The Conversation -- March 17, 2025
This Is Hoffifying. Arthur Allen of Kaiser Foundation Health News: "National Institutes of Health officials have urged scientists to remove all references to mRNA vaccine technology from their grant applications, two researchers said, in a move that signaled the agency might abandon a promising field of medical research. The mRNA technology is under study at the NIH for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, including flu and AIDS, and also cancer. It was deployed in the development of covid-19 vaccines credited with saving 3 million lives in the U.S. alone — an accomplishment ... Donald Trump bragged about in his first term.... A senior official at the National Cancer Institute confirmed that NIH acting Director Matthew Memoli sent an email across the NIH instructing that any grants, contracts, or collaborations involving mRNA vaccines be reported up the chain to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s office and the White House." ~~~
~~~ Marie: How about leeches, Bobby? Are leeches okay to study as cancer & AIDS cures?
Avery Lotz of Axios: Donald "Trump claimed Monday that former President Biden's preemptive pardons to members of the House Jan. 6 select committee and others are 'VOID' and 'VACANT' because they were 'done by Autopen.'... Experts cast doubt on Trump's rationale, and said it was unlikely that a court would allow a president to revoke or nullify his predecessor's pardons.... Trump contended in a late-night Truth Social post that Biden's pardons are 'hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT' and that the 'necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden.' The committee members should 'fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level,' Trump wrote. He claimed without evidence that the members of the committee, which include former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), were 'probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf' without Biden's knowledge." ~~~
~~~ Marie: In the middle of the night, one of Trump's phone buddies puts an idea in his ugly fat head, and he just goes with it, tweeting it out to the world. ~~~
~~~ Update. Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “There is no power in the Constitution or case law to undo a pardon, and there is no exception to pardons signed by autopen. But Mr. Trump’s assertion, which embraced a baseless right-wing conspiracy theory about former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was a new escalation of his antidemocratic rhetoric. Implicit in his post was Mr. Trump’s belief that the nation’s laws should be whatever he decrees them to be. And it was a jolting reminder that his appetite for revenge has not been sated.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that the graf above is the second paragraph in a news story about the President* of the United States, It appears on the online front page of the Both-Sides New York Times. The paragraph, in that context, is as extraordinary as the bunk the article describes. McCreesh describes Trump as a lying, vengeful autocrat, and his editors said, "Print it!"
Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, on Monday postponed a multicity tour to promote his forthcoming book, citing security concerns amid backlash to his decision to vote with Republicans for a stopgap spending bill to stave off a government shutdown.... Many Democratic activists, desperate for their leaders to stand up to President Trump, have been staging protests outside of Mr. Schumer’s Brooklyn home and calling for his resignation. Online, they have been organizing protests for every stop on his book tour.” Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Of course I have no idea if Schumer's book is any good, but I know that the title suggests its topic is: “Antisemitism in America: A Warning.” So losing the opportunity to promote the book and its message is one more reason Schumer should not have caved to the Trump/Musk administration.
Noah Berlatsky of Public Notice on how Donald Trump and others on the right use antisemetic and anti-Palestinian smears to deprive Jews of their identities and their rights to independent opinions.
Digby, on the White House's defying a court order: “... their game is to find the legal line, step over it, and dare anyone to push back. Lather, rinse. repeat. Now with virtual immunity granted by the Roberts court, Trump feels he’s above the law and untouchable. He IS the law[.] A defiant White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, 'If the Democrats want to argue in favor of turning a plane full of rapists, murderers, and gangsters back to the United States, that’s a fight we are more than happy to take.' Next up from the Trump WH, it’s the 'They just needed killin'' defense. The Constitution and the rule of law are inconveniences.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm so confused. One of the arguments the Trump administration is making is that it could not comply with Judge Boasberg's order because at the time he ordered return of the planes, at least some of them were over international waters, where he had no jurisdiction. But wait! Weren't the flight over the brand-new Gulf of America??? Are those our waters now? ~~~
~~~ Update. Homan: "I Don't Care What the Judges Think." Ivana Saric of Axios: Donald "Trump's border czar Tom Homan on Monday doubled down on the decision to defy a court order that barred the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.... The White House's decision to disregard a federal judge's order has set up a legal battle that could make its way to the Supreme Court and define the limits of Trump's deportation powers.... Homan claimed in a Fox News interview Monday that the two deportation flights to El Salvador did not need to be turned around because they were already above international waters when the order came through. 'We are going to make this country safe again ... I'm proud to be a part of this administration. We are not stopping. I don't care what the judges think. I don't care what the Left thinks. We're coming,' he added. Asked what was coming next in the administration's deportation efforts, Homan said: 'Another flight. Another flight every day.'"
About Those “Bulletproof” Cybertrucks. Christopher Jasper of the Telegraph: Elon Musk’s Tesla has been forced to halt sales of its electric Cybertruck pickup amid mounting concern about metal panels falling off the supposedly indestructible vehicles. Customers posting on the Cybertruck Owners Club website – as well as on Mr Musk’s own X, formerly Twitter – said they had been told by agents that deliveries were on hold. Electric vehicle-enthusiast website Electrek said the decision was taken amid increasing instances of trim and panels 'flying off the supposedly “bulletproof” electric truck.'”
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⭐Homicidal Maniacs Trump & Musk Did This. But They're Not Racists. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: “As the world’s richest men slash American aid for the world’s poorest children, they insist that all is well. 'No one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding,' Elon Musk said. 'No one.' That is not true. In South Sudan..., the efforts by Musk and ... [Donald] Trump are already leading children to die.... I find it odious when the world’s richest man cackles about America shoving programs for needy children 'into the wood chipper.'... We worked with experts at the Center for Global Development who tried to calculate how many lives are at risk if American humanitarian assistance is frozen or slashed. While these estimates are inexact and depend on how much aid continues, they suggest that a cataclysm may be beginning around the developing world:
An estimated 1,650,000 people could die within a year without American foreign aid for H.I.V. prevention and treatment.... An estimated 500,000 people could die within a year without American funding for vaccines.... An estimated 550,000 people could die within a year without American funding for food aid.... An estimated 290,000 people could die within a year without American funding for malaria prevention.... An estimated 310,000 people could die within a year without U.S. funding for tuberculosis prevention.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Amanda Marcotte writes on BlueSky: "Killing children is by design, I'm afraid. 'Pro-natalists' like Musk claim they aren't racist, but their pressure to have children is solely focused on white women, while they back policies that literally kill of[f] non-white children. He's a eugenicist." Also thanks to RAS. (Also linked yesterday.)
⭐ Commander Don, Drunk Pete & Sharpshooter Kristi Did This. Devlin Barrett, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration denied on Sunday that it had violated a court order by deporting hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a prison in El Salvador over the weekend, saying that the president had broad powers to quickly expel them under an 18th-century law meant for wartime. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, also asserted in a statement that the federal courts 'have no jurisdiction' over the president’s conduct of foreign affairs or his power to expel foreign enemies. 'A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil,' she said in a statement. It was unclear why she referred to an aircraft carrier, because all indications were that the Venezuelans had been flown to El Salvador....
During the hearing on Saturday, Judge [James] Boasberg said he was ordering the government to turn flights around. A lawyer representing the government, Drew Ensign, told Judge Boasberg that he did not have many details to share, and that describing operational details would raise 'national security issues.' The timing of the flights to El Salvador is important because Judge Boasberg issued his order shortly before 7 p.m. in Washington, but video posted from El Salvador shows the deportees disembarking the plane at night. El Salvador is two time zones behind Washington, which raises questions about whether the Trump administration had ignored an explicit court order.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Miss Leavitt referred to the plane as an “aircraft carrier” because it was an aircraft carrying people “foreign alien terrorists.” Were the carrier a seagoing vessel instead of an air-flying plane, she would have referred it as a “boatcraft carrier.” As for the larger issue, Leavitt -- speaking for the administration -- is asserting that the federal courts have no authority over the the president* or the military or both. Here again, that pesky Constitutional crisis thing, this time bigger than a boatcraft carrier. ~~~
~~~ Oopsie! The Washington Post Has the Timeline. Joyce Lee & Kevin Schaul of the Washington Post: “... flight records reviewed by The Washington Post show that two flights left Harlingen, Texas, for El Salvador as the federal judge was reviewing the case and a third flight left shortly after a written order was issued.” The Post also says “a White House official” was the person who denied the courts had jurisdiction over the president*. “We believe this is a baseless legal ruling no matter when the flights took off,' the official said, adding that the fact that two of the three deportation flights were out of the country before the judge’s order 'strengthens our case.'” Ryan Goodman of Just Security also posts a timeline. ~~~
~~~ Matthew Schwartz of the New York Times: “The Trump administration moved one large step closer to a constitutional showdown with the judicial branch of government when airplane-loads of Venezuelan detainees deplaned in El Salvador even though a federal judge had ordered that the planes reverse course and return the detainees to the United States.... 'This sure looks like contempt of court to me,' said David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University. 'You can turn around a plane if you want to.'... [Washington lawyer Mark] Zaid said the events on Saturday and Sunday were the 'start of true constitutional crisis.'... On Sunday, legal analysts were still stitching together the timeline, trying to determine where the planes were shortly before 7 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday — and how close the Trump administration is to open defiance of the Constitution’s system of checks and balances....
“On Saturday, the judge had ordered the government to return anyone removed under the Alien Enemies Act to U.S. soil, 'however that’s accomplished — whether turning around the plane or not.'... The administration said that the five plaintiffs who filed suit to block their deportations — the suit that yielded the judge’s order — had not been deported.... 'Oopsie … Too late,' [El Salvador's right-wing president Nayib] Bukele wrote in a social media post on Sunday morning that was recirculated by the White House communications director, Steven Cheung.... The mockery by Mr. Bukele — and the tacit endorsements of it by senior administration officials — seemed to push Washington closer to a constitutional crisis, critics of the administration said Sunday.” ~~~
~~~ Katherine Faulders, an ABC News straight reporter, goes there: "... Donald Trump's administration made a calculated decision to ignore a judge's directive to turn around two flights containing hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The verbal order from the chief judge of the Washington, D.C., District Court, James Boasberg, explicitly told the government to turn around any aircraft that had already departed the country if it was still in the air." ~~~
~~~ Caleb Howe of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump shared an intense video on his Truth Social app Sunday along with a message of thanks to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador for taking hundreds of alleged criminals and gang members the United States deported.... 'These are the monsters sent into our Country by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats,' Trump said in the message accompanying the video. 'How dare they!' 'Thank you to El Salvador and, in particular, President Bukele, for your understanding of this horrible situation, which was allowed to happen to the United States because of incompetent Democrat leadership,' he wrote. He concluded by saying 'We will not forget!'” ~~~
~~~ Maria Sacchetti, et al., of the Washington Post: “A federal judge barred ... Donald Trump on Saturday from using a wartime powers act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without a hearing, ordering the administration to turn around any planes that had already taken off after the Alien Enemies Act quietly went into effect. Trump signed a proclamation Friday to deploy the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 for the first time since World War II to swiftly remove Venezuelans allegedly involved in the transnational gang known as Tren de Aragua.... The White House kept the proclamation under wraps until after advocates for immigrants sued Saturday, fearing he was already sweeping immigrants out of the country. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed immigration officials had 'arrested nearly 300 Tren de Aragua terrorists' over the weekend and sent them to El Salvador. The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, said that 238 members of the transnational Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and 23 members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang had already arrived in El Salvador and were in his custody, with a social media post responding to the judge’s ruling that said 'Oopsie, too late,' followed by a laughing emoji. A White House official celebrated his post with a meme, saying, 'Boom!'” The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Though Sacchetti's report doesn't make it clear, the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, also retweeted Bukele's "Oopsie" message. That matters.
~~~ Marie: Secretly signing executive orders? Secretly deporting nearly 300 people without even a fake show of due process? That is, Trump issued an order in secret specifically so the courts could not void it. I don't know how all this will shake out, what with our Trump-compliant courts and courtiers, but at this point, Trump is not only defying the law, he also is laughing about it. This is a middle finger to the rule of law & to the Constitution he is sworn to uphold. And the secrecy surrounding the signing of the proclamation proves the intent. It's a crime. (Committed by the person whom the Supremes have pre-absolved.) ~~~
~~~ And This. Dana Goldstein of the New York Times: “A kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported from the United States, even though she had a valid visa and a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion, according to her lawyer and court papers. Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is a Lebanese citizen who had traveled to her home country last month to visit relatives. She was detained on Thursday when she returned from that trip to the United States, according to a court complaint filed by her cousin Yara Chehab. Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts ordered the government on Friday evening to provide the court with 48 hours’ notice before deporting Dr. Alawieh. But she was put on a flight to Paris, presumably on her way to Lebanon. In a second order filed Sunday morning, the judge said there was reason to believe U.S. Customs and Border Protection had willfully disobeyed his previous order to give the court notice before expelling the doctor. He said he had followed 'common practice in this district as it has been for years,' and ordered the federal agency to respond to what he called 'serious allegations.'...
“Thomas Brown, a lawyer representing Dr. Alawieh and her employer, Brown Medicine, said that while the doctor was in Lebanon, the U.S. Consulate issued her an H-1B visa, which allows highly skilled foreign citizens to live and work in the United States.... [Clare] Saunders, [a lawyer representing Ms. Chehab], said in an affidavit that she went to the airport Friday and notified Customs and Border Protection officials there — before the flight to Paris was scheduled to depart — that there was a court order barring the doctor’s expulsion. She said that the officers took no action and gave her no information until after the plane had taken off.... A hearing in Dr. Alawieh’s case is scheduled for Monday.” See related Providence Journal story, linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Avery Lotz of Axios: "A federal judge on Sunday ordered the Trump administration to respond to allegations that U.S. immigration enforcement 'willfully disobeyed' an order halting the deportation of a Rhode Island doctor."
Jazmine Ulloa & Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “... family detention [of undocumented immigrants] is being resurrected by ... [Donald] Trump, as his administration marches forward on its promise to crackdown on immigrants. Families have begun to arrive in recent days at a detention facility in South Texas.... A second detention center, also in South Texas, is being readied for families. Each of the facilities is being set up to hold thousands of people. At one site, lawyers say, multiple families are being detained in rooms with four to eight bunk beds and shared bathroom facilities.”
Say, Here's a Boatcraft Guarding Us Against Foreign Alien Immigrants. Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “The Pentagon has deployed a Navy destroyer on an unusual mission to bolster security at the southern U.S. border, defense officials said, dispatching a warship involved last year in combat in the Middle East to waters typically patrolled by the U.S. Coast Guard. The USS Gravely, a guided-missile destroyer, left from Naval Weapons Station Yorktown in Virginia on Saturday as part of the Defense Department’s response to ... Donald Trump’s executive order calling for securing the southern border. It marks the latest example of the Trump administration using the U.S. military at home to fend off what the president has claimed is an 'invasion' at the border.”
Private Bonespurs & His Aide-de-Camp Drunk Pete Did This. But They're Not Racists. Maya Yang of the Guardian: “The US defense department webpage celebrating an army general who served in the Vietnam war and was awarded the country’s highest military decoration has been removed and the letters 'DEI' added to the site’s address. On Saturday, US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers’s Medal of Honor webpage led to a '404' error message. The URL was also changed, with the word 'medal' changed to 'deimedal'. Rogers, who was awarded the Medal of Honor by then president Richard Nixon in 1970, served in the Vietnam war, where he was wounded three times while leading the defense of a base. According to the West Virginia military hall of fame, Rogers was the highest-ranking African American to receive the medal. After his death in 1990, Rogers’s remains were buried at the Arlington national cemetery in Washington DC, and in 1999 a bridge in Fayette county, where Rogers was born, was renamed the Charles C Rogers Bridge.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary near the end of yesterday's thread.
SNAFU. Sharon LaFraniere, et al., of the New York Times: “Engaged in top-secret work, tucked away in the Energy Department, the [National Nuclear Security Administration] typically stays below the public radar. But it has emerged as a headline example of how the Trump administration’s cuts, touted as a cure-all for supposed government extravagance and corruption, are threatening the muscle and bone of operations that involve national security or other missions at the very heart of the federal government’s responsibilities.... In the past six weeks, the agency, just one relatively small outpost in a federal work force that ... [Donald] Trump and his top adviser Elon Musk aim to drastically pare down, has lost a huge cadre of scientists, engineers, safety experts, project officers, accountants and lawyers — all in the midst of its most ambitious endeavors in a generation.... Governmentwide, a disproportionate number of the roughly 75,000 federal workers who have taken the buyouts so far are those whose skills are in demand in the private sector and will be hard to replace, according to Max Stier, the president and chief executive of Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization that studies governance.”
Ben Makuch of the Guardian: “Notorious Blackwater founder ... [and] prolific privateer ... Erik Prince ... is a central figure among a web of other contractors trying to sell Trump advisers on a $25bn deal to privatize the mass deportations of 12 million migrants.” Thanks to RAS for the link.
Joseph Fried of the New York Times: “Nita M. Lowey, who represented a congressional district based in Westchester County for 32 years, ardently supporting liberal causes and playing a key role in shaping legislation to advance them, died on Saturday at her home in Harrison, N.Y. She was 87.” (Also linked yesterday.)
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Utah, Where the Arc of Justice Bends Backwards. Patrick Marley & Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: “Utah is poised to abolish its practice of automatically mailing ballots to all voters, handing a victory to ... Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans who have vilified voting by mail since his 2020 election defeat. The likely changes in Utah are modest compared with Trump’s calls for ending mail voting altogether, but would nonetheless mark a dramatic shift in a Republican stronghold that has long embraced mail balloting as convenient and secure.... 'There’s never been a state that did this, in taking that step backwards after adopting universal mail voting,' said Chris Diaz, who tracks legislation for the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab.”
8 Comments
Reader Comments (8)
Reporters and researchers shouldn’t be listing numbers of people likely to be killed by the Trump-Musk chainsaw cuts in foreign aid. For two (somewhat similar) reasons. First, it might piss them off, causing them to kill even more people. Second, if you add up the numbers, they come to around 4.5 million human beings killed. Trump will no doubt challenge that number, saying that no one kills people like he does. He’s not Fat Hitler for nothing, 4.5 million? Pshaw! Chicken feed. If anything, it’s 450 million!
He’ll try to out-Hitler Hitler.
In his first term, he killed a million Americans. But that was just a warm up. In the next year, it’ll be millions more. But in this case it’ll be a lot of brown and black people, so it won’t really matter. And even if he does end up killing a hundred million, he’s got the MuskRat on hand to remind people that Hitler didn’t kill anyone (he really said this!). Nope. Government workers did it.
That’s why he’s firing everyone. Cuz the lady who makes sure social security paper work is properly filed could start the next Holocaust.
You can be appalled by these lying murderers, but you have to marvel at how truly stupid they think Americans are.
But you know what? A lot of them are just that stupid.
a href="https://www.msn.com/en-in/health/health-news/minnesota-senate-republicans-bill-proposes-adding-trump-derangement-syndrome-to-mental-illness-definition/ar-AA1AYXeK">Easier to lock everyone up if all your enemies are "crazy"
A controversial bill introduced in the Minnesota Senate seeks to modify the state’s definition of mental illness by including a new condition labeled Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). The bill, if enacted, would amend Minnesota Statutes 2024 to formally recognize TDS as a mental health disorder.
Busy, busy, busy
I can see why he thinks everyone in government is so lazy and stealing from the government till. He only shows up for the podium days and to scribble on a few papers they put in front of him. He thinks that is what all government workers do.
"Posting to TruthSocial shortly before 3pm ET, he [Fat Hitler] wrote: ‘I just won the Golf Club Championship, probably my last, at Trump International Golf Club, in Palm Beach County, Florida.
This time last year, Trump took to social media to claim that he had won the 2024 edition of not only the Club Championship, but also the Senior Club Championship, at the same course in West Palm Beach."
Vance Booed at Kennedy Center
"One of the pieces Vance enjoyed was from Stravinsky’s “Petrushka,” which is about a love triangle between three Russian puppets."
Stravinsky’s Petrushka
Tesla playset
So many outrages, so little ability to do anything; paralysis by anyone of import of either party, congress in general, and the highest groveling judges in the land...let me comment on a few that make me sick to my stomach.
1. Minnesota Not-nice idiots getting Trump Derangement Syndrome (which I have never been clear was insane trumpies and trumpettes or the NOTinsane millions who despise him and wish him ill--) listed as an official disorder... And the people say, Sooo, any other idiocies today?
2. Congrats to the Lord High Liar for his imaginary golf championship. Yes-- I remember last year's. Maybe he gets an imaginary plaque?
3. I love Petrouchka music--no matter what.
4. So we are not researching vaccines anymore. What are we going to ignore next? Voting bird flu...
5. Biden's pardons not legal? The Idiot In Chief stays up nights thinking up the next day's outrage. Gotta admit, he and Steven Miller are world-class name-calling varmints. Personally, if I were a high-octane Dem, I would welcome living rent-free in that empty mauseleum sitting on top of his sweaty birds' nest "hairpiece." Especially being a "radical left" Democrat. Badge of honor. Except if you are do-nothing Schumer or even-less Hakeem.
6. Defying judges: it appears even that stratus is tainted. I hope someone is listing the now blocks-long list of Dump's offenses against the law and the Constitution. Maybe we can put it in the Archives if it ever has directors and staff anymore...
7. That's about half just from today. The murderer/rapist raves on.
Rogé Karma, in The Atlantic, describes how the wealthiest avoid tax in Buy, Borrow, Die
"Step one: buy. The average American derives most of their disposable income from the wages they earn working a job, but the superrich are different. They amass their fortune by buying and owning assets that appreciate.
Step two: borrow. Instead of selling their assets to make major purchases, the superrich can use them as collateral to secure loans, which, because they must eventually be repaid, are also not considered taxable income.
Step three: die. According to a provision of the tax code known as “stepped-up basis”—or, more evocatively, the “angel of death” loophole—when an individual dies, the value that their assets gained during their lifetime becomes immune to taxation. Those assets can then be sold by the billionaire’s heirs to pay off any outstanding loans without them having to worry about taxes."
Whatever one thinks of our practice of defending America against foreign threats (Communism, Islam, for two) by fighting wars by proxy or directly in far away places, seems to me we've changed our tune when it comes to disease. Apparently we now want to fight all those pathogens that exist somewhere else here at home.
Very brave of us.