The Conversation -- March 20, 2025
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Washington edged closer on Thursday to holding the Trump administration in contempt for possibly having violated an order he issued last weekend pausing the deportation of scores of Venezuelan immigrants under a rarely invoked wartime statute. In an angrily written order, the judge, James E. Boasberg, told the administration to explain to him by Tuesday why officials had not violated his instructions when they allowed two flights of immigrants to continue on to El Salvador even after he directed the planes to return to the United States. Judge Boasberg also called out efforts by the Justice Department to repeatedly stonewall his attempts to get information about the timing of the flights. 'The government again evaded its obligations,' he wrote, adding that the Justice Department’s most recent filing about the flights was 'woefully insufficient.'”
Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “Trump administration lawyers have determined that an 18th-century wartime law the president has invoked to deport suspected members of a Venezuelan gang allows federal agents to enter homes without a warrant.... The disclosure reflects the Trump administration’s aggressive view of presidential power, including setting aside a key provision of the Fourth Amendment that requires a court order to search someone’s home. It remains unclear whether the administration will apply the law in this way.... Warrantless entries have some precedent in America’s wartime history, but invoking the law in peacetime to pursue undocumented immigrants in such a way would be an entirely new application, [experts say].... 'All such alien enemies, wherever found within any territory subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, are subject to summary apprehension,' the proclamation [Trump signed last week aimed at Venezuelan gang members,] said. Senior lawyers at the Justice Department view that language, combined with the historical use of the law, to mean that the government does not need a warrant to enter a home or premises to search for people believed to be members of that gang.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: So here's how this goes: Trump says he can ignore the Fourth Amendment by (1) claiming war powers against people who come from a country with which we are not at war; THEN (2) declaring that these people are "alien enemies" who he can "summarily apprehend." IOW, whatever I say. "I have an Article II, where I have to the right to do whatever I want as president." Trump is out of control, and so are his "loyal" lawyers. Not a Constitutional crisis yet, Chuck? ~~~
The zeal with which these guys are engaging in increasingly open, authoritarian behavior is unlike almost anything I’ve seen. Erdogan, Chavez, Orban — they hid it.... If even a dozen Republicans in Congress had the capacity to stand up to Trump, this would be a very different ballgame. Trump and Musk and Stephen Miller could not do this alone. They’re doing it with the full cooperation of the majority party in Congress. We’re in a bad place. -- Steven Levitsky of Harvard University ~~~
~~~ Amanda Taub of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s intensifying conflict with the federal courts is unusually aggressive compared with similar disputes in other countries, according to scholars. Unlike leaders who subverted or restructured the courts, Mr. Trump is acting as if judges were already too weak to constrain his power. It is extremely rare for leaders to simply claim the power to disregard or override court orders directly, especially so immediately after taking office.... On Tuesday, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that Judge [James] Boasberg [-- who ordered the administration to turn around planes carrying deportees --] was a 'Radical Lunatic' and should be 'IMPEACHED,' because the judge 'was not elected President — He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn’t WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, he didn’t WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING!'... (In fact, U.S. courts can and do order the return of aliens who have been wrongfully deported.)”
“Keep Your DOGE Hands Off My Social Security." Kyle Cheney of Politico: “A federal judge has barred Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive systems at the Social Security Administration, saying the group appears to be on a 'fishing expedition' that could jeopardize the data of millions of people. 'The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,' said U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in a 137-page ruling. 'It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack.' Hollander, an appointee of President Barack Obama, said the group’s broad access likely violated privacy laws. The Maryland-based judge ordered an immediate halt to the DOGE Social Security team’s access to any systems that contain sensitive data of Social Security recipients. She ordered Musk, DOGE and other affiliates to destroy any non-anonymized data they’ve obtained.”
Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff & Teo Armus of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Thursday ordered that a Georgetown University fellow in the United States legally who was detained by federal immigration authorities cannot be removed from the country, pending the outcome of a lawsuit seeking his release from detention. Federal judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Virginia’s Eastern District did not rule on the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Indian national Badar Khan Suri, who was apprehended earlier this week for what a DHS spokesperson said was 'Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.' The arrest, part of several recent Trump administration arrests of people with legal status that has included scholars from other universities who’ve opposed U.S. foreign policy on Israel, has further inflamed outrage from those who say such actions are a violation of the First Amendment that could have chilling effects on free speech.”
Marie: Here's Chris Hayes, expressing an opinion that jibes with my own. I am grateful that some prominent people like Hayes & Rachel Maddow are sounding the alarm. What disturbs me is that the overwhelming percentage of Americans don't agree:
For some reason, I happened upon a YouTube video of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's June 2023 commencement speech at Northwestern (BTW, when Pritzker cites Dwight Schrute, he is quoting Rainn Wilson's character on "The Office"): ~~~
Barbara Sprunt of NPR: "Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet stopped short Wednesday of calling on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step down from leadership, but came pretty darn close. 'I do think on the leadership question, it's always better to examine whether folks are in the right place, and we're certainly going to have that conversation,' he said at a town hall in Golden." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Chris Hayes suggested to Schumer this week that he (Schumer) was approaching the Trump juggernaut as he would handle a Mitt Romney presidency. That's right, I think. Schumer's Alfred E. Neuman attitude reminds me of John McCain, who, during the financial industry's meltdown in mid-September 2008, declared that the "fundamentals" of the U.S. economy were "strong." McCain's rival for the presidency, Barack Obama, responded, "It's not that I think John McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of most Americans. I just think doesn't know. He doesn't get what's happening between the mountain in Sedona where he lives and the corridors of Washington where he works." That was the moment Obama won the presidency. And McCain lost it.
Heather Cox Richardson: “On Monday, March 17, Acting Field Office Director Robert L. Cerna of ... [ICE's] Enforcement and Removal Operations ... told the court that 'The lack of criminal record does not indicate [deportees] pose a limited threat. In fact, based upon their association with TdA [-- a Venezuelan street gang --], the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose. It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.' [IOW, Cerna] asserts ... that a person’s lack of criminal record proves that they are more dangerous than people who do have a criminal record because their clean record simply shows that the government lacks a complete profile of their crimes. Wow.... In a webcast on Monday, Trump ally Steve Bannon defended the deportations: ... ' Big deal…. If there's some innocent gardeners in there [among the deportees]? Hey, tough break for a swell guy.'... The end to the due process of the law leads to situations where a government official can argue that the lack of a criminal record for someone perceived to be an enemy of those in power just proves that person is a criminal.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wait, Steve. Exactly why is it okay to send an innocent gardener to an inhumane Salvadorian jail, but it's a travesty to send a guilty podcaster to a U.S. Club Fed?
Sean O'Kane of TechCrunch: “Tesla is issuing a recall for around 46,000 Cybertrucks sold to date because of an exterior steel trim panel on the side of the windshield that can peel off. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a filing that the piece can come off while in motion, which can create a hazard for the driver and other people on the road. The filing states that Tesla became aware of the problem in early January and has identified 151 warranty claims related to this panel coming off since then. The company is not aware of any resulting crashes or injuries, according to the filing. The problem with the panel occurs because the 'structural adhesive' that holds it in place on the vehicle is 'susceptible to environmental embrittlement,' according to the filing. Tesla will fix Cybertrucks covered by the recall at no cost to owners by using a 'different structural adhesive not prone to environmental embrittlement.' It will also use a nut to 'clamp' the steel panel to the vehicle structure.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: So if I read Tesla's plan correctly, in combination with Akhilleus's post this morning, this means that Elon -- that is, the NUT -- himself will be clamping steel panels to 46,000 defective Cybertrucks. That should keep him so busy he might not have time to chainsaw any more federal programs.
Could Not Have Happened to a More Deserving Person. Tom Sanders of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News: “Donald Trump’s former campaign lawyer is furious after his personal information and social security number were made public as part of this week’s release of unredacted JFK assassination files. 'It’s absolutely outrageous. It’s sloppy, unprofessional,' Joseph diGenova, a long-time Trump supporter who formerly served as the president’s lawyer on the campaign trail, told The Washington Post. 'It not only means identity theft, but I’ve had threats against me,' diGenova said.”
Still planning a vacation in the U.S., Trump notwithstanding? You might want to think again. Bear in mind that we don't know if the particulars of this story are true, or if Becky there is a raging maniac who required heavy restraints. (She looks pretty sweet.) But ICE agents don't seem to be denying the family's allegations. ~~~
~~~ Nelli Bird of BBC News: "A tourist held in the US for 19 days was removed in chains like Hannibal Lecter, according to her parents. Becky Burke, 28, arrived home in Wales on Tuesday from her ordeal which began half way through a backpacking trip across North America. Parents Paul and Andrea Burke, of Portskewett, Monmouthshire, said their daughter was 'traumatised' after being taken in 'leg chains, waist chains and handcuffs'. The Northwest ICE Processing Center said in a statement: 'All aliens in violation of US immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States regardless of nationality.' It said that Ms Burke was repatriated to the UK on March 18 after being detained 'related to the violation of the terms and conditions of her admission'. Ms Burke's detention came as what her family think was a misunderstanding of her accommodation arrangements. She got free accommodation for helping host families 'around the house', which her father believes authorities may have suspected broke the terms of her tourist visa. The US State Department says people on visitor visas are prohibited from carrying out 'employment' during their stay."
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We’ve never seen a president so comprehensively attempt to arrogate and consolidate so much of the other branches’ power, let alone to do so in the first two months of his presidency. -- Stephen Vladeck of Georgetown Law
Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power. -- JD Vance, last month ~~~
~~~ L'État, C'est Moi. Erica Green, et al., of the New York Times: “Nearly two months into his second term, Mr. Trump is trying to consolidate control over the courts, Congress and even, in some ways, American society and culture. Congress ... has ceded some of its core duties to Mr. Trump, handing off elements of the legislative branch’s spending authority to the White House and standing aside as congressionally chartered agencies are shuttered. The president has threatened to 'lead the charge' against the re-election of the rare Republican who dares challenge his agenda, and the party has bent to his will at every turn. Mr. Trump has dismantled independent measures of checks and balances, fired inspectors general and installed loyalists at the Justice Department willing to carry out his campaign of retribution. He has targeted private law firms with connections to those he views as political enemies and cowed previously skeptical or hostile business leaders into pledging public support, even as he has imprinted his 'MAGA' stamp on the private sector by trying to dictate hiring practices. His efforts to reshape institutions in his image have not been limited to the government and policy. Mr. Trump has tried to spread his influence through the arts, as well, by making himself chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
“But Mr. Trump’s latest target — the judiciary — has been described by constitutional scholars and historians as perhaps the most alarming power play to date.... He has applied the same logic of fairness to court cases that he has to presidential elections: They’re fair if he wins but not if he loses.”
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “You can ask ... not whether an action is constitutional, but whether it sits opposed to constitutionalism itself. You can ask, in other words, whether it is anti-constitutional.... An anti-constitutional act is one that rejects the basic premises of constitutionalism. It rejects the premise that sovereignty lies with the people, that ours is a government of limited and enumerated powers and that the officers of that government are bound by law. The new president has, in just the first two months of his second term, performed a number of illegal and unconstitutional acts. But the defining attribute of his administration thus far is its anti-constitutional orientation.... To assert, against the plain text of the Constitution, the power to seize appropriations and destroy the work of the legislature is to break a core premise of constitutionalism. It is anti-constitutional.... According to the Justice Department, the president of the United States has an 'inherent' power to summarily deport any accused member of Tren de Aragua ... without so much as a hearing.... There is nothing in this vision of presidential power that limits it to foreign nationals. Who is to say, under the logic of the Department of Justice, that the president could not do the same to a citizen?” Thanks to RAS for the link. This is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Michael Bender, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump plans to sign an executive order on Thursday instructing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the agency, according to two White House officials. The department cannot be closed without the approval of Congress, which created it. But the Trump administration has already taken steps to narrow the agency’s authority and significantly cut its work force while also telegraphing plans to try and shutter it. The White House officials ... said the order instructed Ms. McMahon to return authority over education to the states.... The federal government accounts for about 10 percent of total school funding, but that is distributed by the Education Department largely according to federal law — not the discretion of the president.... Closing the department would not by itself revoke the various laws that established federal funding for public schools and underserved school districts or for specific student populations, including those with disabilities.... No modern president has ever tried to unilaterally shut down a federal department.” The NPR story is here. See related story linked below under “California.” ~~~
~~~ Here's one thing that happens when the POTUS* is undereducated, incurious and narrowminded: ~~~
~~~ Trump University. Alan Blinder of the New York Times: The ideal of traditional universities “is under siege, as ... [Donald] Trump ties public money to his government’s vision for higher education. That vision is a narrower one. Teach what you must, defend 'the American tradition and Western civilization,' prepare people for the work force, and limit protests and research.... The outcome of this clash over the purpose of higher education stands to shape American culture for a generation or more. If the president realizes his ambitions, many American universities — public and private, in conservative states and liberal ones — could be hollowed out, imperiling the backbone of the nation’s research endeavors. Two months into Mr. Trump’s term, universities are laying off workers, imposing hiring freezes, shutting down laboratories and facing federal investigations.... Much of Mr. Trump’s higher education agenda during his first term empowered for-profit colleges. Now, though, Mr. Trump is taking clearer aim at the cultures and missions of major nonprofit universities.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Remember those Irish monks, laboring over parchment in remote monasteries, to preserve the remnants of ancient civilizations? American civilization is gonna be needing some of those folks now. (Some candidates for the monastic jobs? Maybe people like journalists who managed to save Jackie Robinson's memory from the Trumplodytes -- story linked below.)
Mattathias Schwartz & Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s angry call on Tuesday for the impeachment of a federal judge who ruled against his administration on deportation flights has set off a string of near-instant social media taunts and threats, including images of judges being marched off in handcuffs.... At a moment when the judiciary is weighing pivotal decisions on the legality of Trump administration policies, the potential for violence against judges seems to be rising. 'I feel like people are playing Russian roulette with our lives,' said Judge Esther Salas of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, whose 20-year-old son was shot and killed at her home in 2020 by a self-described 'anti-feminist' lawyer.... The threats and intimidation may have not become actual violence, but they appear to be mounting, as Mr. Trump, his advisers and his supporters are questioning almost daily the legitimacy of the American legal system.” (Also linked yesterday.) (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ And look who dug into his ultra-deep pockets to encourage the harassment: ~~~
~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: “Elon Musk has made the maximum allowable donation to Republican members of Congress who support impeaching federal judges who are impeding actions taken by ... [Donald] Trump.... Mr. Musk has given the maximum hard-dollar donations he could to the campaigns of seven Republicans who have either endorsed judicial impeachments or called for some form of 'action' in response to recent rulings against the Trump administration, including a weekend decision by Judge James E. Boasberg of Federal District Court in Washington. The combined federal limit for primary and general elections is $6,600.... Mr. Musk contributed on Wednesday to Representatives Eli Crane of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin and Brandon Gill of Texas. He also donated to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, according to two of the people briefed on the matter.” (Also linked yesterday.) The Independent's story is here.
Ken Vogel & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: “Mr. Trump and his allies are aggressively attacking the players and machinery that power the left, taking a series of highly partisan official actions that, if successful, will threaten to hobble Democrats’ ability to compete in elections for years to come.... Executive actions intended to cripple top Democratic law firms. Investigations of Democratic fund-raising and organizing platforms. Ominous suggestions that nonprofits aligned with Democrats or critical of ... [Mr.] Trump should have their tax exemptions revoked.... Executive actions intended to cripple top Democratic law firms. Investigations of Democratic fund-raising and organizing platforms. Ominous suggestions that nonprofits aligned with Democrats or critical of ... [Mr.] Trump should have their tax exemptions revoked.... So far, the attacks have been diffuse and sometimes indiscriminate or inaccurate.... Inside the administration..., a small group of White House officials has been working to identify targets and vulnerabilities inside the Democratic ecosystem, taking stock of previous efforts to investigate them.... But using the levers of government to target the opposition has long been considered an abuse of power, sometimes leading to prosecution. Mr. Trump himself was impeached in 2019 for pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Starving Americans So the Rich Can Enjoy Tax Breaks. Marcia Brown of Politico: “The Agriculture Department has halted millions of dollars worth of deliveries to food banks without explanation, according to food bank leaders in six states. USDA had previously allocated $500 million in deliveries to food banks for fiscal year 2025 through The Emergency Food Assistance Program. Now, the food bank leaders say many of those orders have been canceled. The halting of these deliveries ... comes after the Agriculture Department separately axed two other food programs, ending more than $1 billion in planned federal spending for schools and food banks to purchase from local farmers.” MB: Well, you know, it's springtime. Can't people start foraging?
Lauren Aratani of the Guardian: “The Department of Justice removed 11 guidelines for US businesses on compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including some that deal with Covid-19 and masking and accessibility. The ADA was signed into law in 1990 and is the key civil rights law that protects Americans with disabilities from discrimination. Updates have already been made to the ADA.gov website to reflect the removal of the guidances. Multiple pages were removed from the ADA’s archive website, including one page that explained how retail businesses are required to have accessible features and another on customer service practices for hotel and lodging guests with disabilities.”
The Manner of Their Vindictive Stunts Is Childish. Karoun Demirjian & Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: “Pete Marocco, the State Department official who oversaw the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the main government agency distributing foreign aid, announced in an email on Tuesday night that he would be replaced at the agency by two officials who had been involved in making the cuts. Mr. Marocco said in the email that he would remain at the State Department as director of foreign aid, but that two other officials would handle what remains of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Those officials are Jeremy Lewin, who has been working for the cost-cutting task force led by the billionaire Elon Musk, and Kenneth Jackson, a State Department official who was named the acting president of the U.S. Institute of Peace this week.... On Tuesday, a federal judge found that the efforts to shutter U.S.A.I.D. were most likely unconstitutional.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Eileen Sullivan & Isabelle Taft of the New York Times: “In interviews, more than a dozen fired probationary workers described a kind of purgatory in which information about their livelihoods and what might happen next was difficult, if not impossible, to come by.... In some cases, fired employees say they have received emails informing them of their reinstatement. Some have seen back pay appear in their bank accounts. But more than a dozen federal agencies ... have reinstated employees and immediately placed them on administrative leave.... The firings and subsequent re-hirings have caused widespread confusion for workers who want to know when and if they will get their jobs back, and how long they might get to keep them. They also have questions about unemployment benefits.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: What a surprise: it turns out that reinstating employees is a lot harder than firing them & goose-stepping them out the door. That is, a Musky chainsaw massacre is a lot easier to accomplish than finding all the thousands of body parts & stitching them back together as originally designed. But, hey, the richest man in the world getting to play with a real chainsaw & a metaphorical woodchipper is so much fun. Driving a Tesla on the White House lawn. Pontificating at Cabinet meetings. Sleepovers at a Mar-a-Lardo bungalow and slumber parties in the Executive Office Building. Woo-woo! Almost as good as blowing up taxpayer-funded SpaceX rockets and watching debris fall back to earth.
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: “From the start of his second term..., Donald Trump and his administration signaled a willingness — even a desire — to flout the law in their quest to overhaul the federal government. And while the wheels of justice turn slowly, less than two months later a procession of judges have already ruled the administration has done exactly that. In more than a dozen cases — and in three major rulings this week alone — a federal judge has ruled that the administration either has violated the law or has probably done so. The total works out to one such finding about every four days.” ~~~
~~~ Stephen Vladeck in a New York Times op-ed: “The courts can do only so much when the goal of imposing a policy isn’t to win as much as it is to break things and, as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in 'The Great Gatsby,' to 'let other people clean up the mess they had made.' For all of the judicial interventions we’ve seen in the first eight weeks of the new Trump administration, alarmingly little has changed on the ground.... It seems that chaos and disruption are themselves key to ... [Donald] Trump’s objective.... Even if the courts rule again and again against Mr. Trump, voiding unlawful immigration arrests and releasing individuals from unlawful immigration detention doesn’t undo the harm they suffered from being arrested and detained in the first place.... Likewise, ordering the government to turn back on spending taps that it has unlawfully frozen can’t undo the damage suffered by recipients deprived of mission-critical funding in the interim.... There is no entity in the United States against which it is more difficult to obtain damages than the federal government.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: The Fitzgerald characters who made the mess were Tom and Daisy Buchanan. They were, like the couple Donald and Elon, the very rich. They "smashed up things ... and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness." Sounds familiar (although Tom & Daisy were the "beautiful people" of their day, and no one would say that of Don and Elon.
David Wallace-Wells of the New York Times: “... measles eradication programs [are] believed to be responsible for 60 percent of global improvements in childhood survival from vaccination over the last 50 years. One hundred million lives were saved worldwide by those vaccines, The Lancet calculated last year — two million lives, on average, every year. That is an awful lot of lives for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new secretary of health and human services, to dismiss with a wave of his hand, instead choosing to sit down at Steak ’n Shake to celebrate the company’s new beef-tallow fries — recalling that, in his childhood, 'everybody got measles,' and implying that immunity from those infections was preferable to the kind you get from a shot.... Mehmet Oz is about to be confirmed as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, for instance, though only 21 percent of the health recommendations he offered on his television program were judged by a group of researchers to have even 'believable' evidence to support them.... [We are living in] a new age of public-health libertarianism, which is to say, a pretty explicit war on all the things that make health a 'public' good, sustained by mutual aid....” ~~~
~~~ Marie: IOW, the leader of the nation's public health system does not believe in public health, and he has come to eradicate the concept altogether.
Pranshu Verma of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration’s move to shut down an internet freedom project that helped millions of people in China access the open web has stirred concern from lawmakers, including Republicans, who argue the nonprofit is a crucial tool to counter the rise of Beijing. The Open Technology Fund (OTF), launched in 2012, was intended to allow people who live under repressive regimes to circumvent restrictions and access the internet. An early backer of the encrypted messaging app Signal and the anonymous internet browser Tor, the OTF became the world’s largest funder of products that allow people to freely access the web. As of February, OTF funding provided tools to more than 6 million people in China and 18 million individuals in Iran, giving them the ability to circumvent government restrictions on the internet to access news sites, secure messaging services and social media platforms such as Reddit, the messaging app Telegram and X.... But ... Donald Trump’s executive order Friday stripping independent agencies, including the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) — where nearly all of the OTF’s $43.5 million annual funding comes from — to the 'maximum extent' possible essentially terminated the group’s budget.”
Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Wednesday denied an emergency request by the U.S. Institute of Peace to temporarily stop Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service from dismantling the independent organization after DOGE staffers raided its headquarters with help from federal and local law enforcement officers this week. U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell said during a court hearing that the plaintiffs — several ousted USIP board members who sued in their official capacities — did not show they would be irreparably harmed if they were not reinstated and DOGE staffers were allowed to remain in the institute’s offices. The judge sharply criticized the Trump administration for enlisting the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, the FBI and D.C. police to assist in the takeover of the institute. She said she was denying the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order because there was 'confusion in the complaint on a number of levels.'”
Talia Minsberg, et al., of the New York Times: “The release of about 64,000 documents about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Tuesday started a race to find a revelation, as journalists, historians and amateur sleuths scoured the pages in hopes of finding something, anything, that could be considered consequential. Instead, the big reveal was that there wasn’t much of a reveal at all. Here are the biggest takeaways of the blockbuster that wasn’t.” This is a gift link. An AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ There is nothing Trump can do right. Nothing! ~~~
President Trump is ushering in a new era of maximum transparency. Today, per his direction, previously redacted JFK Assassination Files are being released to the public with no redactions. Promises made, promises kept. -- Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, in a social media post
People’s private information should be kept private. -- Judy Barga, whose Social Security number was released
I kinda think Judy would make a more prudent DNI than Tulsi. -- Marie Burns ~~~
~~~ SNAFU. Sarah Nir of the New York Times: “In the 64,000 pages of documents released this week regarding the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, there appeared to be no redactions, those blacked-out sections that typically dot sensitive material, even once it is declassified, to mask confidential or compromising data. Critics said that failure was evidence of an F.B.I. rush to vet material released after a president's demand. And it exposed at least one C.I.A. agent’s complete personnel file and the Social Security numbers for hundreds of other people. They belonged to congressional staff members, intelligence researchers, a former ambassador and scores more. Many of them are still alive, and they discovered on Wednesday that the White House had leaked their personal information to the world.... Administration officials knew before the documents went out that releasing them without redactions would mean some personal information would be exposed....”
Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “A Georgetown University researcher, who was studying and teaching on a student visa, has been detained by federal immigration authorities amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on student activists whom the government accuses of opposing American foreign policy, according to court papers. Masked agents arrested Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and postdoctoral fellow, outside his home in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night, his lawyer said in a lawsuit fighting for his immediate release. The agents identified themselves as being with the Department of Homeland Security and told him the government had revoked his visa, the lawsuit says.... Suri has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime, his petition says.... Suri’s lawyer, Hassan Ahmad, argued in his petition that Suri is being punished because of the Palestinian heritage of his wife — who is a U.S. citizen — and because the government suspects that he and his wife oppose U.S. foreign policy toward Israel.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Millions of Americans, including many numbskulls who voted for Trump, “oppose U.S. foreign policy toward Israel.” ~~~
~~~ AND This. Robert Mackey of the Guardian: “France’s research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration. 'I learned with concern that a French researcher' on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) 'who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled', Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister of higher education and research, said in a statement on Monday to Agence France-Presse published by Le Monde. 'This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,' the minister added. 'Freedom of opinion, free research, and academic freedom are values that we will continue to proudly uphold. I will defend the right of all French researchers to be faithful to them, while respecting the law,' Baptiste said.” ~~~
~~~ AND This. Chris Lunday of Politico: “The German government has sharpened its travel advice for the United States. According to its website, Berlin’s Foreign Office now warns its citizens that tougher immigration enforcement under ... Donald Trump could land travelers in detention or see them face deportation. It updated the guidance after several German nationals were detained at U.S. entry points, some held for days before being sent back. Officials now explicitly warn that even minor infractions — such as overstaying a visa or misstating travel plans — could trigger immediate deportation or a ban on future entry.”
Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is evaluating plans for the Pentagon to take control of a buffer zone along a sprawling stretch of the southern border and empower active-duty U.S. troops to temporarily hold migrants who cross into the United States illegally, according to five U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations.... In effect, the move would turn the buffer zone into an expansive satellite military installation, potentially allowing a greater portion of the Defense Department’s mammoth budget to pay for President Donald Trump’s border crackdown while creating new legal jeopardy for those caught trying to slip into the country from Mexico.... Any move to militarize the southern border’s buffer zone is certain to raise questions about whether employing the military in this way runs afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that prohibits active-duty troops from most law enforcement missions.” The Guardian's story is here.
From the "Journalism Matters" file: ~~~
~~~ Here was the Guardian story RAS linked Wednesday morning: “An article history detailing Jackie Robinson’s military career has seemingly been taken down on the Department of Defense’s website as a purge of articles considered to be related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) continues. Robinson, who Donald Trump last month described as helping 'drive our country forward to greatness', is widely considered a national hero in the US. He broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947 when he suited up for the Brooklyn Dodgers; he went on to be elected to his sport’s Hall of Fame.... Robinson had a striking military career. After a successful battle to train as an officer, Robinson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1943 and assigned to a tank regiment. However, in 1944 the driver of an army bus ordered Robinson to sit at the back, a directive Robinson refused. Robinson was court martialed and acquitted, then served as an athletics coach before being honorably discharged in November 1944.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Oh! New Lede Wednesday afternoon: “An article detailing Jackie Robinson’s military career has been restored to the Department of Defense’s website amid a purge of material considered to be related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).... Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot said that 'everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson'. He added that the defense department regularly checks for material than may have been removed in error.” MB: Uh-huh. Kinda like when Robinson was court-martialed, then acquitted. ~~~
~~ BUT Drunk Pete's Not Done. Josh Marcus of the Independent: “The Defense Department has taken down or plans to delete thousands of websites to comply with Donald Trump’s order eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work from the federal government, including removing pages dedicated to topics like remembering the Holocaust and the September 11 terrorist attacks. Pages already taken down include an article about the experience of Holocaust survivor Kitty Saks, who later immigrated to the U.S., and an Air Force Academy cadet majoring in history describing his experience taking scholarly visits to concentration camps in Europe, according to a CNN analysis.... Other Defense Department takedown targets bear little obvious connection to DEI, including pages about 9/11, veterans suicide prevention, and stopping sexual assault.”
Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: “When he took the stage in downtown Eau Claire, Wis., on Tuesday night to rev up Democrats ahead of a critical State Supreme Court race, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said he didn’t think name-calling would help things. Then he called Elon Musk a 'dipshit' and, later, a 'South African nepo baby' with the power to cut government programs. The crowd roared. Mr. Walz, his party’s nominee for vice president last year, is one of several Democrats who have referred to Mr. Musk’s immigrant background as they ramp up attacks on the billionaire’s powerful role in the Trump administration. At times, their language, casting Mr. Musk as a foreign outsider, has echoed aspects of ... [Donald] Trump’s own xenophobic insults of his political foes — although Mr. Trump’s remarks were typically directed toward elected officials of color, not white billionaires.” (Also linked yesterday.) A Minnesota Star Tribune story is here.
Michelle Cottle of the New York Times: “For Representative Jason Crow of Colorado, a Democrat who may just hold the key to his party winning back the House in 2026, the path to victory starts with understanding how Americans live their lives, down to the most personal details. 'A lot of communities divide the world between when you shower: before work or after work,' he told me.... Many who shower later — working-class folks living paycheck to paycheck — have tuned out Democrats, he said. 'They’re not listening to us because they don’t believe that we respect them and see them.'... 'We need to stop defending government and instead go back to our roots of government reform,' he told me.... From a different corner of the Democratic tent, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sees Mr. Crow’s blue-collar, heartland upbringing as a boon to growing the party.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I was surprised last week when Rachel Maddow let on she didn't know who Jason Crow was, as he's been on my radar since he served as an impeachment manager against Trump in 2019. A Crow/AOC ticket (in that order, I think) would be great. They're young, they're smart, they're attractive, they're personable, they're knowledgeable, they're brave.
~~~~~~~~~~
Attempts to appease those who have been explicit about their intent to destroy higher education as we currently know it are politically naïve. -- Brian Soucek of UC Davis Law ~~~
~~~ California. Vimal Patel of the New York Times: “The University of California said on Wednesday that it would stop requiring the use of diversity statements in hiring.... Diversity statements typically ask job applicants to describe in a page or so how they would contribute to campus diversity. The move away from them, by one of the biggest higher education systems in the United States, comes as the Trump administration escalates an attack on higher education over diversity programming.... The Education Department sent letters last week to 60 colleges warning of 'potential enforcement actions' if they didn’t protect Jewish students. Four of the University of California system’s 10 campuses — Berkeley, Davis, San Diego and Santa Barbara — received the letters.... [The UC system president Michael Drake] painted a bleak picture about the university’s finances.”
We Don't Like Libruls in North Dakota. Karen Zraick of the New York Times: “A North Dakota jury on Wednesday awarded damages totaling more than $660 million to the Texas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer, which had sued Greenpeace over its role in protests nearly a decade ago against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The verdict was a major blow to the environmental organization. Greenpeace had said that Energy Transfer’s claimed damages, in the range of $300 million, would be enough to put the group out of business in the United States.... Greenpeace said it would appeal. The group has maintained that it played only a minor part in demonstrations led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. It has portrayed the lawsuit as an attempt to stifle oil-industry critics. The nine-person jury in the Morton County courthouse in Mandan, N.D., about 45 minutes north of where the protests took place, returned the verdict after roughly two days of deliberations.” The Guardian's story is here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Canada/E.U. Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: “Canada is in advanced talks with the European Union to join the bloc’s new project to expand its military industry, a move that would allow Canada to be part of building European fighter jets and other military equipment at its own industrial facilities. The budding defense cooperation between Canada and the European Union, which is racing to shore up its industry to lower reliance on the United States, would boost Canada’s military manufacturers and offer the country a new market at a time when its relationship with the United States has become frayed. Shaken by a crisis in the two nations’ longstanding alliance since ... [Donald] Trump’s election, Canada has started moving closer to Europe. The military industry collaboration with the European Union highlights how traditional U.S. allies are deepening their ties without U.S. participation to insulate themselves from Mr. Trump’s unpredictable moves.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Middle East. Ephrat Livni of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Wednesday that the Iran-backed Houthi militant group in Yemen would be 'completely annihilated' by U.S. military strikes and warned Tehran to 'immediately' stop supplying it with military equipment and general support and 'let the Houthis fight it out themselves.' His remarks, posted on social media, came as the U.S. military continued a wave of attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen as part of what American officials said was an effort to stop the militant group’s attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea. 'Tremendous damage has been inflicted,' Mr. Trump said of the effects of the strikes, which began on Saturday. He added: 'Watch how it will get progressively worse. It’s not even a fair fight, and never will be. They will be completely annihilated!'”
Ukraine, et al. Michael Birnbaum & Lizzie Johnson of the Washington Post: “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed Wednesday to a partial ceasefire with Russia focused on 'energy and other civilian infrastructure.' Zelensky, who spoke after an hour-long phone call with ... Donald Trump, said it was a first step in what the Ukrainian leader said he hoped would be 'lasting peace' more than three years after his country was invaded by Moscow.... Both Trump and Zelensky characterized their conversation as positive.... Still, the conversation between Trump and Zelensky and the timing was just the most recent evidence of how Ukraine has been relegated to the back seat in talks about its future.”
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Reader Comments (22)
My comment on the Erica Green, et. al. Times story above:
Yes, an all-powerful executive may be the defining means of Trump's second term. But the old means, the constant stream of lies is not new. Nor is the complicity of craven Republican leadership.
The ends, however, the racism and greed, haven't. changed at all.
The Erica Green article above, from the New York Times, gave me
a chuckle reading the line "his efforts to reshape institutions in his
image."
Those institutions would then be bloated, racist, stupid, etc. etc.
I was hoping that before the Education Department was dismantled
that millions of uneducated would learn the difference between
there, their and they're.
Oh well, stupid is as stupid does.
Healthcare
"The Trump Administration Goes To War With Health-Care Quality
Inside its plan to destroy a small agency that keeps you safe.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality—or AHRQ or “ark”—is like an in-house think tank for HHS and, thus, the public at large. As the lawmakers wrote, “AHRQ is the only federal agency with statutory authorization to generate health services research. Their work improves health care quality, effectiveness, and accessibility by determining what works, how, for whom, and at what cost—driving meaningful change.”"
So much consternation and outrage over protests at Tesla dealerships.
C’mon, MAGAts, per Jan. 6, these are all good people there for a nice visit, right?
Speaking of Tesla, it’s worth pointing out that Musk bought his way into Tesla. He had zip, zero, nada to do with the creation of that technology. He took over the company and now wants everyone to believe it was the result of his personal genius.
In fact, the only Tesla product that Musk can take full credit for is the junk box Cybertruck which bamboozled owners find is falling apart while being driven .
This is Musk in a, well, NUTshell: loads of hype, gigantic promises, horrific performance.
But this is the con man who is turning the federal government into a version of his crumbling “masterpiece”, the unsafe any speed Cybertruck.
Oh yeah, and let’s not forget the hundreds of millions this con man gets in government subsidies,
Canadian actress's story of her time in ICE detention.
"Germany Issues US Travel Warning After ICE Abuses"
There is just story after story of the cruelty and the indifference as these government agents destroy people's lives not because they are a danger, but just because they can. A French researcher denied entry because thought police didn't like what he said about Fat Hitler. The power and unaccountability is already going to these agents' heads and will only get worse over time.
"Your time machine works, Nikola"
I'm no fan of the Houthis attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea, but this from the AP three days ago:
"The attacks stopped when a Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in January — a day before Trump took office — but last week, the Houthis said they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month.
There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then."
So then the brave Pretender attacked them.
Intelligent foreign policy at work.
Are US university diplomas going to end up having the same value as a certificate from Trump University? We may have to check if our surgeon's diploma is bFH, before Fat Hitler, or from the Fat Hitler tainted era where science and expertise are no longer welcomed. Will there be exit interviews with Christopher Rufo and LibsofTiktok to see if someone us Rightminded enough to be allowed to pick up their certificate of completion.
I am a little surprised that we have heard so little defense of the universities from their alumni. People can get so heated when it comes to their alma mater. Though maybe that is reserved for the sports rivalries. Now that colleges are getting rid of all their DEI will they still be allowed to recruit players of color? Will the few Black coaches be allowed to keep their jobs as our current government seeks to erase all evidence that any minorities ever existed or contributed to our society in any way.
Paul Krugman. on the sanewashing of Trumpian economic policy
Krugman discusses Adam Tooze's 'exceptionally clear post', writing
"What got Tooze [and Krugman] going were multiple news analyses that tried to portray the vague concept of a 'Mar-a-Lago Accord,' an attempt by the U.S. government to restructure the world financial system supposedly to its advantage, as reflecting a serious rethinking of international economic policy. If the plan, or maybe concept of a plan, or whatever doesn’t seem to make sense, that must be because Trump officials are playing some kind of deep game.
...
Everything we know about the Trumpists’ approach to economic policy, or policy in general, suggests both that Trump himself has no understanding of economics — that he has prejudices rather than ideas — and that he surrounds himself with people who cater to his prejudices, that as Tooze puts it, the policy visions we’re getting from Trumpland have more in common with
'a facelift pandering to the ignorant vanity of an old man than with economic policy as we have hitherto known it.'
Peter Wehner, in The Atlantic on Trump’s Insatiable Appetite for Revenge
Revenge has long been a central theme for Donald Trump....
The threat this poses to American democracy is obvious. A president and an administration with a Mafia mentality can create a Mafia state. They can target innocent people, shut down dissent, intimidate critics into silence, violate democratic norms, act without any statutory authority, sweep away checks and balances, spread disinformation and conspiracy theories, ignore court orders, and even declare martial law.
....
But something else, something quite far-reaching, is going on as well. Trump is having a corrosive effect on the public’s civic and moral sensibilities.
...
That is the great civic danger posed by Donald Trump, that the habits of his heart become the habits of our hearts; that his code of conduct becomes ours. That we delight in mistreating others almost as much as he does. That vengeance becomes nearly as important to us as it is to him. That dehumanization becomes de rigueur.
....
HERE IS an important psychological component to all of this as well. Trump’s vindictiveness—relentless, crude, and capricious—has reshaped the emotional wiring of many otherwise good and decent people. He tapped into their fears and activated ugly passions that in the past had been kept at bay. In the process, he created a MAGA community that provides its members with a sense of purpose and feelings of solidarity.
If you go to the Le Monde article referenced in the link RAS provided about that French researcher whose phone and laptop were searched for any uncomplimentary sentiments about the Dear Leader, it says even personal messages passed between friends and colleagues critical of Trump can be considered terrorism.
Not even three months in and we’re at the level of thought police apprehending anyone thinking bad thoughts about Fat Hitler.
People have long wondered how Germans could have been taken over so quickly by Nazi ideology and propaganda, and bludgeoned into silence by fear.
This is how.
You disagree with the king, you’re a terrorist.
The evisceration of the Department of Education stems from a combination of things but it’s mostly good old fashioned racism, ignorance, and hatred.
Trump has always despised anyone who had the temerity to look down on him as déclassé douchebag, mostly people he considered the educated elites, guys like Graydon Carter and Kurt Andersen (of Spy Magazine “short fingered vulgarian” fame).
He sticks it to NYC because the glitterati and upper crusters never admitted him into their club, instead laughing at him as a self-aggrandizing buffoon, so he kills that congestion traffic program.
He hates the education department (and education generally) because he’s bought into the right-wing conspiracy theory that colleges are hotbeds of radical commie lefties who brainwash students into voting for Democrats, especially the Ivies, even though Trump, Vance, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Tom Cotton, Steve Bannon, and Josh Hawley all attended Ivy League universities.
Public schools, even elementary schools, are seen as citadels of wokeness where kids are kidnapped and sent off for sex change operations against their parents’ wishes, and forced to read books by black and gay writers and drag queens who hate America.
And “woke”, to MAGAts, means “black”. A definite non-starter in any white supremacist demesne.
Also, I think somewhere not so deep down, he knows he’s not very smart. Think of the very smart people you have known in your life. How many of these people desperately need to constantly remind everyone that Yes, they are wicked smart, they’re stable geniuses (whatever the fuck that is—most true geniuses tend to be a more than a bit off kilter; that’s what makes them geniuses) and they have “all the best words”. Not just some of the best words; all of them.
No one has “all” the best words. And anyway, what are the “best” words? Trump imagines that the “best” words to be fancy SAT words, which is a roar, because he routinely speaks on a fourth or fifth grade level. And the best words? Some of the best, most useful ones, are words like “be” and “have”. Get rid of those and you’d be lucky to have anything. See what I mean?
But I digress.
He’s a raging ball of hatred and insecurity. Plus, a world class asshole. And now he has world shaking power and no one to stop him from taking revenge and wreaking havoc to prove how powerful he is.
So the Department of Education, and every vestige of an educated existence must vanish. The unexamined life, to recall Socrates’ famous expression, is the only life worth living for Fat Hitler and his MAGAt horde.
Heather Cox reminded me this morning of my sometimes violent father's dicta when he punished us for something we hadn't done:
Well, he'd say, I'm sure you've gone unpunished for something you've done, even if you aren't to blame this time.
Sounds much like..."[IOW, Cerna] asserts ... that a person’s lack of criminal record proves that they are more dangerous than people who do have a criminal record because their clean record simply shows that the government lacks a complete profile of their crimes."
Ah, memory.
Take that just one small step farther. We're all guilty of something. Even Cerna..
Poor Bibi. He had to go six weeks. Six whole weeks! without killing innocent Palestinians. Phew. But he’s had enough of that shit.
Ahhh…back to blowing shit up!
Life is good.
"The Canadian Anthem is now blasting on speakers outside the White House."
He has to lie about everything.
"Trump and MAGAs haven’t passed any infrastructure bills so he’s taking credit for Biden’s bill and changing signs at job sites putting his name on it"
If you don't have a criminal record that is suspicious and probably means you are a criminal mastermind. If you have so much as a parking ticket it means that you don't obey the law and therefore are probably a deviant criminal. They can find criminals anywhere, especially when the facts don't matter.
Hope the link to this post works. MP Angus also warning people not to travel to US, or they might end of in El Salvador.
“Canadian MP Charlie Angus: Canada is a country of the rule of law. Canada is a country of democracy. Canada will never kiss that gangster’s ring.”
https://bsky.app/profile/acyn.bsky.social/post/3lkte6b3tbs2b
I've said this elsewhere, if I had a green card or were a naturalized US citizen, I would not travel outside this country at all. No telling if you could come back in with this rapacious crew.
rlp,
Rapacious, salacious, mendacious, fallacious, contumacious, hellacious, predacious, and scumacious (okay, I made that last one up).
Basically, bigoted, anti-American, lying crooks.
Re: << the "fundamentals" of the U.S. economy were "strong." >>
Marie,
Your posting from Chris Hayes — regarding Chuck Schumer by way of John McCain — also brought to mind the incomparable Peter Sellers as Chauncey Gardner (AKA Chance the Gardener) from the film “Being There”.
While I prefer Alfred E. and Chance to Chuck, none are suited to the job at hand.