back to the United States. Federal officials said Sunday that the high court’s ruling required only that they 'remove any domestic obstacles that would otherwise impede' the return of Kilmar Abrego García. The administration also argued that Abrego García 'is no longer eligible' for the protection from deportation that should have prevented him from being sent to El Salvador in the first place, according to records filed Sunday evening in U.S. District Court in Maryland.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wait, wait! The government has not remove the "domestic obstacles," because the domestic obstacles are Donald Trump, Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem & others. So it undermines its own shameful argument. ~~~
We need to make our voices heard. We’re not red, we’re not blue. We’re the building trades, the backbone of America. You want to build a $5 billion data center? Want more six-figure careers with health care, retirement, and no college debt? You don’t call Elon Musk, you call us!... And yeah, that means all of us. All of us. Including our brother [International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers] apprentice Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who we demand to be returned to us and his family now! Bring him home! -- Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Union, to union members ~~~
~~~ Some Are More Equal Than Others. Heather Cox Richardson: "... Donald J. Trump is claiming the power to ignore the due process of the law guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, declare someone is a criminal, kidnap them, send them to prison in a third country, and then claim that there is no way to get that person back. All people in the United States are entitled to due process, but Trump and his officers have tried to convince Americans that noncitizens are not. They have also pushed the idea that those they are offshoring are criminals, but a Bloomberg investigation showed that of the 238 men sent to CECOT in the first group, only five of them had been charged with or convicted of felony assault or gun violations.... Once you give up the idea that we are all equal before the law and have the right to due process, you have given up the whole game. You have admitted the principle that some people have more rights than others. Once you have replaced the principle of equality before the law with the idea that some people have no rights, you have granted your approval to the idea of an authoritarian government."
⭐Rubio Will Send Masked Federal Agents to Grab You Off the Sidewalk for NOTHING. John Hudson of the Washington Post: “Days before masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk to deport her, the State Department determined that the Trump administration had not produced any evidence showing that she engaged in antisemitic activities or made public statements supporting a terrorist organization, as the government has alleged. The finding, contained in a March memo that was described to The Washington Post, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not have sufficient grounds for revoking Ozturk’s visa under an authority empowering the top U.S. diplomat to safeguard the foreign policy interests of the United States. The memo, written by an office within the State Department, raises doubts about the public accusations made by the Trump administration as it has sought to justify Ozturk’s deportation.... As a result of the lack of evidence, the department said she could be deported using a different authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows for the revocation of a visa at the secretary of state’s discretion.... The Department of Homeland Security has said Ozturk engaged in activities 'in support of Hamas,' a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, but neither that agency nor U.S. prosecutors have provided evidence for that claim.” ~~~
~~~ "American Rendition." Hannah Allam of ProPublica: "... ProPublica examined court filings and interviewed attorneys and Rümeysa Öztürk’s close friend, who regularly speaks to her in detention. What emerges is a more intimate picture of Öztürk and how a child development researcher charged with no crime ended up in a crowded cell in Louisiana. The interviews and court records also provide a glimpse into a sprawling, opaque apparatus designed to deport the maximum number of people with minimum accountability.... Öztürk is among nearly 1,000 students whose visas have been revoked, according to a tally by the Association of International Educators. And she is among several students and professors who have been detained. Her detention was exceptional, immigration attorneys said, because it was caught on camera. What’s scariest, they say, is how fast the removals happen and how little is known about them."
Maria Paul of the Washington Post: “As the Trump administration pushes for mass deportations, expands federal enforcement and shutters oversight offices, experts warn [that U.S.] citizens are increasingly at risk of getting caught in the dragnet. [There have been at least seven recent cases.]... A 2021 report from the Government Accountability Office ... found that ICE wasn’t training officers to follow internal policy requiring them to consult supervisors before detaining someone who claims to be a citizen — or to back off if the evidence of citizenship outweighs the evidence against it. Neither ICE nor Customs and Border Protection is required to track such detentions. Officers aren’t always obligated to verify legal status before making an arrest. And unlike in criminal cases, immigration enforcement agents aren’t required to show probable cause to a judge before taking someone into custody. Experts say the lack of oversight is part of a deeper problem: ICE operates with little transparency and few mechanisms for accountability, especially when it comes to U.S. citizens.” ~~~
~~~ Don't Worry. DOGE Is on the Case. Sophia Cai of Politico (April 11): “Key DOGE engineers [including 'Big Balls'] ... are spread throughout DHS, including Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure and Security Agency. They are providing the technical infrastructure for a sweeping set of actions aimed at revoking parole, terminating visas, and later on, reengineering the asylum adjudication process, according to the officials.... That effort required coordinating with the Social Security Administration to have their Social Security numbers effectively canceled by adding them to a database that tracks dead people, the New York Times and the Washington Post first reported.... 'DOGE is working in all the agencies. We are looking at our books, at people who don’t belong here that Joe Biden allowed in with bogus claims,' said a White House official.” ~~~
~~~ Still, mistakes are made. Thanks to RAS for the link.
John Hudson & Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: “Pete Marocco, a State Department official who oversaw the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has left the agency after less than three months.... The reason for his departure, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, was not immediately clear. Marocco worked closely with tech billionaire Elon Musk, both of whom recommended severe cuts to USAID and State Department programs, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Both men clashed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has opposed some of the cuts proposed by the U.S. DOGE Service. Marocco served in the Defense, State and Commerce departments, and at USAID, in the first Trump administration. In 2020, USAID staffers filed a complaint against Marocco, alleging that he abused and marginalized staff while he reviewed or defunded programs under his own 'personal (but undefined) conception of “national security,’” The Post previously reported.” MB: If Vicious Pete's possible defenestration is supposed to make us think better of Little Marco, it's not working for me.
Show of Force. Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “Since [Donald Trump's] return to office..., the administration has rapidly assembled a force of about 10,000 troops and positioned them across the porous hinterland spanning Texas to California, the centerpiece of an expansive initiative that also includes more drone flights and an unusually robust maritime presence off Mexico. Such hardware typically is reserved for missions overseas. Under Trump, it is being used to track the movement of people and narcotics bound for the United States, monitor cartel activity and send an unambiguous message that the status quo has changed. The moves to bolster the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement efforts have coincided with a sharp drop in illegal crossings, though the president’s political opponents question whether this is an appropriate use of the military, and relations with Mexico are at a low.... Trump’s efforts have triggered deep unease in Washington and Mexico City about the military’s fast-expanding presence along the border, as well as whether Trump intends to launch lethal force against Mexico’s cartels. Upon retaking the White House in January, the administration declared them to be foreign terrorist organizations.”
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New York. Yan Zhuang of the New York Times: “The Federal Aviation Agency said late Sunday that a sightseeing helicopter company was shutting down its operations immediately after a deadly crash last week on the Hudson River. The helicopter, operated by New York Helicopter Tours, was carrying six people when it crashed into the river on Thursday. None survived. The F.A.A. said in statement on Sunday that it would launch an immediate review of the tour operator’s license and safety record, as well as cooperate with the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the crash. It was not immediately clear if New York Helicopter Tours had shut down voluntarily or under orders from the F.A.A.”
Pennsylvania. Edgar Sandoval & Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: “Pennsylvania state authorities have arrested a 38-year-old Harrisburg man and said he set fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion, forcing Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family to evacuate early Sunday before the blaze severely damaged part of the building. The man, identified as Cody Balmer, 38, jumped a fence and managed to evade state troopers as he broke in to the building and set the fire, the authorities said, adding that he had used homemade incendiary devices. He fled the scene and was arrested in Harrisburg on Sunday afternoon, officials said in a news conference.... Mr. Shapiro, who became emotional [during a news briefing] as he described his family’s ordeal, recalled the moment a state trooper banged on his door shortly after 2 a.m., woke him, his wife and children, and rushed them to safety from an arson attack that he called 'targeted.'” (Also linked yesterday.) The NBC News story is here.
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Israel. Louisa Loveluck, et al., of the Washington Post: “Explosions at a United Nations guesthouse in Gaza that killed a European aid worker and severely wounded five others last month were very likely caused by two Israeli tank shells, according to experts who analyzed photos of the scene obtained exclusively by The Washington Post. The strike on March 19, which came a day after Israel’s surprise bombardment ended a two-month ceasefire, led the United Nations to substantially scale back its international workforce in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. has blamed Israel for the attack, an assertion some analysts have supported. Israel has denied responsibility.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Ukraine, et al. Siobhán O'Grady, et al., of the Washington Post: “A Russian missile strike on the center of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed at least 34 people, including two children, Ukrainian officials said, fueling further skepticism over any Russian intent to end the war as ... Donald Trump pushes for a ceasefire. The attack on the city’s downtown area occurred on Palm Sunday, as families flocked to church to mark the beginning of Holy Week ahead of Easter. Volodymyr Artyukh, head of the Sumy regional military administration, said Russia launched two ballistic missiles at the city. Trump, who has increasingly expressed anger at the war’s continuing pace despite his peace efforts, called the attack 'terrible' on Sunday night. 'I was told they made a mistake. I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing. I think, for that war to have started is an abuse of power,' he said, without elaborating what he meant by 'mistake.'”
21 Comments
Reader Comments (21)
Five years ago the Stable Genius aced his mental acuity test with:
'Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV.'
This year I'll bet it was 'Tariffs, Immigrants, Tariffs, Dictators,
Tariffs, Deportations, Tariffs'
The doctor obviously didn't report this since it would be bad
publicity for the Stable Genius.
Here’s a story that makes me want to punch someone . Hard. Actually, multiple someones.
Here’s a kid in a high school in Massachusetts dealing with a disability, a situation made temporarily easier by a federal government program designed to help kids like this. If you can read through this story completely dry eyed, there’s something wrong with you. Either that or you work for the Fat Hitler Reich, which is the same thing.
But this is just one of hundreds, maybe thousands of programs cut by the richest man in the world and his sniggering, pizza chomping, video game playing Hitler youth motherfuckers, enjoying their six figure salaries (paid by all of us!!!) as they stick the knife in the backs of kids and their families who only need a little help to get to a better place in life.
“One of these programs, cancelled on Feb. 10, was called Charting My Path for Future Success. It was a research-based effort to help students with disabilities make the sometimes difficult transition from high school into college or the world of work and self-sufficiency.
For just three weeks, beginning in January, some 1,600 high school juniors were enrolled in the program in 13 school districts across the country, including in Virginia, Arizona and Georgia.
A U.S. Education Department spokesperson, Madi Biedermann, told NPR in a statement that Charting My Path was a research project ‘with questionable implementation’ and that too much of the program's $43 million cost, by DOGE's accounting, was going to contractors, not kids.
But some of the people closest to the program – families, educators and researchers – say Charting My Path could have helped millions of vulnerable teens.
Jessie Damroth was grateful her 17-year-old son's school district, in Newton, Mass., was helping to pilot the program, until she learned it had been abruptly stopped.
‘I cried all day," she says.’”
Questionable implementation???!?!
And who are these little MAGA fuckers who made that determination? What are their qualifications to make such a decision? A weekend at Mar-a-Lardo?
To these people “research” means “fraud”. Why?
There is no good reason. It’s what they’re told. Also, they’re ignorant putzes.
Also they’re evil.
And this is just one example out of millions, as Big Balls and his sieg heiling Nazi boss snigger and cackle their way through the destruction of American lives.
Forrest,
I think it was much harder. Probably “golf, ball, golf, ball”.
Only a stable genius could ace that test. Also, “he’s lost 20 pounds!”
Where? From his head? There wasn’t 10% of that up there already.
Hang on…
Semiconductors are subject to…a fentynal tariff? Wha…?
And the MSM dutifully reports this sort of thing as if it makes any bit of sense?
Golf, ball, golf, ball…
From what I’ve read, a big component of China’s trade stoppage is rare earth products, meaning powerful magnets. Such as used in cars. Most especially electric cars.
This might bunch up the panties of one yuge Trump supporter. Bigly.
The bloom may be coming off the rose some. Just shows that a quarter plus billion dollars of cash plus a lot more in kind support doesn’t go that far these days.
Marco Rubio, like Ted Cruz, loves to tout his Cuban roots and how his family escaped the cruel Cuban government and their abuses of the people. Now He is the one disappearing people off the streets for wrong thought. Sending people to torture prisons. His supposed history was just a guide for what he would become and do to others. But he is already a Republican so he was already more than halfway on his way to being what he pretended to oppose. He didn't have far to fall before becoming the American
Cubanboogeyman ordering people picked up off the streets by masked secret police for imagined crimes against his authoritarian leader. There are already people like Ozturk who will tell their children of the cruel and heartless Rubio who sent secret police to grab her and others off of the streets because they were scared of an op-ed in a university newspaper or they posted the wrong comment on social media.@Akhilleus: That 20 pounds Donald lost was when he was sitting
on that gold plated crapper.
He's still full of it, with about 80 pounds to go.
I was about 15 years old when I learned that our modern toilet
was invented by an Englishman, John Crapper. The class was
excused because everyone laughed for half an hour.
@RAS: (1) As you suggest, Marco's family are not really refugees from Castro's harsh Cuban regime. His parents began living in the U.S. in 1956, which the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista was still in power. And according to Marco's Wikipage, his mother returned to Cuba at least four times after Castro's takeover. That is, they immigrated to the U.S. probably for economic reasons, not because of political repression. (My own relatives, on the other hand, did leave Cuba because for fear of Castro. With good reason.)
(2) Oftentimes, people in minority groups who aim to "join the majority" are among the cruelest to those of their group who don't share their ambitions. They will go to extremes to fit in with the majority, and that includes denigrating the minority from which they came. I have noticed numerous examples of that "hypermajoritism" all of my adult life. Little Marco fits right in.
(3) I have no idea what Marco's ethnicity is, but he might be more Spanish than Indio (or believe he is more Spanish than Indio). When I was growing up in Miami, I had Cuban friends who made that distinction. One young Cuban woman -- who was of fairer complexion than I -- put a special emphasis on her Whiteness -- as compared to many Cubanos. So -- like my high school friend -- Marco may be a racist, too. And that racism may be part of what's driving his willingness to deport anyone and everyone, whether they're here legally or not. But I'm guessing that "fitting in" with the broader Republican elite class is his major motivator.
That's settled:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/14/trump-presidency-news-tariffs-deportations/?
Nice to know who's in charge.
For anyone paying attention, there probably aren't new examples of the administration's kleptocracy discussed in this piece by Anne Applebaum, in The Atlantic, but reading about all the "blatant conflicts of interest" t**** and his team are engaged that she notes in the article is infuriating.
The Kleptocracy Presidency
"This time around, he knows he got away with a series of crimes, including an attempt to overthrow an election. His advisers are supine; he feels no more constraints. New standards were already set in December, when the Trump Organization announced the construction of a Trump Tower in Saudi Arabia, an investment that posed a clear conflict of interest for the president-elect.
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In keeping with the new atmosphere, the inauguration itself became an ostentatious display of the new administration’s kleptocratic values.
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Trump isn’t just disregarding old norms for his own sake. He’s making it easier for others to cut corners too. From the beginning of his career, Trump participated enthusiastically in the opaque, offshore world of shell companies and anonymous bank accounts, a milieu that has always attracted autocrats, criminals, and anyone else who seeks to hide their money. As of 2018, more than one out of every five condos in Trump-branded buildings had been purchased by shell companies whose true owner was unknown, and anonymous owners continued to buy into his businesses during his first term as president. Now his administration is helping other businesses that operate in the shadows to stay there.
I think they're called "fentanyl" (pronounced Fentin-all by almost all public officials) tariffs because the threat seems to be "until you prevent fentanyl from leaving your country and entering ours, we'll charge a punitive tariff of xx% on everything we import from your country. Never mind that the tariff is paid by our own citizens, nor that the amount of fentanyl entering the US from or through your country is negligible. We expect you to solve our problem."
So it's not a tariff on fentanyl, it's a tariff because fentanyl. Like hammering nails, grasshopper.
@Patrick: I'm sure you're right. Trump originally set the "fentanyl tariffs" for China at 10%. But he either forgot that, or I forgot that at some point he raised them to 20%. In any case, I guess the China "fentanyl tariffs" -- like all tariffs -- are in the mind of the Trumpster at any given time, so they're 20% for China now.
Trump set the "fentanyl tariffs" for Canada & Mexico at 25%, even though very little fentanyl is known to be smuggled in from Canada. Trump has since exempted some Canadian and Mexican products from the "fentanyl tariff."
Right now, being a U.S. Customs officials must be almost as stressful as being an air traffic controller.
More Court Orders Ignored
"Despite a court order, a reporter and photographer from The Associated Press were barred from an Oval Office news conference on Monday with President Donald Trump and his counterpart from El Salvador, Nayib Bukele."
I get that about the “fentanyl tariffs”. My only point was how befuddled this idiot is. He can’t keep anything straight. There was never any plan. Fentanyl was always just a hook for the MAGAts: “Oh see! Jesus Trump is cleaning up our streets from that awful scourge!”
Right. The single biggest importer of fentanyl into this country are white American drug dealers, and like any other addiction scourge in this country, the market is American addicts, and “fentanyl tariffs” don’t do anything to fix the demand, just like the Reagan era “Just say ‘no’” bullshit did nothing to stem the tide of addictions back then.
If the Fat Hitler Reich were truly concerned about fentanyl, they would ramp up drug rehab and education programs instead of killing the funding for them, in addition to working on catching the real dealers.
Fentanyl has always been just an excuse. But the fact that he can’t keep anything straight from hour to hour should be front page news, just like it was when The NY Times had multiple stories every day about Biden’s cognitive issues.
Lumping everything in as the “Fentanyl Tariffs” simply indicates the sloppy clusterfuck that this whole tariff business has been from the start.
Did any member of the press inform the Salvadoran douche bag that Kilmar Abrego García is not in fact a terrorist. FH's own Injustice Department admitted in court that they wrongly sent him there. I wish some reporters actually used their position for positive actions. They could easily ask if Bukele if he is the one really in charge here. They could ask if he would send Kilmar Abrego García back if Trump asked him to. Do it in front of the whiney loser. Make him look weak in front of the cameras. It is one of the only things he still cares about that could cause him to do something worthwhile.
So on one hand Fat Hitler brags that leaders from some of the most powerful countries in the world are lining up to kiss his ass and beg for good deals in his temper tantrum trade war, but he can’t get this weenie little tinpot dictator from El Salvador to return one guy?
That poor guy and his family. He’s gonna die down there. All because OUR tinpot dictator wants to give the finger to the Supreme Court and show everyone that no laws apply to him. He can do whatever he wants. He’s the king. Untouchable.
If Little Johnnie had any balls (and any respect for the Constitution), he’d get word to the Fat Fascist that all those dozens of cases ready to end up before the court challenging his unchecked power are all gonna go against him unless he does what he’s told.
But that will never happen. Because John Roberts cares more about supreme power for his party than the life of an innocent man, never mind the Constitution.
@RAS & @Akhilleus: Yes to all that. It's important to keep in mind that the reason Abrego Garcia was allowed to stay in the U.S. (even though he didn't exactly received asylum) was that he convinced an immigration judge that he had fled El Salvador (and Guatemala) because he & his family -- his parents & siblings -- had been threatened by gang members for years.
So now he's back in El Salvador (a country to which a court order said he could not be deported) in a prison supposedly full of gang members. Perhaps some of the same gangsters who threatened his family and him. The U.S. government said yesterday he was "alive." Yeah, but for how long?
Thank you, Patrick. I have been wondering for several years now why all the people and nonpeople yapping about fentanyl are pronouncing it like it is a kitchen cleaner despite the obvious -nyl ending (clean yer stoves with Fentin-oll for a brighter shine---)and I guess I now conclude it's because the people doing the yapping don't know what it is, how it arrives here, and how our kids are dying from it. They think it makes them appear smarter and more concerned about drug addicts than they actually are. Brainless ole farts. Even the youngs.
I about threw a brick through the teevee this morning as husband was blissfully ignoring the lies and fictions going on in the oval. Mango Moron is mindless and souless and will ever be so. The others are in the same condition and also enjoying the evil cruelty they can wedge on in there. I finally marched over and changed the channel so I could at least eat my breakfast... Also, Judge Luttig this afternoon seems to think we are in an abyss to the middle of the earth, and can only be saved by the supreme court. He sounded so discouraged, having served the law and order we used to champion his whole life. The discouraging thing is that the high court is completely over it. What rule of law thingie?
The abyss is yawning before us.
Marie,
Locking up a chest thumping, disgusting scofflaw rodent like little Marco would be just the thing.
The enema injected Fat Hitler Kool-Aid has transmogrified little Marco into a MAGA racist moron untouchable. He needs to understand that despite his Nazi cosplay for Fatty, we still have laws and anti/American, “Oopsie” snickers could put his over-hydrated ass into prison.
That is, if we had Supreme Court that saw underhanded, illegal, . ‘Merica hatin’ sycophancy as worthy of an Orange jumpsuit.
They don’t. Oh, unless we’re talking about innocent men who piss off the Dear Leader.
Presume all here would share my guess that the El Salvador president wasn't really the one who decided to refuse to return the kidnapped Mr. Garcia. He is only the paid front man for our home grown creepy criminals.
Ken,
Quite. But how does that make the so-called “leader of the free world” look?
Here he is saying that this off-brand, sniggering, ass kissing, tin pot dictator of a postage stamp sized country has made a decision and there’s nothing he can do about it.
It’s like the sideshow Fat Man whining that a mosquito flew into his tent and he had to run and hide.
I guess he’s really the liter of the fried world. The liter being full of greasy cooking oil.