The Conversation -- February 3, 2025
Hamed Aleaziz & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has ended Temporary Protected Status, or T.P.S., for more than 300,000 Venezuelans in the United States, leaving the population vulnerable to potential deportation in the coming months, according to government documents obtained by The New York Times. The move..., [Mr.] Trump’s first to remove such protections in his second term, signals that he plans to continue a crackdown on the program that began in his first administration, when he sought to terminate the status for migrants from Sudan, El Salvador and Haiti, among others. He was stymied by federal courts that took issue with the way he undid the protections.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Samantha Schmidt, et al., of the Washington Post: “The government of Nicolás Maduro will take in Venezuelans who are deported by the United States..., Donald Trump said Saturday, potentially clearing the way for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the South American country to be sent back to the authoritarian socialist regime that many fled.... Human rights advocates and Venezuelan opposition politicians have warned against repatriating the citizens of a country that under Maduro has been an economically failing, politically repressive pariah state.” ~~~
~~~ Damned if They're Caught and Damned if They're Not. Marie: Sorry to say, but those same hapless Venezuelan nationals are currently residing in “an economically failing, politically repressive pariah state” and an “authoritarian ... regime.”
Trump Threatens More Tariffs. Philip Wen, et al., of the Guardian: “Donald Trump has threatened to widen the scope of his trade tariffs, repeating his warning that the European Union – and potentially the UK – will face levies, even as he conceded that Americans could bear some of the economic brunt of a nascent global trade war. It comes as Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, announced on Saturday, sparked retaliation from all three countries. Mexico and Canada have vowed levies of their own while China and Canada are seeking legal challenges. Trump said on Sunday night that new tariffs on the EU would 'definitely happen', repeating previous complaints about the large US trade deficit with the bloc and his desire for Europe to import more American cars and agricultural products.... Trump appeared to take a softer line on the UK, citing a good relationship with the prime minister, Keir Starmer, while saying tariffs still 'might happen'.” ~~~
~~~ Zia Weise of Politico: “The European Union is warning ... Donald Trump the bloc will retaliate if he imposes tariffs on EU goods.... France’s Industry Minister Marc Ferracci ... demand[ed] a 'biting' response from Brussels, which manages trade relations on behalf of the EU's 27 member countries.... Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s international trade committee, described Trump’s tariffs as violating international law. The EU now has to prepare 'to defend our economic interests 1:1,' he added, while calling on Brussels to 'stabilize and quickly expand' trade relations with other countries.... Meanwhile, former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt called the U.S. tariffs a 'blatant attack on its own people and a gift to billionaires, all while tearing apart his closest allies.' He added: 'The EU must not bow to his bullying tactics.'” ~~~
~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: “Trump hit back at critics [of his tariffs] and argued the decision was necessary because of 'major' trade deficits with [Mexico, Canada & China]. 'The “Tariff Lobby,” headed by the Globalist, and always wrong, Wall Street Journal, is working hard to justify Countries like Canada, Mexico, China, and too many others to name, continue the decades long RIPOFF OF AMERICA, both with regard to TRADE, CRIME, AND POISONOUS DRUGS that are allowed to so freely flow into AMERICA,' Trump posted from his Mar-a-Lago estate.... 'This will be the Golden Age of America!' Trump continued. 'Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!). But we will make America great again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid. We are a country that is now being run with common sense — and hte results will be spectacular!!!'” The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: What Trump means by "common sense" is ignoring facts and/or expert analysis. ~~~
~~~ Here's Some Pain. Pia Singh of CNBC: "Stock futures tumbled early Monday to kick off a new trading month, as investors weighed new U.S. tariffs on goods from key trade partners and their potential impact on the economy and corporate profits. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 546 points, or 1.22%. S&P 500 futures dropped 1.4%, while Nasdaq-100 futures lost 1.7%." Here's some more: ~~~
~~~ Vive Le Canada! Marie: I wonder if Kamala Harris had spoken like this, some of the lazy Democrats would not have stayed home and many an ignorant Trump voter would have pulled the lever for Harris & Walz. Thanks again to Julie in Massachusetts for the link: ~~~
~~~ Laya Neelakandan of CNBC: “Ontario will pull all American alcohol from its government-run liquor shelves beginning Tuesday in response to ... Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian imports. Outlets of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario will also take U.S. products out of its catalog so other retailers can’t order or restock those items, according to a Sunday statement by Premier Doug Ford.... The move follows other similar Canadian premiers’ announcements of retaliation to the tariffs, including Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston directing the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation to remove all American alcohol from their shelves on Tuesday and British Columbia Premier David Eby directing the BC Liquor Distribution Branch to 'immediately stop buying American liquor from “red states” and remove the top-selling “red-state” brands from the shelves.'”
~~~ Des Beiler of the Washington Post: “Canadian sports fans are booing the U.S. national anthem after Trump tariffs. The boos were heard at NHL and NBA games in Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.” MB: Loudmouthed sports fans might not be the most refined experts on international relations. On the other hand, most are probably more refined than the bully/buffoon in the White House. And if they're booing our national anthem, they're booing not just the rider; they're booing the horse he rode in on, too. ~~~
~~~ Brian Mann of NPR: Donald "Trump says illegal street fentanyl is one of the main justifications for sweeping trade tariffs he plans to impose against Canada, China and Mexico on Tuesday.... On Inauguration Day, Trump said foreign drug cartels are 'killing 250,000 [or] 300,000 American people per year.' On Friday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said tariffs are warranted because fentanyl has 'killed tens of millions of Americans.' These claims are false.... During the most severe period of the opioid crisis, in 2022 and 2023, total overdose deaths — including fentanyl, methamphetamines, heroin, cocaine and all other drugs — peaked at around 114,000 fatalities per year.... State and federal data also shows [show!] the crisis was improving at an unprecedented pace before these tariffs were announced.... [Canada has played almost no role] in the U.S. fentanyl supply."
Three Decades After South African Apartheid Ended, Trump Moves to Revive It. Idrees Ali & Daphne Psaledakis of Reuters: “... Donald Trump said [in a social media post] on Sunday, without citing evidence, that ... "South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.... The United States won't stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!' he said. The United States obligated nearly $440 million in assistance to South Africa in 2023, the most recent U.S. government data showed. Last month South African President Cryil Ramaphosa signed into law a bill that would make it easier for the state to expropriate land in the public interest. The law aims to address racial disparities in land ownership that persist three decades after apartheid's demise in 1994." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The "certain classes of people" who concern Trump are white landowners. Maybe Trump's concern stems from pure racism, or maybe it derives from Jared's survey of South African beachfront property, or maybe it comes from Co-president* (and former South African) Elon's whispers in Trump's ear. Or something else. Whatever the impetus for Trump's interference in South African land laws, it ain't altruistic.
A Trump Appointee Joins the Resistance. Edward Wong, et al., of the New York Times: “The two top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development were put on administrative leave on Saturday night after refusing to give representatives of Elon Musk access to internal systems, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. And the agency’s chief of staff, Matt Hopson, a Trump administration political appointee who had started his job days ago, has resigned, two of the officials said. The employees working for Mr. Musk’s task force who clashed with John Voorhees, U.S.A.I.D.’s director of security, and his deputy were seeking to enter a secure area of the agency’s offices to get at classified material, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the incident said.... 'USAID is a criminal organization,' Mr. Musk wrote on Sunday in a social media post that many aid workers saw as confirmation the agency would soon be absorbed into the State Department and that some viewed as a potential threat to their personal safety. 'Time for it to die.'” An AP story, which does not mention Hopson, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Do remember that the only place the NTSB will update Americans on air safety is on the site owned by this cruel, lying anti-American oligarch. (Story linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Who Are These Jerks, Anyway? Erik Loomis in LG&$ cites a firewalled Wired story by Vittoria Elliott: “Elon Musk’s takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of — and in at least one case, purportedly still in — college. Most have connections to Musk, and at least two have connections to Musk’s longtime associate Peter Thiel, a cofounder and chair of the analytics firm and government contractor Palantir who has long expressed opposition to democracy.... Wired has identified six young men — all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24 ... — who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with 'modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.' The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer. The engineers are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Speaking of Jerks.... John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: “Since ... Donald Trump took office two weeks ago, the [USAID] has been under siege and whipsawed by aid freezes, personnel purges and confusion. [Elon] Musk ... said on X early Monday that he is in the process closing the agency with Trump’s blessing.... Over the weekend, Musk repeatedly denigrated USAID without offering evidence that those working there were corrupt. On X, he called the long-standing government agency 'evil' and a 'viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America.'...
“A group of about eight DOGE officials entered the USAID building Saturday and demanded access to every door and floor, despite only a few of them having security clearance, according to a Senate Democratic staff member.... When USAID personnel attempted to block access to some areas, DOGE officials threatened to call federal marshals, the aide said. The DOGE officials were eventually given access to 'secure spaces' including the security office. The Senate staffer also said top officials from USAID’s office and the bulk of the staff in USAID’s Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs were put on leave later Saturday. Some of them were not notified but had their access to agency terminals suspended.”
Kipp Jones of Mediaite: “Sunday afternoon, [Elon] Musk – presumably after reviewing Treasury Department records – accused federal employees of 'breaking the law every hour of every day by approving payments that are fraudulent or do not match the funding laws passed by Congress.'” MB: There is no reason whatever to take Musk's word for it. The most generous interpretation is that the Musk's Kidz Klub members are misreading the data; otherwise, he's lying for some nefarious purpose. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: On Saturday, I wrote, in part: This Friday-night heist is far more dangerous than the tariffs Trump just imposed. (1) Most voters probably will not even hear about this, or if they do, it won't register as nearly as important as the tariffs. If people ever get up-in-arms about this, it won't be till they miss their first Social Security check or can't get their EBT cards (food stamps). The tariffs are monumentally stupid, but Trump can legally impose them. Giving non-government employees access to the nation's checkbook, with an eye toward tearing it up, is illegal and unconstitutional. This is a revolutionary act, a piece of the (so far) bloodless coup in which Trump's buddies are taking over another branch of government. ~~~
[~~~ Krugman (and a few others, incluiding, uh, Canada) think Trump's tariffs are probably illegal, too, but at least Trump is an elected official, unlike the boys in Musk's Teenaged Raiders of the Lost Treasury.] ~~~
~~~ Media critic Margaret Sullivan agrees with me. Both the WashPo & the NYT broke alarming stories revealing details of Musk's Invasion of the Treasury. She writes, “The scholar Norman Ornstein had this to say: 'We are in the middle of a fast moving putsch, a right wing authoritarian coup, a five alarm fire, and our media are treating it as if it were a little backyard bonfire.'... Yet, when I looked for that story on major news sites late Sunday morning, it was not being shouted from the rooftops.... Overall, the mainstream media is having as much trouble covering Trump’s firehose of chaos as it did covering his campaign.” MB: If the media were oblivious, Democrats were even worse. Sen. Ron Wyden was yelling appropriately, but nearly everyone else, including the new chair of the party, were AWOL.
Pemy Levy of Mother Jones: “The power that comes with controlling US government payments is vast. How Musk and Trump might try to leverage that against political or legal opponents — say, against states that file lawsuits they don’t like — is sobering to consider. So far, the GOP-controlled Congress seems willing to let them do whatever they want.” Levy notes that the little Muskovites may not have the power to stop Treasury payments yet, but she asserts, with evidence, that they could get it soon. (Also linked yesterday.)
Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: “The top agent at the F.B.I.’s New York field office vowed in a defiant email to his staff to 'dig in' after the Trump administration targeted officials involved in the investigations into the Jan. 6 attack — and praised the bureau’s interim leaders for defending its independence. 'Today, we find ourselves in the middle of a battle of our own, as good people are being walked out of the F.B.I. and others are being targeted because they did their jobs in accordance with the law and F.B.I. policy,' wrote James E. Dennehy, a veteran and highly respected agent who has run the largest and arguably the most important field office in the bureau since September.... He ... suggested he had no intention of stepping down.... [A] sense of dread was stoked by a remarkable questionnaire sent to bureau employees, asking them to describe what, if any, role they had in investigating and prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters. The form requires the employees to say if they collected evidence, provided support services, interviewed witnesses, executed search warrants or testified at trial — basic activities of F.B.I. employees during the normal and lawful course of their duties. They have until 3 p.m. Monday to complete the forms.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Ethan Singer of the New York Times: “More than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites have been taken down since Friday afternoon, a New York Times analysis has found, as federal agencies rush to heed ... [Donald] Trump’s orders targeting diversity initiatives and 'gender ideology.' The purges have removed information about vaccines, veterans’ care, hate crimes and scientific research, among many other topics. Doctors, researchers and other professionals often rely on such government data and advisories. Some government agencies appear to have removed entire sections of their website.... Among the pages that have been taken down: More than 3,000 pages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including a thousand research articles filed under preventing chronic disease, S.T.D. treatment guidelines, information about Alzheimer’s warning signs, overdose prevention training and vaccine guidelines for pregnant people.... More than 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau.... More than 1,000 pages from the Office of Justice Programs, including a feature on teenage dating violence....” (Also linked yesterday.)
Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: “With his criticism of U.S. Catholic bishops for supporting immigrants, Vice President JD Vance has reignited years of GOP attacks on the Catholic Church as both sides navigate an issue that has divided the nation and the faithful. Catholic leaders expressed dismay after Vance, who is Catholic, questioned whether the church’s substantial, decades-long work with migrants is driven by a desire for money.... John Carr, who for two decades led the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ office on social justice efforts, said Vance’s criticisms 'showed an unprecedented lack of respect for the work of the Catholic community, lack of restraint in promoting false and outrageous claims that the Church does this for the money and promotes human trafficking, and a lack of knowledge of Catholic teaching and ministry with refugees.... It seemed like an effort to intimidate...'” MB: So, you say Vance is a disrespectful, ignorant, lying bully and conspiracy theorist. Now tell us something we don't know.
A Rude Guest. John Hudson of the Washington Post: “Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Panama’s president Sunday that the status quo at the Panama Canal is 'unacceptable' and, absent 'immediate changes,' would require the United States to take unspecified measures. Rubio’s confrontational language, detailed in a State Department summary of the meeting, did not specify whether the United States would consider military action, but said the presence of two Hong Kong-based companies and other Chinese firms around the canal 'is a threat.' Rubio’s demands came despite Panama’s status as a supportive partner to the United States, especially on migration enforcement, a key priority of the Trump administration. On that matter, Rubio thanked [President José Raúl] Mulino ;for his support of a joint repatriation program, which has reduced illegal migration,' according to the summary.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Rubio is slated to travel to El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica & the Dominican Republic next. I think the leaders of those countries should tell him not to come as they have other engagements.
That Sound You Hear Is the Mad Brutalist Sculptor Donaldo & His Apprentices Chipping Away at the First Amendment. Annabelle Timset of the Washington Post: “CBS News plans to provide the Federal Communications Commission with the transcript of a '60 Minutes' interview with Kamala Harris that is at the heart of a lawsuit against the network filed by ... Donald Trump — the latest development in a battle that critics say is being used to target press freedom.... CBS News said in a statement Friday that it will comply with a demand from the FCC to hand over the transcript and camera feeds from Harris’s '60 Minutes' interview, which was released in October.... The FCC’s demand is based on a complaint from the conservative Center for American Rights that was dismissed on Jan. 16. After Trump was inaugurated, Brendan Carr, whom Trump appointed to lead the FCC, reopened the case.”
Marie: Hair-on-fire seems to be the style du jour, and I'm in very good company: ~~~
~~~ ⭐Historian Timothy Snyder, in a Substack essay, describes “the coup that is going on now: ... The oligarchs have no plan to govern. They will take what they can, and disable the rest. The destruction is the point. They don’t want to control the existing order. They want disorder in which their relative power will grow.... Trump’s tariffs (which are also likely illegal) are there to make us poor. Trump’s attacks on America’s closest friends, countries such as Canada and Denmark, are there to make enemies of countries where constitutionalism works and people are prosperous.... Deportations are a spectacle to turn Americans against one another, to make us afraid.... They also create busy-work for law enforcement, locating the 'criminals' in workplaces across the country, as the crime of the century takes place at the very center of power.” Read on. Many thanks to Julie in Massachusetts for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
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Privatizing public information
Emperor Musk lost a ton of money mangling and mismanaging Twitter, but the best return on investment he will ever get is buying Fat Hitler. For a mere $250 million, the evil Muskrat now owns the United States Federal Government and boy, is he having the time of his life.
Firing thousands of workers, invading federal offices with his Hitler Youth Muskovites and taking over, shutting down payments to federal contractors until he—an unelected one-time illegal immigrant—rifles through their contracts and files seeing where he might be able to screw with companies he doesn’t particularly like, none of which is vaguely legal. Federal contractor payments are the business of Congress and…but oops. I forgot. Musk owns Congress now too. Because Fat Hitler is too busy shoring his flabby ass to the rest of the world, and besides, the PoT controlled Congress doesn’t give a shit anyway. Craven cowardice will do that.
Best of all, the Muskrat now personally controls what the NTSB can say to the public regarding their investigations into crashes he may have helped cause by firing the FAA director who had the temerity to fine the Emperor for Space X violations along with Hitler’s wiping out an aviation safety committee.
How nice for them both.
And no one can stop him because he has Fat Hitler on a short leash.
Will he put some pimply faced high school kid in charge of NTSB communications? Maybe in between games on his Xbox, the kid will have time to rewrite investigation findings so DEI really is to blame.
So great. We now have our own Pravda. Xitter has become the official “news” organ of the Musk/Trump authoritarian-fascist state. Can we get a sieg heil for that?