The Conversation -- March 18, 2025

     ~~~ See Akhilleus's comment, down the page, in today's thread.

Alan Feuer & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has asked a federal judge to dissolve the orders he put in place this weekend barring it from deporting people suspected of belonging to a Venezuelan street gang from the country under a rarely invoked wartime statute called the Alien Enemies Act. The Justice Department also doubled down on its efforts to avoid giving the judge, James E. Boasberg, the detailed information he had requested about the deportations. It complied — but only in part — with his instructions to provide specific data about when two flights, with the people accused of being gang members, took off from the United States for El Salvador. Taken together, the twin moves — made in separate sets of court papers filed on Monday and Tuesday — marked a continuation of the Trump’s administration’s aggressive attempts to push back against Judge Boasberg, the chief judge of the Federal District Court in Washington, who temporarily halted one of ... [Donald] Trump’s signature deportation policies.

“The Justice Department has now effectively opened up two fronts in the battle: one challenging the underlying orders that paused, for now, the deportation flights altogether and another seeking to avoid disclosing any information about two flights this weekend that could indicate they took place after the judge’s orders stopping them were imposed.... Judge Boasberg on Tuesday ordered the Justice Department to send him a sealed declaration by Wednesday at noon detailing the times the planes took off, left U.S. airspace and landed.” ~~~

~~~ Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: “Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public statement Tuesday pushing back after ... [Donald] Trump called to impeach a federal judge that ruled against his administration in a high-profile deportation case. 'For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,' Roberts said. The chief justice’s statement came hours after Trump called for impeaching U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, an appointee of former President Obama who blocked the administration’s plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport Venezuelan migrants. 'This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!' Trump wrote.” Update: The Washington Post's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Well, gosh, some might say that Trump himself is a VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINAL. And I'm sure I don't want him in our country.

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Josh Gerstein of Politico: “A federal judge sharply questioned the Trump administration Monday about its decision to rush three planes carrying Venezuelan nationals out of U.S. airspace under ... Donald Trump’s unprecedented invocation of wartime deportation powers against a criminal gang. James Boasberg, the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, was clearly galled by the government’s actions and legal arguments in the case, particularly its assertion that an order he issued Saturday to turn around any planes carrying such deportees had no force once they were outside U.S. territorial waters.... Boasberg implied that the government had intentionally hurried the planes off the ground on Saturday afternoon because the government knew he had scheduled a hearing at 5 p.m. Saturday. 'Any plane that you put into the air in or around that time, you knew that I was having a hearing at 5,' the judge said with evident frustration....

“Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli claimed Monday that the government was free to ignore [Boasberg's] oral order [to turn the planes around because] 'An injunction is not ordered until it’s in the written filing.'... Boasberg also rejected the Justice Department’s claim that he lacked any authority over the flights once they cleared U.S. airspace.... The power of federal courts does not 'lapse at the water’s edge' or 'the airspace’s edge.'... DOJ further frustrated Boasberg by refusing to provide almost any details about the deportation operation, repeatedly invoking national security to defend the secrecy.” ~~~

~~~ Justin Jouvenal, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration’s battle with the federal court system escalated sharply on Monday, with government lawyers calling for the removal of a judge who blocked the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members and refusing to answer some questions in court. The administration for weeks has questioned the authority of courts to constrain the president, harshly attacking judges who issue nationwide injunctions and finding ways to circumvent certain adverse rulings. Some legal experts describe the pushback as a breakdown in the fragile balance of powers between the branches of government, which includes lower courts making initial rulings about executive initiatives that can be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.... The showdown reached a climax at a testy hearing Monday evening at which James E. Boasberg, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court in D.C., demanded the government explain why it had appeared to flout his Saturday evening order requiring planes deporting migrants to turn around mid-flight.” This is an update of a story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that the public doesn't know the names of people Trump deported, we don't know their ages (some may be juveniles), and we have no way to know whether or not they may be "terrorists" or "criminals," as the administration asserts, or just ordinary people yearning to be free. Moreover, these people -- who, as far as we know, have committed no crimes in the U.S. and have been convicted of no crimes -- have been dumped in prisons in a country (El Salvador) known for harsh jail conditions. The people being imprisoned now are being locked up for the color of their skin (as far as we know). But if Trump gets away with this, there is nothing stopping his thugs from picking us up while we're looking over the artichokes at Wegman's. They can pack us off to Guantanamo, no matter what we look like. They can just do it, and no one will know. ~~~

~~~ Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: “This latest collision between Trump and the judicial branch — in which the White House and its allies are openly assailing the judge weighing the validity of Trump’s orders — is a more intense version of the clashes that have stymied his administration since Inauguration Day. Judges have sought to slow or stop some of Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and workforce, saying they have run afoul of Congress’ spending authority and laws governing hiring and firing of federal workers.... The administration’s legal tangles underscore its make-decisions-first, figure-out-a-legal-defense-later approach to policy making.... But it was the fight over Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act — the 1798 law granting the president power to deport nationals of a wartime enemy nation — that seemed to push the conflict closest to a crisis.... When [Judge James] Boasberg refused [the government's plea] to cancel a Monday afternoon hearing, DOJ asked a federal appellate court to remove him from the case altogether, an extraordinary step to circumvent judicial scrutiny.” ~~~

Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: “A New York Times review of the flight data showed that none of the planes in question landed in El Salvador before the judge’s order, and that one of them did not even leave American soil until after the judge’s written order was posted online.” Includes a timeline. ~~~

~~~ Digby, on the White House's defying a court order: “... their game is to find the legal line, step over it, and dare anyone to push back. Lather, rinse. repeat. Now with virtual immunity granted by the Roberts court, Trump feels he’s above the law and untouchable. He IS the law[.] A defiant White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, 'If the Democrats want to argue in favor of turning a plane full of rapists, murderers, and gangsters back to the United States, that’s a fight we are more than happy to take.' Next up from the Trump WH, it’s the 'They just needed killin'' defense. The Constitution and the rule of law are inconveniences.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm so confused. One of the arguments the Trump administration is making is that it could not comply with Judge Boasberg's order because at the time he ordered return of the planes, at least some of them were over international waters, where he had no jurisdiction. But wait! Weren't the flight over the brand-new Gulf of America??? Aren't those our waters now? ~~~

     ~~~ Homan: "I Don't Care What the Judges Think." Ivana Saric of Axios: Donald "Trump's border czar Tom Homan on Monday doubled down on the decision to defy a court order that barred the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.... The White House's decision to disregard a federal judge's order has set up a legal battle that could make its way to the Supreme Court and define the limits of Trump's deportation powers.... Homan claimed in a Fox News interview Monday that the two deportation flights to El Salvador did not need to be turned around because they were already above international waters when the order came through. 'We are going to make this country safe again ... I'm proud to be a part of this administration. We are not stopping. I don't care what the judges think. I don't care what the Left thinks. We're coming,' he added. Asked what was coming next in the administration's deportation efforts, Homan said: 'Another flight. Another flight every day.'"

Jonathan Allen, et al., of NBC News: “... Donald Trump and his allies have launched a multipronged attack on the judiciary, punctuated over the weekend by his decision not to comply with a federal judge’s order to halt the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador.... More broadly, Trump is claiming nearly limitless power through a campaign to delegitimize institutions that have long acted as checks on the presidency.... The administration has repeatedly been accused of failing to follow court orders while sometimes declining to acknowledge that it had not been.... Trump allies inside and outside the administration have frequently criticized judges who have ruled against him — in some cases calling for their removal from office.... In an official statement Saturday night, [Pam] Bondi, the attorney general, referred to [Judge James] Boasberg as 'a DC trial judge' who, she claimed, 'supported Tren de Aragua terrorists over the safety of Americans.'”

Avery Lotz of Axios: Donald "Trump claimed Monday that former President Biden's preemptive pardons to members of the House Jan. 6 select committee and others are 'VOID' and 'VACANT' because they were 'done by Autopen.'... Experts cast doubt on Trump's rationale, and said it was unlikely that a court would allow a president to revoke or nullify his predecessor's pardons.... Trump contended in a late-night Truth Social post that Biden's pardons are 'hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT' and that the 'necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden.' The committee members should 'fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level,' Trump wrote. He claimed without evidence that the members of the committee, which include former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), were 'probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf' without Biden's knowledge." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “There is no power in the Constitution or case law to undo a pardon, and there is no exception to pardons signed by autopen. But Mr. Trump’s assertion, which embraced a baseless right-wing conspiracy theory about former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was a new escalation of his antidemocratic rhetoric. Implicit in his post was Mr. Trump’s belief that the nation’s laws should be whatever he decrees them to be. And it was a jolting reminder that his appetite for revenge has not been sated.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that the graf above is the second paragraph in a news story about the President* of the United States, It appears on the online front page of the Both-Sides New York Times. The paragraph, in that context, is as extraordinary as the bunk the article describes. McCreesh describes Trump as a lying, vengeful autocrat, and his editors said, "Print it!" ~~~

~~~ Matt Viser of the Washington Post: “Trump recently claimed that Joe Biden routinely used the [autopen] and suggested without evidence that his unelected aides sometimes did it without his knowledge, illegally usurping the executive powers of the presidency.... Trump told reporters around midnight Sunday as he flew back from Florida[,] 'Did he know what he was doing? Did he authorize it? Or is this somebody in an office, maybe a radical left lunatic, just signing whatever that person wants?... And somebody was using an autopen to sign off and to give pardons to, as an example, just one example, but the J-6 unselect committee....' By Monday morning, Trump said he would not honor the pardons Biden made just before leaving office....

“The Justice Department, in an opinion issued in 2005, advised President George W. Bush that there was nothing legally problematic about using an autopen.... While conservatives have pointed to similarities in the signatures, it has not been confirmed that Biden used an autopen on the pardons Trump has focused on. But a solicitor general in 1929 wrote a memo to the attorney general concluding that the president’s signature was not required for pardons.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's something that is not legal, Mr. Trumpy: a president* voiding the pardons of previous presidents.

Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Monday evening that he was ending Secret Service protection for former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son Hunter and daughter Ashley. Not only did Mr. Trump declare in a social media post that Hunter Biden — who has been a Trump target for years — would lose his protection 'effective immediately,' he mentioned his whereabouts: 'He is currently vacationing in, of all places, South Africa, where the Human Rights of people has been strenuously questioned.' The post merged two of Mr. Trump’s recent fixations: He has talked constantly about his predecessor and the Biden family since returning to office. And he has talked a lot lately about what he sees as the plight of white farmers in post-apartheid South Africa.... He has been on a revenge tour since he returned to the Oval Office, and he has several times exerted his power to revoke Secret Service protection from perceived enemies. His animus toward the Biden family is in part what motivated the former president to pardon his son.” The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hunter Biden needs Secret Service protection in large part because Trump his repeatedly vilified him to his unstable, violent MAGA followers; now Trump not only removes Hunter's protection, he puts a bullseye on him by stating his whereabouts. Donald Trump is a vicious, twisted old man.

Travis Andrews of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump visited the Kennedy Center on Monday, where he presided over a meeting of its refashioned board of trustees and discussed changes to the institution’s annual Honors, including possibly hosting the ceremony himself.... The Washington Post obtained audio of the meeting, in which the board voted to expand the committee that chooses Kennedy Center honorees. Trump and board members floated names such as Paul Anka, Sylvester Stallone, Johnny Mathis and Andrea Bocelli for the award. The president also suggested giving awards to Elvis Presley, Luciano Pavarotti and Babe Ruth, though the Kennedy Center Honors are not given posthumously. Pavarotti was honored in 2001. Trump floated expanding the event to include politicians, executives and athletes.... At other points during the meeting, Trump shared personal stories and anecdotes, including about the first time he saw 'Cats' and which members of the cast he found attractive.” MB: Remembrances of Hard-ons Past. Ugh!

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trump moved on Monday to stack the boards overseeing U.S. military service academies with conservative activists and political allies, including Michael T. Flynn and Walt Nauta, who were charged in connection to earlier investigations of Mr. Trump and his presidential campaign. Mr. Nauta, a military aide working as a White House valet while Mr. Trump was president, was appointed to the board overseeing the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Mr. Nauta was charged with aiding Mr. Trump in obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve a trove of highly sensitive documents that Mr. Trump kept after he left office.... Mr. Flynn, a retired lieutenant general and a national security adviser to Mr. Trump during his first term, was named to the oversight board of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, in New York. Mr. Flynn twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with a Russian diplomat during a wider investigation into contacts between the first Trump presidential campaign and Russian officials. Mr. Trump later pardoned Mr. Flynn. Other allies of the president appointed to the oversight boards included Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist whose organization aided Mr. Trump in the 2024 election; Dina Powell, a deputy national security adviser to Mr. Trump; Sean Spicer, Mr. Trump’s first White House press secretary; and Maureen Bannon, the daughter of Steve Bannon who helps run his podcast.” Politico's report is here.

David Sanger of the New York Times: “... talking to reporters on Air Force One while returning from Florida on Sunday night, Mr. Trump made clear that his scheduled phone conversation with Mr. Putin on Tuesday would be focused on what lands and assets Russia would retain in any cease-fire with Ukraine. He will, in essence, be negotiating over how large a reward Russia will receive for its 11 years of open aggression against Ukraine, starting with its seizure of Crimea in 2014 and extending through the full-scale war Mr. Putin started three years ago. White House aides have made clear that Russia will certainly retain Crimea — in one of those odd twists of history, the location of the weeklong Yalta Conference in February 1945 — and strongly suggested it would get almost all of the territory it holds.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I do not understand why the U.S. president* is in charge of negotiating an end to Russia's aggresive wars against Ukraine.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: Hitler, Stalin & Mao could not silence the Voice of America. “But Donald Trump has just silenced the voice of freedom. For the first time since 1942, VOA has been taken off the air, after Trump put virtually all of its 1,300 staff members on leave. The administration also shut down VOA’s sister outlets Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. The world’s autocrats are doing somersaults.... Combined with the Trump administration’s canceling of most foreign aid, the silencing of VOA, which boasted a weekly audience of about 360 million people in nearly 50 languages, signals the complete surrender of U.S. 'soft power,' influence gained over decades using means other than warfare.... The Chinese propagandists have much to gain by silencing voices of truth and freedom. Apparently, so does the Trump administration.”

“[This] photograph, which was taken on Feb. 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press, won a Pulitzer Prize and was the model for a statue that serves as the centerpiece of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.”

Jon Swaine & Alex Horton of the Washington Post: “Until recently, a page on the Defense Department’s website celebrated Pfc. Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who was one of the six Marines photographed hoisting a U.S. flag on Iwo Jima in 1945.... But the page, along with many others about Native American and other minority service members, has now been erased amid the Trump administration’s wide-ranging crackdown on what it says are 'diversity, equity and inclusion' efforts in the federal government.... Multiple articles about the Navajo code talkers, who were critical to America’s victory at Iwo Jima and the wider Pacific theater of the Second World War, were also removed, along with a profile of a Tonawanda Seneca officer who drafted the terms of the Confederacy’s surrender at Appomattox toward the end of the Civil War. The purge, which also targeted multiple webpages about women and LGBTQ+ service members, highlights how aggressively military leaders are pursuing ... Donald Trump’s anti-DEI mandate. Their actions mean that some of the most authoritative sources of public information about the achievements of minority service members decades before government DEI programs existed have disappeared.... Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ... claimed [the references to these heroes] were 'immoral' and wasteful.” ~~~

~~~ Gen. Rogers' Profile Returned to DOD Website. Bill Chappell of NPR: "Army Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers is the highest-ranking Black servicemember to receive the Medal of Honor. His actions during the Vietnam War, when he was wounded and came under repeated attack by the North Vietnamese Army, were later hailed by then-President Richard Nixon. But a Department of Defense profile of Rogers, who died in 1990, was taken down on Friday. It comes as the Trump administration has pushed to remove references to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across the federal government. The removal prompted outrage over what many saw as a disrespectful erasing of history. As of Monday afternoon, the page had returned to the website."

Musk Sends Armed Officers to Take An Independent Agency by Force. Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: “A simmering dispute between the Department of Government Efficiency and an independent agency dedicated to promoting peace broke into an open standoff involving the police on Monday, as Elon Musk’s government cutters marched into the agency’s headquarters and evicted its officials. The dramatic scene played out in Washington on Monday afternoon as Mr. Musk’s team was rebuffed from the U.S. Institute of Peace, an agency that President Trump has ordered dismantled, then entered it with law enforcement officers. Agency officials say that because the institute is a congressionally chartered nonprofit that is not part of the executive branch, Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk do not have the authority to gut its operations.... George Moose, who was fired as the institute’s acting president last week but is challenging his dismissal, accused Mr. Musk’s team of breaking in. 'Our statute is very clear about the status of this building and this institute,' he told reporters. 'So what has happened here today is an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit corporation.'”

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: “The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, according to documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. The strategy is part of large-scale layoffs, known as a 'reduction in force,' being planned by the Trump administration, which is intent on shrinking the federal work force. Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the E.P.A., has said he wants to eliminate 65 percent of the agency’s budget. That would be a drastic reduction — one that experts said could hamper clean water and wastewater improvements, air quality monitoring, the cleanup of toxic industrial sites, and other parts of the agency’s mission. The E.P.A.’s plan, which was presented to White House officials on Friday for review, calls for dissolving the agency’s largest department, the Office of Research and Development, and purging up to 75 percent of the people who work there.... Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the science committee..., said that the office was created by congressional statute and that dissolving it would be illegal.”

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, It's Off to Work We Go. Katie Mettler of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration has moved to reinstate at least 24,000 federal probationary employees fired in the president’s push to shrink the government, according to filings in one of two cases in which a federal judge ruled the terminations illegal. The records filed in federal court in Maryland late Monday span 18 agencies and mark the most comprehensive accounting to date of sweeping firings in recent months, which the administration has repeatedly declined to detail. Most of the reinstated employees were placed on paid administrative leave, according to declarations from officials at the agencies. Others were fully reinstated with pay, or reinstated without pay if they had been on unpaid leave before their termination, according to filings.... U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar had given the Trump administration until Monday to send out the job offers to fired probationary employees and until 7 p.m. to submit a comprehensive report to the court documenting their compliance....”

This Is Horrifying. Arthur Allen of Kaiser Foundation Health News: "National Institutes of Health officials have urged scientists to remove all references to mRNA vaccine technology from their grant applications, two researchers said, in a move that signaled the agency might abandon a promising field of medical research. The mRNA technology is under study at the NIH for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, including flu and AIDS, and also cancer. It was deployed in the development of covid-19 vaccines credited with saving 3 million lives in the U.S. alone — an accomplishment ... Donald Trump bragged about in his first term.... A senior official at the National Cancer Institute confirmed that NIH acting Director Matthew Memoli sent an email across the NIH instructing that any grants, contracts, or collaborations involving mRNA vaccines be reported up the chain to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s office and the White House." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: How about leeches, Bobby? Are leeches okay to study as cancer & AIDS cures?

Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, on Monday postponed a multicity tour to promote his forthcoming book, citing security concerns amid backlash to his decision to vote with Republicans for a stopgap spending bill to stave off a government shutdown.... Many Democratic activists, desperate for their leaders to stand up to President Trump, have been staging protests outside of Mr. Schumer’s Brooklyn home and calling for his resignation. Online, they have been organizing protests for every stop on his book tour.” Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course I have no idea if Schumer's book is any good, but I know that the title suggests its topic is: “Antisemitism in America: A Warning.” So losing the opportunity to promote the book and its message is one more reason Schumer should not have caved to the Trump/Musk administration. ~~~

~~~ Noah Berlatsky of Public Notice on how Donald Trump  and others on the right use antisemetic and anti-Palestinian smears to deprive Jews of their identities and their rights to independent opinions. (Also linked yesterday.)

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: “Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is now accessible across the White House campus. It is the latest installation of the Wi-Fi network across the government since Mr. Musk joined the Trump administration as an unpaid adviser.... Mr. Musk, who is now an unpaid adviser working as a 'special government employee' at the White House, controls Starlink and other companies that have regulatory matters before or contracts with the federal government.... White House officials said that Starlink had 'donated' the service and that the gift had been vetted by the lawyer overseeing ethics issues in the White House Counsel’s Office.” (Also linked yesterday.)

About Those “Bulletproof” Cybertrucks. Christopher Jasper of the Telegraph: Elon Musk’s Tesla has been forced to halt sales of its electric Cybertruck pickup amid mounting concern about metal panels falling off the supposedly indestructible vehicles. Customers posting on the Cybertruck Owners Club website – as well as on Mr Musk’s own X, formerly Twitter – said they had been told by agents that deliveries were on hold. Electric vehicle-enthusiast website Electrek said the decision was taken amid increasing instances of trim and panels 'flying off the supposedly “bulletproof” electric truck.'” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: “Less than two months after former Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey was sentenced to 11 years in prison on federal corruption charges, the trial of his wife, Nadine Menendez, begins on Tuesday in Manhattan. Ms. Menendez, 58, was charged with her husband and three New Jersey businessmen in a wide-ranging bribery scheme, but her case was postponed after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery and a long recovery period. The government has portrayed Ms. Menendez and her husband, a Democrat who once led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as partners in a web of corruption. An indictment accused the couple of conspiring to accept gold bars, cash, a Mercedes-Benz and other bribes totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for Mr. Menendez’s helping the businessmen and the governments of Egypt and Qatar.”

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Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: “A midwife and an associate have been arrested and charged with illegally performing abortions in greater Houston, according to court records and the Texas attorney general, apparently the first criminal arrests of abortion providers since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Ken Paxton, the attorney general in Texas, said in a statement that the midwife, Maria Margarita Rojas, operated clinics in several towns around Houston, including two in Harris County, the state’s most populous county, and one in Waller County, a more rural and conservative jurisdiction where the charges were brought.”

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Canada, et al. Carney: Canada is So-o-o European! Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: “In his first overseas trip as Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney went on a whirlwind tour of France and Britain on Monday to showcase Canada’s deep European bonds as President Trump threatens his country’s economy and sovereignty. Just three days after being sworn into office, Mr. Carney had lunch with President Emmanuel Macron of France in Paris, before heading to London, where he had an audience with King Charles III, Canada’s sovereign, and also met with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain. 'I want to ensure that France and the whole of Europe works enthusiastically with Canada, the most European of non-European countries, determined like you to maintain the most positive possible relations with the United States,' Mr. Carney told the press alongside Mr. Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris.”

Israel's Wars. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday & Tuesday are here: “Israel’s military launched a large-scale bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, breaking the fragile ceasefire with Hamas that has been in place since late January. At least 326 people have been killed and more than 400 others wounded, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. An Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, said the 'series of preemptive strikes' targeted Hamas leadership and infrastructure, following weeks of stagnant negotiations.” ~~~

     ~~~ A New York Times story is here. 

The Conversation -- March 17, 2025

Justin Jouvenal, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is dramatically escalating its showdown with the federal court system over the legality of its hasty deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members, calling on Monday for the removal of a judge on the case. The unusual request capped weeks of Trump officials testing the limits of the courts to constrain the president, brushing aside orders, harshly attacking judges and, in some cases, finding ways to circumvent adverse rulings. Officials this weekend appeared to flout a Saturday evening order by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the federal court in Washington, D.C. It barred the Trump administration from using a wartime authority for deportations and said officials should immediately turn around any flights containing such deportees. When that didn’t happen, Boasberg demanded the government explain itself at a hearing scheduled for Monday evening.... Several legal experts said the deportation flights mark a dramatic — and troubling — escalation in the Trump administration’s pushback against the courts, which has grown more aggressive in recent weeks as the administration faces a deluge of lawsuits seeking to restrain it.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that the public doesn't know the names of people Trump deported, we don't know their ages (some may be juveniles), and we have no way to know whether or not they may be "terrorists" or "criminals," as the administration asserts, or just ordinary people yearning to be free. Moreover, these people -- who, as far as we know, have committed no crimes in the U.S. and have been convicted of no crimes -- have been dumped in prisons in a country (El Salvador) known for harsh jail conditions. The people being imprisoned now are being locked up for the color of their skin (as far as we know). But if Trump gets away with this, there is nothing stopping his thugs from picking us up while we're looking over the artichokes at Wegman's. They can pack us off to Guantanamo, no matter what we look like. They can just do it, and no one will know.

This Is Hoffifying. Arthur Allen of Kaiser Foundation Health News: "National Institutes of Health officials have urged scientists to remove all references to mRNA vaccine technology from their grant applications, two researchers said, in a move that signaled the agency might abandon a promising field of medical research. The mRNA technology is under study at the NIH for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, including flu and AIDS, and also cancer. It was deployed in the development of covid-19 vaccines credited with saving 3 million lives in the U.S. alone — an accomplishment ... Donald Trump bragged about in his first term.... A senior official at the National Cancer Institute confirmed that NIH acting Director Matthew Memoli sent an email across the NIH instructing that any grants, contracts, or collaborations involving mRNA vaccines be reported up the chain to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s office and the White House." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: How about leeches, Bobby? Are leeches okay to study as cancer & AIDS cures?

Avery Lotz of Axios: Donald "Trump claimed Monday that former President Biden's preemptive pardons to members of the House Jan. 6 select committee and others are 'VOID' and 'VACANT' because they were 'done by Autopen.'... Experts cast doubt on Trump's rationale, and said it was unlikely that a court would allow a president to revoke or nullify his predecessor's pardons.... Trump contended in a late-night Truth Social post that Biden's pardons are 'hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT' and that the 'necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden.' The committee members should 'fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level,' Trump wrote. He claimed without evidence that the members of the committee, which include former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), were 'probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf' without Biden's knowledge." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In the middle of the night, one of Trump's phone buddies puts an idea in his ugly fat head, and he just goes with it, tweeting it out to the world. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “There is no power in the Constitution or case law to undo a pardon, and there is no exception to pardons signed by autopen. But Mr. Trump’s assertion, which embraced a baseless right-wing conspiracy theory about former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was a new escalation of his antidemocratic rhetoric. Implicit in his post was Mr. Trump’s belief that the nation’s laws should be whatever he decrees them to be. And it was a jolting reminder that his appetite for revenge has not been sated.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that the graf above is the second paragraph in a news story about the President* of the United States, It appears on the online front page of the Both-Sides New York Times. The paragraph, in that context, is as extraordinary as the bunk the article describes. McCreesh describes Trump as a lying, vengeful autocrat, and his editors said, "Print it!"

Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, on Monday postponed a multicity tour to promote his forthcoming book, citing security concerns amid backlash to his decision to vote with Republicans for a stopgap spending bill to stave off a government shutdown.... Many Democratic activists, desperate for their leaders to stand up to President Trump, have been staging protests outside of Mr. Schumer’s Brooklyn home and calling for his resignation. Online, they have been organizing protests for every stop on his book tour.” Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course I have no idea if Schumer's book is any good, but I know that the title suggests its topic is: “Antisemitism in America: A Warning.” So losing the opportunity to promote the book and its message is one more reason Schumer should not have caved to the Trump/Musk administration.

Noah Berlatsky of Public Notice on how Donald Trump  and others on the right use antisemetic and anti-Palestinian smears to deprive Jews of their identities and their rights to independent opinions.

Digby, on the White House's defying a court order: “... their game is to find the legal line, step over it, and dare anyone to push back. Lather, rinse. repeat. Now with virtual immunity granted by the Roberts court, Trump feels he’s above the law and untouchable. He IS the law[.] A defiant White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, 'If the Democrats want to argue in favor of turning a plane full of rapists, murderers, and gangsters back to the United States, that’s a fight we are more than happy to take.' Next up from the Trump WH, it’s the 'They just needed killin'' defense. The Constitution and the rule of law are inconveniences.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm so confused. One of the arguments the Trump administration is making is that it could not comply with Judge Boasberg's order because at the time he ordered return of the planes, at least some of them were over international waters, where he had no jurisdiction. But wait! Weren't the flight over the brand-new Gulf of America??? Are those our waters now? ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Homan: "I Don't Care What the Judges Think." Ivana Saric of Axios: Donald "Trump's border czar Tom Homan on Monday doubled down on the decision to defy a court order that barred the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.... The White House's decision to disregard a federal judge's order has set up a legal battle that could make its way to the Supreme Court and define the limits of Trump's deportation powers.... Homan claimed in a Fox News interview Monday that the two deportation flights to El Salvador did not need to be turned around because they were already above international waters when the order came through. 'We are going to make this country safe again ... I'm proud to be a part of this administration. We are not stopping. I don't care what the judges think. I don't care what the Left thinks. We're coming,' he added. Asked what was coming next in the administration's deportation efforts, Homan said: 'Another flight. Another flight every day.'"

About Those “Bulletproof” Cybertrucks. Christopher Jasper of the Telegraph: Elon Musk’s Tesla has been forced to halt sales of its electric Cybertruck pickup amid mounting concern about metal panels falling off the supposedly indestructible vehicles. Customers posting on the Cybertruck Owners Club website – as well as on Mr Musk’s own X, formerly Twitter – said they had been told by agents that deliveries were on hold. Electric vehicle-enthusiast website Electrek said the decision was taken amid increasing instances of trim and panels 'flying off the supposedly “bulletproof” electric truck.'”

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⭐Homicidal Maniacs Trump & Musk Did This. But They're Not Racists. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: “As the world’s richest men slash American aid for the world’s poorest children, they insist that all is well. 'No one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding,' Elon Musk said. 'No one.' That is not true. In South Sudan..., the efforts by Musk and ... [Donald] Trump are already leading children to die.... I find it odious when the world’s richest man cackles about America shoving programs for needy children 'into the wood chipper.'... We worked with experts at the Center for Global Development who tried to calculate how many lives are at risk if American humanitarian assistance is frozen or slashed. While these estimates are inexact and depend on how much aid continues, they suggest that a cataclysm may be beginning around the developing world:

An estimated 1,650,000 people could die within a year without American foreign aid for H.I.V. prevention and treatment.... An estimated 500,000 people could die within a year without American funding for vaccines.... An estimated 550,000 people could die within a year without American funding for food aid.... An estimated 290,000 people could die within a year without American funding for malaria prevention.... An estimated 310,000 people could die within a year without U.S. funding for tuberculosis prevention.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Amanda Marcotte writes on BlueSky: "Killing children is by design, I'm afraid. 'Pro-natalists' like Musk claim they aren't racist, but their pressure to have children is solely focused on white women, while they back policies that literally kill of[f] non-white children. He's a eugenicist." Also thanks to RAS. (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐ Commander Don, Drunk Pete & Sharpshooter Kristi Did This. Devlin Barrett, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration denied on Sunday that it had violated a court order by deporting hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a prison in El Salvador over the weekend, saying that the president had broad powers to quickly expel them under an 18th-century law meant for wartime. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, also asserted in a statement that the federal courts 'have no jurisdiction' over the president’s conduct of foreign affairs or his power to expel foreign enemies. 'A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil,' she said in a statement. It was unclear why she referred to an aircraft carrier, because all indications were that the Venezuelans had been flown to El Salvador....

During the hearing on Saturday, Judge [James] Boasberg said he was ordering the government to turn flights around. A lawyer representing the government, Drew Ensign, told Judge Boasberg that he did not have many details to share, and that describing operational details would raise 'national security issues.' The timing of the flights to El Salvador is important because Judge Boasberg issued his order shortly before 7 p.m. in Washington, but video posted from El Salvador shows the deportees disembarking the plane at night. El Salvador is two time zones behind Washington, which raises questions about whether the Trump administration had ignored an explicit court order.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Miss Leavitt referred to the plane as an “aircraft carrier” because it was an aircraft carrying people “foreign alien terrorists.” Were the carrier a seagoing vessel instead of an air-flying plane, she would have referred it as a “boatcraft carrier.” As for the larger issue, Leavitt -- speaking for the administration -- is asserting that the federal courts have no authority over the the president* or the military or both. Here again, that pesky Constitutional crisis thing, this time bigger than a boatcraft carrier. ~~~

~~~ Oopsie! The Washington Post Has the Timeline. Joyce Lee & Kevin Schaul of the Washington Post: “... flight records reviewed by The Washington Post show that two flights left Harlingen, Texas, for El Salvador as the federal judge was reviewing the case and a third flight left shortly after a written order was issued.” The Post also says “a White House official” was the person who denied the courts had jurisdiction over the president*. “We believe this is a baseless legal ruling no matter when the flights took off,' the official said, adding that the fact that two of the three deportation flights were out of the country before the judge’s order 'strengthens our case.'” Ryan Goodman of Just Security also posts a timeline. ~~~

~~~ Matthew Schwartz of the New York Times: “The Trump administration moved one large step closer to a constitutional showdown with the judicial branch of government when airplane-loads of Venezuelan detainees deplaned in El Salvador even though a federal judge had ordered that the planes reverse course and return the detainees to the United States.... 'This sure looks like contempt of court to me,' said David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University. 'You can turn around a plane if you want to.'... [Washington lawyer Mark] Zaid said the events on Saturday and Sunday were the 'start of true constitutional crisis.'... On Sunday, legal analysts were still stitching together the timeline, trying to determine where the planes were shortly before 7 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday — and how close the Trump administration is to open defiance of the Constitution’s system of checks and balances....

“On Saturday, the judge had ordered the government to return anyone removed under the Alien Enemies Act to U.S. soil, 'however that’s accomplished — whether turning around the plane or not.'... The administration said that the five plaintiffs who filed suit to block their deportations — the suit that yielded the judge’s order — had not been deported.... 'Oopsie … Too late,' [El Salvador's right-wing president Nayib] Bukele wrote in a social media post on Sunday morning that was recirculated by the White House communications director, Steven Cheung.... The mockery by Mr. Bukele — and the tacit endorsements of it by senior administration officials — seemed to push Washington closer to a constitutional crisis, critics of the administration said Sunday.” ~~~

     ~~~ Katherine Faulders, an ABC News straight reporter, goes there: "... Donald Trump's administration made a calculated decision to ignore a judge's directive to turn around two flights containing hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The verbal order from the chief judge of the Washington, D.C., District Court, James Boasberg, explicitly told the government to turn around any aircraft that had already departed the country if it was still in the air." ~~~

~~~ Caleb Howe of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump shared an intense video on his Truth Social app Sunday along with a message of thanks to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador for taking hundreds of alleged criminals and gang members the United States deported.... 'These are the monsters sent into our Country by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats,' Trump said in the message accompanying the video. 'How dare they!' 'Thank you to El Salvador and, in particular, President Bukele, for your understanding of this horrible situation, which was allowed to happen to the United States because of incompetent Democrat leadership,' he wrote. He concluded by saying 'We will not forget!'” ~~~

~~~ Maria Sacchetti, et al., of the Washington Post: “A federal judge barred ... Donald Trump on Saturday from using a wartime powers act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without a hearing, ordering the administration to turn around any planes that had already taken off after the Alien Enemies Act quietly went into effect. Trump signed a proclamation Friday to deploy the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 for the first time since World War II to swiftly remove Venezuelans allegedly involved in the transnational gang known as Tren de Aragua.... The White House kept the proclamation under wraps until after advocates for immigrants sued Saturday, fearing he was already sweeping immigrants out of the country. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed immigration officials had 'arrested nearly 300 Tren de Aragua terrorists' over the weekend and sent them to El Salvador. The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, said that 238 members of the transnational Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and 23 members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang had already arrived in El Salvador and were in his custody, with a social media post responding to the judge’s ruling that said 'Oopsie, too late,' followed by a laughing emoji. A White House official celebrated his post with a meme, saying, 'Boom!'” The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Though Sacchetti's report doesn't make it clear, the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, also retweeted Bukele's "Oopsie" message. That matters.

     ~~~ Marie: Secretly signing executive orders? Secretly deporting nearly 300 people without even a fake show of due process? That is, Trump issued an order in secret specifically so the courts could not void it. I don't know how all this will shake out, what with our Trump-compliant courts and courtiers, but at this point, Trump is not only defying the law, he also is laughing about it. This is a middle finger to the rule of law & to the Constitution he is sworn to uphold. And the secrecy surrounding the signing of the proclamation proves the intent. It's a crime. (Committed by the person whom the Supremes have pre-absolved.) ~~~

~~~ And This. Dana Goldstein of the New York Times: “A kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported from the United States, even though she had a valid visa and a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion, according to her lawyer and court papers. Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is a Lebanese citizen who had traveled to her home country last month to visit relatives. She was detained on Thursday when she returned from that trip to the United States, according to a court complaint filed by her cousin Yara Chehab. Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts ordered the government on Friday evening to provide the court with 48 hours’ notice before deporting Dr. Alawieh. But she was put on a flight to Paris, presumably on her way to Lebanon. In a second order filed Sunday morning, the judge said there was reason to believe U.S. Customs and Border Protection had willfully disobeyed his previous order to give the court notice before expelling the doctor. He said he had followed 'common practice in this district as it has been for years,' and ordered the federal agency to respond to what he called 'serious allegations.'...

“Thomas Brown, a lawyer representing Dr. Alawieh and her employer, Brown Medicine, said that while the doctor was in Lebanon, the U.S. Consulate issued her an H-1B visa, which allows highly skilled foreign citizens to live and work in the United States.... [Clare] Saunders, [a lawyer representing Ms. Chehab], said in an affidavit that she went to the airport Friday and notified Customs and Border Protection officials there — before the flight to Paris was scheduled to depart — that there was a court order barring the doctor’s expulsion. She said that the officers took no action and gave her no information until after the plane had taken off.... A hearing in Dr. Alawieh’s case is scheduled for Monday.” See related Providence Journal story, linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Avery Lotz of Axios: "A federal judge on Sunday ordered the Trump administration to respond to allegations that U.S. immigration enforcement 'willfully disobeyed' an order halting the deportation of a Rhode Island doctor."

Jazmine Ulloa & Miriam Jordan  of the New York Times: “... family detention [of undocumented immigrants] is being resurrected by ... [Donald] Trump, as his administration marches forward on its promise to crackdown on immigrants.  Families have begun to arrive in recent days at a detention facility in South Texas.... A second detention center, also in South Texas, is being readied for families. Each of the facilities is being set up to hold thousands of people. At one site, lawyers say, multiple families are being detained in rooms with four to eight bunk beds and shared bathroom facilities.”

Say, Here's a Boatcraft Guarding Us Against Foreign Alien Immigrants. Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “The Pentagon has deployed a Navy destroyer on an unusual mission to bolster security at the southern U.S. border, defense officials said, dispatching a warship involved last year in combat in the Middle East to waters typically patrolled by the U.S. Coast Guard. The USS Gravely, a guided-missile destroyer, left from Naval Weapons Station Yorktown in Virginia on Saturday as part of the Defense Department’s response to ... Donald Trump’s executive order calling for securing the southern border. It marks the latest example of the Trump administration using the U.S. military at home to fend off what the president has claimed is an 'invasion' at the border.”

Private Bonespurs & His Aide-de-Camp Drunk Pete Did This. But They're Not Racists. Maya Yang of the Guardian: “The US defense department webpage celebrating an army general who served in the Vietnam war and was awarded the country’s highest military decoration has been removed and the letters 'DEI' added to the site’s address. On Saturday, US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers’s Medal of Honor webpage led to a '404' error message. The URL was also changed, with the word 'medal' changed to 'deimedal'. Rogers, who was awarded the Medal of Honor by then president Richard Nixon in 1970, served in the Vietnam war, where he was wounded three times while leading the defense of a base. According to the West Virginia military hall of fame, Rogers was the highest-ranking African American to receive the medal. After his death in 1990, Rogers’s remains were buried at the Arlington national cemetery in Washington DC, and in 1999 a bridge in Fayette county, where Rogers was born, was renamed the Charles C Rogers Bridge.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary near the end of yesterday's thread.

SNAFU. Sharon LaFraniere, et al.,  of the New York Times: “Engaged in top-secret work, tucked away in the Energy Department, the [National Nuclear Security Administration] typically stays below the public radar. But it has emerged as a headline example of how the Trump administration’s cuts, touted as a cure-all for supposed government extravagance and corruption, are threatening the muscle and bone of operations that involve national security or other missions at the very heart of the federal government’s responsibilities.... In the past six weeks, the agency, just one relatively small outpost in a federal work force that ... [Donald] Trump and his top adviser Elon Musk aim to drastically pare down, has lost a huge cadre of scientists, engineers, safety experts, project officers, accountants and lawyers — all in the midst of its most ambitious endeavors in a generation.... Governmentwide, a disproportionate number of the roughly 75,000 federal workers who have taken the buyouts so far are those whose skills are in demand in the private sector and will be hard to replace, according to Max Stier, the president and chief executive of Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization that studies governance.”

Ben Makuch of the Guardian: “Notorious Blackwater founder ... [and] prolific privateer ... Erik Prince ... is a central figure among a web of other contractors trying to sell Trump advisers on a $25bn deal to privatize the mass deportations of 12 million migrants.” Thanks to RAS for the link.

Joseph Fried  of the New York Times: “Nita M. Lowey, who represented a congressional district based in Westchester County for 32 years, ardently supporting liberal causes and playing a key role in shaping legislation to advance them, died on Saturday at her home in Harrison, N.Y. She was 87.” (Also linked yesterday.)

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Utah, Where the Arc of Justice Bends Backwards. Patrick Marley & Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: “Utah is poised to abolish its practice of automatically mailing ballots to all voters, handing a victory to ... Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans who have vilified voting by mail since his 2020 election defeat. The likely changes in Utah are modest compared with Trump’s calls for ending mail voting altogether, but would nonetheless mark a dramatic shift in a Republican stronghold that has long embraced mail balloting as convenient and secure.... 'There’s never been a state that did this, in taking that step backwards after adopting universal mail voting,' said Chris Diaz, who tracks legislation for the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab.”

News Lede

Washington Post: “At least 39 people have been killed” this weekend in storms across the South & Midwest.

The Conversation -- March 16, 2025

⭐Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: “As the world’s richest men slash American aid for the world’s poorest children, they insist that all is well. 'No one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding,' Elon Musk said. 'No one.' That is not true. In South Sudan..., the efforts by Musk and ... [Donald] Trump are already leading children to die.... I find it odious when the world’s richest man cackles about America shoving programs for needy children 'into the wood chipper.'... We worked with experts at the Center for Global Development who tried to calculate how many lives are at risk if American humanitarian assistance is frozen or slashed. While these estimates are inexact and depend on how much aid continues, they suggest that a cataclysm may be beginning around the developing world:

An estimated 1,650,000 people could die within a year without American foreign aid for H.I.V. prevention and treatment.... An estimated 500,000 people could die within a year without American funding for vaccines.... An estimated 550,000 people could die within a year without American funding for food aid.... An estimated 290,000 people could die within a year without American funding for malaria prevention.... An estimated 310,000 people could die within a year without U.S. funding for tuberculosis prevention.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~

     ~~~ Amanda Marcotte writes on BlueSky: "Killing children is by design, I'm afraid. 'Pro-natalists' like Musk claim they aren't racist, but their pressure to have children is solely focused on white women, while they back policies that literally kill of[f] non-white children. He's a eugenicist." Also thanks to RAS.

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Maria Sacchetti, et al., of the Washington Post: “A federal judge barred ... Donald Trump on Saturday from using a wartime powers act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without a hearing, ordering the administration to turn around any planes that had already taken off after the Alien Enemies Act quietly went into effect. Trump signed a proclamation Friday to deploy the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 for the first time since World War II to swiftly remove Venezuelans allegedly involved in the transnational gang known as Tren de Aragua.... The White House kept the proclamation under wraps until after advocates for immigrants sued Saturday, fearing he was already sweeping immigrants out of the country. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed immigration officials had 'arrested nearly 300 Tren de Aragua terrorists' over the weekend and sent them to El Salvador. The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, said that 238 members of the transnational Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and 23 members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang had already arrived in El Salvador and were in his custody, with a social media post responding to the judge’s ruling that said 'Oopsie, too late,' followed by a laughing emoji. A White House official celebrated his post with a meme, saying, 'Boom!'” The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Secretly signing executive orders? Secretly deporting nearly 300 people without even a fake show of due process? I don't know how all this will shake out, what with our Trump-compliant courts and courtiers, but at this point, Trump is not only defying the law, he also is laughing about it. This is a middle finger to the rule of law & to the Constitution he is sworn to uphold.   

Joseph Fried   of the New York Times: “Nita M. Lowey, who represented a congressional district based in Westchester County for 32 years, ardently supporting liberal causes and playing a key role in shaping legislation to advance them, died on Saturday at her home in Harrison, N.Y. She was 87.”

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Marie: Squarespace is up to its old tricks, so be sure to save your comments before you submit them. I'm having to post the same links three and four times each.

Eric Schmitt & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: “The United States carried out large-scale military strikes on Saturday against dozens of targets in Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia..., [Donald] Trump announced. It was the opening salvo in what senior American officials said was a new offensive against the militants and a strong message to Iran, as Mr. Trump seeks a nuclear deal with its government. Air and naval strikes ordered by Mr. Trump hit radars, air defenses, and missile and drone systems in an effort to open international shipping lanes in the Red Sea that the Houthis have disrupted for months with their own attacks. At least one senior Houthi commander was targeted. The Biden administration conducted several strikes against the Houthis but largely failed to restore stability to the region.... U.S. officials said that airstrikes against the Houthis’ arsenal, much of which is buried deep underground, could last for several weeks, intensifying in scope and scale depending on the militants’ reaction. U.S. intelligence agencies have struggled in the past to identify and locate the Houthi weapons systems, which the rebels produce in subterranean factories and smuggle in from Iran.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Akhilleus believes he has detected some serious wagging of the dog here. Sounds right to me. This looks like Grenada all over again, likely with more killing.

Tobi Raji, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump has invoked a centuries-old wartime law to declare that a Venezuelan gang has 'invaded' the United States, clearing the way for the 'immediate apprehension, detention, and removal' of anyone the government says falls into that category. Trump issued the proclamation hours after a federal judge in D.C. preemptively blocked the president from deploying the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport five Venezuelan men on Saturday. Civil rights lawyers say the migrants are at risk of being removed without a court hearing. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington granted the temporary restraining order to bar the Trump administration from using the law to deport several men the administration alleges have ties to the Venezuela-based gang Tren de Aragua. The American Civil Liberties Union says the men do not have any ties to the criminal group. The ACLU and Democracy Forward sued the administration Saturday in anticipation of Trump’s plan to invoke the law, claiming that the five migrants face an 'imminent risk' of deportation.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's an update: “As he issued his ruling, the judge said he heard that 'flights are actively departing' and ordered the Trump administration to immediately halt the removals and return to the United States any flights that are in the air.” BTW, if you watched the Maddow video embedded yesterday, you know that the Alien Enemies Act is the same law under which Japanese-Americans were interned during WWII. The U.S. has since issued a formal apology and paid reparations to internees. The 1798 act has been used just three times, each during wars: "the War of 1812, World War I and World War II." We are not at war with Venezuela now. And, no, shooting at Yemeni pirates in the Red Sea does not constitute war.

     ~~~ The AP's report is here. Politico's story on Judge Boasberg's order is here. ~~~

~~~ Teo Armus, et al., of the Washington Post: ICE detained a Venezuelan couple who migrated to the U.S. and settled in Washington, D.C., with their three children, even though the family enjoyed protected status. “With two of their children looking on, screaming and crying, the Border Patrol arrested the couple in D.C., removing them from their home in handcuffs on a misdemeanor charge of illegally crossing the border more than two years ago.... The family was apart for three days. By Thursday evening, the couple was back in their home with an order to appear in an El Paso federal court in 30 days to answer for the illegal border crossing. The arrests, weeks before temporary protected status is set to expire for several hundred thousand Venezuelans, immediately raised alarms among immigrant advocates.... Advocacy groups say they are investigating whether the government is violating a 2023 court settlement that prohibits separating children from their parents based on illegal border crossings, the same minor crime the first Trump administration used in 2018 to justify separating families at the southern border.... It was unclear Friday why this couple was targeted....” (Also linked yesterday.)

Tom Mooney of the Providence (R.I.) Journal: “A federal court order that would have halted the immediate deportation of a Rhode Island doctor was issued Friday evening while the doctor’s departing plane sat on the tarmac at Boston Logan International Airport, said a family friend and colleague. But the plane ultimately took off, carrying Dr. Rasha Alawieh out of the country for reasons still unclear to her family, her lawyer and Brown Medicine colleagues.... 'They did not do anything to stop the plane,' said [her colleague Dr. Basma] Merhi, who was learning details of the event through information relayed by Alawieh family members. 'So, clearly, they wanted to deport her regardless of if there was a judge’s order or not. She didn’t do anything wrong.' Alawieh had been studying and working in the U.S. for the last six years and had been in Rhode Island, working for Brown Medicine in the Division of Kidney Disease & Hypertension, since last July.” Thanks to RAS for the link.

Right-wing New York Times columnist David French more-or-less gets it: “Columbia University is now the epicenter of the American culture war. The Trump administration is targeting a former Columbia student — and the university itself — as a test case for its new authoritarian regime.... When federal immigration officials showed up at [the] apartment building [of former Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil] last weekend and whisked him away to a facility in Louisiana to begin deportation proceedings, they brought the malice and incompetence of the Trump administration into stark relief.... According to the Department of Homeland Security’s Notice to Appear that was provided to Khalil, 'The secretary of state has determined that your presence or activities in the United States would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.'... Khalil was detained because of his protest activity and not because he’d provided illegal support for terrorists.... The arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil are a direct attack on free speech.... Our Constitution has survived previous waves of government repression. There is no guarantee it will survive another.” French outlines some of the Trump administration attacks on Columbia. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: French writes that “The sad irony of our unconstitutional moment is that the perspectives of foreign students can be particularly valuable when foreign affairs dominate American discourse.” But the more alarming irony, IMO, is that the person responsible for trying to deport Khalil for his speech is the same person who instigated a violent insurrection against the United States in an attempt to overturn a presidential election. Why, he is even a person who himself has had “serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” Just look at what happened to the very Secretary of State who supposedly made the determination that Khalil presented a threat. Little Marco is today a pathetic shadow of the foreign policy hawk once known as Senator Marco Rubio. And that abrupt diminution of Marco, of course, is the “serious adverse foreign policy consequences” of working for Donald Trump.

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “... when ... [Donald] Trump appeared in the gilded [Great Hall of the Justice Department] on Friday afternoon, he ... delivered a grievance-filled attack on the very people who have worked in the building and others like them. As he singled out some targets of his rage, he appeared to offer his own vision of justice in America, one defined by personal vengeance rather than by institutional principles. 'These are people that are bad people, really bad people,' Mr. Trump said. 'They tried to turn America into a corrupt communist and third-world country, but in the end, the thugs failed and the truth won.'... In offering his litany of complaints, Mr. Trump provided no proof that ... any of the people he named had committed crimes or even ethical violations. Their sole offense appeared to have been trying to hold him accountable for his behavior.” ~~~

~~~ Among those “enemies” Trump identified were elections lawyer Marc Elias, who led the legal battle against Trump's 2020 false claims of election fraud; Mark Pomerantz, an SDNY prosecutor who worked on but never brought charges in a criminal case against Trump; Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who prosecuted Trump; special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two major federal cases against Trump; former FBI Director James Comey, who refused to pledge his loyalty to Trump & opened an investigation into Trump's ties to Russian election interference; attorney Norm Eisen who oversaw the first impeachment of Trump. MB: All totally consistent, of course, on Trump's "L'État, c'est moi" tude. (Also linked yesterday.)

Maxine Joselow & Emily Davies of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump plans to eliminate two massive national monuments in California established by former president Joe Biden, the White House confirmed Saturday. Less than a week before leaving office, Biden signed proclamations establishing the 624,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California and the 224,000-acre Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in northern California. Native American tribes that consider these landscapes sacred had urged Biden to put them off-limits to drilling, mining, clean-energy development and other industrial activity. The plan to repeal the proclamations ... underscores how Trump has sought to dismantle Biden’s sweeping environmental legacy.” MB: Oh, it isn't that. In this case, Trump seeks to dishonor Native Americans, Joe Biden and California's “liberal lunatics,” while opening up sites to his avaricious miner buddies. So this is at least a four-fer.

I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced.... [The Voice of America has played an important role] in the fight for freedom and democracy around the world. -- VOA Director Michael Abramowitz, in a post on LinkedIn ~~~

~~~ Nathan Layne & James Oliphant of Reuters: “More than 1,300 Voice of America employees were placed on leave on Saturday and funding for two U.S. news services that broadcast to authoritarian regimes was terminated, one day after ... Donald Trump ordered the gutting of the government-funded media outlet's parent and six other federal agencies. Michael Abramowitz, Voice of America's director, said nearly his entire staff of 1,300 journalists, producers and assistants had been put on administrative leave, crippling a media broadcaster that operates in almost 50 languages.... Founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda, VOA now reaches 360 million people a week. As a group, USAGM [U.S. Agency for Global Media] employs roughly 3,500 workers with an $886-million budget in 2024, according to its latest report to Congress.... Kari Lake, the former news anchor and Trump loyalist nominated to be director of VOA, issued a statement describing USAGM as 'a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer' and said it was 'not salvageable.'... [Elon Musk wrote on X,] 'While winding down this global government propaganda agency, it has temporarily been renamed the Department of Propaganda Everywhere (DOPE).'...” NPR's story, by David Folkenflik, is here.

Javier Hernández of the New York Times: “When ... [Donald] Trump was criticized by some of the artists who were recognized at the annual Kennedy Center Honors program during his first term, he responded by boycotting the show, breaking with decades of precedent. Now, as he leads a sweeping takeover of the Kennedy Center in his second term, Mr. Trump is seeking changes that will allow him greater sway in the selection of honorees.... Mr. Trump, who is now the chairman of the Kennedy Center, is scheduled to speak at a meeting of its board on Monday afternoon, when proposed changes to the honors advisory committee will be on the agenda.... He replaced all the Biden appointees on the center’s once-bipartisan board, was elected chairman and installed a loyalist, Richard Grenell, as its president.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Reversal of Discrimination??? Tim Balk of the New York Times: “Materials on the Arlington National Cemetery website highlighting the graves of Black and female service members have vanished as the Trump administration purges government websites of references to diversity and inclusion.... [BUT] The cemetery, which is operated by the Army, said in a statement on Friday that it remained committed to 'sharing the stories of military service and sacrifice to the nation with transparency and professionalism' and that it was working to restore links to the content.... The restoration of any removed material would be carried out in line with ... [Donald] Trump’s executive orders, the cemetery said.... Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, cast the website changes as part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to erase the accomplishments of women and people of color.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't see how it's possible to both (1) honor women and people of color, and (2) erase their accomplishments. Part of the Trump/Musk administration's deep-state attrition plan must be to make many federal employees crazy.

Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: “The annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington on Saturday featured jokes about ... [Donald] Trump, the breakdown of the global order, Russia, Democrats’ uncertain future and, of course, Elon Musk.... [Mr. Trump] and top members of his administration skipped the dinner, which is one of those old-fashioned Washington rituals.... Margaret Brennan of CBS shouted out members of the diplomatic corps from Britain, France, Australia and the European Union. 'You know,' she said, 'all of America’s enemies.' Then she introduced the Ukrainian ambassador — there was no joke told — and the many journalists in the room stood up to clap.” MB: The reason Trump doesn't usually attend is that at these sorts of events, speakers are supposed to tell self-depricating jokes. Definitely not Trump's shtick.

Teddy Rosenbluth of the New York Times: “Struggling to contain a raging measles epidemic in West Texas, public health officials increasingly worry that residents are relying on unproven remedies endorsed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and postponing doctor visits until the illness has worsened. Hospitals and officials sounded an alarm this week, issuing a notice explaining which measles symptoms warranted immediate medical attention and stressing the importance of timely treatment.... Some seriously ill children had been given alternative remedies like cod liver oil, [Katherine Wells, the public health director for Lubbock, said.]. 'If they’re so, so sick and have low oxygen levels, they should have been in the hospital a day or two earlier,' she said.”

Jessica Piper of Politco: “The liberal organizing group Indivisible said Saturday it was calling for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step down from his leadership role, the latest fallout after he backed a GOP bill to keep the government open. The group’s call is the latest sign of just how much Schumer’s decision to vote for a Republican bill Friday has angered a Democratic grassroots itching for a fight with ... Donald Trump.”

Clay Risen of the New York Times (March 14): “Kevin Drum, who gave up his day job in software marketing to write online about politics, policy and his cats, quickly becoming a key figure in the vanguard of center-left bloggers during the genre’s heyday in the early 2000s, died on March 7. He was 66.... Mr. Drum, who lived in Irvine, Calif., had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2014 and had recently developed pneumonia. He blogged about those personal challenges openly and with the same insight that he brought to issues like health care policy and urban planning.”

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Oklahoma Schools to Teach the "Big Lie" (As If It Were True). Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: “Teachers in Oklahoma would be instructed to have high school students 'identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results' under new academic standards for social studies approved by the state education board last month. The standards, which were obtained by the Oklahoma journalism not-for-profit NonDoc and published in full on Wednesday, must be approved by the Oklahoma legislature. They stipulate that students should review information relating to the election, including 'the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of “bellwether county” trends.'... Oklahoma’s top education official, Superintendent Ryan Walters, is a Trump ally whose national profile has been raised by his push to distribute Trump-endorsed Bibles in classrooms [and other crazy winger stuff]....” MB: Of course I would instruct the kids to find and report evidence that the Big Lie was a failed attempted to overturn a free & fair election.

News Lede

New York Times: “The storms that killed at least 21 people across Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri on Friday and Saturday continued to pummel a vast section of the South, leveling homes, taking down power lines and turning communities into debris fields. Before the intense and long-lasting tornadoes arrived, forecasters said that their level of threat was typically experienced only once or twice in a lifetime. The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported 12 fatalities in the southern and eastern counties of the state as of Saturday evening. In Arkansas, three people were killed in Independence County, and 32 others were injured across the state, according to the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management. Six people died in Southern Mississippi and 29 others were injured across the state, Gov. Tate Reeves said on social media.”