The Conversation -- April 27, 2025
What with all the DOGE firings and anticipated program cuts to NOAA and with stories proliferating about the U.S. weather service now being unable to forecast hurricanes, tornadoes and other weather events, RAS has been checking up on local NOAA stations around the country. Not to worry! Everything is under control! ~~~
Ian Bogost & Charlie Warzel of the Atlantic: “The Trump administration is pooling data on Americans. Experts fear what comes next.... The federal government is a veritable cosmos of information, made up of constellations of databases.... A fragile combination of decades-old laws, norms, and jungly bureaucracy has so far prevented repositories such as these from assembling into a centralized American surveillance state. But that appears to be changing. Since Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have systematically gained access to sensitive data across the federal government, and in ways that people in several agencies have described to us as both dangerous and disturbing.... In March, President Trump issued an executive order aiming to eliminate the data silos that keep everything separate.... As a society, we produce unfathomable quantities of information, and that information is easier to collect than ever before.... Advancements in artificial intelligence promise to turn this unwieldy mass of data and metadata into something easily searchable, politically weaponizable, and maybe even profitable.... America already has all the technology it needs to build a draconian surveillance society—the conditions for such a dystopia have been falling into place slowly over time, waiting for the right authoritarian to come along and use it to crack down on American privacy and freedom.” Thanks to laura h. for this gift link.
Stephanie Saul & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: “... after weeks of witnessing the administration freeze billions in federal funding, demand changes to policies and begin investigations, a broad coalition of university leaders publicly opposing those moves is taking root. The most visible evidence yet was a statement last week signed by more than 400 campus leaders opposing what they saw as the administration’s assault on academia. Although organizations of colleges and administrators regularly conduct meetings on a wide range of issues, the statement by the American Association of Colleges and Universities was an unusual show of unity considering the wide cross-section of interests it included: Ivy League institutions and community colleges, public flagship schools and Jesuit universities, regional schools and historically Black colleges.”
(Alleged!) Master Thief Arrested. Derek Hawkins, et al., of the Washington Post: “Authorities have arrested a person in the theft of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem’s purse — which contained $3,000 cash, her passport and her department badge among other items — from a downtown restaurant last week, law enforcement officials familiar with the matter said Sunday. The suspect could face charges in the theft from Noem and possibly two other thefts in the District, according to two D.C. police officials.... 'This individual is a career criminal who has been in our country illegally for years,' Noem said in statement provided to The Washington Post through a spokeswoman. 'Unfortunately, so many families in this country have been made victims by crime, and that’s why President Trump is working every single day to make America safe and get these criminal aliens off of our streets.'”
Marie: Of course it is not only Donald Trump who is giving the United States a bad name in the rest of the world. The story below is a week old, but it's illustrative of why other people don't like us -- and with good reason: ~~~
~~~ The Ugly Americans. Peter Conrad of the (London) Sunday Times (April 19): “... JD Vance ... turned up at the Vatican on Saturday aboard a traffic-clogging motorcade of 40 black 4x4s.... He was accompanied to the Vatican by his wife, Usha, and their three young children. The second family was then given a private tour of the Sistine Chapel.... Later Usha enjoyed an evening visit to the Colosseum — which her husband had also been scheduled to attend before a last-minute change of plan — where she was given a personal tour of the arena ... by Alfonsina Russo, the director. Lesser mortals unlucky enough to have booked their own visit had to make do with a refund.... Some chanted 'shame' or anti-American slogans when they learnt the reason for the closure.... Among the disappointed was Stephen Fishler, 58, a businessman from New York who arrived with his family in good time for his 6pm slot, but was turned away without explanation. 'What does he think he is, special?' complained Fishler, himself a Trump voter. 'JD should have waited until the Americans who had tickets had their visit and then gone in.'” Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~
~~~ As Scott Lemieux says of Fishler, “'He screwed us when we thought he would screw other people!' is a complaint we’re going to hearing more and more from MAGAworld.'” MB: You see, it isn't only JayDee & Usha and Donald who don't know how to behave abroad & don't care about anybody else; it's so many of the Little MAGAts, too. Self-absorption/indifference-to-others is an essential piece of the MAGA psychological composition.
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David Sanger & Motoko Rich of the New York Times: “Mr. Trump was on the ground in Rome for about 14 hours, and left immediately after the services for the pope in St. Peter’s Square, stopping only for handshakes or greetings with a few of the presidents, prime ministers, royals and religious leaders who came to the ceremony. It ... left no time for discussion of his tariffs on the European Union, his turn toward normalizing relations with Russia or his insistence that Europeans must take far larger responsibility for their own defense. Mr. Trump told aides he wanted to make it back to his golf resort in New Jersey before the end of the day.... Mr. Trump’s meeting of 15 minutes or so with [Ukraine's President Volodymyr] Zelensky was surrounded with a symbolism and mystery of its own.... Mr. Trump, flying back home, posted a lengthy message blaming Ukraine’s plight in part on his predecessors, Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr., the latter of whom had been sitting four rows behind him at the funeral. 'This is Sleepy Joe Biden’s War, not mine,' he wrote. He also criticized Russia’s leader. 'There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns over the last few days,' he wrote. 'It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along.' Mr. Trump also threatened new sanctions against Russia in the post.” This is a pinned item in a liveblog.
Here's how Devil's Disciple & inappropriately dressed Donald Trump got a front-row seat at Pope Francis' funeral. (Also linked yesterday.) Update. Here's the New York Times' take on Trump's unsuitable suit & tie. PLUS -- Payback Time: Zelensky gets back at Trump for that Oval Office sartorial slam. Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
Maybe you're wondering why Trump went to Francis' funeral in the first place. Let's ask him ~~~
~~~ Antony Clements-Thrower of the (U.K.) Mirror: On Air Force 1, on the way to Rome, a reporter asked Donald Trump why he felt it was important to go to the Pope's funeral. “... it has little to do with the church - and more to do with who helped him once again attain the presidency. Trump said: 'I just thought it was out of respect. I won the Catholic vote and I think that’s the first time that’s ever happened where a Republican won the vote, but I won it by a lot. I have a great relationship with the Catholics, very simple. But I won the Catholic vote, 56% of the vote. I don’t know why we didn’t get more actually. But we did well with the Catholic vote. My relationship is very good therefore I think it’s appropriate [that I attend the funeral].'” ~~~
~~~ BTW, Jeff Bezos' newspaper did a nice job of Clean-up on AF1. Here's how the WashPo reported the very same crass, self-referential response: “In the days preceding the funeral, Trump said he admired the pope because Francis 'loved the world, actually, and he was just a good man.' He said it was important that he was present at the ceremony. 'We did well with the Catholic vote, and our relationship is very good,' Trump said, 'so therefore I think it’s appropriate.'”
Tony Romm of the New York Times: “Nearly four weeks into a costly global trade war with no end in sight, Mr. Trump is facing a barrage of lawsuits from state officials, small businesses and even once-allied political groups, all contending that the president cannot sidestep Congress and tax virtually any import at levels to his liking. The lawsuits carry great significance, not just because the tariffs have roiled financial markets and threatened to plunge the United States into a recession. The legal challenges also stand to test Mr. Trump’s claims of expansive presidential power, while illustrating the difficult calculation that his opponents face in deciding whether to fight back and risk retribution. None of the lawsuits filed this month are supported by major business lobbying groups, even though many organizations — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable — have been sharply critical of the president’s tariffs and lobbied to lessen their impact....
“At the heart of the legal wrangling is a 1970s law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which enables the president to order trade embargoes, set sanctions and limit foreign investment to ward off adversaries abroad.... Mr. Trump invoked that law.... For evidence of an emergency, Mr. Trump primarily pointed to the trade deficit.... No president before Mr. Trump had ever imposed such import taxes under the emergency law, which does not once mention the word 'tariff.'”
Here's some bad news for the Trump mob -- Trump, Stephen Miller, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Kristi Noem, Tom Hogan, etc., and good news for due process, the rule of law, and moral rectitude. ~~~
~~~ Maegan Vazquez & Teo Armus of the Washington Post: “A U.S. district court judge has ordered two Venezuelan nationals living in Washington to be released from immigration custody, saying the federal government has failed to provide substantial evidence to declare either of them was an 'alien enemy' warranting removal under ... Donald Trump’s order invoking the Alien Enemies Act. The decision, issued Friday by El Paso-based senior U.S. District Judge David Briones, marks the first time a judge has ruled that the Trump administration had erred in classifying someone as an 'alien enemy' and ordered a release.... The Supreme Court ruled that the government needed to give anyone labeled an “alien enemy” a chance to contest that designation. The judge in El Paso also went a step further in specifying that going forward, the government must provide detainees 21 days to contest their status, and they must be given a notice in a language they can understand.... Briones also barred the removal of any noncitizen being held in federal immigration custody within his district — a jurisdiction that includes El Paso and several counties along the U.S. border eastward into San Antonio and Austin — under Trump’s order.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Isabelle Taft of the New York Times: “F.B.I. agents arrested on Friday a Milwaukee judge [Hannah Dugan] accused of obstructing justice by directing an undocumented immigrant out of her courtroom through a side door while federal immigration agents waited in a hallway to arrest him.... The arrest has raised several questions — many of which remain unanswered. Here’s what we know so far.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
The obvious purpose of the arrest of Judge Dugan on criminal charges is to intimidate and threaten all judges, state and local, across the country. -- J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former U.S. appeals court judge ~~~
~~~ Patrick Marley & Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “Officers handcuffed Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan in public. Attorney General Pam Bondi bragged on the Fox News show 'America Reports' about the administration’s willingness to go after judges who 'think they’re above the law.' FBI Director Kash Patel began the day by announcing Dugan’s arrest on social media and ended it by posting a photo of agents leading her away.... Critics of the administration said the spectacle sent a chilling message.... Many scholars have dubbed the standoff between Trump and the courts a constitutional crisis. Judges have increasingly expressed alarm at the administration’s dismissive response to orders blocking Trump’s efforts to dismantle federal programs, fire government workers and fast-track deportations.... Charles Geyh, an Indiana University law professor..., called the arrest part of a pattern: 'An attempt to bludgeon, an attempt to coerce, an attempt to weaken the one branch of government that stands between the executive — the Trump administration — and it doing whatever it wishes to do.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Casey Gannon & Evan Perez of CNN: “FBI Director Kash Patel posted a photo on X Friday night of the Wisconsin judge who was arrested for allegedly obstructing immigration agents while she was handcuffed, being escorted to a vehicle by officials.... According to the Confidentiality and Media Contacts Policy listed on the Justice Department’s website, DOJ personnel 'should not voluntarily disclose a photograph of a defendant unless it serves a law enforcement function or unless the photograph is already part of the public record in the case.' Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who implemented the policy during the Obama administration, worked during his tenure to make it more difficult for members of the media to obtain photos of defendants, such as mug shots. Holder told CNN that Patel’s social media post violates this policy. 'Whatever the issues with what the judge did, they’re trying to maximize intimidation,' Holder said in a statement to CNN. It is unclear following Patel’s post on X if current Attorney General Pam Bondi has changed the conduct policy for Justice Department personnel regarding photos of defendants.”
Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, along with state law enforcement officials, arrested about 780 immigrants in Florida in an operation this week, according to ICE data.... The operation began on Monday and targeted undocumented immigrants with final deportation orders, according to an ICE official.... The officers picked up more than 275 migrants with final removal orders, the data showed. ABC News and Fox News earlier reported news of the arrests, which took place over four days. It was the latest move by the Trump administration to seek to accelerate deportations of undocumented immigrants, which have so far been well below the administration’s goals.... The effort this week in Florida was the first to be conducted as part of a formal arrangement with state law enforcement known as a 287(g) agreement, according to [an] official.”
Naomi Nix of the Washington Post: Elon “Musk has argued on social media that DOGE’s work 'is similar to Clinton/Gore Dem policies of the 1990s.' But [Al] Gore on Friday argued that the Clinton administration’s Reinventing Government initiative took a better approach. 'We used a scalpel, not a chain saw or a butcher knife,' he said on 'Real Time with Bill Maher.' 'We cut the fat. Not muscle and bone — that’s what they [DOGE] are doing.' The Clinton administration largely tapped existing government leaders to identify specific areas where agencies could reduce head count or operate more efficiently, Gore said. Clinton also proposed or signed laws to reform government operations. By contrast, Trump has brought in industry outsiders who focused on quickly laying off large percentages of government workers — often irrespective of their job function — and making dramatic cuts to federal programs that have rankled senior Cabinet leaders and faced repeated court challenges.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yet another reminder that Elon isn't very bright; he is a fine exemplar of the Dunning-Kruger effect. He says he's doing what Al Gore did, but he doesn't know what Al Gore did. And even if there existed no examples of attempts to cut waste, fraud & abuse across a massive bureaucracy, any minimally-intelligent person would know that assigning some boy programmers & hackers with no management experience to do the job was INSANE.
I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member. -- Groucho Marx ~~~
~~~ Dasha Burns of Politico: “Donald Trump Jr., megadonor Omeed Malik and several other investors are launching an invite-only club that costs more than half a million to join.... The 'Executive Branch' is the brainchild of Malik and the president’s eldest son, and their partners at conservative fund 1789 Capital. It will be located in Georgetown. Their goal, the people familiar with the plans say, is to create the highest-end private club that Washington has ever had, and cater to the business and tech moguls who are looking to nurture their relationships with the Trump administration.... The club already has a waitlist.... It’s no coincidence the opening salvo is coinciding with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. In years past, administration officials would rub shoulders and break bread with journalists. But that won’t be the case this year.... Donald Trump was already planning on skipping the event before Pope Francis’ death took him to Rome, and many of his aides and allies are staying away from the journalism celebration.”
The mood and reality sucks.... No president attending, no comedian to make fun of all of us, TV networks buckling under government pressure, a top producer quitting over corporate interference and the public sour on the media and government....Enjoy the weekend! -- Jim VandeHei of Politico ~~~
~~~ Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Michael Grynbaum & Katie Robertson of the New York Times: “Usually, the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner features Hollywood stars, a zinger-filled comedy set and a public display of comity between the White House and the press corps that covers it. On Saturday, the dinner had no comedian and no president.... 'It’s just us,' Eugene Daniels, the association’s president and an MSNBC host, told his fellow journalists at the start of the night. The reporters who spoke from the dais emphasized the importance of the First Amendment, garnering repeated ovations from the black-tie crowd. Levity came in the form of clips from past years, when presidents still turned up and cracked wise about the press and themselves.... As media institutions grapple with an onslaught from President Trump — who has sued and threatened television networks, barred The Associated Press from presidential events and upended the day-to-day workings of the White House press corps — the notion of a booze-soaked celebration felt particularly jarring.”
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Florida Funny Money. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his wife are embroiled in a controversy over the possible misuse of $10 million from a Medicaid lawsuit settlement that has thrown the legislature into turmoil and raised questions about Casey DeSantis’s possible run for governor. Leading the probe into the finances of Hope Florida, an initiative led by Casey DeSantis to move people off government assistance, were fellow Republicans — including formerly stalwart Ron DeSantis supporters. The inquiry by a state House subcommittee ended abruptly this week after witnesses declined to testify. The investigation centered on a $10 million payment sent to the Hope Florida Foundation by one of the state’s largest Medicaid contractors after it reached a $67 million settlement with Florida regarding pharmacy cost overpayments. The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times reported that Centene — the contractor — returned $57 million to Florida as part of the settlement, then sent the remaining $10 million to the foundation. The foundation supports Hope Florida, a state program designed to provide 'a warm meal, a bed for a foster family, or an outstanding utility bill' to Floridians in need.... The foundation then sent the $10 million to two political nonprofits campaigning against a state ballot measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana. Defeating the measure was a priority for Ron DeSantis in the 2024 general election. The measure did not pass.”
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Vatican. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: “In a solemn and majestic funeral on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Roman Catholic Church on Saturday laid to rest Pope Francis, the first South American pope, whose simple style, pastoral vision and outsized footprint on the world stage both reinvigorated and divided the institution that he led for a dozen years. Heads of state, royals and religious leaders sat with an array of Catholic prelates in brilliant red robes around a closed cypress coffin holding the body of Francis, who died Monday at 88. Atop his coffin, the pages of an open book of the gospels fanned in the breeze.”
13 Comments
Reader Comments (13)
So Donald says he got 56% of the Catholic vote.
I don't recall any ballot asking 'are you Catholic?'
Did he stand outside and count Nuns coming out of the voting places?
Or did he just make that up?
Forrest,
Good questions, but in one important sense the claim itself, not its accuracy, is the point.
For the Pretender, everything is centered on him. Life is simply a series of tits for tats. You do something for me, I'll do something for you. If there's nothing in it for me, I have no interest in it. Period.
Of course, that attitude makes no sense in a public servant, but we don't have one of those in the White House now. Far from it, in fact, about as far as we could have gotten.
Will be interesting to see what comes out of the Ukraine-Russia situation when it's becoming increasingly likely that the Pretender can't see a way for him to benefit from it.
There are signs he will just walk away...No glory. No minerals. No nothing.. Then simply pretend he had nothing to do with it...
There are a lot of stupid catholics; I know as I was raised as one. The issue for a lot of those people is abortion. They're fine with the felon, the rapist and the traitor because his court reversed Roe v. Wade.
Bad Americans
"Vance's Easter visit to Rome clogged its streets with a 40-vehicle entourage. He also demanded the Coliseum be closed so he and his family could tour it alone. Tourists who properly booked slots in advance got screwed.
He's apparently the first to make that demand. Then he didn't bother to show up."
Nothing to see here
How much money going into FH's pockets do "trade secrets" equal?
"Avon boy became deathly ill as part of E. coli outbreak; FDA not naming company responsible
The 10-year-old developed kidney failure after eating contaminated lettuce. The source of the outbreak that made 89 people sick remains a mystery.
The company responsible for that illness remains a mystery.
The FDA refuses to identify the source of the contaminated lettuce, leaving patients and their families searching for answers about who to hold responsible.
The agency closed the investigation and did not issue a recall.
It said threat to public health was over and told 13News it would not release the name of the supplier because of “trade secrets.”"
FH Weather Service
Ian Bogost and Charlie Warzel, in The Atlantic, on what an authoritarian government might do with "enormous volumes of data provided by or collected from citizens."
American Panopticon
"Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have systematically gained access to sensitive data across the federal government, and in ways that people in several agencies have described to us as both dangerous and disturbing....
In March, President Trump issued an executive order aiming to eliminate the data silos that keep everything [sensitive data] separate....
Trump and DOGE are not just undoing decades of privacy measures: They appear to be ignoring that they were ever written....
An authoritarian, surveillance-control state could be supercharged by mating exfiltrated, cleaned, and correlated government information with data from private stores, corporations who share their own data willingly or by force, data brokers, or other sources. What kind of actions could the government perform if it could combine, say, license plates seen at specific locations, airline passenger records, purchase histories from supermarket or drug-store loyalty cards, health-care patient records, DNS-lookup histories showing a person’s online activities, and tax-return data?"
When Trump crows about getting a large percentage of the Catholic vote, I wonder why he wouldn't. After all, religion is authoritarian, and democracy is anathema. Also, considering that during lean times in the Dark Ages the Church sold get into heaven no questions asked meme coins to credulous sinners, how can anyone in that organization object to Trump's imaginary crypto sale or his expensive Visa program? As for the dismantling of what Republicans call the Nanny State but the rest of us call government safety measures to protect us against greedy human swine, when the time comes that you wonder about every bite of food, more prayer will be suggested.
A point to remember is that both Heaven and Hell are absolute monarchies.
Powder Alarms 1774 and 2025 and the Rhyming of History
Listening to a history podcast this morning I was reminded that one of the events that led to the overthrow of the tyrant King George as ruler of the American colonies was the Powder Alarm of 1774.
Early in the morning of September 1, 1774, agents of the tyrant king descended on the Powder House on Menotomie’s Road (now Broadway) in Somerville, Massachusetts to take possession of the largest cache of gunpowder in the colony. The idea was to show the colonists who was boss, to instill fear, and demonstrate the absolute power of the crown.
The confiscation of the gunpowder triggered the Powder Alarm which spread far and wide among colonists who found this action intolerable. The ripples generated from that event prompted the recognition that more bad shit would be on the way as the king was determined to stomp out any opposition to his power.
Colonists realized things were coming to a head. The events of that morning led ultimately to Lexington and Concord.
Fast forward to just over 250 years later and less than 100 yards from that same powder house (which still stands), agents of the latest tyrant king abducted a Tufts student with the intention of displaying his ability to do whatever he likes and instilling fear, as he attempts to stomp out any opposition to his power.
Less than 100 yards from the original show of force by our previous tyrant king.
Here’s hoping the latest Powder Alarm will lead to the overthrow of this mad monarch.
We are all aware that Fat Hitler’s attempts to turn higher education institutions into Trump Universities have zero to do with anti-semitism on college campuses (the giveaway is the ridiculous conjoining of the words “Hitler” and “concern for Jews”).
It is, however, the extension of one more chapter from Project Fascism 2025, you know, that 900 page roadmap to authoritarian control that Fatty “knows nothing about”.
Strange coincidence then that so many instructions in that manual for the mauling of democracy have been followed to the letter by the Fat Hitler regime, especially in the evisceration of education:
“Project 2025 proposed some of the following in its blueprint for higher education:
Curtail student loan forgiveness and repayment programs
Eliminate federal student aid programs
Eliminate the Department of Education
Allow states to create their own college accreditors
Ban critical race theory
Roll back Title IX protections and consider only biological birth sex
Cap indirect cost rate paid by the National Institutes of Health to universities for research
Trump has gotten the wheels turning on nearly all of those stated objectives. The administration also carried out mass student visa revocations, and later decided to reverse them after weeks of scrutiny from courts and several restraining orders. Still, the future of international students at American colleges and universities remains uncertain.”
Whew! Good thing he’s never heard of this project. We might be in trouble.
The assault on institutions like Harvard has been a wet dream on the right for decades. Like so many other far-right dreams, the thugs are going hammer and tong to get what they want now that they have this demented monkey in the Blight House.
Lots more (horrible stuff) to come.
RAS,
C’mon now. You know the Magic 8 Ball and a Oiuja board are waaaay to sciencey-like for Fat Hitler’s Doge donkeys. I’m sure they’re reading bird entrails and checking for signs in coffee grounds. You know, cutting edge stuff from the 11th century. They got the tip from Alito.
Entrails aside, I'm sure we have folks here who also remember when the early warning system for hurricanes were radio reports from "ships at sea" then they'd fly a plane out to hunt for the storm.
I wonder which of the oligarchs will pick up the pieces and put precision predictions behind firewall on the net for a paid subscription?