The Conversation -- April 1, 2025
⭐Wisconsin. Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Susan Crawford has won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, NBC News projects, allowing liberals to maintain their narrow majority on the battleground state’s highest court — and defying Elon Musk after he spent millions of dollars to oppose her. Crawford, a Dane County circuit judge who was backed by Democrats, secured a 10-year term on the court over Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County circuit judge and a former Republican attorney general. As the first major battleground state election of ... Donald Trump’s second term, the technically nonpartisan contest drew national attention and became the most expensive state Supreme Court race in U.S. history."
⭐John Hudson of the Washington Post: “Members of ... Donald Trump’s National Security Council, including White House national security adviser Michael Waltz, have conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post and interviews with three U.S. officials.... A senior Waltz aide used the commercial email service for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict.... Waltz has had less sensitive, but potentially exploitable information sent to his Gmail, such as his schedule and other work documents.... Waltz has also created and hosted other Signal chats with Cabinet members on sensitive topics, including on Somalia and Russia’s war in Ukraine, said a senior administration official. The existence of those groups was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.... Most concerning, however, is the use of personal email, which is widely acknowledged to be susceptible to hacking, spearfishing and other types of digital compromise.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I just emailed Mike from my new account FileTopSecretDocsHere@gmail.com
Jonathan Last of the Bulwark contrasts Kilmar Abrego Garcia -- a decent family man the U.S. says it's "accidentally deported" to a horrible Salvadoran prison -- with Elon Musk -- "an effete parasite" whom Trump's administration has granted "permission to pillage the government itself." As Kyle Cheney of Politico reported in a story linked this morning, the Trump administration now says it has no way to correct their ghastly mistake. As an exasperated Last puts it, "America cannot possibly importune the government of El Salvador for the return of this man because we have no authority over them and El Salvador is a close ally we cannot afford to annoy. These motherfuckers are making this argument at the same time as they are dispatching the vice president to stand on foreign soil and threaten a formal treaty ally with territorial annexation. They are doing this while telling Ukraine to submit to Russia because morality and law are immaterial and the only thing that matters is strength—if you don’t hold 'the cards' then you do what the more powerful country tells you to do. Well tell me, counselors, what cards does El Salvador hold that it can’t be made to do what America demands?" Thanks to laura h. for the link.
Marie: I heard on MSNBC that Cory Booker is still at it at a little before 4:00 pm ET. What phenomenal stamina! ~~~
~~~ Mike Ives, et al., of the New York Times: “Senator Cory Booker, visibly tired but still upright at a lectern on the Senate floor, was continuing a marathon speech criticizing the Trump administration on Tuesday, a show of physical and oratorical stamina that he hoped would put a spotlight on what he called a “crisis” facing the United States under ... [Donald] Trump. Mr. Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, began speaking at 7 p.m. on Monday and was still going 21 hours later, laying into the Trump administration’s cuts to government services and its crackdown on immigrants.” This is an update of a story linked earlier. ~~~
⭐~~~ The story has been updated again, with Tim Balk now the lead reporter: “Senator Cory Booker, his voice still booming after more than a day spent on the Senate floor railing against the Trump administration, on Tuesday night surpassed Strom Thurmond for the longest Senate speech on record, in an act of astonishing stamina that he framed as a call to action. Mr. Booker, a New Jersey Democrat and one-time presidential candidate, began his speech at 7 p.m. on Monday, vowing to speak as long as he was 'physically able.' In a show of physical and oratorical endurance, he lasted past sunset on Tuesday, assailing President Trump’s cuts to government agencies and crackdown on immigration. He ended his speech at 8:05 p.m., 46 minutes after eclipsing Mr. Thurmond’s 24-hour 18-minute filibuster of a civil rights bill in 1957, by quoting John Lewis, the civil rights hero and congressman. Mr. Booker said of Lewis: 'He said for us to go out and cause some good trouble, necessary trouble, to redeem the soul of our nation. I want you to redeem the dream. Let’s be bold in America.'
“Earlier, cheers broke out in the chamber when Mr. Booker passed Mr. Thurmond. For a moment, Mr. Booker addressed the man he had eclipsed. 'To hate him is wrong, and maybe my ego got too caught up that if I stood here, maybe, maybe, just maybe, I could break this record of the man who tried to stop the rights upon which I stand.... I’m not here though because of his speech. I’m here despite his speech. I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people were more powerful.'”
Today is election day for a seat on the Wisconsin state supreme court, a race that has prompted Elon Musk to give $25 million and wear a cheesehead hat to oppose the liberal candidate. It is also election day to replace former Reps. Matt Gaetz & Mike Waltz in two bright-red Florida districts. Update: The Republicans are projected to have won in both Florida races, though by significantly smaller margins than Gaetz & Waltz won last year.
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Tyler Pager of the New York Times: Donald Trump's suggestions he would continue as president* after his second term ends “serve a distinct political purpose. They redirect attention from other controversies.... And they freeze the field of potential successors who may steal the spotlight from a lame duck....” ~~~
~~~ Steve M. hypothesizes how this would work. MB: I think Steve gets everything right.
~~~ Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. See his link to an Instagram version is in the Comments below; it includes some appropriate artwork.
Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: “Lord, liberate us from ... Donald Trump’s 'Liberation Day,' as Trump has christened this coming Wednesday. Trump has already 'liberated' his country from the inconvenience of due process or expectations of civil rights. But his freedom crusade escalates this week, when he shall also 'liberate' America from affordable cars, a stable economy and its closest allies.... The auto tariffs alone could be catastrophic. They will raise prices for consumers, to the tune of 13.5 percent (an average of $6,400 for each new car), the Yale Budget Lab estimates.... Prices for used vehicles will likely rise, too. So will auto insurance since it will cost more to repair or replace cars damaged in accidents. There’s some evidence that auto loans could also get costlier.... Trump and his economic advisers crow that his tariff agenda will bring in eye-popping amounts of revenue — upward of $6 trillion over the next decade, claims White House aide Peter Navarro.... This would represent the largest tax hike on Americans since World War II. It would also be a regressive tax since lower-income households disproportionately bear tariff costs.” This is a gift link.
Brad Reed of the Raw Story: “The Telegraph, one of the most conservative newspapers in the United Kingdom, has published a scathing editorial from columnist Matthew Lynn that accuses ... Donald Trump of leveling 'the biggest tax rise in global history.'... '... much of the increased cost [from tariffs] will be passed onto consumers in the form of higher prices,' he writes. 'Either they will be forced to pay more for imported goods, or prices may rise in general because U.S. companies have less of an incentive to improve productivity thanks to the protections afforded by that tariff wall. And if tariffs do raise $600 billion annually, that is no small sum of money, even for an enormous economy like the United States.... Even if we assume that Elon Musk manages to cut $1 trillion or more out of the budget, the tariffs would have to be at least five or six times larger than anything yet proposed to cover Washington’s annual expenditure.... They would need to be at least 100 percent and possibly more simply to replace the federal incomes tax. Tariffs at that rate would be off-the-scale, and would do huge damage to the global trading system. At risk of stating the obvious, if trade collapses to zero because of tariffs, then tariff revenue would also be zero.'” The Telegraph column is firewalled.
Marie: I think the cycle of Trump's responses to news that proves he's an ignorant putz goes something like this: (1) I don't know anything about it. (2) They say/I've heard .... (3) It's a hoax invented by liberal radical enemies of the people a/k/a the mainstream media. (4) It's old news. Nobody talks about that anymore. You may identify a few more steps in there. Sometimes he combines steps: Here he is on his wrecking the economy: he says of stagflation, "I haven't heard that term in years (Step 4). I don't know anything about it (Step 1)."
Danielle Kaye & Joe Rennison of the New York Times: “The S&P 500 ended March with its steepest monthly decline in more than two years, driven by uncertainty about the scope of ... [Donald] Trump’s tariffs, which investors fear could accelerate inflation, slow consumer spending and stall the U.S. economy.... The decline in March caps off the S&P 500’s worst quarter at the start of a president’s term since President Barack Obama took over in 2009 during the financial crisis. The benchmark is now down 8.7 percent from its mid-February peak, a downturn that is near a 10 percent 'correction,' denting the values of portfolios and retirement funds across both Wall Street and Main Street. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite index, which has already slipped into a correction, ended the month down 8.2 percent.”
Conan O'Brien accepted the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor shortly after Donald Trump appropriated the center. In his acceptance speech, O'Brien celebrated Twain and Twain's America, while contrasting all that with you-know-who and the fake conception of the nation he is trying to foist on us. Masterful:
Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: “Federal workers have been returning to offices in stages since ... [Donald] Trump issued an order to do so right after being sworn in. He has described the requirement as a way to ensure that workers are actually doing their jobs while believing that it could have the added benefit of leading more government employees to quit.... For those who have gone back, the process has been marred by a lack of planning and coordination by the administration, leading to confusion, plummeting morale and more inefficiency.... For some..., returning to the office has meant an expansion of their duties to include cleaning toilets and taking out the trash. For others, it has been commuting to a federal building only to continue doing their work through videoconferencing. Some showed up at the office just to be sent home. Others showed up early and had nowhere to sit.... And spending freezes have meant a shortage of toilet paper in some buildings....
“The in-person work mandate is just one piece of the massive and disruptive overhaul of the federal work force being driven by ... Elon Musk.... Despite the name of the group Mr. Musk leads, the Department of Government Efficiency, federal employees say there is hardly anything efficient about how the Trump administration is going about the cuts. It has pushed a massive change in schedules with a return-to-office mandate while simultaneously encouraging federal workers to retire or firing them only to be forced to rehire them. The requirements have brought disarray to the workday....”
Brady Dale of Axios: "The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said Friday that banks no longer need to get its prior approval before engaging in crypto-related activities, like holding digital currency assets or partnering with companies in the industry.... After publishing a general caution against banks participating in the industry just two years ago, the FDIC is the latest Trump administration regulator to change its tune entirely amid the president's warm embrace of crypto.... Under the prior regime, banks that asked for such permissions never quite seemed to get it.... [A] joint warning to banks in January 2023 from the Fed, the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency followed the crash of the terra stablecoin and the fall of FTX.... The OCC was the first of those regulators to revise their guidance, telling banks it supervises earlier this month that they no longer need permission to engage in certain common cryptocurrency-related activities. The Fed as of Friday had not issued any update...." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ What a Coincidence! David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: “Two of ... [Donald] Trump’s sons announced on Monday that they were investing in a new Bitcoin mining venture, an expansion of the family’s business interests in the crypto industry. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. said they would join forces with the Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 to create a firm called American Bitcoin. Bitcoin mining is a lucrative branch of the crypto industry, in which large companies run energy-guzzling machines that help process Bitcoin transactions.”
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: “Members of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency gained access over the weekend to a payroll system that processes salaries for about 276,000 federal employees across dozens of agencies, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move overruled objections from senior IT staff who feared it could compromise highly sensitive government personnel information, including by making it more vulnerable to terrorist cyberattacks.... By accessing the system, which is housed at the Interior Department, the DOGE workers now have visibility into sensitive employee information, such as Social Security numbers, and the ability to more easily hire and fire workers.... The DOGE workers had tried for about two weeks to obtain administrative access to the program.... The dispute came to a head on Saturday, as the DOGE workers obtained the access and then placed two of the IT officials who had resisted them on administrative leave and under investigation....” The ArsTechnica story is here.
Grand Theft Real Estate. Brian Barrett of Wired: “The DOGE-affiliated acting president of the United States Institute of Peace, a Congressionally funded, independent think tank, has moved to transfer the agency’s $500 million headquarters building to the General Services Administration free of charge, according to court documents revealed in a recently filed lawsuit.... To state this plainly: DOGE forced out the directors and staff of a nonexecutive agency, installed one of its own GSA staffers as president, and that person is now attempting to hand the institute’s $500 million headquarters over to the agency he came from, at zero cost.” MB: Wired stories are firewalled, but Wired allows a few freebies. This is one of them.
Devlin Barrett, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Sunday sent a fourth plane carrying deportees to El Salvador, claiming it was acting under a different authority than the obscure wartime law that it cited previously.... Administration officials said all 17 men, whom they described as gang members, had been deported under regular U.S. immigration law and had final orders of removal. But the administration described the action in similar military terms as the earlier transfers, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Joe Kasper, the Pentagon’s chief of staff, both calling the deportations 'counterterrorism' operations.... El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said in a social media post that the two countries had conducted a 'joint military operation' and claimed that all the migrants 'are confirmed murderers and high-profile offenders.'... On Monday..., [Donald] Trump reposted Mr. Bukele’s announcement on his social media platform..., thanking El Salvador 'for taking the criminals' and blaming former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for allowing them to enter the United States.” An AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The NYT article leaves us in the dark about how “joint miltary operation” worked (and the AP article doesn't mention it). Does this mean that the Salvadoran military was operating in the U.S. to help round up these alleged “murderers and rapists”? If so, that's even creepier than having masked U.S. officials grab a woman off a Massachusetts sidewalk and bundle her off to Louisiana. (For an explanation of the term “sidewalk,” see the video currently at the top story under Infotainment.) ~~~
~~~ Say, what if the Gestapo ICE officials do make a mistake and send innocent people to a Salvadoran jail? What if they even admit they've made a mistake? Too bad, nothing they can do about it. ~~~
~~~ Kyle Cheney of Politico: “The Trump administration acknowledged late Monday that it had inadvertently deported [Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran,] to El Salvador last month despite a court’s determination that he had a legitimate fear of persecution in his home country. 'This removal was an error,' a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official wrote in a statement to a federal judge.... The Trump administration now says there’s nothing it can do to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to U.S. custody. The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to reject a petition by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys to seek his return to United States custody, saying the Trump administration has no power to force El Salvador to facilitate that demand — and that the courts have no authority to issue such an order.” MB: Gosh, looks as if Trump and Musk aren't all-powerful, after all. They're just weanies any two-bit dictator can bring to heel.
Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration will begin to withhold some federal funding from Planned Parenthood starting Tuesday, a move that will curtail access to services including cancer screenings and affordable birth control, the organization said. Planned Parenthood said Monday that nine of its affiliates had received notice from the administration that it would withhold funding from Title X, the nationwide family-planning program. Since 1970, Title X has provided federal funding to health centers for family planning aid and reproductive health care, including birth control and other nonabortion services — including about $286 million in the 2024 fiscal year.... The loss of funding signaled by the administration Monday would mean 'cancers go undetected, access to birth control is severely reduced, and the nation’s STI crisis worsens,' said Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. 'President Trump and Elon Musk are pushing their dangerous political agenda, stripping health care access from people nationwide, and not giving a second thought to the devastation they will cause,' Johnson said in a statement Monday.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: You name it, if it's a program that helps ordinary people, the Trump/Musk administration will cut it in order to fund tax cuts for the rich.
Jazmine Ulloa of the New York Times: “Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants will be allowed to remain in the United States without risk of deportation after a federal judge in San Francisco on Monday delayed Trump administration actions rolling back a program known as Temporary Protected Status. Judge Edward M. Chen found that decisions in February by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, terminating the initiative for nearly 350,000 people in early April would inflict irreparable harm on families, cost U.S. businesses and industries billions in economic activity and hurt the health and safety of communities across the country. The judge prevented the actions from taking effect as soon as this week while a lawsuit challenging the moves plays out in his court. The Temporary Protected Status program, passed by Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, allows migrants from nations that have experienced national disasters, armed conflicts or other extraordinary instability to live and work legally in the United States.” The AP story is here.
Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: “A small museum dedicated to the nation’s environmental history is now history, too. On Monday, Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said he had shuttered the museum, which was inside the agency’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. In a statement, Mr. Zeldin said the move would save taxpayers about $600,000 annually.... He also noted that it included exhibits about environmental issues faced by poor and minority communities, issues the Trump administration has said should not receive special attention. He called those displays a 'political agenda' of the Biden administration.... Created in 2016, the museum originally occupied a corner of the Ronald Reagan International Trade Building. In May, a $4 million expanded National Environmental Museum and Education Center opened inside E.P.A. headquarters.” The AP story is here. Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
Amudalat Ajasa of the Washington Post: “Many people who live near heavy industry are routinely exposed to dozens of different pollutants, which can result in a multitude of health problems.... Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a new method for measuring the cumulative effects on human health of multiple toxic air pollutants. Their findings were published last week in Environmental Health Perspectives.” MB: I suppose this is one reason Trump/Musk decided to cut $800K in federal grants to Johns Hopkins school of public health and other medical research departments.
Rebecca Tan of the Washington Post: “Many of the U.S. programs that would have provided lifesaving materials [after the devastating Myanmar earthquake], including fuel for ambulances and medical kits, were shuttered weeks ago. U.S. planes and helicopters in nearby Thailand, which have been used before for disaster relief, never made it off the ground.... America’s response to the catastrophic earthquake has been crippled by the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to eight current and former USAID employees who worked on Myanmar, as well as former State Department officials and leaders of international aid agencies. Three days after the disaster, American teams have yet to be deployed to the quake zone — a marked contrast with other similar catastrophes, when U.S. personnel were on the ground within hours. ”
Alan Blinder, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration said on Monday that it was reviewing roughly $9 billion in federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard, claiming that the university had allowed antisemitism to run unchecked on its campus.... In an email message to the Harvard community Monday evening, Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, noted that 'we are not perfect' and said that Harvard would work with the federal government 'to ensure that they have a full account of the work we have done and the actions we will take going forward to combat antisemitism.... If this funding is stopped, it will halt life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation.'...” An AP story is here.
Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Monday barred the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from firing intelligence officers who had been assigned to diversity, equity and inclusion roles that were scrapped by the Trump administration, saying they should have the chance to seek reassignment to open positions. U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga issued a preliminary injunction that prohibits the two intelligence agencies from firing 19 employees who filed a lawsuit anonymously challenging the move. Trenga’s ruling came hours before the CIA was scheduled to issue termination notices to dozens of officers who had worked for its now-shuttered diversity and inclusion office unless they retired or resigned. It was unclear whether the judge’s order would extend to another 40 or so intelligence officers slated for termination who did not join the lawsuit. Trenga said he would issue a written order later.”
Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: “Nearly every arm of the Democratic Party united in filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday night, arguing that a recent executive order signed by the president seeking to require documentary proof of citizenship and other voting reforms is unconstitutional. The 70-page lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., accuses the president of vastly overstepping his authority to 'upturn the electoral playing field in his favor and against his political rivals.' It lists ... [Donald] Trump and multiple members of his administration as defendants.” Politico's story is here.
I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able.... I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our nation is in crisis. -- Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), beginning his all-night speech in the Senate chamber ~~~
~~~ Mike Ives of the New York Times: “Senator Cory Booker spoke in an all-night session on the Senate floor early Tuesday, in an effort to seize the national spotlight and criticize the Trump administration’s policies on health care, Social Security, education and much else. Mr. Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, began speaking on Monday evening and said he planned to continue for as long as he was 'physically able.' He was still going as of 5 a.m. Eastern time.... Before his speech, Mr. Booker said on social media that he was heading to the Senate floor because Mr. Trump and Elon Musk had shown what he called 'a complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution, and the needs of the American people.'”
Lisa Kashinsky of Politico: “Republicans could be poised to deal a symbolic blow to ... Donald Trump’s trade policy, with several GOP senators indicating they planned to join Democrats in a Tuesday vote to block blanket tariffs on Canada. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Monday that she plans to back the resolution led by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that would terminate the national emergency Trump declared last month, citing fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration. Trump has used that declaration to justify 25 percent across-the-board tariffs on America’s northern neighbor and leading trade partner — duties that Trump has threatened to start levying later this week.... Collins is poised to join GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who is a co-sponsor of Kaine’s resolution and a strong opponent of tariffs, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.... Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa — one of many farm-state Republicans who has raised particular concerns about the Canadian tariffs — also said he was undecided on the Kaine resolution.... However, it’s likely the resolution never comes up in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson moved earlier this month to block the ability of tariff critics to force a floor vote on ending the kind of national emergencies Trump is citing to levy the tariffs.”
David Goodman of the New York Times: “Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic House leader, on Monday accused Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas of deliberately delaying a special election in a solidly Democratic district in Houston in order to cushion the House Republicans’ slim majority. Mr. Jeffries said in an interview that Mr. Abbott had been 'feverishly working to deny representation to the people of Houston' and to help Republicans in the House pass a budget favored by ... [Donald] Trump that is expected to include cuts to Medicaid and other services.... The Texas governor had until the end of last week to call a special election in time for the vote in Mr. Turner’s 18th Congressional District to be held on May 3, the next regularly scheduled Election Day in the state. Instead, Mr. Abbott, a Republican, did not act, and has not said when he will call the election to replace [Rep. Sylvester] Turner [D], who died on March 5 after two months in office. By doing so, Mr. Abbott has helped House Republicans.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, please. Why does the Times have to finger Jeffries as a partisan accuser? Of course Abbott delayed the special election to help House Republicans. Abbott doesn't deny it. Jeffries' pointing out the obvious is not the story; Abbott's refusal to call an election should be the lede.
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Alabama. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: “Alabama cannot prosecute doctors and reproductive health organizations for helping patients travel out of the state to obtain abortions, a federal judge ruled on Monday. Alabama has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, and in 2022 its attorney general, Steve Marshall, a Republican, raised the possibility of charging doctors with criminal conspiracy for recommending abortion care out of state. Multiple clinics and doctors challenged Mr. Marshall’s comments in court, accusing him of threatening their First Amendment rights, as well as the constitutional right to travel. The Justice Department under the Biden administration had also weighed in with support for the clinics, arguing that 'threatened criminal prosecutions violate a bedrock principle of American constitutional law.' On Monday, the judge, Myron H. Thompson of the Middle District of Alabama, in Montgomery, ruled that Mr. Marshall would be violating both the First Amendment and the right to travel if he sought prosecution.”
Indiana. You violated the law, you are not entitled to due process. -- Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Indiana), at a town hall last Friday (thanks to RAS for the lead)
Spartz is an immigrant to this country. That being her view of the "rule of law," I don't know what she likes about the U.S. -- Marie Burns
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Israel's Wars. Lorenzo Tondo of the Guardian: “Fifteen Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, including at least one United Nations employee, were killed by Israeli forces 'one by one' and buried in a mass grave eight days ago in southern Gaza, the UN has said. According to the UN humanitarian affairs office (Ocha), the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) and civil defence workers were on a mission to rescue colleagues who had been shot at earlier in the day, when their clearly marked vehicles came under heavy Israeli fire in Rafah city’s Tel al-Sultan district. A Red Crescent official in Gaza said that there was evidence of at least one person being detained and killed, as the body of one of the dead had been found with his hands tied. The shootings happened on 23 March, one day into the renewed Israeli offensive in the area close to the Egyptian border. Another Red Crescent worker on the mission is reported missing.” MB: And the Trump administration is deporting students for protesting such murders.
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Reader Comments (20)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/us/politics/trumps-education-back-to-the-states.html
Well, of course that's the plan.
Dismantling the federal government and returning its powers to the states (in significantly diminished form) has been the Right's wet dream since FDR.
What could be better for businesses than a conflict with weaker entities that they could bully or play off against one another for their (never the country's) short-term benefit.
Threaten, bribe, whatever. Say you're moving production to another state unless....or like Boeing do both. Get the demanded tax break in Washington State and move 787 production to non-union South Carolina,, our little China.
The federal government is the only effective adversary for Big Business. That why the Heritage Foundation, the Pretender, the Muskrat, et. al. want it dead.
The day the Nazi died…
Seth Meyers' Closer Look on Trump, Signal chat, and low T Musk.
Maybe like Akhilleus the scorpion read too many philosophy books and that is why he stung the frog.
"The Way We Live Now: ‘Kingdom Of The Biters’"
David Roth
"The collection of degenerates that make up Trump’s cabinet makes sense mostly if you think of it as Trump, in his role as executive producer of the end of the American Century, casting the various roles in the cable news television programming he watches."
I know he doesn't care about what happens after he is gone, but I would still like someone to ask the Orange Turd what kind of country he thinks he will be leaving his grandchildren with. Destroying medical research, destroying the environment, destroying constitutional protections, destroying US alliances and free trade and many industries...and so on. Leaving nothing but ruin in his wake just like his many failed business ventures. But I would still like someone to remind this asshole that there will still be a world left over after he is gone, which will include a few of his degenerate family since he only cares about things connected to himself, that has to go on and create the future that he is making so much more difficult for anyone that doesn't have at least six zeros in their bank account.
April 1st
"Museum of the American Proud Boy to Open in DC
The initiative is part of President Trump’s push to restore “American greatness” at the Smithsonian."
RAS,
Yeah, Bentham had some great ideas that others used as jumping off points, but the utilitarian thing was carried a tad too far. Having his skeleton stuffed and dressed in his clothes after he died had, I would suggest, odd, if minimal utility.
Maybe the scorpion was hoping for the same? Although now that I think of it, stuffed scorpion sounds like something Stephen Miller would eat. “No venom, thanks. I have plenty of my own.”
Jesus. For a split second I thought that Proud Boys museum was a real thing. Certainly sounds like something Fat Boy would dream up as a reward for their thuggish assistance his attempted putsch.
@Akhilleus: No, no. Don't wreck it for me. That cartoon is the first time I thought I understood anything any philosopher ever wrote.
Besides, I really loved Bentham's stuffed self, as he looked so ridiculous, he made me feel it wasn't necessary to grasp what he was talking about. Really, if a person is going to dress like that, who cares what he thinks? I mean, those little-girl-influencers on Instagram must be smarter!
Akhilleus,
Yeah, unfortunately satire has trouble staying ahead of Fat Hitler's insanity. A museum to people who worship him is the kind of idea he loves because he can make it all about himself. Too many storylines these days require a double take.
Twilight Zone
RAS,
Good questions to ask the FH, but I don't think his narcissism extends beyond the limits of his own skin. He really doesn't care about anyone's future but his own.
Taking a mental step back, I'd say that's the essence of today's conservatives. The future they envision simply can't extend beyond their own life span. It's true of the supine Republican Congress that can't think of anything but more tax breaks for the rich, and certainly of the presently constituted Supremes that has no concept of consequence, taking originalist positions when it suits them or just making shit up when it better suits their immediate needs, which has left them in the position of being unable to corral the monster they created by delaying decisions they could and should have made before finally issuing the presidential get out of jail free card that will change the nation's history for at least the foreseeable future.
But history keeps happening. As much as I hate the FF, I often see him as a pathetic version of the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger in the dike to hold back the coming flood.
The Pretender and his turn back the clock administration have their fingers in the dike of history. The Dutch boy was a hero because he succeeded. The Pretender and his army of idiots will not.
History will still happen. They are just making its march more chaotic because they can't see beyond their own tomorrows.
Waldman again. Makes me think of my young Seattle grandchildren, who love "The Three Stooges"
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/they-cant-even-make-the-trains-run?
Jonathan V. Last, in Bulwark covers the infuriating and depressing story of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, while comparing Garcia's character to that of Elon Musk in A Tale of Two Men.
"One of these individuals is a paragon of manliness; the other is an effete parasite. The fact that the MAGA movement has them confused is a problem."
a gift link to a longer related article in The Atlantic is included in the Bulwark
The Vision Thing
RAS and Ken bring up the issue of our future with a fascist fool in charge. Good question.
A common feature of most political campaigns is a vision for the future. Where will the promises of this politician’s platforms take us? What is their vision? Since FDR (and this is admittedly a bit of a simplification, but nonetheless accurate if you think it through) Democrats, for the most part, have offered a vision of hope for a better future.
Certainly FDR delivered mightily on that vision: the WPA, Social Security, escape from Depression, victory over fascism in a world war. Truman carried this vision forward.
Eisenhower promised to end the Korean War, which no one was really winning anyway. He did oversee some major infrastructure advances that improved Americans’ lives, such as the national highway system, but his most salient contribution to the future was sitting on his hands far too long while Joe McCarthy wrote the playbook for what the modern Republican Party would become, vengeful, hate filled, peddling lies and paranoia to gain power and scaring the shit out of everyone, thank you very much, Ike.
Jack Kennedy promised the New Frontier, he made public service honorable, started the Peace Corps, promised the moon (literally) and delivered. Historians see now that he recognized the problem of Vietnam and planned to pull us out. Many believe that’s one reason he was killed.
Nixon promised to roll back the clock, to send us deeper into war, and he delivered on both. Plus, as a bonus, he industrialized political rat fucking. He also gave us both Powell and Rehnquist. A major step backwards.
Jimmy Carter. Poor Jimmy Carter. He did succeed in making decency a core value in the Oval Office but geopolitical events and the industrialized rat fucking that Nixon passed on to Reagan did him in.
Ronald Rayguns. Promised to end as many of FDR’s New Deal advanced as he could. He also promised a return to white picket fences and white supremacy. We got none of the former, plenty of the latter. A vision of an America that never existed coupled with a future that promised enormous wealth for the already rich and a kick in the balls for the poor. He also set records for the most administration members indicted and convicted, which was something of an accomplishment after the Nixon crime fest.
Poppy Bush. Well…he wasn’t much on “that vision thing”, but his Thousand Points of Light thing was a promise of a future that said “Government is for corporations and the rich, everyone else.. you’re on your own”, an essential image of a Republican future we still have with us.
Bill Clinton was the Man from Hope. He cleaned up the financial mess left by years of Reagan-Bush corruption and profligate spending combined with huge tax cuts for the rich. But he spent his second term pursued by vengeful Republicans for a blow job, pissed that he was trying to improve life for poor and middle class Americans by giving them decent healthcare.
The Decider. Our future? War, war, and more war. Civil rights out the window. Hatred, racism, paranoia, the endless war on terror. Some vision. THEN!…global economic collapse! Millions lose all hope for a future as their life savings disappear. Bush retires to paint pictures of his piggy toes.
Obama. The return of hope, a black man in the White House! A short lived oasis of a vision of the future that wasn’t the fucking Black Hole of Calcutta for once. He promised healthcare for the poor. He delivered. They hated him for it. Also…he was black.
Trump I. Stupidity on a stick. His promise, MAGA, was, as almost everything he says, stolen. In this case, from Reagan. In both cases the promises were to go back, not forward. But also in both cases, a return to an America that never existed. Reagan’s image of that fantasy land came from fictional Hollywood films. Trump’s version was much worse. Reagan was thinking of a time when blacks knew their place and women wore aprons and stayed quiet in the kitchen. In Trump’s version, blacks don’t even exist, and women are happy to be sexually assaulted and raped. A vision of a place that never existed but if it did, would be a prison in El Salvador.
Biden. A huge relief after four years of unmitigated greed, idiocy, and lies. Biden brought back decency, honor, and competence. His vision of the future was of a place where everyone belonged.
Trump II: Fat Hitler. A place where only greedy white thugs, white liars, white grifters, white racists, and, did I say whites? belong. Vision of the future? None. Except for one where the American Experiment is debased, inverted, and torn apart. No more voting, no democracy, no jobs, no healthcare, no Social Security, just smash and grab by those loyal to a dementia ravaged, vengeful monster. That’s the future. Chaos, darkness, and dementia. It’s Dante’s welcome mat at the Gates of Hell come to life: “lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate.” Abandon ye all hope who enter here.
The past ninety years have basically gone like this, since FDR rescued the country from the Republican Great Depression…Democrats offer a future of hope, but have to spend inordinate amounts of time and resources cleaning up the godawful financial and crime infested mess of the previous Republican administrations. Only Kennedy inherited something less than that and he was murdered.
Democrats vision of the future, in a nutshell has been “Yes we can”
Republicans vision, in a nutshell: “Not on my watch.”
Democrats say “Let’s all pull together.”
Republicans: “Fuck you, Charlie, I got mine.”
Except for now. Now there aren’t any Republicans anymore. Only craven traitors who all say “Eat shit and die.”
Their vision thing.
"Divergence From the Interests of Capital
This basic reality has also produced an easily intelligible political spectrum for all of us to locate ourselves on. The left wants to leaven this drive for wealth with the demands of justice—to create a system that will produce the wealth ethically and distribute the wealth fairly and use the wealth to provide for the welfare of all—and the right wants to unshackle the gears of capitalism and allow the wealth to be maximized even if it is created evilly and distributed unfairly.
Trump is doing something different: He is making decisions that will clearly harm the American economy, in both the short and long term.
The sort of government that Trump is building can benefit a handful of select business allies, but at the expense of an entire market economy. Trillions of dollars of wealth are going to drain out of America if this continues. Global companies will not want to be headquartered here. Financial markets and their activity will move elsewhere. No rule of law means no predictability for business means no trust in our nation. Trump and his friends may be able to maintain their own little bubble of wealth, but America as a whole will get drastically poorer.This is not good for big business. It is not good for small business. It is not good for rich people, whose wealth is tied up in businesses and stocks that will be harmed by this collapse of rule of law."
It will be interesting to see how long Fat Hitler’s standard response cycle (see Marie’s numbered excuses, above) continue to work, or whether the rules for mendacity and control he learned from Roy Cohn and has passed on to lackeys like the embarrassingly idiotic Peter Navarro allow these jackals to gaslight the public.
Lying about more abstract issues like national security is one thing, but when Joe the Plumber goes to buy a new F-150 and finds out he’ll need the kind of loan he got to buy his house, shit will get real pretty quickly. How long Hitler, Elmo, and Fox can blame Biden, we’ll have to see.
That “People are saying I should be President for life” thing might change pretty quickly to “WTF!?”
But who knows? He’s gotten away with destroying the country so far.
Well that didn’t take long.
Only two months into the Fat Hitler Reich and we have a winger podcaster screaming that we need to deport all the Jews.
He’s even calling it a Final Solution.
“A far-right conspiracy theorist podcaster and former bounty hunter with ties to several influential figures in President Donald Trump's orbit advocated for a ‘final solution’ to deport all Jews from the United States in a recent episode — echoing Nazi language used in planning for the Holocaust.”
This idiot must be on Polio Bob’s speed dial. He calls for vaccine developers to be executed as well. Even if he’s not tight with the RFKJ science haters, he’s buds with a bunch of PoT luminaries and Trump pals, like Kash Patel and Kari Lake.
“Peters has given interviews to a number of people with close ties to Trump, including current FBI Director Kash Patel, former Arizona candidate Kari Lake, and a number of Trump-aligned GOP members of Congress.
During his confirmation hearings, Patel tried to distance himself from Peters, saying he wasn't familiar with him ‘off the top of my head’ when asked by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who proceeded to remind him he went on Peters' show eight separate times.”
Just what we want for an FBI head, someone who saw evidence eight times but can’t remember “off the top of his head” what it was.
Lying prick.
Paul Gosar, Pete Sessions, and old pal Louie (the Screwie) Gohmert have all been guests of this Himmler guy.
Two months. Two months of disappearing undesirables from Fat Hitler’s Amerika, and we’re hearing about a Final Solution.
Does the MSM still think this is business as usual?
To market, to market to buy a fat hog…
What? The market is gone? The fat hog killed it?
Oh well, it was a lot of work keeping up with stock market prices anyway.
Yup. Business leaders and oligarchs might have gotten a woody with Fat Hitler back to let them do whatever they want, but they forgot what a fucking lunatic and an economic ignoramus he is.
Flighty Donnie has everyone pulling their hair because, let’s face it, stockholders are not fans of unpredictable chaos. One day it’s tariffs, next day they’re off, two days later it’s tariffs for Everyone! In the world!
This is not a recipe for economic success. This bag of doucheness was handed the best economy ON THE PLANET, courtesy of Joe Biden. In just a few weeks, this economic Mister Magoo motherfucker has tanked the stock market, triggered a world wide trade war we have zero chance of winning, scared the bejesus out of stockholders, caused ancient trading partners to say “Sayonara, asshole”, has handed control of the federal government and hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts to a snowflake drug addict and a 19 year old named Big Balls, his chief economic advisor, billionaire Howard Lutnick, is in hiding, and he thinks he can gaslight everyone into thinking he’s a genius with everything under control? From the GOLF COURSE!!?!
The president of El Salvador is a Trumpy fanboy so the idea that a call and a signed headshot from the loser in chief couldn't get him to send this father back to us is ridiculous. Also saying in court that the US and Trump can't do anything about it is effectively annoucing that Trump is a weak little bitch. If the media started pointing out how weak and powerless Trump's DOJ is declaring him to be I bet he would eventually pick up the phone and order Abrego Garcia's return at once as a show of how manly strong and powerful he is. Maybe someone can try to buy some commerical airtime in Palm Springs or get someone to go on Fox and Friends to hammer home what a feeble loser is Attorney General is telling the courts that he is.
RAS,
Just imagine if Russia accidentally sent an innocent man to some other country. If Putin wanted the guy back, he’d get on the phone and say “Send our man back. Right fucking now. Or ELSE! motherfucker!”
That guy would be on the next plane home.
But not Fatty. “Waaaaah, I’m a pussy! I’m afraid! Waaaaah! It’s all Biden’s fault. Impossible!” And KKKaroline will attack anyone who wonders why this so-called most powerful man in the world is such an impotent, whiny bitch.
Some strongman. This fat pig is only good for frightening billionaire babies and weenie lawyers.