The Conversation -- March 24, 2025

⭐Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic: "The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing." Michael Waltz, the national security advisor, read in Goldberg on a Signals chat group that included JD Vance, Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, John Ratcliffe, Stephen Miller, Waltz, and other top officials who sometimes stood in for them. Goldberg remained in the chat group for about four days, until after the bombing of the Houthi strongholds began. He had access to all of the communications among the group, including a dissent from JayDee, who explained why "I think we are making a mistake." Goldberg doesn't reveal all of the chat messages from Hegseth in particular because some of

"The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility. What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.... The Signal chat group, I concluded, was almost certainly real.... I have never seen a breach quite like this.... Conceivably, Waltz, by coordinating a national-security-related action over Signal, may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act.... The Signal app is not approved by the government for sharing classified information." Thank you for RAS for this gift link.

     ~~~ Marie: This is one of the most extraordinary stories I have ever read. Unless you're a person accustomed to listening in on top-secret chats among top U.S. officials, I urge you to read it. RAS wonders "how much information they have just given away because they are stupid and unprofessional." Waltz's level of incompetence in reading in a journalist is staggering. (And nobody else in the group seemed to notice Goldberg [identified on the chat as "JG"] was reading right along with them all.) As explosive as the Pentagon Papers were, they were after-the-fact analyses. Here, Hegseth & Waltz, et al., were sharing U.S. war plans with a journalist before the fact. Of course Congress should look into what went wrong, but it won't, especially because Waltz was a member of Congress until two months ago.

Irony Just Bit Trump in His Big Fat Rear End. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: “The 1952 law under which the Trump administration seeks to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who helped organize protests at Columbia University, is largely untested. Largely, but not entirely. It was ruled unconstitutional in 1996 — by ... [Donald] Trump’s sister.... When Judge [Maryanne Trump] Barry considered the 1952 law, which the Trump administration has said will play a major role in its deportation plans, she asked whether it could be squared with the Constitution. 'The answer,' she wrote, 'is a ringing “no.”’... An appeals court later reversed her decision, though on grounds unrelated to its substance. But it remains the most thorough judicial examination of the constitutionality of the law, and other judges may find its reasoning persuasive.... 'I will never forget the many times people would come up to me and say, ‘Your sister was the smartest person on the Court,’” [Donald Trump] posted on social media when she died in 2023. 'I was always honored by that, but understood exactly what they meant — They were right! She was a great Judge, and a great sister.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Barry did not hold a high opinion of her brother Donald. CBS News (August 2020): "In secretly recorded audio, Maryanne Trump Barry, the eldest sister of ... [Donald] Trump, criticized her brother for his lack of principles, his lying and said, 'you can't trust him.' The audio, first reported by the Washington Post and obtained in part by CBS News was recorded between 2018 and 2019 by Mr. Trump's niece, Mary Trump, who recently published a tell-all book about the president."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Monday kept in place his ruling barring the Trump administration from using a powerful wartime statute to summarily deport a group of Venezuelan immigrants whom officials have accused of being members of a violent street gang. In a 37-page order, the judge, James E. Boasberg, said the order should remain in place so that the Venezuelan immigrants could have the opportunity to challenge accusations that they belong to the gang, Tren de Aragua, before the Trump administration can fly them out of the country under the wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act. The Alien Enemies Act, Judge Boasberg wrote, 'arguably envisions that those caught up in its web must be given the opportunity to seek such review.'... In his order, Judge Boasberg said that he was not yet issuing a ruling on the “complicated legal issues” of whether Tren de Aragua should be defined as a hostile nation or whether the phenomenon of immigrants crossing the border could be construed as an invasion.... While Mr. Trump and his allies have accused Judge Boasberg of overstepping his authority by intruding on the president’s prerogative to conduct foreign affairs, the question at the heart of the case is whether Mr. Trump himself overstepped by ignoring several provisions laid out in the text of the act for how the deportations should be handled.” ~~~

     ~~~ The order, linked in the story, is via the court, so not behind a NYT firewall.

Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow the firings of thousands of probationary workers as the president seeks to greatly shrink the size of the federal government. A federal judge in Northern California ordered the administration to rehire about 16,000 workers at a half-dozen agencies this month after finding Trump officials had not followed proper procedures in terminating their employment. In an emergency appeal, the administration on Monday asked the high court to block that ruling in a lawsuit brought by unions.”

Jason Zinoman of the New York Times: Conan O'Brien's “has always steered clear of ideological fervor. But moving out of his comfort zone [in his acceptance of the Mark Twain Prize for Humor Sunday night], O’Brien delivered what amounted to a bristling attack on the current administration artfully disguised as a tribute to Mark Twain.... Twain’s enduring power, he argued, stemmed from his core principles, which shaped his comedy. 'First and foremost, Twain hated bullies,' he said, saying he populated his works with them, and made his readers hate them. Twain was allergic to hypocrisy and loathed racism, empathizing with former enslaved people struggling during Reconstruction, immigrant Chinese laborers in California and European Jews fleeing antisemitism.” More on the award ceremony linked below. 

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This Was Yesterday: ~~~

The visit from the United States cannot be seen in isolation from the public statements that have been made. -- Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen ~~~

     ~~~ U.S. Imperialists Invade Greenland, Bring Child. Maggie Haberman & Maya Tekeli of the New York Times: “Usha Vance, the second lady, is scheduled to join the White House national security adviser, the energy secretary and other U.S. officials to visit Greenland this week, amid ... [Donald] Trump’s continued push to take over the island, officials said on Sunday. In a statement, the Trump administration said Ms. Vance will visit Greenland with one of her children on Thursday, to visit historical sites and attend a national dog sled race.... Separately, Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, is expected to tour a U.S. military base, two U.S. officials said. Chris Wright, the energy secretary, is expected to join him, according to another person with knowledge of the visit, as the Trump administration increases its focus on Arctic security and the Western Hemisphere.... Mr. Trump has continued to ratchet up his talk of seizing Greenland....” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ This Is Today: ~~~

     ~~~ They Are Not Amused. From a New York Times liveblog: “Relations between Greenland and the United States sank further on Sunday as the Greenlandic prime minister erupted over what he called a 'highly aggressive' delegation of senior officials the Trump administration said it would send to the island this week.... The prime minister, Mute B. Egede, said on Sunday that Greenlanders’ effort to be diplomatic just 'bounces off Donald Trump and his administration in their mission to own and control Greenland.' He made the remarks, his angriest yet, to a Greenlandic newspaper on Sunday, and a high-ranking member of his party confirmed them. The prime minister seemed especially upset with Mr. Waltz’s involvement. 'What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland?' he asked. 'The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us.... His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission — and the pressure will increase.'... Other Greenlandic officials complained about the inopportune timing of the visit, pointing out that Greenland had just held parliamentary elections and that a new government has not even been formed. 'The fact that the Americans are well aware we are in the middle of negotiations,” said Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the leader of the most popular political party, 'once again shows a lack of respect for the Greenlandic people.'” A Guardian story is here. More on Greenland linked below. ~~~

~~~ Woman Without a Country? In today's Comments, Akhilleus suggests ways for Greenland officials to keep Usha and the Invaders out of Greenland. But near the end of yesterday's thread, RAS wasn't sure Usha -- what with her darkish complexion and her passport name not matching her birth-certificate name -- would be able to get back into the U.S.

Donald the Vain. Lauren Irwin of the Hill: Donald “Trump is demanding that Colorado take down it’s 'purposefully distorted' painting of him hanging in the State Capitol. 'Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,' Trump said in a post Sunday on Truth Social. 'The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one [of] me is truly the worst. She must have lost her talent as she got older.... 'I am speaking on [Colorodans'] behalf to the Radical Left Governor, Jared Polis, who is extremely weak on Crime, in particular with respect to Tren de Aragua, which practically took over Aurora (Don’t worry, we saved it!), to take it down,' Trump said. 'Jared should be ashamed of himself.'” MB: I'll admit that the portrait does not look much like Donald, especially as he appears in his menacing official photo, shown there on the left. A police sketch artist might do better.

Easter Will Be Brought to You by.... Minho Kim of the New York Times: “The White House wants to recruit corporate sponsors to contribute to its Easter Egg Roll next month, raising ethical and legal concerns that President Trump is allowing companies to profit from the 147-year-old tradition by turning it into a showcase for their brands. The financial backers of the April 21 event would be able to choose from three options that cost between $75,000 and $200,000, according to a nine-page guide for potential sponsors that was reviewed by The New York Times. The most expensive package includes a corporate booth, logo placements, branded snacks or beverages, exclusive tickets to brunch with the first lady, Melania Trump, a chance to engage with the White House Press Corps, a private White House tour and 150 tickets to the event.” ~~~

Chris Hayes gives us the best overview of Elon's Excellent Pentagon Field Trip (BTW, why didn't he bring any children?). Even your MAGA cousin could understand and enjoy this:

~~~ Borowitz Report: "Disaster struck the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Monday after Elon Musk and his team of teenage aides became trapped inside a self-locking Cybertruck.... Witnesses said that Musk’s desperate pounding on the interior of the Cybertruck failed to free him but did send several pieces of metal trim flying off its exterior."

And speaking of All Things Elon, this one might be too complex for your MAGA cousin, but in yesterday's Comments, RAS got to the heart of the DOGE hoax: ~~~

     ~~~ Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: “Senior tax officials are bracing for a sharp drop in revenue collected this spring, as an increasing number of individuals and businesses spurn filing their taxes or attempt to skip paying balances owed to the Internal Revenue Service.... Treasury Department and IRS officials are predicting a decrease of more than 10 percent in tax receipts by the April 15 deadline compared with 2024, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share nonpublic data. That would amount to more than $500 billion in lost federal revenue; the IRS collected $5.1 trillion last year. For context, the U.S. government spent $825 billion on the Defense Department in fiscal 2024.... The prediction, officials say, is directly tied to changing taxpayer behavior and ... Donald Trump’s rapid demolition of parts of the IRS.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM was gobsmacked. RAS notes that he wrote on Bluesky: "So look at that. DOGE has cost the US Treasury fucking half a trillion dollars. HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS. This is your cost savings." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The name "DOGE" -- Department of Government Efficiency -- was always a joke. Musk let it be known the joke was some kind of insider meme based on a Shiba Inu cryptocurrency thing. Ha ha. But the real joke was always on us taxpayers and citizens: the name DOGE is no more about increasing government efficiency than the deadly "Peacemaker" and "Sea Swallow" missiles are gentle lovely white doves and elegant terns. The name DOGE is a cover for the real purpose of the program, and that real purpose is to gut and discredit the federal government and the staff who work for us. If you want to know why Musk is smiling all the time his Tesla stock is tanking, it's because he (a) Trump will give him his money back in government contracts, and (b) he's pulling a fast one on millions and millions of the rubes like those of us whose intelligence H.L. Mencken doubted. That's the real "insider joke," and Musk isn't copping to it. ~~~

~~~ Washington Post Editors: “... the [Pentagon briefing] episode was a reminder of Musk’s many other conflicts of interest and the lack of transparency that clouds his wide-ranging work as a special government employee overseeing the U.S. DOGE Service. The editorial points to just a few of Musk's conflicts and how the Trump administration has failed to address them or provide any level of transparency on how, if at all, he is constrained. 

A Deportation in Search of an Excuse. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “Last week, the government quietly added new accusations to its case against [former Columbia student Mahmoud] Khalil, saying that he had willfully failed to disclose his membership in several organizations, including a United Nations agency that helps Palestinian refugees, when he applied to become a permanent U.S. resident last March. It said he also failed to disclose work he did for the British government after 2022. The Trump administration appears to be using the new allegations in part to sidestep the First Amendment issues raised by Mr. Khalil’s case.... 'The new deportation grounds are patently weak and pretextual,' said one of Mr. Khalil’s lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, a co-director of CLEAR, a legal clinic at the City University of New York. 'That the government scrambled to add them at the 11th hour only highlights how its motivation from the start was to retaliate against Mr. Khalil for his protected speech in support of Palestinian rights and lives.'”

Brittany Gibson of Axios: "... conditions in the system's detention facilities are deteriorating.... Days without a shower. Sleeping on floors. Two hundred people confined in a space meant for 85. Some immigration detention units are so crowded that non-citizens arrested in President Trump's crackdown are living in inhumane conditions, attorneys for detainees tell Axios.... The Trump administration's goal of deporting 'millions' of people has led officials to jam more than 46,000 detainees into a system designed to hold no more than about 40,000, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records.... 'A lot of people are just signing orders to be removed, because the conditions are so horrible,' [Paul Chavez of Americans for Immigrant Justice] said."

Marie: Here's an indicator of our rapid descent from a quasi-democracy to an authoritarian backwater: the Washington Post has put on its online front page a story on what your rights are when you try to enter the U.S. and how to protect theose rights against border officials.

Twain was suspicious of populism, jingoism, imperialism, the money-obsessed mania of the Gilded Age and any expression of mindless American might or self-importance.... He loved America but knew it was deeply flawed. -- Conan O'Brien, Mark Twain Prize acceptance speech ~~~

~~~ Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: “In honoring Conan O’Brien at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, a lineup of big-name comedians made the veteran late-night host and comedy fixture the main focus of roasting — but ... [Donald] Trump and his recent takeover of the Washington arts center quickly became the second-favorite target of the night. John Mulaney joked that the Kennedy Center would soon be renamed 'The Roy Cohn Pavilion for Big Strong Men Who Love “Cats.”’... When David Letterman took the stage late in the show to give Mr. O’Brien the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, his nod to the upheaval in Washington was more solemn. 'In history for all time,' he said,'“this will have been the most entertaining gathering of the resistance, ever.'... No other ceremony came at a time of such upheaval at the institution. The event was the first major award program at the Kennedy Center since [Mr.] Trump purged the institution’s historically bipartisan board, ousted its top leaders and installed himself as chairman.” Here's the Washington Post's story.

Dana Hedgpeth of the Washington Post: “As one of the two last living Navajo code talkers who sent indecipherable messages that helped the United States win World War II, [Peter MacDonald Sr., 96,] had been upset when the Defense Department removed webpages earlier this week highlighting his efforts and those of other minority service members. The purge came as part of the Trump administration’s orders to end federal programs of 'diversity, equity and inclusion' and clear government websites of material related to those terms. But after three days of public outcry and lobbying from the Navajo Nation president and the tribal council to the White House and the Pentagon, the Defense Department on Thursday evening abruptly reversed itself.”

Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "A defiant Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed that he won’t step aside as the chamber’s top Democrat, rejecting calls from some House colleagues and liberal advocates critical of his move to help pass a Republican funding bill.... Schumer also rejected comparisons to then-President Joe Biden’s refusal to step down as the 2024 nominee, in response to a question about whether he’s making the same mistake." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. A New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman: “Right now the central front in [Trump's] assault on the working class is Social Security, which Elon Musk, unable to admit error, keeps insisting is riddled with fraud. The DOGE-bullied Social Security Administration has already announced that those applying for benefits or trying to change where their benefits are deposited will need to verify their identity either online or in person — a huge, sometimes impossible burden on the elderly, often disabled Americans who need those benefits most. And with staff cuts and massive DOGE disruption, it seems increasingly likely that some benefits just won’t arrive as scheduled. Oh, and Leland Dudek, the acting Social Security administrator, threatened to shut the whole thing down unless DOGE was given access to personal data. Not to worry, says Howard Lutnick, Trump’s Commerce secretary. Only 'fraudsters' would complain about missing a Social Security check[.]... [But] to get voters to notice ... almost certainly requires new leadership, if only to help persuade voters that the party isn’t run by tired careerists. The problem with someone like Chuck Schumer ... [is] that he’s a 74-year-old ... whose instinct is to try to deftly navigate his way through a political landscape that demands not careful calculation but vocal, visible outrage, both to motivate the Democratic base and to get other voters’ attention.”

Jennifer Rubin of the Contrarian: “Faced with [an] assault on the 1^st, 5^th, and 6^th Amendments, [the law firm] Paul Weiss chose not to litigate as another targeted law firm, Perkins & Coie had, but to submit itself to the micromanagement of the federal government, a move so craven and fraught with conflict that every client, associate, partner, and employee will need to reevaluate its relationship with the mega-firm.... In a statement attempting to rationalize the firm’s decision, Chairman Brad Karp insisted that 'the Administration is not dictating what matters we take on, approving our matters, or anything like that.' But the plain language of the 'agreement' says otherwise.... Paul Weiss’s capitulation is one more example contributing to a deeply alarming pattern of cowardice from corporate media, universities, Republican toadies, and some misguided Democrats. Too many people and institutions with ample power and resources to defend themselves nevertheless have refused to stand up to MAGA intimidation. Instead, they have betrayed fundamental values that are the cornerstone of our democracy.”

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: “Max Frankel, who fled Nazi Germany as a boy and rose to pinnacles of American journalism as a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for The New York Times and later as its executive editor during eight years of changing fortunes and technology, died on Sunday at his home in Manhattan. He was 94.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unfortunately, this is what I remember Frankel for: “Mr. Frankel was widely criticized in 1991 when The Times profiled Patricia Bowman, who had accused William Kennedy Smith, a nephew of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, of raping her in Palm Beach, Fla. As well as detailing her background, the article named her, called her an aggressive driver, said she had borne a child out of wedlock and quoted a woman anonymously as saying Ms. Bowan 'had a little wild streak.' Readers and even staff members accused the paper of sexism.” The female reporters at the Times went ballistic; there was an angry meeting. Frankel still didn't get it. In fairness, there was much more to him than this one incident, and he hired quite a number of women into positions previously reserved for men.

Yan Zhuang of the New York Times: “Mia Love, the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, who served from 2015 to 2019, died on Sunday at her home in Utah. She was 49. Her family confirmed the death in a post on one of Ms. Love’s social media pages. She had been diagnosed in 2022 with a glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain tumor.”

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Trump is hurting the U.S. economy in so many ways. Here's just one of them: ~~~

Ellen Francis, et al., of the Washington Post: “As ... Donald Trump upends U.S. foreign policy, negotiating closer relations with Russia, threatening NATO allies and pausing cooperation with Ukraine, Washington’s traditional partners — and best customers — are rethinking their dependence on American weapons systems. From Canada to Europe, calls are growing to steer future defense spending away from U.S. equipment and toward their own industries, even as many concede there’s no quick fix after decades of dependence. The U.S. pause of intelligence-sharing with Ukraine this month, and Trump’s threats to annex Canada and Greenland, have laid bare the risks of counting on the United States — and raised concerns about whether Washington could ground jets or turn off launchers remotely as a pressure tactic. Even if such a 'kill switch' is a myth, officials and analysts say, advanced U.S. systems such as fighter jets are so reliant on U.S. spare parts, software updates or data sharing that cutting access could effectively render some unusable. Nearly two-thirds of European arms imports in recent years came from the U.S.”

Canada. Mickey Djuric of Politico: “Prime Minister Mark Carney called a snap election on Sunday, saying he needs a mandate from Canadians to take on ... Donald Trump. The federal campaign kicks off days ahead of a new slate of Trump tariffs, and at a time when Canadians are increasingly worried the president will make good on his threats of economic and cultural takeover.... Voters will go to the polls on April 28 with a clear ballot box question: Who is best to handle Trump?” The New York Times story is here.

Greenland. William Booth & Laris Karklis of the Washington Post: “Trump is pushing Denmark to bolster its defenses in Greenland, as U.S. military assets on the island have degraded and the Russians are refurbishing their own Arctic ports.... Greenland once hosted dozens of U.S. military bases, outposts and depots. Today, there is just one. Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, operates a global network of early-warning radars, satellites and sensors to detect incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles. A U.S. force that once numbered 10,000 troops is now down to about 200.... Danish officials concede that they’ve been slow to replace assets to defend Greenland.... Now the Danes, too, are concerned.... Whether or not Trump deserves the credit, the Danes have announced a new defense spending package, large for such a small country.... They have committed $2 billion. With other spending, Denmark’s NATO contribution is now more than 3 percent of GDP, one of the highest in Europe.”

South Korea. Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: “Prime Minister Han Duck-soo of South Korea was restored to office as acting president​ on Monday, after the country’s Constitutional Court overturned his impeachment by the National Assembly. But the ruling did little to herald any political stability in the country, which has lurched from crisis to crisis. Mr. Han briefly served as South Korea’s acting president after ​the Assembly impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Dec. 14​, suspending Mr. Yoon from office in connection with his failed attempt to place the country under martial law. Mr. Han had been in the role for less than two weeks when the Assembly impeached him as well, adding to the turmoil engulfing South Korea, a key Asian ally of the United States. The Constitutional Court has yet to announce when it will rule on whether to oust or reinstall Mr. Yoon — a far more consequential decision that South Koreans have been awaiting for weeks with growing anxiety.”

Venezuela. Annie Correal & Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “The Trump administration sent a flight carrying deportees from the United States to Venezuela on Sunday, the first such flight since the Venezuelan government reached an agreement with the Trump administration on Saturday to resume accepting them.... After briefly agreeing to accept flights after Mr. Trump took office, [President Nicolás] Maduro ceased doing so weeks ago, after the Trump administration revoked a Biden-era policy that had allowed more oil to be produced in Venezuela and exported. Mr. Maduro then came under intense pressure from the Trump administration. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media that Venezuela would face new, 'severe and escalating' sanctions if it refused to accept its repatriated citizens. This weekend, it announced it would take flights again beginning on Sunday. The Venezuelan government’s willingness to resume accepting the flights also appeared related to the plight of Venezuelan migrants the Trump administration recently sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador with little to no due process.”

The Conversation -- March 23, 2025

Chris Hayes gives us the best overview of Elon's Excellent Pentagon Field Trip (BTW, why didn't he bring any children?). Even your MAGA cousin could understand and enjoy this:

And speaking of All Things Elon, this one might be too complex for your MAGA cousin, but in today's Comments, RAS got to the heart of the DOGE hoax: ~~~

     ~~~ Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: “Senior tax officials are bracing for a sharp drop in revenue collected this spring, as an increasing number of individuals and businesses spurn filing their taxes or attempt to skip paying balances owed to the Internal Revenue Service.... Treasury Department and IRS officials are predicting a decrease of more than 10 percent in tax receipts by the April 15 deadline compared with 2024, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share nonpublic data. That would amount to more than $500 billion in lost federal revenue; the IRS collected $5.1 trillion last year. For context, the U.S. government spent $825 billion on the Defense Department in fiscal 2024.... The prediction, officials say, is directly tied to changing taxpayer behavior and ... Donald Trump’s rapid demolition of parts of the IRS.” ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM was gobsmacked. RAS notes that he wrote on Bluesky: "So look at that. DOGE has cost the US Treasury fucking half a trillion dollars. HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS. This is your cost savings." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The name "DOGE" -- Department of Government Efficiency -- was always a joke. Musk let it be known the joke was some kind of insider meme based on a Shiba Inu cryptocurrency thing. Ha ha. But the real joke was always on us taxpayers and citizens: the name DOGE is no more about increasing government efficiency than the deadly "Peacemaker" and "Sea Swallow" missiles are gentle lovely white doves and elegant terns. The name DOGE is a cover for the real purpose of the program, and that real purpose is to gut and discredit the federal government and the staff who work for us. If you want to know why Musk is smiling all the time his Tesla stock is tanking, it's because he (a) Trump will give him his money back in government contracts, and (b) he's pulling a fast one on millions and millions of the rubes like those of us whose intelligence H.L. Mencken doubted. That's the real "insider joke," and Musk isn't copping to it.

The visit from the United States cannot be seen in isolation from the public statements that have been made. -- Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen ~~~

~~~ U.S. Imperialists Invade Greenland, Bring Child. Maggie Haberman & Maya Tekeli of the New York Times: “Usha Vance, the second lady, is scheduled to join the White House national security adviser, the energy secretary and other U.S. officials to visit Greenland this week, amid ... [Donald] Trump’s continued push to take over the island, officials said on Sunday. In a statement, the Trump administration said Ms. Vance will visit Greenland with one of her children on Thursday, to visit historical sites and attend a national dog sled race.... Separately, Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, is expected to tour a U.S. military base, two U.S. officials said. Chris Wright, the energy secretary, is expected to join him, according to another person with knowledge of the visit, as the Trump administration increases its focus on Arctic security and the Western Hemisphere.... Mr. Trump has continued to ratchet up his talk of seizing Greenland....”

Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "A defiant Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed that he won’t step aside as the chamber’s top Democrat, rejecting calls from some House colleagues and liberal advocates critical of his move to help pass a Republican funding bill.... Schumer also rejected comparisons to then-President Joe Biden’s refusal to step down as the 2024 nominee, in response to a question about whether he’s making the same mistake."

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: “Max Frankel, who fled Nazi Germany as a boy and rose to pinnacles of American journalism as a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for The New York Times and later as its executive editor during eight years of changing fortunes and technology, died on Sunday at his home in Manhattan. He was 94.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unfortunately, this is what I remember Frankel for: “Mr. Frankel was widely criticized in 1991 when The Times profiled Patricia Bowman, who had accused William Kennedy Smith, a nephew of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, of raping her in Palm Beach, Fla. As well as detailing her background, the article named her, called her an aggressive driver, said she had borne a child out of wedlock and quoted a woman anonymously as saying Ms. Bowan 'had a little wild streak.' Readers and even staff members accused the paper of sexism.” The female reporters at the Times went ballistic; there was an angry meeting. Frankel still didn't get it. In fairness, there was much more to him than this one incident, and he hired quite a number of women into positions previously reserved for men.

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Our liberties depend on lawyers’ willingness to represent unpopular people and causes, including in matters adverse to the federal government. Our profession owes every client zealous legal representation without fear of retribution, regardless of their political affiliation or ability to pay. -- Keker, Van Nest & Peters, a San Francisco law firm, in a statement

[Donald Trump’s memo threatening lawyers] attacks the very foundations of our legal system by threatening and intimidating litigants who aim to hold our government accountable to the law and the Constitution.... [The executive branch] should neither fear nor punish those who challenge it and should not be the arbiter of what is frivolous — there are protections in place to address that.... This moment calls for courage and collective action, not capitulation, among lawyers and the legal profession. -- Vanita Gupta, civil rights lawyer and former Justice Department official ~~~

~~~ Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: Donald “Trump broadened his campaign of retaliation against lawyers he dislikes with a new memorandum that threatens to use government power to punish any law firms that, in his view, unfairly challenge his administration. The memorandum directs the heads of the Justice and Homeland Security Departments to 'seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable and vexatious litigation against the United States' or in matters that come before federal agencies. Mr. Trump issued the order late Friday night.... Since being sworn into office he has targeted three firms, but the new memo seems to threaten similar punishment for any lawyer or firm who raises his ire.” ~~~

     ~~~ Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: “Donald Trump ... on Friday night ... ordered his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to refer what she determines to be partisan lawsuits to the White House and recommend punitive actions that could harm the firms involved. The directives were outlined in a sweeping memo in which Trump alleged that too many law firms were filing frivolous claims designed to cause delays. It came after a week of setbacks, in which a slew of judges issued temporary injunctions blocking the implementation of Trump’s agenda. Trump’s memo directed Bondi to seek sanctions against the firms or disciplinary actions against the lawyers. But imposing sanctions is up to federal judges, and perhaps in recognition of the uncertainty that his attorney general would prevail, Trump also ordered referrals to the White House.... The memo, as a result, created a formal mechanism for Trump to unilaterally decide whether to impose politically charged sanctions through executive orders.... Trump also directed Bondi to open a review into the 'conduct' of lawyers and their respective law firms in litigation against the federal government reaching back to the start of his first term in 2017 – and recommend whether it warranted additional punitive actions.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What should an attorney general do when the president* orders her to perform illegal and/or unconstitutional acts? Well, push back, then refuse to follow the order, then -- if all that fails -- resign. The judiciary committees of both houses should call Bondi up immediately to testify as to her intentions. Of course they won't. ~~~

President Trump is attempting to dismantle the constitution and attack the rule of law in his obsessive pursuit of retribution against his political opponents. Today’s White House Memo targets not only me and my law firm, but every attorney and law firm who dares to challenge his assault on the rule of law.... Elias Law Group will not be deterred from fighting for democracy in court. There will be no negotiation with this White House about the clients we represent or the lawsuits we bring on their behalf. -- Marc Elias, Chair, Elias Law Group, in a statement

Trump Names New Fighter Jet After ... Trump. Connor Stringer of the Telegraph, republished by Yahoo! News: “Donald Trump appears to have named America’s next-generation fighter jet in tribute to himself. Mr Trump, America’s 47th president, announced Boeing had been awarded the contract to build the air force’s new F-47 fighter jet. The jets will be built as part of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program which will replace Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor. The F-47 will be a crewed aircraft built to enter combat alongside drones.... Despite online chatter that the president named the plane after himself, he told the press conference: 'It will be known as the F-47s, the generals picked that title.'” Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump's claim is not believable. Trump seems to be so out of it that he probably doesn't remember that he named the F-47 for himself. As RAS pointed out in yesterday's thread, on the same day he "forgot" he named a fighter jet for himself, he also claimed he didn't sign a significant anti-immigrant proclamation which he did indeed sign, AND he claimed he knew nothing about a highly-irregular Pentagon war-plans briefing for his top donor Elon Musk. Save to your "Trump -- 25th Amendment" file. ~~~

     ~~~ Matt Viser of the Washington Post examines Trump's claim that he did not sign the proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act: “Did Trump misspeak? Is he trying to deflect responsibility for a decision under heavy legal scrutiny by suggesting he was merely following through on an idea proposed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio? And if he didn’t sign it, who — or what — did?... Trump’s signature appears on the digital image of the proclamation available for viewing with the Federal Register, the government repository of official documents.” MB: This is a gift link (because I'm too lazy to sift thru the administration's fake explanations.

     ~~~ Then there's this re: Elon's very special briefing: ~~~

     ~~~ Aila Zehra of the Hill: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, sent a memo Friday saying that members of the Department of Defense (DOD) may be subjected to polygraph tests in a new investigation into alleged leaks at the Pentagon. Kasper mentioned 'recent unauthorized disclosures' of sensitive information but stopped short of specifying any details about the alleged leaks. The memo came just hours after ... Elon Musk said those who are leaking 'maliciously false information' to news outlets will be 'found' and prosecuted. Musk, whose companies have contracts with the DOD, issued the warning Friday morning after The New York Times reported that he was set to be briefed on the U.S. military’s secret plans if a war with China were to take place.”

Giselle Ewing of Politico: “... Donald Trump is demanding a 'full throated apology' from Maine Gov. Janet Mills in his spat with the state over transgender athletes, implying his administration will continue to target the state unless he gets one. The Democratic governor got into an argument with the president during a governors’ meeting at the White House in February, telling the president 'we’ll see you in court' when he threatened to pull federal funding from the state if it failed to comply with his order to ban trans athletes from playing in women’s and girls sports. His administration subsequently opened overlapping investigations into Maine, including probes launched by the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Agriculture. The president in a Saturday morning Truth Social post demanded Mills deliver a 'full throated apology' for her earlier comments and promise to never pose a 'challenge' to the federal government again. 'While the State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the White House House Governor’s Conference, we have not heard from the Governor herself, and she is the one that matters in such cases,' Trump wrote.... It was not clear what apology from the state of Maine he was referencing, or what apparent case was being settled.” ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: Ewing's construction -- “The Democratic governor got into an argument with the president” -- makes it seem that Mills started the argument with Trump. The opposite is the case. Trump sought out Mills at a meeting with governors (NYT link), and he challenged her to comply with his executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women's sports . When she said Maine would comply with state and federal law, Trump pulled his “L'état c'est moi” routine, claiming, “we are the federal law” and “you better do it.” I get that Politico is a right-wingish outfit, but its reporters should know better than to slant straight news stories. ~~~

     ~~~ Heather Cox Richardson has some thoughts on Trump's bullying Mills: “Exactly what she is supposed to be apologizing to him for is unclear, unless it is that she stood up to him, a rare enough event that at the time, Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times noted: 'Something happened at the White House Friday afternoon that almost never happens these days. Somebody defied ... [Donald] Trump. Right to his face.' [MB: linked above] At the White House, Governor Mills was not only reinforcing the rule of law in the face of an authoritarian who is working to shatter that principle; she was standing up to a bully who claims to be protecting women and girls but who has bragged about sexual assault, been found guilty of sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll, and barged in on teenaged girls dressing in the Miss Teen USA changing room. Trump’s political stances have also belied his claim to protect women. He has worked to deny women and girls access to health care, including the right not to die needlessly from a miscarriage. He has undermined women’s right to control their own bodies and defunded or stopped the programs that protect their right to be safe from domestic violence and sexual assault. He has ended programs designed to protect women’s employment and has fired women from positions of authority.”

~~~ Oh, would that Columbia U.'s interim president Katrina Armstrong had Mills' fortitude: ~~~

~~~ The Capitulator. Troy Closson, et al., of the New York Times: “Columbia University’s concession on Friday to a roster of government demands as it sought to restore about $400 million in federal funding is being widely viewed as a watershed in Washington’s relationships with the nation’s colleges.... Columbia’s moves on Friday — revealed in a letter to the campus from the interim president, Dr. Katrina A. Armstrong — were essentially an opening bid in negotiations with the federal government to let the $400 million flow again. But the Trump administration has not publicly said what other concessions it might seek from Columbia or the dozens of other universities, from Hawaii to Harvard, that it has started to scrutinize since taking power on Jan. 20.... Washington’s tactics against Columbia during the past month have shaken university leaders from coast to coast.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is why, in general, in a time of crisis, you do not choose a medical doctor or an architect (Armstrong has degrees in both fields) to lead a large institution. I assume that Armstrong excels in her areas of expertises, but they are not history and they are not negotiating with a powerful, ruthless dictator. Moreover, unlike many a medical doctor, she has not sought to activate her heroism gene. This is a shameful moment for the academy.

The Collaborators. Andrew Duehren & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: “The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to help homeland security officials locate immigrants they are trying to deport, according to three officials familiar with the matter, in a shift toward using protected taxpayer information to help President Trump’s mass deportation push. Under a draft of an agreement between the I.R.S. and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the tax agency would verify whether immigration officials had the right home address for people who have been ordered to leave the United States.... Many undocumented immigrants file tax returns with the I.R.S., giving the agency information about where they live, their families, their employers and their earnings. The I.R.S. has long encouraged undocumented immigrants to pay their taxes, giving people without Social Security numbers a separate nine-digit code called an individual taxpayer identification number to file their returns.... I.R.S. officials had resisted earlier requests from the Department of Homeland Security to turn over information about unauthorized immigrants, warning that doing so could violate federal law.” ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post story, which broke the news, is here.

This looks like the kinds of things we thought only happened in other countries, and it’s happening to people who come from those places and came here to get away from it.... You’re not supposed to have people disappear in the United States. -- Michelle Brané, a former Biden appointee, now trying to get information on those sent to El Salvador ~~~

~~~ More News from the Banana Republic. The Disappeared. Arelis Hernández & Maria Paúl of the Washington Post: “... lawyers say the lack of information about the Venezuelan migrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act is nearly unprecedented.... The families and lawyers of dozens of ... Venezuelan and Salvadoran men who had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say their relatives and clients have ... disappeared over the past week, with no explanation provided by the government over where they may be.... The White House and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have not released the names of the men sent to El Salvador and did not respond to questions regarding when family members or lawyers will be notified.”

 

Ellen Barry, et al., of the New York Times: “... DOGE cuts have already sparked chaos and confusion within the [Veterans Affairs department], which provides care to more than nine million veterans. The Trump administration has said it plans to eliminate 80,000 V.A. jobs, and a first round of terminations has halted some research studies and slashed support staff.... Among the most consequential orders is the requirement that thousands of mental health providers, including many who were hired for fully remote positions, now work full time from federal office space.... Many found no way to ensure patient privacy....”

Why did Elon have to kick out 100,000 federal employees, most of them doing necessary work and many uniquely qualified for their specialized positions? Why, so there would be more money for Elon, of course. ~~~

~~~ ⭐King of the Kleptocrats. Here's (Some of) What You Get for A $250 Million-Plus. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: “Within the Trump administration’s Defense Department, Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocketry is being trumpeted as the nifty new way the Pentagon could move military cargo rapidly around the globe. In the Commerce Department, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service will now be fully eligible for the federal government’s $42 billion rural broadband push, after being largely shut out during the Biden era. At NASA, after repeated nudges by Mr. Musk, the agency is being squeezed to turn its focus to Mars, allowing SpaceX to pursue federal contracts to deliver the first humans to the distant planet. And at the Federal Aviation Administration and the White House itself, Starlink satellite dishes have recently been installed, to expand federal government internet access.... In selected spots across the government, SpaceX is positioning itself to see billions of dollars in new federal contracts or other support, a dozen current and former federal officials said....

“The boost in federal spending for SpaceX will come in part as a result of actions by President Trump and Mr. Musk’s allies and employees who now hold government positions.... Already, some SpaceX employees, temporarily working at the F.A.A., were given official permission to take actions that might steer new work to Mr. Musk’s company. The new contracts across government will come in addition to the billions of dollars in new business that SpaceX could rake in by securing permission from the Trump administration to expand its use of federally owned property.”

Iago Hale & Michael Kantar in a New York Times op-ed: “Since its establishment in 1898, the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Plant Germplasm System and the scientists who support it have systematically gathered and maintained the agricultural plant species that undergird our food system in vast collections such as ... one in Aberdeen[, Idaho]. The collections represent a towering achievement of foresight that food security depends on the availability of diverse plant genetic resources. In mid-February, Trump administration officials at what has been labeled the Department of Government Efficiency fired some of the highly trained people who do this work. A court order has reinstated them, but it’s unclear when they will be allowed to resume their work. In the meantime, uncertainty around additional staffing and budget cuts, as well as the future of the collections themselves, reigns.... Our food system is only as safe as our ability to respond to the next plant disease or other emergent threat, and a strong N.P.G.S. is central to our preparedness.... With a trivial investment of 0.000008 percent of the federal budget, N.P.G.S. scientists quietly enable and safeguard our food system, worth around $1.5 trillion. Talk about return on investment.”

Sheryl Stolberg, et al., of the New York Times: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, on Saturday instructed leaders of the nonprofit he founded to take down a web page that mimicked the design of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s site but laid out a case that vaccines cause autism. The page had been published on a site apparently registered to the nonprofit, the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense. Mr. Kennedy’s action came after The New York Times inquired about the page and after news of it ricocheted across social media. The page was taken offline Saturday evening. 'Secretary Kennedy has instructed the Office of the General Counsel to send a formal demand to Children’s Health Defense requesting the removal of their website,' the Health and Human Services Department said in a statement.” ~~~

~~~ Stephen Simpson of the Texas Tribune: "With its measles outbreak spreading to two additional states, Texas is on track to becoming the cause of a national epidemic if it doesn’t start vaccinating more people, according to public health experts. Measles, a highly contagious disease that was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, has made a resurgence in West Texas communities, jumping hundreds of miles to the northern border of the Panhandle and East Texas, and invading bordering states of New Mexico and Oklahoma. Based on the rapid spread of cases statewide — more than 200 over 50 days — public health officials predict that it could take Texas a year to contain the spread. With cases continuously rising and the rest of the country’s unvaccinated population at the outbreak’s mercy, Texas must create stricter quarantine requirements, increase the vaccine rate, and improve contact tracing to address this measles epidemic before it becomes a nationwide problem, warn infectious disease experts and officials in other states." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. Akhilleus also gave a shoutout yesterday to Bobby Castor-Oil Kennedy for the pivotal role he has played in bringing a highly-communicative disease back to the U.S.A.

The court effectively creates a law-free zone around the president, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the founding.... [The president] now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold on to power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Trump v. U.S., dissent ~~~

~~~ Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court’s decision last year in Trump v. United States gave the president of the United States criminal immunity for 'official acts,' defined as anything that could involve or plausibly extend to the president’s core duties.... The dissenting justices in the case, led by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, warned that the ruling would, in effect, make the president a king.... In his second term as president, Donald Trump has claimed royal prerogative over the entire executive branch.... And it is clear, as well, that Trump attributes this monarchical power to Chief Justice John Roberts.... Trump is trying to provoke a confrontation with the federal judiciary, which, at this moment, is the only institution in the American political system that can — and will — exercise direct power against the administration.” Bouie does not trust Roberts to stand up to Trump.

Tobi Raji of the Washington Post: “The number of Tesla owners trading in their cars surged to a record high in March, compounding the troubles of an automaker that has been embroiled in controversy since CEO Elon Musk became a central figure of ... Donald Trump’s administration. Of all vehicles traded in at dealerships for new or used cars through March 16, 1.4 percent were Tesla cars from model year 2017 or newer — the highest share on record, according to data from U.S. car shopping website Edmunds.... Musk’s company has faced declining stock price and consumer boycotts since the start of the year.... Some Tesla owners have also begun to express buyer’s remorse, fearing their car signals to others that they support Musk.... The share of people considering buying a new Tesla has also dropped, according to Edmunds.” One expert said the drop in Tesla's popularity is merely a reflection of the fact that more companies “are getting into the EV space.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Fortunately for Elon, his co-president* & their collaborators are making up for any Tesla shortfall by ensuring that we taxpayers fund Elon's other projects (story linked above). And of course the co-president and his commerce-secretary/fellow-billionaire are promoting Tesla, too (WashPo link).

Salvado Rizzo of the Washington Post: “Jessica D. Aber, a longtime prosecutor who rose to become one of the few women to lead the prestigious U.S. attorney’s office in Northern Virginia, died overnight at her home in Alexandria, according to her former colleagues. Ms. Aber’s death, at age 43, came two months after she resigned as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to make way for ... Donald Trump to select her successor. President Joe Biden had nominated her to the post in 2021....Alexandria police said officers responded to a call for service at Aber’s home shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday and found her deceased, adding that the Virginia medical examiner would determine the cause and manner of death.” An NBC4 (Washington) report is here.

Naomi Nix of the Washington Post: “An arbitration ruling bars author Sarah Wynn-Williams from promoting her memoir tarnishing Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg with what the social media giant says are lies.... [Meta] public relations staffers and executives have been working in overdrive the past two weeks to discredit Wynn-Williams and her anecdote-rich memoir.... Meta’s criticism has hardly curbed the memoir’s popularity. Wynn-Williams’s book is getting the kind of news coverage and social media chatter that many first-time authors can only dream of, having debuted at No. 1 earlier this month on the New York Times bestseller list for nonfiction and sold well ever since.”

Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: “Kitty Dukakis, an activist first lady of Massachusetts and humanitarian who overcame alcoholism and depression with the help of electroconvulsive therapy, then became a proponent of the treatment with her husband, Michael S. Dukakis, the former Massachusetts governor and the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, died on Friday night at her home in Brookline, Mass. She was 88.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Dictators Dance the Trump Tarantella on the Grave of Democracy. Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: “As Trump upends democratic norms at home, his statements, policies and actions are providing cover for a fresh chill on freedom of expression, democracy, the rule of law and LGBTQ+ rights for autocrats around the world — some of whom are giving him credit. Democratic backsliding in Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Turkey long predates Trump; the president has been said to have derived some of his messaging from Orban. But in several nations, including Hungary and Serbia, authorities say openly that Trump’s return has helped them serve up what critics say are fresh violations of basic rights. In Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week detained his leading political rival and dozens of others, advocates see Trump’s influence as an enabling factor. The new Trump administration 'is bringing together autocrats and would-be autocrats around the world,' said Rosa Balfour, director of Carnegie Europe....

“Cuts at USAID have eliminated funding for nongovernmental organizations that promoted the rule of law in countries where democracy is under attack, she said. Meanwhile, the administration’s actions at home — rolling back protections for minorities, the mass deportation of migrants outside normal processes, attacks on judges who stand in the way — and its decision to vote against a United Nations censure of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, she said, signal a new era in which the United States is no longer seen as a global defender of liberal democracy.” ~~~

~~~ Here's one dictator who needs no encouragement: ~~~

~~~ Gaya Gupta of the Washington Post: “When Vladimir Putin heard Donald Trump had been shot in the ear at a rally in Pennsylvania last year, the Russian president said he went to his local church, met with his priest and prayed, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said Friday in an interview with Tucker Carlson.... Witkoff said Putin shared the anecdote with him during Witkoff’s second visit to Russia in mid-March, which, he added, got 'personal.' Witkoff said Putin gave him a 'beautiful portrait' of Trump that Putin had commissioned by a 'leading' Russian artist, and asked that Witkoff bring the painting back to the White House. Trump 'was clearly touched by it,' Witkoff said....”

Canada/U.S. AP: “For more than 100 years, people in Stanstead, Quebec have been able to walk into Derby Line, Vermont to enter the border-straddling Haskell Free Library and Opera House – no passport required. But ... U.S. authorities have unilaterally decided to end the century-old unwritten agreement. Coming at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries, the decision is prompting an outpouring of emotion in communities on both sides of the border.... In 2016, then-president Barack Obama hailed the symbolic importance of the library, built in 1901.... Starting in the coming days, only library card holders and employees will be able to cross over from Canada to enter the building through the main door on the U.S. side. And as of Oct. 1, no Canadians will be able to enter the library via the United States without going through the border checkpoint, though there will be exceptions for law enforcement, emergency services, mail delivery, official workers and those with disabilities. The statement acknowledged the library as a 'unique landmark,' but said the border agency was phasing in a new approach for security reasons.” MB: Yes, because who wouldn't be askeert of book-reading Canucks? My god, they're probably woke. And all. RAS linked a CTV News story yesterday.

Israel Palestine, et al. Susannah George, et al., of the Washington Post: “More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, the enclave’s Health Ministry said Sunday — a grim indicator of the conflict’s continued lethality less than a week since Israel shattered a nearly two-month-old ceasefire, launching airstrikes and ground incursions into the territory.... Despite over a year of heavy bombardment of a strip of land roughly 140 square miles in size, Israel has been unable to completely destroy Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007.”

Turkey. Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: “A Turkish court on Sunday jailed the mayor of Istanbul pending his trial on corruption charges, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency, hobbling a potential contender in Turkey’s next presidential election and the top rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, was arrested at his home on Wednesday, four days before he was set to be named the presidential candidate of Turkey’s political opposition. He has denied the accusations against him, which Mr. Erdogan’s opponents have called a ploy to hinder a popular politician’s presidential bid.The court ordered that Mr. Imamoglu be jailed on accusations of corruption pending a trial....”

The Conversation -- March 22, 2025

Trump Names New Fighter Jet After ... Trump. Connor Stringer of the Telegraph, republished by Yahoo! News: “Donald Trump appears to have named America’s next-generation fighter jet in tribute to himself. Mr Trump, America’s 47th president, announced Boeing had been awarded the contract to build the air force’s new F-47 fighter jet. The jets will be built as part of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program which will replace Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor. The F-47 will be a crewed aircraft built to enter combat alongside drones.... Despite online chatter that the president named the plane after himself, he told the press conference: 'It will be known as the F-47s, the generals picked that title.'” Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump's claim is unlikely. Trump seems to be so out of it that he probably doesn't remember that he named the F-47 for himself. As RAS pointed out elsewhere in today's thread, on the same day he "forgot" he named a fighter jet for himself, he also claimed he didn't sign a significant anti-immigrant proclamation which he did indeed sign, AND he claimed he knew nothing about a highly-irregular Pentagon war-plans briefing for his top donor Elon Musk. Save to your "Trump -- 25th Amendment" file.

Stephen Simpson of the Texas Tribune: "With its measles outbreak spreading to two additional states, Texas is on track to becoming the cause of a national epidemic if it doesn’t start vaccinating more people, according to public health experts. Measles, a highly contagious disease that was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, has made a resurgence in West Texas communities, jumping hundreds of miles to the northern border of the Panhandle and East Texas, and invading bordering states of New Mexico and Oklahoma. Based on the rapid spread of cases statewide — more than 200 over 50 days — public health officials predict that it could take Texas a year to contain the spread. With cases continuously rising and the rest of the country’s unvaccinated population at the outbreak’s mercy, Texas must create stricter quarantine requirements, increase the vaccine rate, and improve contact tracing to address this measles epidemic before it becomes a nationwide problem, warn infectious disease experts and officials in other states." ~~~

     ~~~ Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. Akhilleus also gives a shoutout to Bobby Castor-Oil Kennedy for the pivotal role he has played in bringing measles back to the U.S.A.

~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, let's start with a bit of good news: ~~~

~~~ Buffalo Bernie & Annie Ocasio Star in a Wild West Show. Stephen Fowler of NPR: "Sen. Bernie Sanders has emerged as a leading voice for voters opposed to ... [Donald] Trump's rapid push to dismantle the federal government — and frustrated with the Democratic Party's response.... Thursday, Sanders kicked off a western swing of his 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour with rallies in Las Vegas and Tempe, Ariz. joined by New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The pair spoke to an overflow crowd of thousands inside and outside the Mullett Arena at Arizona State University [in Tempe] about the threat they say Trump and his allies pose to American voters and the government.... Friday, Sanders' communications director said more than 30,000 people showed up in Denver, Colo. to hear him speak, a larger crowd than any event during his two presidential runs."

Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s revenge tour continues. Late Friday night, he issued a memo rescinding security clearances and access to classified information for a slew of erstwhile opponents including Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Joseph R. Biden Jr. and 'any other member of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s family.'... Mr. Biden had done the same to him after he left office in the days after the Jan 6. attack on the U.S. Capitol. A variety of figures who’ve tangled with Mr. Trump at one point or another were named in Friday’s memo. Some [of the people Trump named Friday] had already been mentioned by Trump officials as people who would soon have their security clearances revoked. But taken together, the catalog of names read like an enemies list.” They include New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, impeachment figures Fiona Hill, Alexander Vindman and Norman Eisen, January 6 committee members Liz Cheney and Adam Kinsinger, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken & former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (Trump also previously named the last two). The NBC News story is here.

Giselle Ewing of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Friday suggested that recent attacks on Tesla cars and property have been more harmful than the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, emphasizing that the alleged Tesla attackers should be considered 'terrorists.' Protesters across the country have made their outrage known against Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn efforts to shrink the federal government in recent weeks, targeting the electric car company, of which he remains CEO. While many of the protests at Tesla showrooms have remained peaceful, some have involved instances of vandalism and arson, including setting cars alight.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Obviously vandalism and arson are wrongful acts, but -- so far -- they have cause only property destruction, crimes that are not nearly as serious as unprovoked physical attacks on police officers committed during an attempt to overturn the results of a federal election. I hope most people are smart enough to figure that out. ~~~

~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trump escalated his threats against people who vandalize Tesla cars, musing in a social media post on Friday that those convicted of damaging or destroying the vehicles — including U.S. citizens — could be sent to notorious prison complexes in El Salvador. 'I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20-year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla,' Mr. Trump said, adding, 'Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!'... Analysts say it is unlikely that a plan to detain U.S. citizens overseas would hold up in court.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What this tells us is that Trump knows he is sending people (the supposed gang member deportees) to a dangerous prison in a foreign country, people who have not been convicted of any crime nor received due process. ~~~

     ~~~ Kevin Collier & Michael Kosnar of NBC News: "Law enforcement officials and domestic extremism experts say they have found no evidence that a series of attacks on Tesla vehicles and dealerships are coordinated despite such claims from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and ... Donald Trump. At least 10 Tesla dealerships, charging stations and facilities have been hit by vandals, many of whom have lit cars on fire, while a growing collection of videos posted to social media have shown people defacing and damaging Tesla vehicles. One website appeared to encourage people to target Tesla vehicles, publishing a map with the information of dozens of Tesla owners and Tesla facilities. It’s unknown who started the site."

Trump Reins in Musk. Maggie Haberman & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Friday rejected the notion that the billionaire Elon Musk should be given access to top-secret U.S. plans for a potential military conflict with China, even as he denied a report that such a briefing had been planned to be held at the Pentagon. 'We don’t want to have a potential war with China, but I can tell you, if we did, we’re very well equipped to handle it,' Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. 'But I don’t want to show that to anybody, but certainly you wouldn’t show it to a businessman who is helping us so much.' Mr. Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla and a part-time government staff member, visited the Pentagon on Friday and met privately with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The New York Times reported on Thursday that Mr. Musk was originally going to visit the Tank, a secure conference room at the building, for a briefing with top military leaders about the China war plan, according to two U.S. officials. The top-secret briefing was to include Adm. Christopher W. Grady, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, the head of the military’s Indo-Pacific Command; and Mr. Hegseth....

“But the Tank visit was called off after The Times’s report on the visit, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Instead, Mr. Musk, who has extensive business interests in China, met with Mr. Hegseth and Admiral Grady in the defense secretary’s office.... Mr. Trump made clear he had been caught by surprise by The Times’s report, saying he called his White House chief of staff and Mr. Hegseth to ask about it; he said they said it was 'ridiculous.' But he also said that Mr. Musk — who has extensive business in China — should not be made aware of such sensitive information. It was one of the first specific statements from the president about what he would consider a bridge too far for Mr. Musk, who has expansive potential conflicts of interest....” (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Rachel Maddow isn't sure if this briefing was Trump's idea and he called if off when the New York Times outted the plan or if Trump is telling the truth when he said he didn't know about it, so Musk arranged the briefing. Either way, I'd say it looks as if Drunk Pete thought it was a fine idea. ~~~

~~~ Marie: As for the leakers, I'd say good on them. ~~~

I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. -- Elon Musk, on X, Friday

... one cannot 'leak' a false story. -- Heather Cox Richardson, noting that Musk's claim instead confirm the veracity of the NYT story ~~~

~~~ Sophia Cai, et al., of Politico: “The pervasive fear and anger that have been rippling through federal agencies over Elon Musk’s slashing approach to shrinking government deepened even further on Friday over the billionaire tech mogul’s threat to root out and punish anyone who is leaking to the media.... Following Thursday’s New York Times report that Musk was set to receive a Pentagon briefing about a confidential contingency plan for a war with China, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO posted on ... X that leakers 'will be found' and, he intimated, punished. 'I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT,' Musk wrote in his post. But Musk’s post is not having the chilling effect on leakers he’d intended.... 'We are public servants, not Elon’s servants,' said one Food and Drug Administration employee.... 'Leakers are patriots,' said one Agriculture Department employee.... 'He IS A LEAKER,' one senior Federal Aviation Administration official said of Musk in a Signal message. 'When you put hard drives on data systems at government agencies you are creating the biggest security breaches we have seen in years and years. Possibly ever.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette: Elon Musk tells Sean Hannity that left-wing people hate him because they are “bad people” who suffer from “mental illness,” probably caused by a “woke parasite,” and “They basically want to kill me because I'm stopping their fraud....” Pennacchia has other ideas.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration fired nearly the entire civil rights branch of the Department of Homeland Security on Friday, gutting a government office responsible for conducting oversight of ... [Donald] Trump’s immigration crackdown. The more than 100 staff members were told on Friday they would be put on leave for 60 days to find another job in the administration or be fired in May, according to five current and former government officials. Mr. Trump also closed the ombudsman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, another office responsible for scrutinizing the administration’s legal immigration policies. The moves were the latest attempt by Mr. Trump to root out civil rights divisions and oversight mechanisms across government agencies. But the shuttering of the Homeland Security Department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was particularly notable given the lack of transparency over the administration’s immigration crackdown.” (Also linked yesterday.)

This Is So-o-o Stupid. Andrew Freedman of Axios: "The National Weather Service is reducing weather balloon launches at six more locations in the U.S. and temporarily suspending them at two more places due to staffing shortages, the agency announced Thursday afternoon.... Weather balloons, typically launched twice per day at NWS local forecast offices, provide crucial data for weather forecasting.... The weather agency, which is part of the Department of Commerce, announced it is suspending weather balloon launches at Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, 'due to a lack of Weather Forecast Office (WFO) staffing.' The agency is also reducing the frequency of weather balloon launches at six other locations in the West, Midwest and Plains states due to lack of staffing."

[The Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants with legal status runs] contrary to what the First Amendment is all about.... When the justification is ‘you’re a threat to national security’ and it’s like one individual, I mean come on.... Let’s be real. -- Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ~~~

~~~ Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has opened a new phase in its immigration agenda, one that goes well beyond the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.U.S. border officials are using more aggressive tactics, which the administration calls 'enhanced vetting,' at ports of entry to the United States, prompting American allies like Germany to update their travel advisories. At the same time, the administration is targeting legal immigrants who have expressed views that the government believes threaten national security and undermine foreign policy. The tactics have unnerved foreign tourists and sent a chill through immigrant communities in the United States, who say they are being targeted for speech — not for breaking any laws.... To deport people living in the United States with green cards or valid visas, the Trump administration has invoked a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state sweeping power to expel foreigners who are seen as a threat to the country’s foreign policy interests.” ~~~

~~~ Robert Tait of the Guardian: “A string of high-profile arrests and detentions of travellers is likely to cause a major downturn in tourism to the US, with latest figures already showing a serious drop-off, tourist experts said. Several western travellers have recently been rejected at the US border on increasingly flimsy grounds under Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, some of them shackled and held in detention centers in poor conditions for weeks. Germany updated travel guidance for travelling to the US, warning that breaking entry rules could lead not just to a rejection as before, but arrest or even detention.... The UK Foreign Office, too, has bolstered its advice to warn of a risk of arrest after Becky Burke, a tourist from Wales..., was stopped at the border with Canada and held for three weeks in a detention facility.... This week ... Denmark and Finland issued cautionary advice to transgender travellers, following US state department rule changes spurred by the Trump administration decree that it would recognise only two genders. The Danish foreign ministry advised travellers who use the gender designation 'X' on their passport to contact the US embassy before travelling, while Finland cautioned travellers whose gender had changed that they might not gain entry.” ~~~

~~~ Not a Nice Place to Visit, and You Wouldn't Wanna Live There. Doktor Zoom of Wonkette: "As more people vanish into the maw of the Trump administration’s lawless detention and deportation apparatus, being disappeared for weeks or possibly for life, other countries are warning their citizens to be aware that even having all their papers in order may not protect them when visiting the US. These warnings follow an already well-documented trend of international travelers choosing to avoid visiting the USA, which could mean $64 billion in lost business for the US tourism industry. Canadians are usually the biggest contingent of foreign visitors..., and they accounted for $20.5 billion in spending last year. Thanks largely to Trump’s trade war and his weird delusion that Canada wants to be us, Canadians are now staying away in droves."

Justin Jouvenal, et al., of the Washington Post: “A federal judge sharply grilled a government attorney Friday about the Trump administration’s apparent disregard of his order to return deportation flights to the United States, a dispute that has sparked a high-profile showdown this week between the president and the judiciary. Before deputy assistant attorney general Drew Ensign even had a chance to address the court at a hearing, James E. Boasberg, chief justice for the U.S. District Court in D.C., dramatically scolded him over the government’s conduct in the case. Boasberg accused Ensign of using 'intemperate and disrespectful language that I can’t remember seeing from the United States' in court filings and questioned whether the attorney failed to show for a hearing Monday because he knew he had knowingly violated Boasberg’s order about getting the flights back.... Boasberg will have difficult choices to make if he decides to take a tougher line against the government. If the judge feels officials are continuing to disregard his orders, he could find them in contempt of court, but that’s a step federal judges rarely take against the executive branch.” (Also linked yesterday.) The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

Why was this proclamation essentially signed in the dark on Friday … and then these people rushed onto planes?.... It seems to me the only reason to do that is if you know it’s a problem and you want to get them out of the country before there are suits file. -- Judge James Boasberg, during Friday's hearing ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: “U.S. District Judge James Boasberg vowed Friday to determine whether the Trump administration defied his command to turn around planes bound for El Salvador carrying Venezuelan immigrants Trump claimed were members of a terrorist gang. 'The government’s not being terribly cooperative,' the judge said during an afternoon hearing, before making it clear that he was not dropping his quest to establish whether his Saturday directive was ignored or deliberately breached. 'I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my order, who ordered this and what the consequences will be.'”

~~~ SO THEN. Trump Denied He Signed the Order He Signed. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: Friday afternoon, “Fox News Senior White House Correspondent Peter Doocy asked the president for his reaction to comments by [Judge James] Boasberg in a hearing just hours earlier, where the judge said, 'The policy ramifications of this [use of the Alien Enemies Act] are incredibly troublesome and problematic and concerning.'... 'It ... sound[s] like this judge ... wants to know why the proclamation was signed “in the dark” – his words – and why people were rushed onto planes,' Doocy said. [Trump replied,] '... I don’t know when it was signed because I didn’t sign it. Other people handled it. But [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio’s done a great job and he wanted them out. And we go along with that. We want to get criminals out of our country.' Later, CNN’s Erin Burnett ... held up a copy of the order. 'He said he didn’t sign it,' she said. 'I’m sorry, that is his signature, right?'” ~~~

Maanvi Singh of the Guardian: “The Trump administration has flown 238 Venezuelans to an El Salvador prison that human rights groups say is designed to disappear people. Despite a judge’s order temporarily blocking the move, the US government flew more than 200 men that it had accused of gang membership to the 'Terrorism Confinement Center', or Cecot – a draconian mega-prison that has become central to the promise of the Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele, promise to rid his country of crime. The prison ... can hold up to 40,000 people.... Now, Venezuelan immigrants to the US, many of whom are also suspected of gang affiliation without apparent evidence, have joined Salvadorian prisoners in the Americas’ largest – and one of its cruelest – prison systems.” The Guardian interviewed Mneesha Gellman, a political scientist at Emerson College who researches human rights and violence, about the conditions at Cecot.

Get Out! Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News: "The Trump administration will be revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of Latin American and Haitian migrants welcomed into the U.S. under a Biden-era sponsorship process, urging them to self-deport or face arrest and removal by deportation agents. The termination of their work permits and deportation protections under an immigration authority known as parole will take effect in late April, 30 days after March 25, according to a notice posted by the federal government. The move will affect immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who flew to the U.S. under a Biden administration program, known as CHNV, that was designed to reduce illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border by giving would-be migrants legal migration avenues. A total of 532,000 migrants entered the U.S. under that policy, which was paused soon after ... [Donald] Trump took office...."

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “The Trump administration notified aid organizations across the country on Friday that it would cancel a contract that funds the legal representation of more than 25,000 children who entered the United States alone, a decision that leaves them vulnerable to swift deportation.... The government instructed more than 100 nonprofits to immediately cease their work representing the minors. It terminated a contract that was up for renewal on March 29. Advocates said ... many [of the children] would be left without counsel in adversarial immigration proceedings. Children as young as 2 who are survivors of trafficking, trauma and abuse, and who are often too young to understand their legal rights, would be returned to countries where they could face harm, the advocates said.... The decision on Friday to halt funding to these organizations comes amid reports that the Trump administration intends to track down unaccompanied migrant children to ensure they appear in immigration court or are deported, if there is a final order of removal.... Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, the government is required, to the 'greatest extent practicable,' to provide legal representation to minors.... The Biden administration had increased access to legal services for unaccompanied minors.” The AP story is here.

Lisa Rein & Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: “Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek threatened Thursday evening to bar Social Security Administration employees from accessing its computer systems in response to a judge’s order blocking the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing sensitive taxpayer data. Less than 24 hours later — after the judge rejected his argument and the White House intervened — Dudek is saying he was 'out of line.' Dudek initially told news outlets ... that the judge’s decision to bar sensitive data access to 'DOGE affiliates' was overly broad and that to comply, he might have to block virtually all SSA employees from accessing the agency’s computer systems. But Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, who issued the order, said in a letter that Dudek’s assertions 'were inaccurate.'... In response to Hollander’s letter, Dudek said in a statement that the court clarified its guidance and 'therefore, I am not shutting down the agency.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Yes, but not making Social Security payments is a good thing, an easy way to root out fraudsters: ~~~

     ~~~ Ryan Bort of Rolling Stone, republished by Yahoo! News: “Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump’s billionaire commerce secretary, suggested on a podcast this week that missing Social Security checks aren’t a big deal, and that only a 'fraudster' would actually complain if their monthly benefit didn’t come in the mail.... 'Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month,' Lutnick said on the All-In podcast. 'My mother-in-law is 94. She wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She would think something got messed up and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise screaming, yelling, and complaining.... The easiest way to find a fraudster is to stop payments and listen,' he [said]. 'Whoever screamed is the one stealing.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm just going to guess that the mother-in-law there has some other sources of income. See also Akhilleus's commentary below. He is right about Lutnick's decisions after 9/11. I see that NOAA is part of the Commerce Department. I wonder if Secretary Lutnick's dear old mother-in-law would complain if she got stuck outside in the rain without an umbrella because the National Weather Service is no longer providing accurate forecasts in her area? (Story linked above.)

David Folkenflik of NPR: "Six Voice of America journalists sued Kari Lake and the Trump administration on Friday, alleging their moves to shut down the U.S.-funded network were unlawful and unconstitutional. The journalists say that the government's acts violate their First Amendment rights on free speech grounds and usurp the U.S. Congress's control of the power of the federal purse. More than 900 full-time network employees were placed on indefinite leave last weekend; 550 contractors were terminated from their jobs. Most employees at the federal parent, U.S. Agency for Global Media, were also placed on indefinite leave."

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: “... the 'Department of Government Efficiency' [is making] the federal government almost comically inefficient.... Routine tasks take longer to complete, grinding down worker productivity. DOGE is also bogging down employees with meaningless busywork, which sets them up to be punished for neglecting their actual duties. For example, many have been diverted away from their usual responsibilities in order to scrub forbidden words from agency documents, as part of Trump’s crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.... What counts as DEI wrongthink also changes almost daily, meaning employees must perform the same word-cleansing tasks repeatedly.... At the IRS, employees spend Mondays queued up at shared computers to submit their DOGE-mandated “five things I did last week” emails.... Meanwhile, some federal payments have stopped. Credit cards used for routine purchases have been canceled or had their limits shrunk to $1.... But there are costs to, say, not feeding the Transportation Security Administration’s bomb-sniffing dogs.”

Taylor Telford of the Washington Post: “The Federal Communications Commission is prepared to block mergers and acquisitions involving companies that continue promoting diversity, equity and inclusion policies, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Friday.... 'Any businesses that are looking for FCC approval, I would encourage them to get busy ending any sort of their invidious forms of DEI discrimination,' Carr said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Friday. He specifically cited Paramount’s planned merger with Skydance Media and Verizon’s deal to acquire Frontier Communications.... Last month, Carr said the agency would investigate Comcast and NBCUniversal over their DEI policies. PBS, which is facing an FCC investigation and threats to its federal funding over other matters, closed its DEI office in February to comply with a Trump executive order.” MB: One really does not want minorities and women showing up on one's teevee in one's very own home, much less running behind-the-scenes ops. More action shows featuring all white male casts, please. And make sure the actors are Christian. And straight.

Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “For the second time in a week, the Trump administration is taking the unusual step of seeking to disqualify a veteran judge in Washington from overseeing a legal challenge to a White House executive action. The Justice Department’s filing Friday afternoon accuses U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell and her court of being 'insufficiently impartial' and said she has not kept her 'disdain for President Trump secret.' Judges are very infrequently booted from cases, and there is a high legal threshold to warrant such a recusal. Making such requests also can backfire, since the decision of whether to recuse is up to the judges themselves. The Supreme Court has said that 'only in the rarest of cases' can a judge be forced to recuse based on their opinions. In rare situations, an appeals court can remove a judge from a case.... Howell is overseeing the legal proceedings surrounding a Trump executive order that levied costly punishments on the large international law firm Perkins Coie.... Last week, Howell ruled in favor of Perkins Coie to at least temporarily halt the unprecedented penalties....”

Cowardly Cavers

First he came for the minorities
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a minority
Then he came for the bureaucrats
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a bureaucrat
Then he came for the universitiess
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a professor
Then he came for the lawyers
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a lawyer
Then he came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

Troy Closson of the New York Times: “Columbia University agreed on Friday to overhaul its protest policies, security practices and Middle Eastern studies department in a remarkable concession to the Trump administration, which has refused to consider restoring $400 million in federal funds without major changes. The agreement, which stunned and dismayed many members of the faculty, could signal a new stage in the administration’s escalating clash with elite colleges and universities. Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan and dozens of other schools face federal inquiries and fear similar penalties, and college administrators have said Columbia’s response to the White House’s demands may set a dangerous precedent. This week, the University of Pennsylvania was also explicitly targeted by the Trump administration, which said it would cancel $175 million in federal funding, at least partly because the university had let a transgender woman participate on a women’s swim team. Columbia, facing the loss of government grants and contracts over what the administration said was a systemic failure to protect students and faculty members “from antisemitic violence and harassment,' opted to yield to many of the administration’s most substantial demands.” ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Marcus of the Independent: “The university will give police new powers to arrest students, partially ban face masks, and appoint a university official to oversee changes at a suite of university departments.... The agreement includes the university hiring 36 'special police officers' who “will have the ability to remove individuals from campus and/or arrest them when appropriate,' according to the document.” MB: Yeah, I'll bet those officers will be mighty “special.” Read on. Columbia has abandoned the concept of academic freedom and has forgotten the First Amendment. ~~~

Higher education reform shouldn’t resemble a shakedown.... Colleges and universities shouldn’t be bullied into accepting speech-restrictive demands because the government dangles a $400 million check over an institution’s head. Any changes made as a result of this flawed process are inherently suspect. -- Tyler Coward of FIRE, a free-speech advocacy group

This attempt to discipline and control a university campus is a transparent hallmark of authoritarian rule and harshly violates the central mission of education: teaching, research, and service to the broader society for the public good. We also believe it to be illegal. -- American Association of University Professors ~~~

     ~~~ Matthew Haag & Katherine Rosman of the New York Times: Donald “Trump was demanding $400 million from Columbia University. When he did not get his way, he stormed out of a meeting with university trustees and later publicly castigated the university president as 'a dummy' and 'a total moron.'... That drama dates back 25 years.... It was over a lucrative real estate deal.... Some former university officials are quietly wondering whether the ultimately unsuccessful property transaction sowed the seeds of Mr. Trump’s current focus on Columbia.” Laura h. isn't wondering. She wrote yesterday, 'of course there is a revenge angle!”

Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: “Since ... [Donald] Trump’s first term, Brad S. Karp, the chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, championed himself as a bulwark against what he saw as an unlawful and unpredictable presidency. But on Wednesday, Mr. Karp ... [left] behind the adversarial approach [and met with Mr. Trump in the White House].... A day later, Mr. Trump announced that Mr. Karp had agreed to pledge $40 million in pro bono legal services to issues the president has championed.... The White House said the firm had committed to stop using diversity, equity and inclusion policies. And Mr. Trump said Mr. Karp had acknowledged to him that a former partner of the firm who had worked as a prosecutor in Manhattan and had pushed for Mr. Trump to be charged criminally had committed 'wrongdoing.' These assertions appear inconsistent with a copy of the statement that Mr. Karp shared with his firm. In deciding to bend to Mr. Trump, Mr. Karp likely saved his law firm, which had $2.63 billion in revenue last year..., from hemorrhaging clients and lawyers.

But in doing so, Mr. Karp, who had positioned himself as a spokesman and advocate for the legal profession, left other firms even more vulnerable to Mr. Trump’s retribution campaign by demonstrating that his intimidation tactics could lead even a powerhouse like Paul Weiss to make public concessions.... In fact, a White House official said on Friday that despite the deal reached with Paul Weiss, Mr. Trump would continue to target law firms with executive orders.... The deal, while supported by the vast majority of the firm’s partners [and some top clients], also drew swift condemnation from lawyers outside the firm and critics of Mr. Trump.” The reporters go on to detail how Karp decided to make a deal with the devil. ~~~

~~~ Danielle Kaye, et al., of the New York Times: “Lawyers at firms both large and small took to social media to denounce [Paul, Weiss].... Many large firms..., said [Leslie Levin of U.Conn Law], are struggling with how to respond to pressure from the Trump administration. But basing decisions on concern about harm to their business goes against key tenets of the legal profession, she said. 'Lawyers are supposed to stand up to the government when there’s an abuse of power, and a firm like Paul Weiss has the capacity to do that,' Ms. Levin said.... Hundreds of associates at leading corporate law firms have signed an open letter calling on their employers to speak out against the Trump administration’s moves.... The American Bar Association released a statement this month condemning the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine major law firms, stating that these actions by the White House 'deny clients access to justice and betray our fundamental values.' The association declined to comment on Friday on Paul Weiss’s arrangement with the White House.... ome lawyers supported Paul Weiss’s decision to settle....” An NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ New York Times Editors: “... criticizing a judge’s decision can be entirely reasonable. Joe Biden, Mr. Obama, Mr. Bush and other presidents inveighed against rulings. The Constitution establishes the judiciary as equal to the executive and legislative branches, not dominant over them.... Yet Mr. Trump’s efforts at judicial intimidation are of a different scale. As president, he is encouraging a campaign of menace. In case after case, he argues that the only reasonable result is a victory for his side — and that he alone can determine what is legal and what is not. His allies then try to dehumanize the judges with whom they disagree and make them fear for their safety. Mr. Trump’s efforts to subdue law firms may seem separate, but they are connected. He has issued three executive orders removing the security clearances of lawyers at three large firms: Covington & Burling, Perkins Coie and Paul, Weiss. In each case, the motivation is political. The firms have employed lawyers who represented Democrats, investigated Mr. Trump and sued Jan. 6 rioters.... These orders ... are attempts to undermine the legal system and freedom of speech.... The initial response from many law firms has been a disappointing mixture of silence and capitulation.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Minnesota. Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: “Minnesota state Sen. Justin Eichorn (R) has resigned following his arrest earlier this week on a charge of soliciting prostitution from a 17-year-old girl, who turned out to be a police detective engaged in a sting operation.... The former lawmaker is alleged to have sent messages to someone who appeared to be a teenage girl in response to an online ad posted this month. When he arrived at a spot where he had arranged to pay the girl for sex, he was met instead by police, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota.”