The Conversation -- March 1, 2025
Marie: Sorry, I've been adding links up past 10 am ET.
So here we are, for the first time in our lives, the enemy of democratic Europe.
Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “One of the most surreal moments of Friday’s Oval Office showdown between ... [Donald] Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine came at the very end. After all the shouting and the saber-rattling and the lecturing and the pleading and the politicking had ceased, the American president shifted a little in his seat and shared an observation. 'This is going to be great television,' he remarked.... It was a conclusion as startling as it was fundamentally Trumpian.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Although video of the encounter will be studied as long as anyone cares about how this country fell, it is not "great television." Trump and his collaborators wrote the script & produced the show, but it was a monumental dud. It depicts, not great television but the sickening climactic moment in a thumping American tragedy. A tragedy is self-imposed. Trump, Vance and their Republican quislings caused the debacle, but voters who set them in position to do so are ultimately responsible. If you missed it, watch as much as you can stomach: ~~~
~~~ The New York Times excerpts parts of a transcript of the meeting.
I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace. -- Donald Trump, lying in a media post ~~~
~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: “The United States’ relationship with Ukraine erupted in a storm of acrimony on Friday as ... [Donald] Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in an explosive televised Oval Office showdown and abruptly cut short a visit meant to coordinate a plan for peace. In a fiery public confrontation unlike any seen between an American president and foreign leader in modern times, Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance castigated Mr. Zelensky for not being grateful enough for U.S. support in Ukraine’s war with Russia, and sought to strong-arm him into making a peace deal on whatever terms the Americans dictated. With his voice raised and temper flaring, Mr. Trump threatened to abandon Ukraine altogether if Mr. Zelensky did not go along. After journalists left the Oval Office, Mr. Trump canceled the rest of the visit, including a planned joint news conference and signing ceremony for a deal on rare minerals, and U.S. officials told the Ukrainians to leave.... ...
“Even as he shouted at the Ukrainian leader..., the president spoke of Mr. Putin as if they were friends, saying that the Russian leader has 'been through a lot with me' in enduring the 'Russia hoax,' referring to the investigation of Mr. Putin’s clandestine efforts to help Mr. Trump win the 2016 election. The confrontation provided a major boost to Mr. Putin.... The White House later sent out Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a close Trump ally, to tell reporters that Mr. Zelensky should consider stepping down. 'He either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with or he needs to change,' Mr. Graham said on the White House driveway. In a later interview with Fox News, Mr. Zelensky refused to apologize to Mr. Trump, but expressed regret about the exchange and appreciation to the United States for its support. 'We are thankful and sorry for this,' he said.”
~~~ Michael Birnbaum & Matt Viser of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump ripped into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday, in a remarkable encounter that could determine a generation of war and peace in Europe but that at times felt more like a barroom brawl with furious demands from Trump and Vice President JD Vance for respect and gratitude from the wartime Ukrainian leader. The heated back and forth — with Trump, Zelensky and Vance at times shouting over each other — was a striking breach of Oval Office comity, where even tough encounters have typically happened with calm voices and diplomatic language.... Zelensky pushed back against Trump, urging him to offer security guarantees, emphasizing Putin’s aggression, and, as things grew heated, chided Vance for speaking about Ukraine without having visited the country. Zelensky left shortly after 1:40 p.m., with a planned press conference canceled and Trump writing on social media: 'He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he’s ready for Peace.' Also cut short were plans for Trump and Zelensky to finalize an agreement granting the U.S. limited access to Ukraine’s mineral rights.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge. -- European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas ~~~
~~~ Tim Balk of the New York Times: “European leaders quickly pledged their continued support for Ukraine on Friday after ... [Donald] Trump’s blistering criticism of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in a meeting at the White House. Leaders lined up behind Ukraine and praised its embattled president, the statements coming one after the other: from France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Norway, Finland, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia, Belgium, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Ireland. Canadian, Australian and New Zealand leaders added their voices to the Europeans’. Even as Western leaders generally shied away from explicitly criticizing Mr. Trump..., many in Europe addressed their statements of encouragement directly to Mr. Zelensky.” Politico's report is here.
David Sanger of the New York Times: “After five weeks in which President Trump made clear his determination to scrap America’s traditional sources of power — its alliances among like-minded democracies — and return the country to an era of raw great-power negotiations, he left one question hanging: How far would he go in sacrificing Ukraine to his vision? The remarkable showdown that played out in front of the cameras early Friday afternoon from the Oval Office provided the answer.... What Mr. Trump really wants, one senior European official said this week before the blowup, is a normalization of the relationship with Russia.... If that means rewriting the history of Moscow’s illegal invasion three years ago, dropping investigations of Russian war crimes or refusing to offer Ukraine long-lasting security guarantees, then Mr. Trump ... is willing to make that deal.... Mr. Trump makes no secret of his view that the post-World War II system, created by Washington, ate away at American power.... In the five weeks since his second inauguration, Mr. Trump has begun exercising a plan to destroy that system.”
Marie: Robert Farley of LG&$ also speaks for me when he writes, "I don’t know if I’ve ever been this ashamed of a US President."
M. Gessen of the New York Times: “President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine understands the enormity of the threat [posed by Vladimir Putin's plan to reorganize the world as Joseph Stalin did at the 1945 Yalta Conference], not only to his country but to Europe, for which Ukraine has served as a deadly buffer zone. But on Friday, when he tried to talk about this threat during an Oval Office meeting, Trump and Vice President JD Vance became furious.... What happens if Russia unleashes its aggression against Europe, unchecked or even aided by the United States? The exact contours of the looming catastrophe are impossible to predict.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: One piece of this tragedy: in his desperate campaign to cement his place in the dictators' club, Trump has no idea that he is not a strong man aligning himself with other strongmen, but a pawn of Putin. And his place in the dictators' club, if indeed the others fully accept him, will not be at the top. He's merely an aged, middling, pathetic dictator-among-others.
Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: "All of the ghastliness inflicted on Zelensky today should not obscure the geopolitical reality of what just happened: The president of the United States ambushed a loyal ally, presumably so that he can soon make a deal with the dictator of Russia to sell out a European nation fighting for its very existence.... This meeting reeked of a planned attack, with Trump unloading Russian talking points on Zelensky (such as blaming Ukraine for risking global war), all of it designed to humiliate the Ukrainian leader on national television and give Trump the pretext to do what he has indicated repeatedly he wants to do: side with Russian President Vladimir Putin and bring the war to an end on Russia’s terms. Trump is now reportedly considering the immediate end of all military aid to Ukraine because of Zelensky’s supposed intransigence during the meeting. Vance’s presence at the White House also suggests that the meeting was a setup.... Marco Rubio — in theory, America’s top diplomat — was also there, but he sat glumly and silently while Vance pontificated like an obnoxious graduate student." Read on. Thank you to laura h. for this gift link.
Bret Stephens of the New York Times: “Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s embattled democratic leader, came to Washington prepared to sign away anything he could offer ... [Donald] Trump except his nation’s freedom, security and common sense. For that, he was rewarded with a lecture on manners from the most mendacious vulgarian and ungracious host ever to inhabit the White House.... This was a day of American infamy.... If there’s one silver lining to this fiasco, it’s that Zelensky did not sign the agreement on Ukrainian minerals that was forced on him this month by Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary who’s the Tom Hagen character in this protection-racket administration.... But if it’s a financial payback that the Trump administration seeks, the best place to get it is to seize, in collaboration with our European partners, Russia’s frozen assets and put them into an account by which Ukraine could pay for American-made arms. If the United States won’t do this, the Europeans should....”
Josh Kovensky of TPM: "... Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance moved to betray a key U.S. ally that has lost hundreds of thousands of people in fending off a Russian invasion on Friday, taunting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at an Oval Office meeting after spending weeks trying to undermine the bilateral relationship. The Oval Office blowup, in which Trump and Vance berated Zelensky as ungrateful while dismissing the prospect that Russian President Vladimir Putin might renege on a potential ceasefire agreement, is a culmination in a weeks-long campaign to choreograph an end to U.S. support for Ukraine."
David Frum of the Atlantic: “... Trump and Vance have revealed to Americans and to America’s allies their alignment with Russia, and their animosity toward Ukraine in general and its president in particular. The truth is ugly, but it’s necessary to face it.... The national-security system of the West is led by two men who cannot be trusted to defend America’s allies — and who deeply sympathize with the world’s most aggressive dictator.... We’re witnessing the self-sabotage of the United States. 'America First' always meant America alone, a predatory America whose role in the world is no longer based on democratic belief.... The American people need to reckon with the mess Trump and Vance are making of this country’s once-good name — and the services they are performing for dictators and aggressors.... The pro-Trump party exposed its face to the world in the Oval Office today. Nobody who saw that face will ever forget the grotesque sight.” Thanks to laura h. for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times points to some of the ironies of the Trump/Vance ambush: “It was a sickening spectacle: the man who tried to upend democracy bullying the man who is fighting for democracy.... Pretty rich for a draft dodger to lecture a man whose name has become synonymous with wartime bravery.... JD Vance, a malign presence who has said he does not care a fig about Ukraine, chided Volodymyr Zelensky for not being grateful enough to America, i.e. Trump.... The bust of Churchill so beloved by Trump watched over the three men as they sparred.... Can you imagine Churchill’s chilly disdain for Trump’s protection-racket demand for Ukraine’s minerals?” Trump's calling out Zelensky for wearing an outfit a little fancier than Elon Musk wears to formal White House meetings. Trump's finding common cause with Putin for the hardship poor Vlad “went through” in during the Russia election-tampering investigation. Trump's complaining that Zelensky showed “hatred” for Putin, who without provocation has been waging war on Ukraine for years in an attempt to take over all or parts of it; Trump “doesn’t understand why Zelensky is not happy with Putin for invading the smaller country and beating the bejesus out of it, for decimating a generation of young Ukrainian soldiers, for breaking cease-fires and committing war crimes.”
Oh, How Could This Have Happened? Giselle Ewing of Politico: “A staffer from TASS, a Russian [state media] outlet that often promotes glorified coverage of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, was briefly in the room for ... Donald Trump’s bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. American media mainstays Reuters and the Associated Press were not granted access. According to the White House, the Russian reporter’s presence was unplanned [and unapproved].... The White House did not address how the unapproved reporter was able to gain access to the Oval Office. The moment marks just the latest turn in the ongoing saga of the White House backlash against mainstream news.” ~~~
~~~ AND This. Anthony Orrico of the Irish Star: "The boyfriend of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) mocked the outfit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the chaotic Oval Office meeting with ... Donald Trump and Vice President J.D Vance. Real America’s Voice host Brian Glenn, who is dating the MAGA congresswoman..., apparently took exception with the fact that the Ukrainian leader was not wearing a suit. 'I will wear [a suit] after this war finishes. Maybe something like yours, maybe something better,' Mr. Zelensky retorted."
Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: “... Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order making English the official language of the United States, three White House officials told CNBC on Friday. The order would establish a national language for the first time in U.S. history. Trump’s order would also rescind former President Bill Clinton’s August 2000 directive requiring agencies and other recipients of federal funds to provide services for those with limited English proficiency, according to a fact sheet shared with CNBC.” MB: This is embarrassing, especially in a country where so many native-born Americans speak only English (that includes me). We are such undereducated rubes, and now Trump plans to remind us of it. (Also linked yesterday.)
Digby, in Salon, psychoanalyzes Little Donnie: "... the motive that is driving him to do everything he's doing is simple: vengeance.... It's now gone far beyond his desire to hurt individuals — he's intent upon seeking revenge against the country itself, maybe even the whole world. Trump is seething with anger and resentment at having been officially exposed as a sexual predator, a fraud, a coup plotter and a thief. He's still upset about the Russia Investigation, which he even brought up again on Thursday, explaining that he and Vladimir Putin were bonded over it so he feels he can trust the Russian dictator. Imagine the fury and frustration he feels at people knowing, no matter how much he says otherwise, that he lost the 2020 election and couldn't admit it. The damage to his fragile psyche is overwhelming and all he wants now is to wreak revenge on his enemies.... Donald Trump is 78 years old and he's been frustrated his whole life that he couldn't ever seem to get the respect he believed he deserved. Now, having been restored to this position of power with no one to stop him, he's settling accounts." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary in today's thread.
Peter Navarro Is Still Crazy. Connor Stringer of the Telegraph, republished by Yahoo! News: “A top White House official has threatened to redraw the Canadian border amid Donald Trump’s ambition to turn the country in America’s '51st state'. Peter Navarro ... is pushing US negotiators to discuss reworking the border with their Canadian counterparts, The Telegraph can reveal. 'Navarro recommended revising the Canada-US border, which is just crazy and dangerous,' a source close to negotiations told The Telegraph. Canada has now instructed its delegates to withdraw from negotiations with the US until Jameson Greer and Howard Lutnick, two incoming members of Mr Trump’s cabinet, are confirmed by the senate. Mr Greer and Mr Lutnick are viewed by Ottawa as being less extreme.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Madeleine Ngo & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: “Federal workers started to receive emails late Friday evening asking them to provide a list of accomplishments from the week, a reprise of a request by Elon Musk that spread fear and confusion through the government just days ago.... Like the earlier email..., the email on Friday from the Office of Personnel Management ... directed [employees] to send approximately five bullets describing what they achieved this week. But it also said that, going forward, employees would be expected to complete the task weekly by Monday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time.... It is unclear what consequences, if any, there will be if employees fail to comply with the new directive.”
Julian Mark, et al., of the Washington Post: “Agencies across the federal government are dismantling offices that enforce civil rights and antidiscrimination laws under a Trump administration push to shrink the workforce, weakening the government’s ability to deliver on legal obligations to protect workers’ rights. [For instance,] the Social Security Administration this week announced it was closing its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, where about 150 people worked investigating civil rights complaints, preventing harassment and ensuring accommodations for people with disabilities.... Leaders at the Labor Department are planning to cut by 90 percent the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.... The moves signal the Trump administration’s intent to deliver on U.S. DOGE Service plans for workforce cuts laid out in a series of documents obtained by The Post, which initially contemplated eliminating the civil rights functions altogether in violation of federal law. The in-agency equal opportunity offices are mandated by statute to ensure employees receive equal opportunity....” (Also linked yesterday.)
This is Donald Trump making good on a very specific promise from Project 2025, and that is dismantling and privatizing NOAA, forcing Americans to pay for things like weather data and lifesaving weather alerts. This is going to have profound negative consequences on the day-to-day lives of Americans. -- Rep. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), at a news conference Friday ~~~
~~~ Christopher Flavelle, et al., of the New York Times: “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the world’s leading centers of climate research, has been hit by a new round of departures, just 24 hours after [about 800 probationary] employees were fired. About 500 employees left the agency on Friday after taking the so-called deferred resignation offer.... Under that program, staff at NOAA and other agencies have been told that they can stop working now and be paid through September.... The two rounds of departures together represent about 10 percent of NOAA’s roughly 13,000 employees.... Almost 200 of the roughly 500 departures were by people who work in the National Weather Service, a division within NOAA.... NOAA has been singled out for especially deep cuts by members of the Trump administration. Project 2025, the policy blueprint published by the Heritage Foundation that is reflected in many of the actions taken by the administration so far, calls the agency 'one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.'” ~~~
~~~ Scott Dance & Kasha Patel of the Washington Post: “The National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union representing 4,000 workers, argued the [employee terminations], part of the administration’s swift and broad moves to shrink the federal workforce, could leave some offices incapable of tracking weather hazards around the clock.... Private-sector forecasters, meteorologists and researchers around the world rely on the agencies’ weather and climate data.... About half of the Weather Service’s forecast offices were already understaffed, according to a congressional analysis released last year.” The article examines ways in which the weather services may/will be affected.
Nick Miroff & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration has directed federal officers to identify immigrants who can be rapidly removed from the United States without a court hearing... [A] memo circulated at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Feb. 18 details the agency’s latest strategy to accelerate removals and identifies their potential targets. More than 1 million migrants who were admitted to the United States through an array of initiatives during President Joe Biden’s administration could be flagged for 'expedited removal' proceedings, though officials have instructed immigration officers to pore over the nearly 8 million deportation cases on their dockets to find more. Migrants could be speedily deported if they crossed the border illegally, were waved into the country on parole or with a notice to report to immigration authorities, and have not applied for asylum, the memo said. Immigrants who arrived legally through a port of entry also may be targeted if they lacked immigration documents or misrepresented themselves, the memo said.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: IOW, not criminals and rapists. ~~~
~~~ Jacob Bogage, et al., of the Washington Post: “Internal Revenue Service leaders rejected a recent request from immigration enforcement officials to divulge the home addresses of 700,000 people suspected of being in the country illegally, rebuffing a Trump administration attempt to leverage the tax service to assist a sweeping immigration crackdown. In a memo obtained by The Washington Post, Department of Homeland Security authorities asked the IRS on Thursday to connect the names of potentially undocumented immigrants with the people’s last known addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. It follows a DHS request roughly two weeks ago that would allow immigration officials to provide a list of names to the IRS in hopes of obtaining home addresses from the tax agency.... DHS’s Thursday memo also asked the IRS to deploy dozens of highly skilled IRS auditors and criminal investigators to launch probes of businesses suspected of hiring immigrants not authorized to work in the United States....
“At the end of the workday Friday..., a new acting IRS commissioner, Melanie Krause, took over the agency and quickly indicated she was interested in exploring how to comply with the DHS request.... The memo and requests have prompted deep alarm within the IRS, the people said. Providing taxpayer information to third parties is punishable by civil and criminal penalties, and other government entities are forbidden from ordering tax investigations. People familiar with the DHS’s requests described them as 'Nixonian.'... The IRS has reassured undocumented immigrants for years that their information is confidential and that it would be safe for them to file income tax returns reflecting their earnings without fear of being deported.” Emphasis added. Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: “Seven top leaders of the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington, D.C., were demoted to misdemeanor and entry-level intake positions Friday, according to people familiar with the matter, in the latest Trump administration purge of career Justice Department prosecutors who handled politically sensitive cases. The prosecutors are among a larger group targeted for 'retribution' by ... Donald Trump and loyalists, including interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin, because of their roles in Jan. 6 Capitol seditious conspiracy and riot cases and others, including ones involving Trump allies such as advisers Stephen K. Bannon and Peter Navarro, according to eight people close to the office, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The seven prosecutors were notified by email Friday morning of their immediate removal from high-ranking supervisory or senior roles in the federal criminal division of the nation’s largest U.S. attorney’s office.”
Lauren Irwin of the Hill: “Joshua Stueve, a top spokesperson for the Department of Justice (DOJ), has resigned, citing a 'toxic work environment' in his letter to leadership. 'Simply put, I cannot continue to serve in such a hostile and toxic work environment, one where leadership at the highest levels makes clear we are not welcomed or valued, much less trusted to do our jobs,' wrote Stueve, who is not a political appointee and has served in administrations run by both parties.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Michael Shear of the New York Times: “The F.B.I. on Friday gave ... [Donald] Trump the boxes of materials the bureau had seized during a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in 2022, the White House announced.” MB: The article does not make clear whether or not Trump received the classified documents and other government-owned property & docs the National Archives asked for. Shear writes that ”the president and his allies said they would seek the return of the files that had been seized.... Alina Habba, the counselor to the president, told reporters that the boxes included personal items from Mr. Trump and his family.” But IMO “included personal items” does not mean “excluded government-owned property.” And it does seem highly likely that Patel or Bove would give Trump everything he (allegedly!) stole. ~~~
~~~ Update. Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “White House spokesperson Steven ... Cheung did not say Friday whether the classified items found by the FBI were among the materials being handed over.”
Martin Matishak of the Record: "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions, according to three people familiar with the matter. Hegseth gave the instruction to Cyber Command chief Gen. Timothy Haugh, who then informed the organization's outgoing director of operations, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Ryan Heritage, of the new guidance, according to these people.... While the full scope of Hegseth’s directive to the command remains unclear, it is more evidence of the White House’s efforts to normalize ties with Moscow after the U.S. and international allies worked to isolate the Kremlin over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine." MB: I'm not familiar with the Record, but Matiskak reported for Politico for five years, so he knows how to do the job.
DOD Spokesman Wants Press to Root for Trump. Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: “Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell had an off-the-record meeting with reporters Thursday afternoon that did not go well, according to a report by Status newsletter scribe Oliver Darcy.... Parnell’s media confab came just a few weeks after the DOD booted The New York Times, CNN, NBC News, Politico, and NPR from their physical offices within the Pentagon and replaced them with more MAGA-friendly outlets like Breitbart and One America News Network, although the left-leaning Huffington Post was also included.... '... the meeting quickly went off the rails' when the reporters started asking questions, and “things grew quite strange and adversarial' as Parnell began firing questions back at them.... Parnell 'then asked the room full of assembled journalists whether they were “rooting” for the president to succeed.' Wrote Darcy: '... Parnell ... questioned why it would be unfair for him to expect that the reporters cheer on Trump. A reporter answered that it was not their job to root for or against a subject that they cover, but to simply report the facts.... Parnell quipped back, 'So it’s our job to let you publish stories that trash the warfighter?'” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. Darcy's post is firewalled. ~~~
~~~ Marie: As far as I can tell, Parnell has no journalistic experience, which many departmental spokespeople do, for obvious reasons. He does, however, have a few things in common with Pete Hegseth: he has served in the military and his ex-wife accused him of physical abuse.
DEA Pauses Help for Poorer Student Borrowers. Tara Bernard of the New York Times: “Federal student loan borrowers are temporarily unable to apply to income-driven repayment plans, a decades-old safety net that ties their monthly loan payment size to household income levels, as the U.S. Education Department reviews a recent federal court ruling. The department closed applications to the repayment plans last week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld and expanded a temporary suspension of the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, known as SAVE. That income-driven program, a centerpiece of the Biden administration’s policy agenda with eight million enrolled borrowers, generated lower payments than previous plans. Given its high cost, SAVE became the target of two separate legal challenges last spring by two groups of Republican-led states, which argued that the Biden administration had overstepped its authority. The SAVE plan has been in legal limbo ever since, and participants’ payments have been on hold since last summer. But last week, applications to the three other income-driven plans were also taken down — older programs that hadn’t been subject to any litigation.”
Judge Calls Bull on DOJ Lawyers. Aishvarya Kavi & Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge said on Friday that it seemed 'factually inaccurate' for the Trump administration to keep insisting that Elon Musk has no formal position in an operation that has led to mass firings of federal workers and the hobbling of the nation’s foreign aid agency. The judge, Theodore D. Chuang of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, prodded government lawyers repeatedly for additional clarity on Mr. Musk’s role in a case that directly challenges the constitutionality of the task force known as the Department of Government Efficiency.... On Friday, Joshua E. Gardner, a lawyer in the Justice Department’s civil division, denied that Mr. Musk had any role with the Department of Government Efficiency.... The judge declined to issue an immediate decision.” The article details an instance in which Judge Chuang tripped up the government's lawyer.
Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: “The Democratic Party sued ... [Donald] Trump on Friday, contending that his assertion of control over independent executive-branch agencies, which include the bipartisan Federal Election Commission, violated federal election law.”
Tesla Fires Employee for Objecting to Musk's Pro-Nazi Post. Jack Ewing, et al., of the New York Times: “Tesla has fired a manager who objected to a social media post by Elon Musk, the chief executive, that referred to Nazi leaders. It was the latest example that public criticism of the boss was unacceptable in the Musk business empire. Jared Ottmann, a manager and engineer who worked with Tesla’s battery suppliers, said he had been fired because he criticized Mr. Musk for a post on X that used the names of Nazis like Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring in a series of wordplay. 'Stop Göring your enemies,' Mr. Musk wrote on Jan. 23, adding, 'Bet you did Nazi that coming.' He punctuated the post with a laughing-while-crying emoji. Mr. Ottmann said on LinkedIn in late January that he was offended that Mr. Musk had referred 'as a joke' to Nazis who were responsible for genocide.... Mr. Musk’s companies, which include SpaceX and X, have a history of punishing dissent.... The firings are at odds with Mr. Musk’s often-stated goal to defend free speech.”
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. David Folkenflik of NPR: "More than 75,000 digital subscribers to The Washington Post have cancelled since its owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced on Wednesday that he would radically overhaul the paper's opinion pages to reflect libertarian priorities and to exclude opposing points of view." MB: I doubt Bezos cares much; his goal is to please Trump, et al., in order to increase the bottom line of his other, lucrative enterprises. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ There Are No Concidences in Washington. Jaden Amos of Axios: Donald "Trump said in an interview with The Spectator that he had dinner Wednesday night with Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.... The dinner between Trump and Bezos happened the night Bezos announced changes to the Washington Post opinion section." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Reader Comments (17)
Revenge of the little fat boy
In the wake of Fat Hitler’s stoopid claim to be coming to the rescue of “working class motorists” he envisioned tooling around downtown Manhattan when he sat his fat ass on NYC’s traffic toll plan, I suggested this was his pathological response to the long standing embarrassment and hatred he felt about not being accepted by the city’s power brokers and glitterati as the collosus he saw himself as, bestriding the sparkling towers as the genius dealmaker of all dealmakers, a wonder to behold, instead being treated like the cheap carnival barker he really is, he of the multitude of failed businesses, tabloid ass showings, bankruptcies, failures, and fuckups, the small fingered vulgarian, the nepo baby.
Digby widens the lens here, pointing out that Fatty’s hatred encompasses a much broader stage: the world:
“No, the motive that is driving him to do everything he’s doing is simple: vengeance…he’s now intent upon seeking revenge against the country itself, maybe even the whole world.
Trump is seething with anger and resentment at having been officially exposed as a sexual predator, a fraud, a coup plotter and a thief. He’s still upset about the Russia Investigation, which he even brought up again on Thursday explaining that he and Vladimir Putin were bonded over it which is why he feels he can trust him. Imagine the fury and frustration he feels at people knowing, no matter how much he says otherwise, that he lost the 2020 election and couldn’t admit it. The damage to his fragile psyche is overwhelming and all he wants now is to wreak revenge on his enemies…
Finally, consider that Elon Musk’s wrecking crew is really a way of punishing America for failing to love him the way he believes he should be loved — unambiguously and unanimously. If his own MAGA supporters have to pay as well, that’s their own fault for not working harder on his behalf.
Donald Trump is 78 years old and he’s been frustrated his whole life that he couldn’t ever seem to get the respect he believed he deserved. Now, having been restored to this position of power with no one to stop him, he’s settling accounts.“
And there’s no one to stop him. He has never loved America, never understood it, never cared for a country that allows those he considers his lessers to have anything. You might say the same for many of the MAGAts who love and support him in his hatreds. You could actually see something of that hatred of America in others as well, Clarence Thomas, for instance, perhaps for different reasons, but the outcome is the same, the desire to punish those they feel don’t recognize their innate superiority. Equality? Fuck that! And America along with it.
And all of us.
Test…crap. We’re back to this again?
As a US citizen and voter, I hereby give Zelenskyy permission to
slap that fat face if ever they meet again.
But wash your hands immediately. Who knows what germs lurk under
that orange coating.
The new Tesla:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGb5BbsSszu/
I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but I think this is a good time to start asking some questions. I’m just asking, you understand. I’m not accusing anyone of anything. Just asking questions.
So Donald once said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still get elected. That reminded me of that Louisiana governor who said he could only lose his 1983 election if a dead girl or live boy was found in his bed. Well, what if we’re talking about a dead boy being found in Donald’s bed? Or maybe, just asking here, two, three, seven dead boys? With photographic evidence. And what if that shadowy figure in those photographs is Jeffrey Epstein? Just a thought.
And you know how Donald kept having money problems with his businesses? Aka bankruptcy. Well, what if he borrowed some money, just a few billion, from someone you really shouldn’t be borrowing money from, and when he wasn’t able to make his payments with the extortion-level interest, that someone made increasingly scary and violent threats? And then Donald’s new best friend, Vlad, swoops in to save the day, paying off the debt and interest. He just says to Donald, “Maybe you could do us a favor sometime. Maybe two favors. Okay?” I mean, that’s plausible, right?
And I’ve read enough le Carre novels to know that behind every good asset is a great handler. So, you know, maybe Melania?
Just asking questions here.
Wondered what happened to all the stuff the Pretender stole from us.
Now I know. He got it back.
Also wondered why he didn't fear North Korea's threats.
Now I know. We're now North Korea's ally.
And glad to know there were 74,999 others whom Bezos pissed off with his latest bootlicking antic.
"Zelensky disrespected our cherished Oval Office." You know, the one where we hang a mugshot of Fat Hitler from when he was charged with trying to steal a democratic election and they got him on tape telling them to find him 11k votes.
Fertile Ground Sown By Trump
"US intel shows Russia and China are attempting to recruit disgruntled federal employees, sources say"
@RAS: Right. The "cherished Oval Office" hosts a convicted felon, adjudicated sexual assaulter and perpetual lie machine every day the lyin', assaultin' felon chooses to show up & set his fat ass down behind the Resolute Desk & press the Diet Coke button. If all that is not "disrespecting" the "cherished Oval Office," then someone who comes in and forces a few true things into the conversation certainly is not showing disrespect for the room.
Canadian Drugs?
"The facts on fentanyl and the northern border
Trump’s White House is using misleading data about drug seizures and their links to Canada, a Globe investigation finds
Citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, the White House has asserted that 43 pounds of fentanyl was intercepted at the border last fiscal year, marking a “massive 2,050 per cent increase” compared with the year prior, when two pounds of the deadly synthetic drug was seized.
However, The Globe analyzed the U.S. border agency’s figures to verify that the 43-pound tally actually came from Canada, and found that the dataset does not reveal anything about the origin of the drugs.
U.S. border agents confirmed to The Globe that the agency’s methodology for attributing seizures to the northern border doesn’t hinge on whether the fentanyl was intercepted at the border or whether it came from Canada. It could have been seized hundreds of kilometres inland, and it may have no ties to Canada whatsoever.
Regardless, border agency spokesperson Jason Givens said seizures made by its agents in what it considers the north, including as part of joint law-enforcement operations, are recorded as northern-border seizures.
One of the northern-border regions, known as the Spokane sector, was responsible for nearly 24 pounds of the 2024 total cited by the White House, so The Globe travelled there. Law-enforcement officials across the sector, which covers eastern Washington, Idaho and western Montana, said they could not think of a single case of Canadian fentanyl flowing into their jurisdiction."
@Marie: Musk's kid was in the Oval telling Donnie to shut up and wiping his boogers on the Resolute desk in front of the cameras. Elon was wearing a t-shirt and MAGA hat. That was apparently less disrespectful to Fat Hitler than Zelensky explaining what his country is going through and the threat Russia would pose going forward if the great deal maker hands Putin everything he has struggled for in his "three day war" on a silver platter.
Hegseth
"Hegseth told the officials that if Mexico didn’t deal with the collusion between the country’s government and drug cartels, the U.S. military was prepared to take unilateral action, according to people briefed on the Jan. 31 call. Mexico’s top brass who were on that call were shocked and angered, feeling he was suggesting U.S. military action inside Mexico, these people said. The Defense Department declined to comment."
The Mexican President says that those supplying guns to "terrorist" cartels should be held accountable for aiding terrorism.
Learn Ukrainian. I hope this is true. Zelensky supposedly told Vance, "F U bitch".
Then Zelensky shows he is a class act on the way out and thanking the American people for their support.
Test…again.
02/28/2025: Democracy died in the "cherished Oval Office".
For anyone who needs to upchuck their lunch today, check this out:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGjHmubPYym/
Try it without the html link:
Fat Hitler’s excuse for hitting our neighbors with tariffs, his favorite economic cudgel (because he’s so ignorant of actual economics, he only knows about the most basic—and least effective—weapon) is fentynal. He’s Ssssooooo concerned about people dying from drug overdoses (a lie: he doesn’t care about anyone but himself).
But there’s something that causes far more deaths per year than fentynal, almost three times as many, but it’s something he and his billionaire bros work hard to make worse on an hourly basis:
Poverty.
Poverty, according to some estimates, kills over 180,000 Americans every year. But that’s not all. The effects of the huge—and widening—income inequality gap that keeps so many mired in poverty does more than just kill people. Those who don’t die are damaged in hundreds of other ways.
Of course, addressing poverty is a tall order. Democratic administrations have tried to make some headway, social security, Medicaid, head start programs, affirmative action, food stamps, to name just a few. All currently considered evil by Trump, Musk, and the Project 2025 social engineers seeking to increase poverty and its effects by killing or severely limiting those programs.
But yeah, bring on the tariffs.
I’m sure that will help those millions of poor people as well as those suffering opioid addiction.
But don’t forget: Fatty is the Mister Magoo of political solutions. Raging fires in California? After they’re out, let’s open this spigot hundreds of miles away and waste billions of gallons of much needed water which could never have gotten to the fires in the first place, then take a victory lap and claim credit for stopping the conflagration.
National security is important? Let’s steal thousands of top secret documents then flash a few around and store the rest next to your toilet.
At least Mister Magoo was a well meaning old guy who just couldn’t see straight.
Fat Hitler is an evil force of ignorance and hatred.
Oh, one other difference: Mister Magoo is a fictional cartoon character. Trump is unfortunately not. Neither is poverty.
https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2023/04/17/poverty-4th-greatest-cause-us-deaths