The Conversation -- March 4, 2025

The Washington Post's live updates of Trump's speech before the joint session are here. The New York Times' live updates, which are a good way to "watch" without watching, are here. (There is video, but you can mute it.)

This Is Bound to Be a Dud. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: “Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan will deliver the Democratic Party’s response to ... Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening — giving the freshman senator from a swing state an opportunity to speak to Americans nationwide as her party wrestles with how to push back against the administration’s efforts to shrink the federal government.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Democrats needed someone like Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.) or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) who know how to attack Trump. Instead, they picked Slotkin, a moderate to deliver some pablum. She is among the Democratic senators who voted to confirm the most Trump Cabinet nominees (the only one who voted for more is that goofball Fetterman). I hope I'm wrong (and I could be!), but if not for Little Marco's "thirsty" response of 2013, this could be the worst oppo response ever.

Lily Kuo, et al., of the Washington Post: “As ... Donald Trump’s new tariffs on the nation’s three top trading partners took effect Tuesday, China, Mexico and Canada announced that they would retaliate with levies of their own, unleashing a potentially devastating trade war.... During a Tuesday news conference, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decried the 'American trade war,' warning that 'it is going to hurt all of us.'... While Trudeau said finding a resolution to the trade fight would be his top priority, he added that Canada will impose tariffs on roughly $107 billion worth of U.S. products. About $21 billion worth of those goods would be hit immediately, he said, with the rest taking effect in 21 days. Trump, responding in a social media post, said U.S. tariffs 'will immediately increase by a like amount' to any reciprocal tariff from Canada.” The AP's report is here.

Your government has chosen to do this to you. -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, responding to the U.S.'s imposition of tariffs on Canada ~~~

     ~~~ You can watch the full speech here.

Trump Team Plan to Manipulate Economic Data. Ben Casselman & Colby Smith of the New York Times: “Comments from a member of President Trump’s cabinet over the weekend have renewed concerns that the new administration could seek to interfere with federal statistics — especially if they start to show that the economy is slipping into a recession. In an interview on Fox News on Sunday, Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, suggested that he planned to change the way the government reports data on gross domestic product in order to remove the impact of government spending.... [G.D.P.] tallies consumer spending, private-sector investment, net exports, and government investment and spending to arrive at a broad measure of all goods and services produced in a country.... Mr. Lutnick made his comments days after similar ones by Elon Musk.... Excluding the government’s contribution entirely makes little sense, economists said.... 'It’s very concerning,' [Nancy Potok, former U.S. chief statistician,] said. 'It puts the U.S. in the company of countries that are notorious for fudging the numbers to support failed economic policies.'” Here's why they're fixin' to fudge the numbers: ~~~

     ~~~ Abha Bhattarai of the Washington Post: “On Monday, an economic growth model from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecast a steep decline for the first three months of this year — a 2.8 percent contraction in economic growth, after nearly three years of solid growth. That same Fed model began flashing negative forecasts on Friday for first-quarter gross domestic product, which sums up goods and services produced in the United States.... 'You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,' [Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick] said. 'They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The NYT reporters explain why Lutnick's convenient new methodology (i.e., removing government spending from G.D.P. calculations) doesn't make sense: It “would imply that teachers at private schools contributed to the national economy but that teachers at public schools did not, for example. And it would mean that government investment in infrastructure, health care, disaster relief and national defense all held no economic value.”

Mackenzie Wilkes of Politico: “Education Secretary Linda McMahon swiftly laid out a 'final mission' for the Education Department in a message to staff Monday after being quickly confirmed and sworn in. McMahon’s plan would execute President Donald Trump’s desire to 'send education back to the states' amid an expected executive order from Trump that would direct the department to offload what programs it can to other agencies and assess what laws are needed to close the department altogether.”

Mark Santora of the New York Times: “President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Tuesday offered a course of action that he said could end the war, while trying to assure the Trump administration that his government was dedicated to peace.... The Ukrainian leader said he was ready to release Russian prisoners of war, stop long-range drone and missile strikes aimed at Russian targets, and declare a truce at sea immediately — moves that he said would help establish a pathway to peace. Only, however, 'if Russia will do the same,' he added.... In his post, Mr. Zelensky offered effusive praise for American support, noting specifically 'the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins.'”

JayDee Can't Stop Insulting Europeans. Mark Landler of the New York Times: “Vice President JD Vance has sparked a storm of criticism in Britain after declaring that an American economic deal in Ukraine was a 'better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.' Britain, which along with France has pledged troops to a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, fought with the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, while French troops fought in Afghanistan. No other countries have said they would send troops to Ukraine.... 'Vance Shame,' said the headline on the home page of The Sun, the leading right-wing tabloid published by Rupert Murdoch.... 'JD Vance is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong,' said Nigel Farage, the leader of the anti-immigrant party, Reform U.K., and a longtime ally of President Trump. 'We stood by America all through those 20 years putting in exactly the same contribution.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That ignorant punk's air of superiority is reflexive-punch-in-the-face infuriating.

Mr. Vance later insisted that his comments, in an interview on Monday night with the Fox News host Sean Hannity, did not refer to Britain or France, though he did not name any alternative countries.

Lena Sun & Fenit Nirappil of the Washington Post: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s focus on vitamin A use to combat a growing measles outbreak in Texas is raising concerns among public health experts, who fear he is sending the wrong message about preventing the highly contagious disease and distracting from the critical importance of vaccination. Kennedy, who in his years as an anti-vaccine activist criticized measles shots and boosted vitamin A as a treatment, is now using his government position to tout the vitamin’s accepted benefits. The Department of Health and Human Services has directed the nation’s top public health agency to add similar language to its guidance for caring for measles patients.... His op-ed does not mention vitamin A’s risks.... Sue Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement Monday. 'Taking too much vitamin A can cause serious health problems, including liver damage.'... Vitamin A is considered supportive care and typically used in countries where children are malnourished and have vitamin A deficiency. Vitamin A deficiency in the United States affects less than 1 percent of the population....” It is not a substitute for measles vaccinations, as anti-vaxxers claim.

Walz Is Back! Lauren Irwin of the Hill: “Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) offered to host town halls in districts where Republicans are now refusing to hold them.... 'If you congressman refuses to meet, I’ll come host an event in their district to help local Democrats beat ‘em.' National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) advised House Republicans to avoid in-person town halls with constituents and instead to host phone or livestreamed events.” Here's a Politico item on Hudson's advice to fellow House Republicans.

Some of you will recall Joni Ernst back in 2014 when she ran these ads to introduce her Senate candidacy. The ProPublic report linked below kinda suggests it was not Washington's big spenders who were doing the squealing, Joni. Just sayin'. ~~~

~~~ Robert Faturechi of ProPublica: “Earlier this year, the Air Force revealed that the general who oversaw its lobbying before Congress had inappropriate romantic relationships with five women, including three who worked on Capitol Hill. Maj. Gen. Christopher Finerty’s colleagues told investigators the relationships were 'highly inappropriate' as they could give the Air Force undue influence in Congress.... The Air Force inspector general’s report redacted the names of the women who worked on the Hill. But one of the women whose relationship with Finerty was scrutinized by the inspector general was Sen. Joni Ernst, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation. The Iowa Republican and combat veteran is one of the most influential voices on the Hill about the military, and she sits on the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Pentagon and plays a crucial role in setting its annual budget. Three other sources told ProPublica that around 2019 Ernst had a previous romantic relationship with a legislative affairs official for a different branch of the military, the Navy.”

Abbie VanSickle & Adam Liptak of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court sided with San Francisco on Tuesday in a challenge to water quality regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in a ruling that could have sweeping implications for the agency’s ability to limit offshore pollution.The 5-to-4 decision dealt another blow to the agency, which has recently sustained several losses before the court over its efforts to protect the environment.... The dispute fundamentally focused on human waste and how San Francisco disposes of it. The question before the court was whether the Clean Water Act of 1972 allowed the E.P.A. to impose prohibitions on wastewater released into the Pacific Ocean and to penalize the city for violating them. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the majority, said the E.P.A. was entitled to impose specific requirements to prevent pollution but not to make polluters responsible whenever water quality generally falls below the agency’s standards.... Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett M. Kavanaugh joined the majority opinion, and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch joined most of it. Justice Amy Coney Barrett dissented, joined by the court’s three-member liberal wing — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.”

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Brian Beutler urges Americans to boycott Donald Trump's address tonight to a joint session of Congress, even though, "Faced with calls from ... angry constituents to boycott Trump’s joint address to Congress this week, Democratic leaders have instead encouraged members to ignore the activists and show up to be berated and lied to by an aspiring dictator." ~~~

     ~~~ digby agrees: "Trump is neither normal nor a statesman. Don’t behave as if he is! Sadly, most Democrats in Congress have two speeds. If you don’t like this one, you’ll really dislike their other one.... Contrary to Beltway commentary, Congress and the courts aren’t the last guardrails. Mass public protest is, with all the risk that entails with an autocrat in the White House who’d like to see protesters shot.... If Trump on Tuesday were to openly declare that the U.S. is now aligned with Putin’s Russia against NATO and Ukraine, which of you Democrats wants to be in his audience giving assent by your presence?" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I need no convincing. Only the reason I won't be watching is that I'm not a masochist.

⭐Trump Punishes Ukrainian Soldiers for His Own, Vance's Bad Behavior. John Hudson, from the Washington Post's live updates of something: “... Donald Trump has decided to pause all future deliveries of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine in an extraordinary move aimed at pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the negotiating table with Russia as Ukraine fends off a military invasion from the Kremlin, said two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.” (Also linked yesterday.) The full Washington Post story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Erica Green, et al. of the New York Times: “The most immediate beneficiary of the move is President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. If the suspension is lengthy, he can use the time to press for further territorial gains. And he may well decide to hold back from any negotiations at all, figuring that any prolonged dispute between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky will only strengthen his position.... [The cut-off] forces Mr. Zelensky to agree to a cease-fire on terms Mr. Trump dictates, or condemns the country to larger battlefield losses.... The suspension also puts the United States in direct opposition to its major NATO allies.” The AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Why, I remember when the House impeached Trump for something very similar to this. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Here's Heather Cox Richardson on this & other illegal/unconstitutional/unconscionable/stupid stunts Trump has pulled over the past day or so.

~~~ Marion Solletty of Politico: “French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Monday declared the alliance with the U.S. is seriously wounded and called ... Donald Trump’s attitude toward Ukraine 'an indecency.' 'On Friday evening, a staggering scene unfolded, marked by brutality and a desire to humiliate, the aim of which was to threaten Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into surrendering to the demands of his aggressor,' Bayrou said in a speech to the National Assembly....” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Seb Starcevic of Politico: “Germany’s likely next chancellor said Monday that the bitter clash between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and ... Donald Trump in the Oval Office last week was a 'deliberate escalation' by the latter.... The angry quarrel was a pre-planned ambush by the Americans, claimed Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany’s conservatives.... 'What we have just seen in Washington has a certain continuity with a number of events in the last few weeks, including the appearance of the American delegation in Munich at the security conference,' he added. The German politician seemed to be referring to Vance’s fiery speech at the Munich Security Conference last month, in which he called on Europe to 'step up' and manage its own defense instead of relying on American security guarantees.”

~~~ Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: “Lech Walesa, the leader of Poland’s Solidarity movement, which helped end Moscow’s grip on Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War, joined with former Polish political prisoners on Monday to send an impassioned letter to ... [Donald] Trump voicing 'horror and disgust' at his scolding of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine last week, saying it reminded them of their encounters with bullying Communist-era officials. They wrote in Polish that they were 'terrified by the fact that the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation reminded us of the one we remember well from interrogations by the Security Service and from courtrooms in Communist courts.' 'Prosecutors and judges, commissioned by the all-powerful communist political police, also explained to us that they held all the cards and we had none,' the letter said, a reference to ... [Mr.] Trump’s Oval Office rebuke to Mr. Zelensky that 'you don’t have the cards.'... The letter — signed by Mr. Walesa ... and more than 30 prominent former Polish political detainees — was posted on Mr. Walesa’s Facebook page, along with a sometimes imprecise English translation and an old photograph of him meeting with a grinning, tuxedo-clad Mr. Trump.” ~~~

~~~ Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: “President Trump’s rancorous threat to abandon Ukraine is stoking support for a long-debated proposal to use billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets to buy weapons for Ukraine and finance its reconstruction. The money — roughly $300 billion owned by Russia’s central bank — was frozen by the United States, the European Union, Britain and others after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The aim was to punish President Vladimir V. Putin for his unprovoked attack and to cut off funds he could use to wage war. As the war grinds on into its fourth year, a growing number of officials in Europe and elsewhere have been calling for the money to be released to directly compensate Ukraine.... TThe bulk of the funds — about $250 billion — are in financial institutions in the European Union, Canada, Britain, Australia, Japan and Singapore, according to an analysis by Mr. Zelikow. That means a bloc of nations could move to use them even if the United States did not go along with the plan,' [said Philip D. Zelikow of the Hoover Institution].” ~~~

~~~ Siobhan O'Grady & Serhii Korolchuk of the Washington Post: Ukrainians mock Trump & Co. for whining about President Zelensky's attire. (Also linked yesterday.)

Colin Ahern & Mark Montgomery in a Washington Post op-ed: “On the heels of the stunning Oval Office meeting between ... Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky comes the news of a shocking — and shockingly misguided — reversal of long-standing U.S. national security policy regarding Russian cyber operations. In an alleged bid to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, the Trump administration has reportedly ordered both the Defense Department’s Cyber Command and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to stand down from monitoring and countering Russian cyberthreats. Having spent more than five decades combined defending America’s national interest and digital infrastructure, we unequivocally maintain that this policy shift is a strategic error that will make the United States less secure in cyberspace while doing little to bring about peace in Europe.... We are unilaterally surrendering a critical domain of national power while apparently receiving nothing in return.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The writers take the attitude that Trump is simply misguided & has no idea that giving up something of great value for nothing in return is not an artful path to a deal. I don't know what Trump's motivations are, but I am convinced that his intention is to capitulate to Russia and, more generally, to pull the foundations of the U.S. out from under the building. I believe he is a traitor to the United States.

David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump said tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada would go into effect Tuesday, ending a month-long delay that saw both U.S. neighbors scramble unsuccessfully to head off the punishing trade action and sending stock prices into a swift decline. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down around 1.5 percent Monday, as investors digested Trump’s comments. The broader S&P 500 index fell nearly 2 percent. Both market measures are now in the red since Trump’s election win. Imposing tariffs on everything Americans buy from Mexico and Canada is an extraordinary political gamble by a president who was returned to power by voters angered over years of high inflation. The new import taxes are likely to raise the market prices of Mexican tequila, beer and avocados, along with Canadian crude oil and lumber, testing consumer patience with Trump’s approach.” CNBC's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada are poised to massively jack up prices for new cars in the United States, Bloomberg reports. In fact, Bloomberg writes that the tariffs 'risk driving up US car prices by as much as $12,000, further squeezing consumers and wreaking havoc across the intricate web of automotive supply lines spanning the continent.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments. Like this one: “Canada imposed 25 percent tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods at 12:01 a.m. Eastern but did not specify which products would be affected. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said in a statement that the tariffs would extend to $125 billion of American goods in 21 days.... President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico was expected to address the tariffs at a news conference early on Tuesday. With nationalism strengthening as a result of the dispute, the Mexican leader has seen her approval ratings rise.” ~~~

~~~ Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: “Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday he is prepared to cut off electricity exports to the U.S. if ... [Donald] Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods go through. 'If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything — including cut off their energy with a smile on my face,' Ford told reporters at a mining convention in downtown Toronto, the Toronto Sun reported.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Lily Kuo of the Washington Post: “China imposed tariffs of up to 15 percent on a raft of U.S. farm products on Tuesday and blacklisted more than 20 U.S. companies, marking a major escalation in a brewing trade war between the world’s two largest economies. The move targets some of the United States’ top exports to China, including soybeans, meat and grains. It was retaliation for ... Donald Trump’s announcement that he would increase tariffs on Chinese products by an additional 10 percentage points from Tuesday, bringing the total tax on some Chinese products to 45 percent. Trump said he did not expect Beijing to 'retaliate too much,' but only hours later, China’s State Council, the equivalent of its cabinet, announced a 15 percent tax on U.S. goods including chicken, wheat and corn. Other American products — including soybeans, sorghum, beef, pork, seafood, dairy products and fruits and vegetables — will be subject to a 10 percent levy.” ~~~

~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: “Congratulations again to the single-issue 'muh burger too expensive' voters who were apparently critical to Trump winning, and even bigger congratulations to the business interests who figured that Trump winning again would just mean some tax cuts and a few trans girls kicked off of high school field hockey teams.... Well, at least your kids are much more likely to get previously eradicated diseases!”

More great Trump ideas, via Akhilleus by way of Jimmy Kimmel: (Akhilleus shared some more Trumpy ideas in yesterday's Comments): ~~~

     ~~~ Say, here's an idea neither Kimmel nor Akhilleus thought of: ~~~

     ~~~ Oliver Milman of the Guardian: “Donald Trump has ordered that swathes of America’s forests be felled for timber, evading rules to protect endangered species while doing so and raising the prospect of chainsaws razing some of the most ecologically important trees in the US. The president, in an executive order, has demanded an expansion in tree cutting across 280m acres (113m hectares) of national forests and other public lands, claiming that 'heavy-handed federal policies' have made America reliant on foreign imports of timber. 'It is vital that we reverse these policies and increase domestic timber production to protect our national and economic security,' the order adds. Trump has instructed the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to increase logging targets and for officials to circumvent the US’s Endangered Species Act by using unspecified emergency powers to ignore protections placed upon vulnerable creatures’ habitats.”

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the New York Times: “Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has deleted hundreds more claims from its mistake-plagued 'wall of receipts,' erasing $4 billion in additional savings that the group said it had made for U.S. taxpayers. Late Sunday night, the group erased or altered more than 1,000 contracts it had claimed to cancel, representing more than 40 percent of all the contracts listed on its site last week. The deleted items included five of the seven largest savings that it had claimed credit for just last week. At the same time, the group added about 1,000 additional canceled contracts, worth smaller total savings. It was the second time in a week that DOGE had deleted some of its greatest claims of success.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Ailia Zehra of the Hill: “Martin O’Malley, the former commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), said Monday the recent cuts made by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the agency could result in the 'collapse' of the Social Security system 'within the next 30 to 90 days.' O’Malley, a Democrat who also served as Maryland governor from 2007-15, told CNBC the recent DOGE initiatives may jeopardize monthly benefit payments for over 72.5 million Americans.”

Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: “The top agent at the F.B.I.’s New York field office said in an email Monday that he had been forced out of his job, following clashes with Justice Department officials over Trump administration directives. The veteran agent, James E. Dennehy, was told Friday to retire from his role leading the F.B.I.’s largest field office, delivering another blow to the senior ranks of the bureau. Mr. Dennehy, who had been running the office since September, had angered Trump administration officials by supporting bureau leaders who resisted turning over the names of those who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Dennehy had also angered Attorney General Pam Bondi by what she claimed was the New York office’s failure to turn over all the investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier charged with sex trafficking who killed himself in prison. Ms. Bondi provided no evidence to back up her assertion.” The NBC News report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “The Justice Department said on Monday that it would review the conviction of the former clerk of Mesa County, Colo., who was found guilty of state charges last summer of tampering with voting machines under her control in a failed attempt to prove that they had been used to rig the 2020 election against ... [Donald] Trump. The decision was the latest example of the Justice Department under Mr. Trump’s control seeking to use its powers to support those who have acted on his behalf and to go after those who have criticized or opposed him. It also played into the president’s effort to rewrite the history of his efforts to overturn the results of the election. Three weeks ago, the former clerk, Tina Peters, who was sentenced to nine years in prison on the state election tampering charges, filed a long-shot motion in Federal District Court in Denver effectively challenging the guilty verdict she received in August at the end of a trial in Grand Junction. But, in a surprise move, Yaakov M. Roth, the acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division, filed a court brief known as a statement of interest on Monday, declaring that 'reasonable concerns have been raised about various aspects of Ms. Peters’s case.'”

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: “The Trump administration plans to drop a federal lawsuit against a chemical manufacturer accused of releasing high levels of a likely carcinogen from its Louisiana plant, according to two people familiar with the plans. The government filed the lawsuit during the Biden administration after regulators determined that chloroprene emissions from the Denka Performance Elastomer plant were contributing to health concerns in an area with the highest cancer risk of any place in the United States. The 2023 lawsuit was among several enforcement actions taken by the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of poor and minority communities that have disproportionately borne the brunt of toxic pollution.”

Spencer Hsu, et al., of the Washington Post: “Interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin on Monday directed his office to prosecute more firearms cases in federal court, launching a bid to crack down on gun violence in Washington, D.C., that revived a strategy from ... Donald Trump’s first term.... [Martin's move comes] as violent crime falls, homicides tick up and Trump threatens to 'take over' capital.”

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has been quietly pushing to present evidence against Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, to a federal grand jury over comments he made about Supreme Court justices in 2020, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Justice Department officials have thus far rebuffed the unusual request by Mr. Martin, a partisan ally of ... [Donald] Trump with no previous prosecutorial experience, one of those people said. Mr. Martin has made clear his hopes of investigating whether the remarks made five years ago by Mr. Schumer amounted to threats against Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. Bringing such a case is highly unusual and winning a conviction would be difficult, according to current and former prosecutors. Last month, Mr. Martin signaled his intention to take an aggressive approach, writing Mr. Schumer a letter demanding 'information and clarification' of remarks he made at a rally on March 4, 2020. 'You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!' Mr. Schumer said at the rally, addressing his remarks to Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. Mr. Schumer’s staff retracted his statement and the senator apologized a day later, taking to the floor of the Senate to say, 'I should not have used the words I used.'”

Adam Cancryn of Politico: “The top spokesperson at the Health and Human Services Department has abruptly quit after clashing with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his close aides over their management of the agency amid a growing measles outbreak.... Thomas Corry announced on Monday that he had resigned 'effective immediately,' just two weeks after joining the department as its assistant secretary for public affairs.... [Over and above his disagreements with Kennedy & Kenndy's chief of staff about the management of HHS,] Corry had also grown uneasy with Kennedy’s muted response to the intensifying outbreak of measles in Texas....” (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Bender of the New York Times: “The Senate voted along party lines on Monday to confirm Linda McMahon as the nation’s next education secretary, putting the former pro-wrestling executive in charge of an agency that the Trump administration wants to eliminate.... Among the first 20 Trump nominations confirmed by the Senate, Ms. McMahon is the sixth whom Democrats unanimously opposed.... A wealthy Republican donor who served in the first Trump administration, Ms. McMahon has little experience in education. That lack of firsthand knowledge has been framed as an asset by a White House looking to abolish the department she now leads and as a glaring deficiency by her critics.... Ms. McMahon, 76, told lawmakers during her confirmation process that she 'wholeheartedly' agreed with ... [Donald] Trump’s 'mission' to eliminate the Education Department. During her hearing last month, she argued that most Americans did, too.... Nearly two-thirds of Americans said last week that they opposed eliminating the agency, according to the NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.”

Annie Karni of the New York Times: Senate “Democrats on Monday blocked a Republican-written bill aimed at barring transgender women and girls from school sports teams designated for female students, thwarting consideration in the Senate of the G.O.P.’s latest move to use transgender people as leverage at the dawn of ... [Donald] Trump’s second term.”

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The Conversation -- March 3, 2025

⭐John Hudson, from the Washington Post's live updates of something: "... Donald Trump has decided to pause all future deliveries of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine in an extraordinary move aimed at pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the negotiating table with Russia as Ukraine fends off a military invasion from the Kremlin, said two U.S. officials familiar with the matter."

Marion Solletty of Politico: "French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Monday declared the alliance with the U.S. is seriously wounded and called ... Donald Trump's attitude toward Ukraine 'an indecency.' 'On Friday evening, a staggering scene unfolded, marked by brutality and a desire to humiliate, the aim of which was to threaten Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into surrendering to the demands of his aggressor,' Bayrou said in a speech to the National Assembly...."

David Lynch, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump said tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada would go into effect Tuesday, ending a month-long delay that saw both U.S. neighbors scramble unsuccessfully to head off the punishing trade action and sending stock prices into a swift decline. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down around 1.5 percent Monday, as investors digested Trump's comments. The broader S&P 500 index fell nearly 2 percent. Both market measures are now in the red since Trump's election win. Imposing tariffs on everything Americans buy from Mexico and Canada is an extraordinary political gamble by a president who was returned to power by voters angered over years of high inflation. The new import taxes are likely to raise the market prices of Mexican tequila, beer and avocados, along with Canadian crude oil and lumber, testing consumer patience with Trump's approach." CNBC's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada are poised to massively jack up prices for new cars in the United States, Bloomberg reports. In fact, Bloomberg writes that the tariffs 'risk driving up US car prices by as much as $12,000, further squeezing consumers and wreaking havoc across the intricate web of automotive supply lines spanning the continent.'" ~~~

~~~ Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday he is prepared to cut off electricity exports to the U.S. if ... [Donald] Trump's 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods go through. 'If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything -- including cut off their energy with a smile on my face,' Ford told reporters at a mining convention in downtown Toronto, the Toronto Sun reported."

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the New York Times: "Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has deleted hundreds more claims from its mistake-plagued 'wall of receipts,' erasing $4 billion in additional savings that the group said it had made for U.S. taxpayers. Late Sunday night, the group erased or altered more than 1,000 contracts it had claimed to cancel, representing more than 40 percent of all the contracts listed on its site last week. The deleted items included five of the seven largest savings that it had claimed credit for just last week. At the same time, the group added about 1,000 additional canceled contracts, worth smaller total savings. It was the second time in a week that DOGE had deleted some of its greatest claims of success."

Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "The top agent at the F.B.I.'s New York field office said in an email Monday that he had been forced out of his job, following clashes with Justice Department officials over Trump administration directives. The veteran agent, James E. Dennehy, was told Friday to retire from his role leading the F.B.I.'s largest field office, delivering another blow to the senior ranks of the bureau. Mr. Dennehy, who had been running the office since September, had angered Trump administration officials by supporting bureau leaders who resisted turning over the names of those who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Dennehy had also angered Attorney General Pam Bondi by what she claimed was the New York office's failure to turn over all the investigative files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier charged with sex trafficking who killed himself in prison. Ms. Bondi provided no evidence to back up her assertion." The NBC News report is here.

Adam Cancryn of Politico: "The top spokesperson at the Health and Human Services Department has abruptly quit after clashing with Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his close aides over their management of the agency amid a growing measles outbreak.... Thomas Corry announced on Monday that he had resigned 'effective immediately,' just two weeks after joining the department as its assistant secretary for public affairs.... [Over and above his disagreements with Kennedy & Kenndy's chief of staff about the management of HHS,] Corry had also grown uneasy with Kennedy's muted response to the intensifying outbreak of measles in Texas...."

Siobhan O'Grady & Serhii Korolchuk of the Washington Post: Ukrainians mock Trump & Co. for whining about President Zelensky's attire.

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Marie: The New York Times has blocked me because I read too fast; their system thinks I'm a bot. And there's no getting through. So I'll be making do with other media reports until the Times decides I'm a slow enough reader.

Not content with destroying the country, liberal democratic values and the Western alliance, Trump is determined to destroy Earth. ~~~

~~~ David Gelles, et al., of the New York Times: "In a few short weeks..., [Donald] Trump has severely damaged the government's ability to fight climate change, upending American environmental policy with moves that could have lasting implications for the country, and the planet. With a flurry of actions that have stretched the limits of presidential power, Mr. Trump has gutted federal climate efforts, rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry. He is abandoning efforts to reduce global warming, even as the world has reached record levels of heat that scientists say is driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels.... To achieve such a wholesale overhaul of the country's climate policies in such a short time, the Trump administration has reneged on federal grants, fired workers en masse and attacked longstanding environmental regulations.... On Inauguration Day, Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, making it the only nation to walk away." ~~~

     ~~~ FYI, Ben Noll of the Washington Post: "Meteorological winter, which runs from December to February, ended this weekend.... It ended the coldest three month period in the United States since the winter of 2013 to 2014.... Despite the frigid temperatures, 67 percent of the country experienced below-average snowfall."

Francesca Ebel of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's rewrite of decades of U.S. foreign policy on Russia, laid bare in the Oval Office confrontation between ... Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, is bringing Washington into alignment with Moscow, the Kremlin said Sunday -- a shift that could upend the geopolitics that have governed international relations since World War II . 'The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, state television reported Sunday. 'This largely aligns with our vision.' Moscow's vision, which has focused on a push to reclaim influence over much or all of the former Soviet Union and defeat liberal democracy, has made Russia a pariah to the West.... The Oval Office blowup last week ... has been seen here as a 'gift' to the Kremlin." The Guardian's report is here. Want more evidence Peskov is right? -- See story linked below, on how Hegseth has disarmed U.S. cybersecurity ops against Russia.

Sky News: "Volodymyr Zelenskyy was advised to wear a suit to the White House and Donald Trump was offended when he didn't, according to reports.... Amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands, it was Mr Zelenskyy's outfit that seemed to set the meeting off on a bad footing. As Mr Trump shook Mr Zelenskyy's hand at the entrance to the West Wing, he said: 'He is all dressed up today.' Then, during the disastrous press conference, Brian Glenn, who is the chief White House correspondent for right-wing website Real America's Voice [MB: and also the boyfriend of Marjorie Taylor Greene, so obviously a man of taste & discernment], asked Mr Zelenskyy why he doesn't wear a suit and accused him of having a lack of respect for America. 'I will wear a costume when this war is finished,' the Ukrainian leader responded." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Watching over the trainwreck of a press availability was a bust of Winston Churchill, reportedly placed in the Oval office at Trump's request. "Images also began circulating of Winston Churchill visiting the White House during the Second World War, dressed in a wartime 'siren suit' [MB: so called because Churchill said he could don it in half-a-minute if warning sirens went off when he wasn't dressed]. Churchill wore the one-piece air raid outfit during a visit to President Franklin D Roosevelt, in which he hoped to persuade the American public to join the war." A number of photo captions I've read say the photos of Churchill wearing a casual coverall on the White House lawn were taken in January 1942. In fairness to Churchill, he stayed at the White House from just before Christmas 1941 till some time in January 1942, with a side trip to Ottawa in late December. So the coverall Churchill wore in the photo op was not the only outfit in his suitcase; there are photos of him wearing a suit, a sports jacket, black-tie and a full military uniform during the visit. In any case, the U.S. already had declared war on Japan and Germany. Thanks to Bill near San Jose for the hint. ~~~

Marie: Not only Putin is delighted by the Trump/Vance performance. ~~~

     ~~~ Amy Hawkins of the Guardian: "The damage caused by Donald Trump to the United States' reputation is creating opportunities for China, particularly with regards to Taiwan, according to a retired senior colonel from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA). Speaking to the Guardian in Beijing, Zhou Bo said that Trump was damaging the US's reputation 'more than all of his predecessors combined'. 'By the end of his second term, I believe America's global image will simply become more tarnished, its international standing will just go down further,' Zhou said. The people of Taiwan 'know that America is going down', which 'might affect their mentality' with regards to China."

Unilateral Disarmament. Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered U.S. Cyber Command to halt offensive operations against Russia, according to a current official and two former officials briefed on the secret instructions. The move is apparently part of a broader effort to draw President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia into talks on Ukraine and a new relationship with the United States. Mr. Hegseth's instructions, part of a larger re-evaluation of all operations against Russia, have not been publicly explained. But they were issued before ... [Donald] Trump's public blowup in the Oval Office with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Friday.... Retaining access to major Russian networks for espionage purposes is critical to understanding Mr. Putin's intentions as he enters negotiations, and to tracking the arguments within Russia about what conditions to insist upon and what could be given up.... The retreat from offensive cyberoperations against Russian targets represents a huge gamble.... U.S. officials have said Russia has continued to try to penetrate U.S. networks, including in the first weeks of the Trump administration." Read on. The Record report, which broke the news, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is like an 18th-century battle, where the two sides march on each other in formation, then the soldiers on one side suddenly drop their guns and sit down in the field. The story probably won't get a lot of attention unless Russia launches a major cyberattack that affects a lot of Americans, but it's astounding. Trump is not giving up only Ukraine to Russia; he's giving up the U.S. And oddly, it's contrary to his usual strong-man fakery. Putin has fought a bloody war against Ukraine, but he never had to fire a shot against the U.S. ~~~

     ~~~ Victor Goury-Laffont of Politico: "French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot voiced his confusion over reports that the United States' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a halt of offensive cyber operations against Russia.... The French minister said European Union countries 'are constantly the targets' of Russian cyberattacks.... Both French diplomatic officials and President Emmanuel Macron have repeatedly accused Russia of engaging in hybrid warfare against France through cyberattacks. 'Russia is attacking us on information, cyber,' Macron said last month, claiming that Moscow was seeking to 'destabilize our democracies.'"

Edward Wong of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked 'emergency authorities' to bypass Congress and send $4 billion in weapons to Israel, the second time in a month that the Trump administration has skirted the process of congressional approval for sending arms to the country. Mr. Rubio did not explain in a statement announcing the decision on Saturday why he was using an emergency authority. He said only that the Trump administration would 'continue to use all available tools to fulfill America's longstanding commitment to Israel's security, including means to counter security threats.' State Department officials told the two congressional committees in the House and Senate that review foreign weapons sales about the emergency declaration on Friday. At least one congressional official privately expressed alarm at the bypassing of the review."

Some Would Be Heroes. John Hudson of the Washington Post: "A senior career official at the U.S. Agency for International Development was placed on leave Sunday on the same day he disseminated a detailed memo to staff describing the U.S. government's 'failure' to provide lifesaving assistance around the world because of actions by ... Donald Trump's political appointees. The memo, by Nicholas Enrich, the acting assistant administrator for global health, contradicts claims by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that a functioning system is in place for exempting lifesaving assistance from the aid freeze imposed by Trump on his first week in office. 'USAID's failure to implement lifesaving humanitarian assistance under the waiver is the result of political leadership,' says the memo, obtained by The Washington Post. 'This will no doubt result in preventable death, destabilization, and threats to national security on a massive scale,' the memo says.... Sen. Brian Schatz, the top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid, said 'These new details confirm our worst fears: the illegal and systematic dismantling of USAID will cause real suffering and deaths that are entirely preventable.'" The NBC News report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "The Trump administration's decision to withdraw foreign aid and dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development is likely to cause enormous human suffering, according to estimates by the agency itself. Among them: up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year, and as many as 166,000 additional deaths; 200,000 children paralyzed with polio annually, and hundreds of millions of infections; one million children not treated for severe acute malnutrition, which is often fatal, each year; more than 28,000 new cases of such infectious diseases as Ebola and Marburg every year. Those stark projections were laid out in a series of memos by Nicholas Enrich, acting assistant administrator for global health at U.S.A.I.D.... Mr. Enrich was placed on administrative leave on Sunday." ~~~

     ~~~ Enrich's memo is here, via the New York Times. This is a gift link.

Corruption? What Corruption? Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: "Cryptocurrency prices surged Sunday after ... Donald Trump heralded the creation of a national 'reserve' for a variety of cryptocurrencies, from bitcoin to lesser-known digital tokens. On his Truth Social platform, Trump said a 'Crypto Strategic Reserve' would help ensure 'the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World.'... Solana, the underlying blockchain platform for what are known as meme coins, including the president's official $TRUMP token, rose 26 percent. The Trump coin was up more than 34 percent.... Jason Furman, a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama, was among the skeptics who criticized the idea. 'Torn as to whether this is more dumb or more corrupt,' he said on X." In his post, Trump accused the Biden administration of "corrupt attacks" on the "critical [crypto] industry." CNBC's story is here.

Corruption? What Corruption? Wes Davis of the Verge: "Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday ordered staff 'to begin finding tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal' to upgrade air traffic control communications, anonymous sources have told Rolling Stone. The story follows reports that Starlink may be taking the job from Verizon, which already has a multibillion-dollar contract with the government to improve the system. According to Rolling Stone, the talks 'have mostly, if not entirely, been delivered verbally,' something its sources say is 'unusual for a matter like this.' One person the outlet spoke with suggested that it looked like 'someone does not want a paper trail.' Rolling Stone says it's not clear whether the Verizon contract has ended yet, nor if any Starlink deal is official. Starlink is a subsidiary of SpaceX, which DOGE head Elon Musk owns.... Musk insisted last week that Verizon's system was 'breaking down very rapidly' and putting flyers at risk. He later corrected himself, noting the Verizon system is 'not yet operational' and that the one he was criticizing 'was made [MB: by??] L3 Harris.' He also claimed Starlink is providing terminals for free to 'restore air traffic control connectivity.'"

Naftali Bendavid of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk portray themselves as near-absolutists when it comes to free speech.... But since taking office, the president has mounted what critics call his own sweeping attack on freedom of expression. Some of it aims to stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion and what he terms 'radical gender ideology.' Some of it is aimed at media organizations whose language he dislikes. In other cases, the attacks target opponents who have spoken sharply about the administration. Together, critics -- and in some cases, judges -- have said Trump's efforts ... threaten the First Amendment rights of private groups and individuals.... Trump's orders banning DEI efforts threaten organizations receiving federal money if they advocate for diversity and inclusion. That violates the First Amendment, a judge said recently, because it targets 'viewpoints the government wishes to punish and, apparently, attempt to extinguish.'... District Judge Adam Adelson ... [called the anti-DEI orders] '... textbook viewpoint-based discrimination.' The administration has appealed the ruling."

Paige Skinner of the Huffington Post: "Elon Musk ... wrote on social media that he agrees the United States should leave NATO and the United Nations. On Saturday, Musk quote-tweeted 'I agree' to a post from someone who wrote, 'It's time to leave NATO and the UN.'... Martin Paasi, a member of the Finnish parliament, responded to Musk's post, writing, 'I don't think anyone will trust the US government for the next few decades.'... 'And you know, I hate to tell you this about NATO if we ever needed their help, let's say we were attacked, I don't believe they'd be there,' Trump said in January at a Las Vegas rally. 'I don't believe. I know the people. I know them. I can tell you country by country who would be there and who -- but I don't believe they'd be there.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump is so damned ignorant that he doesn't seem to know that the ONLY time NATO has invoked Article 5 -- its collective defense clause -- was in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. That is, the U.S. is the ONLY country in the 75-year history of the alliance that has directly benefited from Article 5. Not Denmark, not the U.K. not Germany, not France. Screw these dumb-assed SOBs.

Fenit Nirappil & Elana Gordon of the Washington Post: "Texas's worst measles eruption in three decades has surged to 146 known cases, with the true toll likely much higher, exposing how under-vaccinated communities are unnecessarily vulnerable to one of the world's most contagious diseases, experts say.... The life-threatening outbreak in West Texas starkly illustrates the stakes of slipping immunization rates and the ascension of vaccine skeptics, including Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to the highest levels of the public health establishment. And it has revealed how fear and the scientifically false claims of the anti-vaccine movement have seeped into communities such as Gaines County, the epicenter of the outbreak, hardening attitudes about vaccines, pro and con, in the face of a dangerous, preventable disease.... While most children with measles recover, as many as 1 in 20 develop pneumonia, according to the CDC....

"In an op-ed published Sunday on the Fox News website, Kennedy called on parents to discuss measles shots with their health-care providers. 'The decision to vaccinate is a personal one,' Kennedy wrote. 'Vaccines not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity, protecting those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical reasons.'"

     ~~~ Marie: Wait, wait. Doesn't Kennedy's second sentence contradict the first? How can a decision that affects the entire community be a "personal" one. Besides, Texas law requires children to get a measles vaccine before entering school, so obviously even backward Texas legislator think vaccines are a necessity for integration into the community. ~~~

     ~~~ Teddy Rosenbluth of the New York Times: “In a first test of the Trump administration's ability to respond to an infectious disease emergency, its top health official has shied away from one of the government's most important tools, experts said on Sunday: loudly and directly encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated.... If the Texas outbreak offers a window into the Trump administration's approach to public health, it spells trouble for the future, some researchers said.... Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, was widely criticized as minimizing the measles outbreak in West Texas at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. In a social media post on Friday, he took a new tack, saying that the outbreak was a 'top priority' for his department, Health and Human Services. He noted various ways in which the department is aiding Texas, among them by funding the state's immunization program and updating advice that doctors give children vitamin A. But on neither occasion did Mr. Kennedy himself advise Americans to make sure their children got the shots. On Sunday night, he edged closer in an opinion piece for Fox News.... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, part of H.H.S., did not send its first substantive notice about the outbreak until Thursday, almost a month after the first cases in Texas were reported.... Over the years, [Kennedy] has suggested that the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella was associated with autism and that measles outbreaks were mostly 'fabricated' to fatten drug makers' profits."

Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "Congress has less than two weeks to extend federal spending laws and keep the government open, but now a clash over ... Donald Trump's attempt to seize powers the Constitution delegates to lawmakers threatens to stall talks and force a shutdown. Republican negotiators walked away from talks over the weekend to reach a deal on a top-line number on how much the federal government should spend for the rest of the 2025 fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30. Democrats had said that number is irrelevant if Trump refuses to spend the money in accordance with the law -- or if he empowers billionaire Elon Musk and his U.S. DOGE Service to terminate federal contracts and lay off tens of thousands of federal workers without regard to Congress's wishes.... Democrats say they want assurances from congressional Republican and the White House that the administration will actually spend the money included in any new law preventing a shutdown."

Maya Miller of the New York Times: "Rather than boycott President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress, some Democratic lawmakers are inviting former federal workers to the speech on Tuesday as a way to protest the mass firings and funding cuts that have defined Mr. Trump's first month back in office."

News Lede

New York Times: "Pope Francis had two acute respiratory crises on Monday, the Vatican said, stoking further concerns about the health of the 88-year old pontiff, who has been hospitalized in Rome in serious condition for more than two weeks. The pope has been undergoing treatment for double pneumonia and a complex infection in a Rome hospital, and his condition has been alternating between improvements and setbacks."

What I Learned Reading Saturday's Comments

Akhilleus: "Fat Hitler’s excuse for hitting our neighbors with tariffs, his favorite economic cudgel ... is fentynal.... But there’s something that causes far more deaths per year than fentynal, almost three times as many, but it’s something he and his billionaire bros work hard to make worse on an hourly basis: Poverty." A report in the U.C. Riverside News, which Akhilleus linked, says, "A University of California, Riverside, (UCR) paper published Monday, April 17, in the Journal of the American Medical Association associated poverty with an estimated 183,000 deaths in the United States in 2019 among people 15 years and older."

According to this CDC press release (will we be getting reports like this anymore?), 74,702 American residents died of fentanyl overdoses in 2023, a slight decrease from the previous year. So there's the arithmetic.

As for blaming Canada for fentanyl deaths in the U.S., RAS linked this Globe & Mail report: “The Trump administration is using misleading fentanyl figures to justify tariffs against Canada, relying on a dataset that includes drugs traced to Mexico, a Globe and Mail investigation has found. Citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, the White House has asserted that 43 pounds of fentanyl was intercepted at the border last fiscal year, marking a 'massive 2,050 per cent increase' compared with the year prior, when two pounds of the deadly synthetic drug was seized.... Donald Trump has invoked the 43-pound figure as grounds for threats of punishing trade measures.... However..., U.S. border agents confirmed to The Globe that the agency’s methodology for attributing seizures to the northern border doesn’t hinge on whether the fentanyl ... came from Canada. It could have been seized hundreds of kilometres inland, and it may have no ties to Canada whatsoever.” (P.S. If the link doesn't work for you, Google the story. The G&M firewalled me when I tried RAS's link, but Google let me thru.)

Then laura h. linked this New York Times op-ed by Brian Goldstone: “The very phrase 'working homeless' should be a contradiction, an impossibility in a nation that claims hard work leads to stability. And yet, their homelessness is not only pervasive but also persistently overlooked — excluded from official counts, ignored by policymakers, treated as an anomaly rather than a disaster unfolding in plain sight. Today, the threat of homelessness is most acute not in the poorest regions of the country, but in the richest, fastest-growing ones. In places like these, a low-wage job is homelessness waiting to happen.”

My dentist's assistant isn't homeless. But she is a 40-year-old married mother who told me yesterday that for the first time in her adult life she is not holding down three jobs at once to keep her family solvent. A friend of mine is looking for a rental apartment, so yesterday I noodled around the Internet to see what I could find for her. I could not find one place in a fairly wide geographical area that looked both decent and affordable. And I would not say this is a "rich, fast-growing" part of the country. But I would say it's unaffordable. My own house, which I purchased 10 years ago, has trebled in value; I have made some valuable improvements (that is, ones the tax man knows about) but nothing that would even come close to doubling the value of the property, much less trebling it. So "working homeless"? Of course.

Of course, this isn't all I learned in Saturday's Comments. But these three comments fit together in a way that gives us a jarring picture of just how terrible the Trump/Project 2025 policies are. They are designed to impoverish and kill as many people as possible. And of course, they use lies to "justify" the policies and distractions -- fentanyl! from Mexico! and Canada! -- to make sure the dimwits don't notice the damage Trump & the Trumpettes are raining down on them. Democrats sort of know this, but they are remarkably complacent. They should be shouting their objections. They should be educating voters. They should be proposing solutions. They are not. They are not. They are not.

P.S. To add meat to the theme, late Saturday night, Ken. W. added this Reuters story to the Comments: “The Trump administration has pulled the plug on a team of tech-savvy civil servants that helped to build the Internal Revenue Service’s free tax-filing service and revamp websites across government, a spokesperson for the General Service Administration said on Saturday. GSA’s Director of Technology Transformation Services Thomas Shedd notified employees of a digital service team known as 18F that their jobs had been terminated as they had been identified as 'non-critical.' Roughly 90 18F employees were immediately locked out of their devices.... Billionaire Elon Musk ... earlier this month responded to a post on X that called 18F a 'far-left government-wide computer office' by saying the group has been 'deleted.'” As Ken wrote, “Of course they did.” ~~~

     ~~~ The Musk/Trump administration will do anything to punish, harass and overburden people of low and modest incomes. And, as you can see from Musk's one-word rejoinder, he will carelessly hurt people based on casually-conceived, unsupported rumors. He's a natural sadist.