The Conversation -- February 24, 2025

So this is the top story at NBC News at 5:15 pm ET: ~~~

~~~ Courtney Kube, et al., of NBC News: "Responses to the Elon Musk-directed email to government employees about what work they'd accomplished over the past week are expected to be fed into an artificial intelligence system to determine whether those jobs are necessary or not, according to three sources with knowledge of the system. The information will go into an LLM (Large Language Model), an advanced AI system that looks at huge amounts of text data to understand, generate, and process human language, the sources said. The AI system will determine whether someone's work is mission-critical or not." ~~~

     ~~~ BUT. Marie: Earlier, at the top of the 5:00 o'clock hour, CNN reported on-air that the Office of Personnel Management had sent out a "never mind" memo to all heads of federal human resources departments. This latest memo said that the list that the mandatory list was, after all, voluntary! ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Emily Davies, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has told federal agency leaders that they can ignore the public decree from Elon Musk to effectively fire employees who do not send in bullet-point summaries of their work last week..., a break with the billionaire who has exerted significant power to slash the 2.3-million-person federal workforce. The Office of Personnel Management ... delivered the news to agency chief human capital officers on a call midday Monday.... [A] person briefed on the call said ... that OPM was unsure what to do with the emails of employees who responded so far and had 'no plans' to analyze them. Later in the day, though, Trump suggested nonresponders could still be terminated, while Musk wrote on X they would be given 'another chance' to write back before being fired. In a written memo, OPM wrote that employees should respond but added, 'Agency heads may exclude personnel from this expectation at their discretion and should inform OPM of the categories of the employees excluded and reasons for exclusion.'

"The patchwork of conflicting, evolving guidance and ensuing confusion has become a mainstay of the Musk-led U.S. DOGE Service's campaign to shrink the federal government -- an effort that has inspired considerable backlash from the courts, lawmakers and people inside the bureaucracy. Also Monday, a federal watchdog agency said the Trump administration's firings of a handful of probationary federal workers were illegal and requested a 45-day stay of their terminations."

     ~~~ Allan Smith of NBC News: "The Department of Health and Human Services sent agency employees an email Monday afternoon warning them that any responses to Elon Musk's request that they share their accomplishments from the past week might 'be read by malign foreign actors.'... [An] email [to staff] said employees who wish to respond should keep 'a high level of generality and describe your work in a manner to protect sensitive data.... Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly.'..." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, the DOGE & the Little DOGEys would either purposely or inadvertently share federal employees' work with "malign foreign actors." Smith also reports on the lamest CYA attempt ever written: "Musk defended the email request Monday evening in a post on X. 'Th email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!,' Musk wrote. 'Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers. Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?'"

Gary Grumbach & Doha Madani of NBC News: "A federal judge on Monday declined to issue a temporary restraining order for The Associated Press in its effort to gain full access to the Trump administration, asking for a fuller briefing before making a decision.... The AP was barred indefinitely from accessing the Oval Office and Air Force One, as it had in the past, because of its refusal to change its style for the Gulf of Mexico to the 'Gulf of America.' Judge Trevor McFadden told the court there were several reasons he denied the temporary restraining order request. He noted there was a difference in the issues of this case and case law presented by both parties." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In an on-air CNN report, Paula Reed noted that McFadden is a Trump appointee, and that he has scheduled a hearing for further arguments.

Hafiz Rashid of the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! News: "French President Emmanuel Macron visited the White House on Monday, and during a press conference in the Oval Office, he was forced to correct ... [Donald] Trump on Ukraine. Trump remarked that 'Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They get their money back.' Macron immediately set the record straight, touching Trump's arm as he explained the truth. 'No, in fact, to be frank. We paid. We paid 60 percent of the total effort, and it was through, like the U.S., loans, guarantee, grants, and we provided real money, to be clear,' Macron said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Why our own reporters refuse to do what the French leader did Monday is beyond me. As far as I can see, White House reporters almost always let Trump get away with flagrant lies. Occasionally a reporter will ask Trump a question of substance, one that challenges a stupid Trump stunts. But then the reporter always lets Trump weasel out of answering the question, usually by responding with some ridiculous CYA lie. The reporter never calls out the lie that gives Trump a fake excuse for the stupid stunt of the moment. Letting Trump get away with a fake excuse renders the entire exchange useless.

This is so wrong: ~~~

~~~ Ukraine to Succumb to U.S. Extortion. Constant Méheut of the New York Times: "Ukraine and the United States are closing in on an agreement that would grant Washington a share of Kyiv's revenues from natural resources..., [Donald] Trump and a Ukrainian government official said Monday, after an intense pressure campaign from the American president to strike a deal. Mr. Trump said that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine may come to the White House this week or next week to sign the agreement. 'The agreement's being worked on now. They're very close to a final deal,' Mr. Trump said on Monday at the White House. Earlier in the day, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Olha Stefanishyna, posted on X that 'Ukrainian and U.S. teams are in the final stages of negotiations regarding the minerals agreement.'"

⭐We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is Us. Karen DeYoung & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "The United States voted with Russia, North Korea, Iran [link fixed] and 14 other Moscow-friendly countries Monday against a resolution condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine and calling for the return of Ukrainian territory. The resolution passed overwhelmingly in the U.N. General Assembly. The U.S. delegation also abstained from voting on its own competing resolution that simply called for an end to the war, after European-sponsored amendments inserting new anti-Russian language in the resolution also passed the 193-member body by a wide margin. The amended U.S. resolution also passed. The votes, taken on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, were an astounding reflection of the deepening split between the Trump administration and its major allies over support for Ukraine and disapproval of ... Donald Trump's unilateral outreach to the Kremlin to settle the war on terms favorable to Russia." An NBC News story is here.

Meg Kelly, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has rescinded a Biden-era regulation that sought to ensure American allies don't use U.S.-made weapons in violation of international humanitarian law.... The White House's repeal of the directive which President Joe Biden imposed as his administration struggled to reconcile its support for Israel's war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and its alarm about the civilian toll of that fight, comes as the Trump administration puts its 'America First' mark on U.S. foreign policy.... Biden's memo built on existing laws related to arms transfers, requiring countries acquiring U.S.-made weapons to provide written assurance they would not employ those arms in violation of international humanitarian law and would facilitate the delivery of U.S.-provided humanitarian aid, under the threat of suspension of arms supplies. While its proponents said the memo served as a means to pressure Israel to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid in Gaza, a major point of contention between U.S. and Israeli officials since the war broke out..., critics said the Biden administration failed to use its own rules to effectively improve conditions for civilians in Gaza."

Lindsay Whitehurst & Chris Megerian of the AP: "... Donald Trump voiced support for Elon Musk's demand that federal employees explain their recent accomplishments by the end of Monday or risk getting fired, an edict that has spawned new litigation and added to turmoil within the government workforce. 'What he's doing is saying, "Are you actually working?"' Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. 'And then, if you don't answer, like, you're sort of semi-fired or you're fired, because a lot of people aren't answering because they don't even exist.' The Republican president said that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has found 'hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud' as he suggested that federal paychecks are going to nonexistent employees. He did not present evidence for his claims. Attorneys representing unions, businesses, veterans and conservation organizations filed an updated lawsuit in federal court in California on Monday, arguing Musk had violated the law with his demand.... The lawsuit, spearheaded by the State Democracy Defenders Fund, called the threat of mass firings 'one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'd like to know who's collecting the paychecks of all these people who don't exist. What bull!

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Monday blocked Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service from using private information collected by the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management. U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Teachers to stop DOGE from accessing databases containing personal information on millions of Americans. She denied the union's request to block DOGE from sensitive Treasury Department data because a preliminary injunction in a separate case achieved that goal. The order bars the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management, which manages personnel for the federal government, from disclosing personally identifiable information to DOGE affiliates at least until March 10."

Anne D'Innocenzio of the AP: "Fabric and crafts retailer Joann Inc., which has been a destination for generations of quilters, knitters and lovers of crafts projects for more than 80 years, is going out of business and shuttering all its stores. The announcement comes after the Hudson, Ohio-based retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, the second time in a year. It cited sluggish consumer demand and inventory shortages. At the time it vowed it would keep all of its stores open."

The refusal to accept King Donald but to instead promote the Prince Regent continues unabated. Admittedly, the Little Prince is doing most of the king stuff: ~~~

~~~ Emily Forlini of PC Magazine: "Department of Housing and Urban Development employees returning to the office today were greeted by a looping clip of Trump sucking Musk's toes behind the words 'long live the real king.' Those reporting to work at the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Washington, D.C. headquarters this morning got an eyeful as someone appeared to have hacked screens at the building to display an AI-generated video of President Trump.... The stunt coincides with all HUD employees being ordered to return to the office today. The video played on a loop for about five minutes on screens throughout the building, according to independent journalist Marisa Kabas. Staffers 'couldn't figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs,' Kabas says." Thanks to RAS for the link.~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I wonder if the person who (1) created the toe-sucking screen & (2) fed it into the HUD system will write these down as two of his five accomplishments for the week.

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Some people are not taking the reign of King Donald seriously. One of those unserious people would be RAS, who thought it important to share these obviously mocked-up Time covers. Look, Donald is king and he does not have a regent. He is a manly man, and he has many an heir of his own. If there be a prince, it be Donald II, not Elon. If we're to have a proper monarchy, it must be hereditary. And, as with the Spanish Hapsburgs, we should expect to see strong signs of inbreeding. Many have already speculated about the heritage of Donald II, what with his evident shortcomings.

~~~ Okay, he's more terrible and more delusional than the last king we had (who was fairly terrible and definitely delusional) ~~~

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "In his first month in office..., Donald Trump has upended the nation's nearly century-old approach to global affairs. The speed and energy with which the president has moved to remake Washington's role in the world has been most visible in his approach to the war between Russia and Ukraine. He has embraced Russia's strength and blasted the smaller country, falsely accusing President Volodymyr Zelensky of starting a conflict that began with a Russian invasion. He has insulted U.S. allies in Europe, who for decades have relied on the United States to check Russian power. The result, diplomats and analysts say, has been to cede influence to Moscow. But that might just be the beginning. At worst, Trump's strategy could embolden other global powers, notably China, to adopt more bellicose policies toward their neighbors, they say -- the opposite of what some of his allies say needs to be the focus of U.S. foreign policy." ~~~

     ~~~ Paul Sonne of the New York Times writes a similar assessment, emphasizing the "new possibilities" Trump has afforded Putin. See also remarks, linked below, by Friedrich Merz, who is about to become Germany's new chancellor, as well as Western leaders' support for Ukraine, also linked below.

Plus, Our King Is Preternaturally Corrupt. Natalie Allison, et al., of the Washington Post: "In back-to-back events last week..., Donald Trump held court with Saudi government officials and investors who do business with his family's firms. On Wednesday, he made a special trip to Miami to appear at a beachfront conference hosted by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which has invested $2 billion in a business run by the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and is the main backer of LIV Golf, the upstart golf league that has held five tournaments at Trump's courses since it launched in 2022, with a sixth scheduled for April at Trump National Doral in Miami. Trump has not disclosed his profits from the events. Kushner, Trump's 'first buddy' Elon Musk, and other family business associates of Trump and his Middle East envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, also attended. Less than 24 hours later, Trump hosted Yasir Al-Rumayyan -- who runs the Saudi fund and oversees LIV Golf -- for a meeting at the White House. On the agenda: a potential reunification of the golf world. The meetings demonstrated how Trump has blended the roles of president and business mogul. But 'it's hard to see how any of those meetings have anything to do with our interests as American taxpayers,' said Don Fox, former general counsel for the U.S. Office of Government Ethics." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Great. You've got your greedy king. You've got your upper-crusty sport. You've got your foreign billions. You've got your nepo baby. You've got your oligarchs. So to hell with us peasants.

Adam Goldman & Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: "Dan Bongino, a former New York City police officer and Secret Service agent turned right-wing pundit and podcaster, will be the next deputy director of the F.B.I...., [Donald] Trump said on Sunday night. Mr. Trump, making the announcement on his social media site, said the newly installed F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, had named Mr. Bongino to the No. 2 post at the country's most powerful law enforcement agency. The role of deputy director does not require Senate confirmation, meaning two steadfast Trump loyalists will effectively be installed at the uppermost reaches of an agency known for its tradition of independence.... In the past, F.B.I. directors have selected senior agents with extensive experience to essentially run the bureau's operations, a complex and grueling job that requires working closely with foreign partners and navigating sensitive investigations.

"The choice of Mr. Bongino is a radical and abrupt departure from that practice and raises startling questions about how two people who have never served as F.B.I. agents will oversee the vast surveillance and investigative powers of an agency of 38,000 people and a budget of about $11 billion. The combination of Mr. Patel and Mr. Bongino will represent the least experienced leadership pair in the history of a bureau typically insulated from White House interference. It will also ensure that the bureau will be run by men who have freely peddled misinformation and embraced partisan politics." The AP's report is here.

Edward Wong of the New York Times: "Trump administration appointees in charge of the U.S. Agency for International Development sent employees an email on Sunday afternoon saying that they were firing 2,000 workers and putting up to thousands of foreign service officers and other direct hires around the world on paid leave starting that night. The only exceptions to the leave would be people working on 'mission-critical programs,' as well as 'core leadership' and employees supporting 'specially designated programs,' according to a copy of the email obtained by The New York Times. The email said appointees running U.S.A.I.D. were firing 2,000 employees based in the United States using a mechanism called 'reduction in force.' The mass firings are part of a series of layoffs of agency employees by the Trump administration during a broad effort to halt almost all U.S. foreign aid using a blanket freeze. The moves came after a judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration could proceed with plans to lay off or put on paid leave many agency employees and close down operations overseas, which means forcing employees based abroad to come back to the United States. Some of those employees say they expect to be fired once they return home." Politico's report is here.

Irie Sentner of Politico: "Elon Musk's weekend threat to federal workers triggered panic and confusion Sunday as administration officials rushed to issue sometimes conflicting guidance, setting in motion a power struggle between Musk and agency heads appointed by ... Donald Trump to lead the federal government. The guidance varied by agency, with some leaders telling their employees to wait before complying with Musk's demand that they justify their jobs in writing and others either staying silent or offering vague advice on how to handle the Musk missive. It's the latest episode of Musk's 'move fast and break things' philosophy clashing with the layers of rules and laws that fortify the bureaucracy he hopes to hobble. And it's the first sign that even staunch Trump loyalists are beginning to flex their political muscle against Musk, an unelected 'special government employee,' whose power stems primarily from his proximity to the president." Federal employment law experts have pointed out that Musk's or-else demand is illegal for several reasons. A related AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Lauren Irwin of the Hill: "Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) slammed Elon Musk over an 'absurd weekend email' sent to federal employees requiring they send the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) a list of what they accomplished in the past week. 'Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform,' Murkowski wrote on the social platform X. 'The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn't it.'... 'If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he's trying to cut,' Murkowski said." ~~~

~~~ "He's Just a Dick." Paige Skinner of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) called out Elon Musk for his new requirement that all federal employees defend their jobs or else get fired. 'This is the ultimate dick boss move from Musk - except he isn't even the boss, he's just a dick,' Smith wrote Saturday in a post on X, which included a screenshot of Musk's original post explaining the new requirement." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Oh gosh, I just figured out that this is all Rachel Maddow's fault. Follow me here: ~~~

     ~~~ Will Neal of the Daily Beast (Feb. 22), republished by Yahoo! News: "Maddow called ... Donald Trump's leadership 'decorative' on the Friday night broadcast of The Rachel Maddow Show, suggesting that 'First Buddy' and DOGE director Elon Musk is truly holding the power and the public's attention.... She alleged that Trump has been made to look 'weak' and 'sort of beside the point' as Musk continues to 'regularly upstage' and even 'talk over him' in interviews and conferences held at the White House.... Trump appeared to address her comments on Saturday morning as he launched a series of rage posts targeting the network. 'MSNBC, COMMONLY KNOWN AS MSDNC, IS A THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY,' wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform. 'SUCH LYING AND MISREPRESENTATION. BAD PEOPLE AT THE TOP!' As if in further defiance of Maddow's comments, Trump also called for Musk to 'GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Now, if you take a look at the top of yesterday's Reality Chex page, you'll see that shortly after Trump urged Musk to "be more aggressive," Musk ordered federal employees to list their accomplishments or else: So now we learn that the sequence of events is

(1) He [Trump] appears to be sort of decorative at this point.... The person who's really working double-time to make the government actually do things appears to be his top campaign donor, who is getting all the attention, and all the credit. -- Rachel Maddow, Friday night MSNBC show

(2) Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him be more aggressive. -- Donald Trump, rage-post on his failing social media site, as a riposte to Maddow's biting assertions

(3) All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week... Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation. -- Elon Musk, post of his failing social media site

(4) What Did You Do Last Week? -- Office of Personnel Management, email to civil servants, subject line

Patrick Wingrove, et al., of Reuters (Feb. 22), republished by Yahoo! News: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is asking some of its recently fired scientists if they will come back to their jobs, including some employees reviewing Elon Musk's brain implant company, Neuralink, multiple sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The FDA plans to rehire around 300 people in total, according to four sources with secondhand knowledge of the situation, following ... Donald Trump's rush last week to fire employees at the agency responsible for reviewing drugs, food safety, medical devices and tobacco.... It is not known who ordered the firings and now the rehirings, according to sources familiar with the situation, including several employees caught up in the turmoil. At least 11 employees working at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health -- which oversees medical device reviews -- have received calls since Friday saying they could return to work on Monday...."

“No Exit.” Federico Rios of the New York Times: “On floor after floor of Panama City’s soaring Decapolis Hotel, people huddled around the windows of rooms they could not leave. They were among roughly 300 migrants from all around the world, deported by the United States to Panama. There, they were barred from leaving the hotel or meeting lawyers.... In furtive messages, sent through handmade signs, hidden phones and gestures behind glass, some of the migrants expressed a sense of constant, overwhelming fear.... We learned that the 10 Iranian migrants had converted to Christianity, which according to Iran's Shariah law, is a crime punishable by death. They had illegally entered the United States in the last month, and were detained in San Diego before being deported to Panama.... Migrants who did not agree to be deported would be taken to a detention camp on the outskirts of the jungle known as the Darién Gap, Panama's security minister said. He described the decision to hold the migrants as part of an accord with the United States." A related Washington Post story, published Feb. 21, is here.

Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The military transported about 15 immigration detainees from Texas to the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Sunday, bringing in new migrants who have been designated for deportation days after it cleared the base of its first group of deportees."

Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Sharp cuts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development are likely to upend housing markets, make homes less affordable and roil mortgage transactions, according to current and former employees, contractors and housing experts. The changes come amid a national housing crisis, with not enough homes and ever-rising costs. Current and former staffers ... said it was increasingly difficult to answer how and whether HUD can carry out its core functions as the federal government's top housing agency. Those concerns have grown, they said, since officials from the U.S. DOGE Service, billionaire Elon Musk's effort to slash federal spending and regulations, appeared at the department's headquarters. HUD's entire workforce is projected to drop by about half -- from about 8,300 employees to just over 4,000 -- with deep cuts in field offices nationwide, according to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post.... Staffers also emphasized that these cuts appear to contrast with ... Donald Trump's campaign promises to make housing more affordable." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course Trump doesn't care about making housing more affordable for most people, but to the extent that he wants to do something splashy to lower housing costs, he would want to do that splashy thing for middle-class white people, not the more needy people HUD assists. So there's no "contrast with Trump's campaign promises."

In case you know somebody who still is of the impression that Musk's indiscriminate cuts to the federal workforce are about reducing waste, fraud and abuse, there's this: ~~~

~~~ Frederick Gibbs and six other former IRS Commissioners under Republican and Democratic administrations, in a New York Times op-ed: "Last week, the Trump administration started laying off about 6,700 I.R.S. employees, many if not most of whom are directly involved in collecting unpaid taxes.... Aggressive reductions in the I.R.S.'s resources will only render our government less effective and less efficient in collecting the taxes Congress has imposed. It will shift the burden of funding the government from people who shirk their taxes to the honest people who pay them, and it will impede efforts by the I.R.S. to modernize customer service and simplify the tax filing process for everyone."

Joan Greve of the Guardian: "Attendees of a center-right political conference in Washington DC were forced to evacuate on Sunday, after someone claiming to be Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group who was convicted and then pardoned for his role in the January 6 insurrection, allegedly emailed in a bomb threat against the event. Tarrio denied any involvement in the incident. Organizers of the Principles First summit, which is considered a center-right alternative to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), confirmed the bomb threat after they abruptly asked attendees to clear the room hosting the conference.... Jim Acosta, the former CNN host, posted a copy of the threatening message on social media. The message claimed that four pipe bombs had been deployed against political enemies of 'Emperor Trump' who 'all deserve to die', including attendees at the conference, Michael Fanone, a former US Capitol police officer, Fanone's mother and John Bolton, Donald Trump's former national security adviser." ~~~

~~~ Joan Greve of the Guardian: "Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group who was convicted and then pardoned for his role in the January 6 insurrection, confronted a group of police officers who defended the Capitol during the attack, accusing one of them of being a 'coward'. A video shared by Tarrio on social media on Saturday showed him following the officers, Michael Fanone, Harry Dunn, Daniel Hodges and Aquilino Gonell, through the lobby of a Washington hotel that was hosting the Principles First summit, a conference where one of the officers received a 'profile in courage' award. In the video, an unidentified woman with the officers tells Tarrio: 'You guys are traitors, just back off.' 'You were brave on Twitter,' Tarrio said to one of the officers as he continued to follow them. 'You guys were brave at my sentencing when you sat there and laughed when I got 22 fucking years. Now you don't want to look in my eyes, you fucking cowards.'"

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Idaho. Kate Thornbrugh of the Coeur d'Alene Press: "A legislative town hall organized by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee devolved into chaos Saturday when unidentified, plainclothes security personnel dragged a Post Falls woman from the Coeur d'Alene High School auditorium for heckling legislators.... Footage from the event showed [Kootenai County Sheriff Bob] Norris take [attendee Teresa] Borrenpohl's arm with both hands and make multiple attempts to pull her from her seat. Borrenpohl said that after she declined to leave, Norris turned to the unidentified men and said, 'Guys, get her.' On video, Borrenpohl can be seen repeatedly asking the men to identify themselves. They did not. She asked Norris if the men were his deputies, and he gave no answer.... [Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee] White said it's not appropriate for law enforcement to forcefully remove a person from a town hall for speaking out of turn or shouting.... Coeur d'Alene city code requires security agents to wear uniforms 'clearly marked' with the word 'security.'... The security personnel at Saturday's town hall were in plainclothes, with no visible sign they were security." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If Republicans don't stop holding townhall meetings, we're going to keep reading stories like this. ~~~

~~~ Fer Instance. Pennsylvania. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch believes that Tesla owner Elon Musk's attempts to slash and burn the federal government have awakened voters who are now engaging in what he describes as an 'American uprising.' In his latest column, Bunch focuses on the protests that are targeting the showrooms at Tesla car dealerships to protest against Musk's illegal efforts to shut dow entire government departments without any congressional input or authorization.... Added to this are the town halls in which Republican lawmakers are facing increasingly hostile constituents, as well as 'large protests over the last week by laid-off federal workers, by LGBTQ activists in New York City furious over the scrubbing of transgender references from the Stonewall National Monument, and here in Philadelphia and elsewhere for last Monday's Not My President Day.'"

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Germany. Christopher Schuetze & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Germany is getting a new chancellor. Its current leader is heading out of power, but his party probably will stick around in a diminished capacity. And the Trump administration's efforts to influence the vote don't seem to have done much.... By early Monday morning, the results [of Sunday's elections] seemed clear enough to indicate that the center-right Christian Democrats would be able to lead Germany with only one coalition partner, returning the country to the more durable two-party form of government that has led it for most of this century. Here are five takeaways from the returns." ~~~

~~~ Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Germans voted for a change of leadership on Sunday, handing the most votes in a parliamentary election to centrist conservatives, with the far right in second, and rebuking the nation's left-leaning government for its handling of the economy and immigration. The results almost certainly mean the country's next chancellor will be Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democrats. Returns posted early Monday morning indicated that he had a path to governing Germany with only one coalition partner, the relatively stable scenario that his party had hoped for." ~~~

~~~ Deutsche Welle's main story is here. DW has a bunch of election graphics here. ~~~

⭐~~~ Tschüss. Tim Ross & Nette Nöstlinger of Politico: ";The Trump administration does not care about Europe and is aligning with Russia, said [Friedrich] Merz, who is on course to become Germany's new leader. The continent, he warned, must urgently strengthen its defenses and potentially even find a replacement for NATO -- within months. Merz's comments mark a historic watershed: They reveal how deeply Trump has shaken the political foundations of Europe, which has depended on American security guarantees since 1945.... 'My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA,' Germany's chancellor-in-waiting said. "... after Donald Trump's statements last week at the latest, it is clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans, this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.'... Merz, a staunch Atlanticist[,] has spent much of his professional career as a lawyer working with and for American firms...."

Ukraine, et al. Justin Spike of the AP: "More than a dozen Western leaders attended events in Ukraine on Monday marking the third anniversary of the country's war with Russia, many pledging more military aid in a conspicuous show of support for Kyiv as uncertainty deepened over the commitment of ... Donald Trump's administration to helping it fend off Russia's invasion.... Some of Ukraine's most important backers, including European leaders and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, were among the stream of dignitaries arriving by train in Kyiv. Others spoke at a conference via video link.... World security is at stake in talks over how the war ends, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned." ~~~

~~~ David Latona of Reuters, via AOL: "Spain will provide Ukraine with a new military aid package worth 1 billion euros ($1.05 billion) this year, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday in Kyiv during an international meeting held on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion. The package comes as part of a 10-year bilateral security and defence agreement signed in May 2024, according to a statement by Sanchez's office. Last year, Madrid already sent over 1 billion euros in aid for Ukraine's defence." ~~~

~~~ Constant Méheut & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back on Sunday against demands from the Trump administration for billions in Ukrainian natural resources and for holding peace talks that exclude Ukraine, while announcing plans for a major summit of European leaders on Monday. The Ukrainian leader's efforts to shore up European support while pressing ahead on negotiations with the United States came despite ominous messages from ... [Donald] Trump in recent days belittling Mr. Zelensky and issuing threats if Ukraine does not soon agree to a minerals deal. Mr. Zelensky suggested that in assailing Ukraine, Mr. Trump had chosen the wrong adversary.... 'If peace for Ukraine requires me to step down, I'm ready,' Mr. Zelensky said on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion. 'Another scenario: I could trade my position for NATO membership, if that's what it takes,' he added.... [Mr. Zelensky] said that more than 30 countries would participate in meetings on Monday, either in person in Kyiv or virtually, as a kind of coalition of support for Ukraine's war effort.... On Saturday evening, Mr. Trump ramped up pressure on Ukraine to sign the minerals deal, which has now been under negotiation for more than 10 days." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was glad to hear a few Democrats on the teevee Sunday expressing horror at Trump's attempts to extort an ally.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Clint Hill, the Secret Service agent who leaped onto President John F. Kennedy's limousine as it came under fire in Dallas and prevented a scrambling Jacqueline Kennedy from falling to the ground, died on Friday at his home in Belvedere, Calif. Mr. Hill, hailed for his bravery but long tormented by his inability to save the president's life, was 93."

New York Times: "Roberta Flack, the magnetic singer and pianist whose intimate blend of soul, jazz and folk made her one of the most popular artists of the 1970s, died on Monday in Manhattan. She was 88."

New York Times: "Pope Francis is suffering from 'initial, mild kidney failure' in addition to the serious respiratory illness that has left the 88-year-old pontiff in critical condition in a Rome hospital, the Vatican said on Sunday. Describing a 'complex' clinical picture, the Vatican said that the kidney ailment was 'at present under control,' and that there had been no repeat of the respiratory crisis that the pope had experienced on Saturday. The pope was 'alert and well oriented,' the Vatican said, and he attended Mass in his suite along with the medical staff caring for him."

The Conversation -- February 23, 2025

Constant Méheut & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back on Sunday against demands from the Trump administration for billions in Ukrainian natural resources and for holding peace talks that exclude Ukraine, while announcing plans for a major summit of European leaders on Monday. The Ukrainian leader's efforts to shore up European support while pressing ahead on negotiations with the United States came despite ominous messages from ... [Donald] Trump ... belittling Mr. Zelensky and issuing threats if Ukraine does not soon agree to a minerals deal. Mr. Zelensky suggested that in assailing Ukraine, Mr. Trump had chosen the wrong adversary.... 'If peace for Ukraine requires me to step down, I'm ready,' Mr. Zelensky said on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion. 'Another scenario: I could trade my position for NATO membership, if that's what it takes,' he added.... The Ukrainian leader said that more than 30 countries would participate in meetings on Monday, either in person in Kyiv or virtually, as a kind of coalition of support for Ukraine's war effort.... On Saturday evening, Mr. Trump ramped up pressure on Ukraine to sign the minerals deal, which has now been under negotiation for more than 10 days." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was glad to hear a few Democrats on the teevee Sunday expressing horror at Trump's attempts to extort an ally.

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Marie: Even when Musk came up with the Nazi-like name "Department of Government Efficiency," I didn't imagine anything as despotic as this ~~~

They're terrorizing us. -- National Institutes of Health Employee

It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life. -- Everett Kelley, President of the American Federation of Government Employees union

There is zero basis in the civil service system for this.... This is obviously designed to intimidate employees. Musk and DOGE and the Trump administration are persistently acting in a way that disregards civil service rules and they are just counting on the courts not being able to catch up and clean up after them.... They are counting on employees saying, "This is too much, I can't keep doing this." -- Sam Bagenstos, former general counsel to the Office of Management and Budget ~~~

~~~ Kate Conger, et al., of the New York Times: "Elon Musk deepened the confusion and alarm of workers across the federal government Saturday by ordering them to summarize their accomplishments for the week, warning that a failure to do so would be taken as a resignation. Shortly after Mr. Musk&'s demand, which he posted on X, civil servants across the government received an email from the Office of Personnel Management with the subject line, 'What did you do last week?'... Officials at some agencies, including the F.B.I. and the State Department, told their employees to pause responses to the email. Mr. Musk's mounting pressure on the federal work force came at the encouragement of ... [Donald] Trump, who has been trumpeting how the billionaire has upended the bureaucracy and on Saturday urged him to be even 'more aggressive.' [Agency leaders' responses varied.] 'DOGE and Elon are doing great work! Historic. We are happy to participate,' Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C..., wrote in a message to his staff.... [F.B.I. Director Kash Patel wrote, '... When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.'" Politico's horror story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Here was the sequence of communications:

(1) Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him be more aggressive. -- Donald Trump, post on his failing social media site

(2) All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week... Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation. -- Elon Musk, post of his failing social media site

(3)What Did You Do Last Week? -- Office of Personnel Management, email to civil servants, subject line

     ~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM: "Over the course of the evening top leadership at the FBI, the State Department, the VA, the Department of the Navy (to its civilian employees) and other parts of the government have explicitly instructed employees in their departments and agencies to ignore the email. Meanwhile the DOJ seems to be instructing its employees to follow it. (And yes, FBI is sort of under DOJ and that's kind of weird but that's where we are.) It's important to note that these emails are authorized or allowed if not directed by the President of the United States. And yet whole wings of the government are saying to ignore it.... The elected President is in the backseat of this car if he's in the car at all. But here you have seemingly the first time where his own appointees are pushing back and in a fairly public way."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "In the first month since he returned to power, [Donald Trump] has demonstrated once again a brazen willingness to advance distortions, conspiracy theories and outright lies to justify major policy decisions. Mr. Trump has long been unfettered by truth when it comes to boasting about his record and tearing down his enemies. But what were dubbed 'alternative facts' in his first term have quickly become a whole alternative reality in his second to lay the groundwork for radical change as he moves to aggressively reshape America and the world.... The world according to Mr. Trump is one where he is a master of every challenge and any failure is someone else's fault." Baker cites example after example, ending with a recounting of how Michael Waltz, now Trump's national security advisor, flipflopped his assessment of the Russia/Ukraine war, so that "Mr. Waltz's actual reality gave way to Mr. Trump's alternative version." ~~~

~~~ Journalist Claire Berlinski on Substack: "Donald Trump lives in a world of delusions. The things he believes aren't true. Media accounts suggest that those around him treat him like a relative with dementia. They tell them whatever he likes to hear, so long as it keeps him happy and calm. They don't correct his misapprehensions. They strive, instead, to make the world conform to his fantasies.... [The extraordinary damage Trump and Musk are doing] is only possible because so many Americans, and in particular, so many members of Congress, have chosen either to enter their fantasy world or deny the evidence that these men are insane. We're witnessing a textbook case of folie à millions: an extreme collective delusion." Berlinski goes on to diagnose, a la Erich Fromm, a collective or group narcissism, which she says "typically takes the form of destructive nationalism.... You are watching a superpower commit suicide. Not since the Visigoths sacked Rome has a great empire suffered so much damage to its power and prestige in so short a time." A long Sunday read. Thanks to laura h. for the link. ~~~

~~~ Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, relying on a translation of a work by the ancient Roman historian Gaius Suetonius, compares Trump to Caligula. (Hey, if the sandal fits, strap it on.) "'Remember, I can do whatever I want to whomever I want.' It sounds like ... Trump, to the world. But it was Caligula, to his grandmother.... As Suetonius noted about Caligula, 'To the Senate he showed no more mercy or respect. He allowed some who had achieved the highest offices to run alongside his chariot in their togas for several miles or to stand, dressed in a linen cloth, at the head or the foot of his couch as he dined.' Sound familiar?" The translator, Joshua "Osgood writes of Caligula's 'propensity to give in to every whim and the relish he took in putting down others with cruel remarks.'"

"Coalition of the Crass." Ali Breland of the Atlantic: "Penis jokes are the kind of juvenile humor that Musk is known for.... His jokes, terrible as they are, are indicative of a new sensibility taking hold on the right -- one that Musk himself, in his rightward shift, has played a role in shaping. Trolling in its various forms (posting about balls, trying to offend, making political opponents squirm) has gone from an occasionally used tool to a unifying touchstone of an entire political faction.... [Trump's] victory has unleashed a coalition of the crass that encompasses a growing number of Americans who are excited to be able to call things 'retarded' and 'gay' again, joke about deporting people, and delight in the performance of saying things that are 'not PC.'... It is not enough to beat your adversaries. They must be humiliated." Thanks to laura h. for this gift link.

A Crude Collaborator Gets a Big Promotion. Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Leaders of the Social Security Administration had just opened an investigation into a career employee they believed was improperly sharing information with Elon Musk's cost-cutting team when ... Donald Trump elevated the employee this week to acting commissioner, according to three current or former government officials with knowledge of the events. The agency's leadership team became aware in recent weeks that Leland Dudek, a data analyst working in a small anti-fraud office who had been unknown to many of them, was sharing unauthorized access to information with representatives of Musk's U.S. DOGE Service.... [Dudek's] actions raised enough alarm that he may have violated privacy and tax laws that senior officials placed him on paid leave as they launched their investigation. The officials ... also were notified late last week that Dudek had sent harassing emails to employees in the agency's personnel and security divisions to rush them to let several engineers hired by DOGE start work and gain access to agency computer systems. The officials pushed back, saying that they had not completed background investigations into the new hires."

Katherine Faulders & Alexander Mallin of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is expected to name FBI Director Kash Patel as the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... The move comes after Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the ATF's general counsel, Pamela Hicks, late last week. Bondi said in an interview with Fox News on Friday that it was because the agency's lead lawyer was 'targeting gun owners.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait! Wait! If the task of going after violators of firearms laws is part of the name of your agency, wouldn't you kind of be required to "target gun owners"? What does Bondi think "firearms" are? Upper extremities aflame?

Bernard Condon of the AP: "Elon Musk's cost-cutting team is eliminating jobs at the vehicle safety agency that oversees Tesla and has launched investigations into deadly crashes involving his company's cars. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has cut a 'modest' amount of positions, according to a statement from the agency. Musk has accused NHTSA of holding back progress on self-driving technology with its investigations and recalls."

Edward Wong & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "Trump administration appointees running the main United States aid agency have in recent days fired hundreds of employees who help manage responses to urgent humanitarian crises around the world.... The firings add to doubts raised about whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio is allowing employees for the United States Agency for International Development, or U.S.A.I.D., to carry out lifesaving humanitarian assistance, as he had promised to do late last month during a blanket freeze of almost all foreign aid from the U.S. government. Trump appointees have fired or put on paid leave thousands of employees of U.S.A.I.D. A task force of young engineers working for Elon Musk ... has shut down many technical systems in the aid agency and barred employees from their email accounts. Mr. Musk has posted dark conspiracy theories about U.S.A.I.D. on social media, asserting with no evidence that it is a 'criminal organization' and that it was 'time for it to die.'

"The latest round of dismissals occurred on Friday night, when hundreds of people working for the agency's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance got emails saying their jobs had been terminated. Two employees who got the emails said they were strange because they did not state any job titles specifically and did not have the recipients' names in the 'to' field. They were generic emails sent out in a large wave.... About 400 people were fired in recent days from humanitarian assistance positions, one U.S. official said. About 200 of those were contractors for the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, the officials said, and another 200 were part of a unit called the Support Relief Group, a collection of crisis experts...."

It's what you do when you're planning to break the law: you get rid of any lawyers who might try to slow you down. -- Rosa Brooks, Georgetown Law ~~~

~~~ Gregg Jaffe of the New York Times: "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's decision to fire the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force represents an opening salvo in his push to remake the military into a force that is more aggressive on the battlefield and potentially less hindered by the laws of armed conflict. Mr. Hegseth, in the Pentagon and during his meetings with troops last week in Europe, has spoken repeatedly about the need to restore a 'warrior ethos' to a military that he insists has become soft, social-justice obsessed and more bureaucratic over the past two decades.... Senior Pentagon officials said that Mr. Hegseth has had no contact with any of the three fired uniform military lawyers since taking office. None of the three -- Lt. Gen. Joseph B. Berger III, Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer and Rear Adm. Lia M. Reynolds -- were even named in the Pentagon statement announcing their dismissal from decades of military service. A senior military official ... added that the military lawyers had 'zero heads up' that they were being removed from office and that the top brass in the Army, Navy and Air Force were also caught unaware." In his book published last year, Hegseth called the JAGs (judge advocates general)"'"

We have some spy stories today. You would be wise to take them with the proverbial grains of salt. ~~~

"Krasnov." brianinca of Daily Kos: "So earlier today, the Daily Beast's Isabel van Brugen published a bombshell story about allegations by Kazakh Spy Chief Alnur Mussayev that the KGB had recruited Donald Trump as a Soviet Asset way back in 1987 under the code name 'Krasnov.'... Within hours, it was scrubbed from both the Daily Beast's site.... There is no retraction on the Daily Beast site, or even any acknowledgment that the story existed, and several republishers have pulled the story as well.... The speed at which this is being memory holed is rather breathtaking." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ In today's Comments, Akhilleus tells us why he is skeptical that Trump is Krasnov. He has a point. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: The Kyiv Post is going with the story. ~~~

     ~~~ Nafeez Ahmed & Zarina Zabrisky of Byline Times: "A former senior Soviet KGB spy chief has claimed that Donald Trump was recruited as a spy by Russian intelligence as early as 38 years ago by his department, and given the codename "Krasnov".... In an extraordinary post on Facebook on 20 February, Alnur Mussayev -- who used to run the successor to the Soviet-era KGB in Kazakhstan -- claimed that he was personally aware of Trump's recruitment by the agency in 1987. The recruitment, he said, was undertaken by his own KGB department. One of the key roles of that department was to acquire intelligence through business leaders in Western countries." Thanks to RAS for the link.

Journalist Jacob Silverman: "Among the cadre of DOGE engineers now rooting through the guts of the administrative state, few have attracted more curiosity than Edward 'Big Balls' Coristine, a 19-year-old coder who interned for three months for Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain implant company. Coristine has a brief but colorful history that includes being fired from Path Networks, a cybersecurity company, for giving company documents to a competitor. He apparently palled around with a criminal hacking group called The Com and, according to a Telegram account associated with him, had solicited hacking services online. In 2021, he founded a company called Tesla.Sexy LLC that, according to Wired, 'controls dozens of web domains, including at least two Russian-registered domains....'... Coristine has email addresses at USAID and the Department of Homeland Security and was recently seen inside the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the State Department.... There's one aspect of Coristine's background that has escaped public notice: his grandfather, Valery Martynov, was a KGB spy who played an intriguing role in a sprawling 1980s espionage drama." Silverman describes the spy v. spy interactions. The Russians eventually lured Martynov, who had become a counterspy, back to Moscow & executed him.

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "With ... Donald Trump and GOP leaders distracted by other issues, Congress is on the verge of bungling its way into a shutdown of federal agencies in less than three weeks.... The most pressing problem -- keeping the federal government open past the March 14 deadline -- has been virtually ignored by top leaders. And unlike the most recent shutdown deadlines, the politics of the moment are not aligned to bring the two parties together with an obvious last-minute deal that simply adds more money for each side's favored projects."

News of the Resistance

Maeve Reston, et al., of the Washington Post: "Amid a barrage of executive orders from ... [Donald] Trump and dramatic steps by billionaire Elon Musk to downsize the federal government, Democratic attorneys general have emerged as the new administration's most persistent -- and effective -- adversaries. While congressional Democrats who lack control of either chamber have struggled to respond to Trump's first weeks, state attorneys general have marched into court, pledging to rein in an administration intent on pushing the limits of presidential power.... In the past month alone, multistate coalitions have sued the Trump administration seven times.... The quick and coordinated pushback from Democratic attorneys general is the product of months of planning and regular consultations since Trump's inauguration, 10 of them said in interviews."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: Sen. Chris "Murphy, 51, [D-Conn.] ... has seemed to be everywhere, all at once, since Inauguration Day, staging a loud and constant resistance to Mr. Trump at a time when Democrats are struggling to figure out how to respond to him. In two-minute videos on social media, which he records from his office on Capitol Hill; an almost constant stream of posts on X; passionate floor speeches; and essays he writes on his Substack, Mr. Murphy is attempting to explain in digestible sound bites that what is happening in Washington is very simple: It's a billionaire takeover of American democracy." This is a gift link.

Bernie! Julia Conley of Common Dreams: "After addressing more than 3,400 Nebraska residents in Omaha Friday evening, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday made his second stop on his National Tour to Fight Oligarchy -- telling Iowa City, Iowa residents that 'Trumpism will not be defeated by politicians inside the D.C. Beltway.... It will only be defeated by millions of Americans in Iowa, in Vermont, in Nebraska, in every state in this country, who come together in a strong grassroots movement and say no to oligarchy, no to authoritarianism, no to kleptocracy, no to massive cuts to programs that low-income and working Americans desperately need, no to huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country.'..."

SOS. Marie: The page is firewalled, so I can't get to it, but Gregory Thomas's lede in the San Francisco Chronicle is "A group of frustrated Yosemite National Park staffers hoping to draw attention to the federal government's sweeping workforce cuts hung an upside-down American flag Saturday thousands of feet off the ground on the side of El Capitan."

Perry Bacon of the Washington Post finds a college president willing to stand up for American values: "MichaelRoth, the president of Connecticut's Wesleyan University[,] wrote a piece in Slate that described some of the Trump administration's rhetoric as authoritarian. He consistently reposts articles criticizing Trump's decisions. He speaks and blogs firmly in defense of diversity, equity and inclusion, transgender rights and immigration.... In our conversation, Roth slammed prominent Republicans, specifically naming the president, vice president and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for using their Ivy League degrees to advance professionally but now portraying themselves as anti-elite populists."

~~~~~~~~~~

Texas/New Mexico. Isabella Kwai of the New York Times: "Outbreaks of measles in parts of Texas and New Mexico have sickened nearly 100 people, according to state health officials who warned that the number of cases was expected to rise.... The cases come amid growing concerns by public health experts about declining vaccination rates and the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, as the nation's health secretary.... In only five of the 90 [Texas] cases were patients vaccinated against measles.... Children must receive the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to attend public schools in Texas, though exemptions can be granted for 'reasons of conscience.' But Gaines County had one of the highest exemption rates in the state last year, with more than 13 percent of K-12 students exempted from receiving the vaccine, according to state data." MB Reminder: Kennedy is not a "vaccine skeptic"; he's an anti-vaxxer.

~~~~~~~~~~

Germany. Christopher Schuetze of the New York Times: "Germans are voting on Sunday in a rare snap election that has taken on outsize importance as the new Trump administration threatens European countries with tariffs, cuts them out of negotiations over Ukraine and embraces an authoritarian Russia. The election for Parliament was called after Chancellor Olaf Scholz's unpopular and long-troubled three-party government collapsed in November. Seven months earlier than scheduled, the voting now falls in the midst of Europe's struggle for strong leadership and as it recalibrates its relationship with the United States."

The Conversation -- February 22, 2025

We don't have kings in America -- and I don't intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions -- but in deference to my obligations. If you think I'm overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this: It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I'm saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control. -- Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, State of the State Address, February 19

Friday Night Massacre. Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump fired the country's senior military officer as part of an extraordinary Friday night purge at the Pentagon that injected politics into the selection of the nation's top military leaders. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., a four-star fighter pilot known as C.Q. who became only the second African American to hold the chairman's job, is to be replaced by a little-known retired three-star Air Force general, Dan Caine, who endeared himself to the president when they met in Iraq six years ago. In all, six Pentagon officials were fired, including Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy; Gen. James Slife, the vice chief of the Air Force; and the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force. The decision to fire General Brown, which Mr. Trump announced in a message on Truth Social, reflects the president's insistence that the military's leadership is too mired in diversity issues, has lost sight of its role as a combat force to defend the country and is out of step with his 'America First' movement.

"Joint Chiefs chairmen traditionally remain in place as administrations change, regardless of the president's political party.... By statute, anyone picked to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is supposed to have served as a combatant commander, as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or as the top uniformed officer of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps or Space Force." Gen. Caine does not meet that requirement. MB: But he's endearing! Also, White. And male. The AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "In ... [Donald] Trump's telling, Dan Caine, the retired Air Force lieutenant general whom he wants to be his next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an impression on him when the two men first met in 2018. The general told the president that the Islamic State was not so tough and could be defeated in a week, not two years as senior advisers predicted, Mr. Trump recounted in 2019. And at a Conservative Political Action Conference meeting last year, Mr. Trump said that General Caine put on a Make America Great Again hat while meeting with him in Iraq. (General Caine has told aides he has never put on a MAGA hat.)... Mr. Trump's recounting of the time he met General Caine has changed over time." ~~~

~~~ Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) in a Washington Post op-ed: "The implications for our national security cannot be overstated. A clear message is being sent to military leaders: Failure to demonstrate personal and political loyalty to Trump could result in retribution, even after decades of honorable service. In particular, firing the military's most senior legal advisers is an unprecedented and explicit move to install officers who will yield to the president's interpretation of the law, with the expectation they will be little more than yes men on the most consequential questions of military law.... Trump is entitled to a staff of civilians who are politically loyal to him. For the safety of all Americans, however, his military officers must remain free to give their best military advice without fear of reprisal." ~~~

~~~ Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon said Friday that it will fire about 5,400 civilian employees beginning next week in an 'initial' purge of its workforce, as ... Donald Trump's hastily issued orders to shake up the Defense Department faced new scrutiny and officials scrambled to understand whether such actions could imperil national security. The announcement followed a day of uncertainty, as administration officials paused a plan to begin firings now while evaluating requests to retain thousands of other employees deemed essential. A senior Pentagon official, Darin Selnick, said in a statement late Friday that the Trump administration intends to cull its workforce by between 5 and 8 percent. With more than 900,000 civilian employees in the Defense Department, tens of thousands of people could be forced out eventually....

"Coinciding with the civilian-worker purge, U.S. defense officials, acting on orders from Hegseth, have undertaken a sprawling effort to compile options for slashing about 8 percent from each armed service's budget for each of the next five years.... After news of Hegseth's directive alarmed lawmakers and defense officials, the former Fox News personality sought to blame the news media for causing confusion about the administration's efforts and portrayed his plan as a 'reorienting' of the Pentagon budget away from 'woke, Biden-era nonlethal programs' to 'instead spend that money on President Trump's America First, peace-through-strength priorities for our national budget.'" Politico's story is here. ~~~

Marie: Thanks, Pete, for reminding us of the Tyranny of the Woke. But consider a different point-of-view about those "woke" DEI programs: This totally incompetent, stupid and confused White guy who is president* hired this totally incompetent, unqualified, drunken White guy (that would be you, Pete). Right away you nitwit White guys fired the Black chairman of the joint chiefs and the female Navy chief, both of whom had decades of pertinent, on-the-job experience. As Calvin recently explained to Hobbes, "DEI initiatives were not put in place to ensure lower-qualified minorities could get hired instead of more highly-qualified white people. It was put in place to ensure lower-qualified white people were not hired instead of more highly-qualified minorities." What a shame American voters didn't figure that out before they put you and Commander Trumplegeezer in charge.

'We Are the Federal Law" = "L'etat C'est Moi." Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: "... Friday afternoon..., somebody defied ... [Donald] Trump. Right to his face. He was about an hour into a [White House] meeting with a bipartisan group of governor when he suddenly remembered that the leaders of Maine had been resisting an executive order he signed banning transgender athletes from women's sports. 'Is Maine here?' he wondered aloud. 'The governor of Maine?' 'Yeah,' Gov. Janet Mills [D] answered.... 'I'm here.' Referring to the executive order, Mr. Trump asked, 'Are you not going to comply with that?' 'I'm complying with the state and federal laws,' she said, rather pointedly. Mr. Trump replied that 'we are the federal law' and said that 'you better do it' or else he would withhold funding from her state. [He repeated the threat.] 'See you in court,' she shot back. 'Good,' he said, sounding surly. 'I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one.' He paused and then added, 'and enjoy your life after governor, because I don't think you'll be in elected politics.'... Shortly after Ms. Mills's exchange with the president, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to the state's education commissioner, Pender Makin, notifying her that it was initiating a 'directed investigation' of Maine's Education Department." ~~~

     ~~~ The Huffington Post's story, which is here, reminds readers that Mills is term-limited and cannot run for governor again, though she might run for other elective office. ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic: "... Donald Trump refuses, or is simply unable, to grasp any distinction between the law and his own whims.... What is important about this exchange [between Trump & Gov. Mills] is not whose interpretation of Title IX ... has a better chance to win five votes on the Supreme Court. It is that Trump is treating the law as coterminous with his own desires.... [And] Trump cannot simply cut Maine off financially because the state chooses to challenge a federal policy. Distinctions like this, however, seem totally lost on the president, who sees himself as national king -- note his use of the royal we -- and every other American, including each of the 50 states, as one of his quavering subjects. Trump has grown ever more brazen about his belief that his activities are by definition legal, and activities he opposes by definition criminal.... He has progressed from demonstrating his disregard for the law to stating it as a doctrine." Thank you to laura h. for this gift link.

Never Mind? Michael Shear of the New York Times: Donald "Trump on Friday appeared to back off his demand that some two million Palestinians be permanently relocated from the Gaza Strip to nearby countries in the Middle East so the United States could take over the territory and develop it into 'the Riviera of the Middle East.'... He repeatedly waved aside objections to the idea, including flat-out rejections from the leaders of Egypt and Jordan.... But in a telephone interview with a Fox News host [Brian Kilmeade] on Friday, Mr. Trump seemed to concede that ... the refusal by Egypt and Jordan to accept displaced Gazans would make the idea unworkable.... 'I'll tell you, the way to do it is my plan.... But I'm not forcing it. I'm just going to sit back and recommend it.' The comments were a striking reversal for one of the most brazen foreign policy proposals ever made by a sitting president."

Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has blocked key parts of the federal government's apparatus for funding biomedical research, effectively halting progress on much of the country's future work on illnesses like cancer and addiction despite a federal judge's order to release grant money. The blockage, outlined in internal government memos, stems from an order forbidding health officials from giving public notice of upcoming grant review meetings. Those notices are an obscure but necessary cog in the grant-making machinery that delivers some $47 billion annually to research on Alzheimer's, heart disease and other ailments. The procedural holdup, which emails from N.I.H. officials described as indefinite, has had far-reaching consequences. Scores of grant review panels were canceled this week, creating a gap in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Together with other lapses and proposed changes in N.I.H. funding early in the Trump administration, the delays have deepened what scientists are calling a crisis in American biomedical research.... The breakdown in the grant review process seemed to reflect a broader Trump administration strategy of exploiting loopholes to effectively keep much of the president's blanket spending freezes in place, despite judicial orders to keep taxpayer dollars flowing." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If I understand this correctly (and I may not!), this is the kind of stunt a smart-aleck kid would play to get around some parental control. Here, (1) Trump orders the NIH & other agencies to halt research grants. (2) A federal judge tells Trump he can't do that & orders Trump to continue making research grants. (3) So Trump says, okay, go ahead with the grants. (4) But Trump orders NIH to stop announcing grant review meetings, which are a prerequisite to releasing the grants. (5) Thus, Trump achieves his initial goal: to halt all research grants.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court, in its first decision on ... [Donald] Trump's use of executive power in his second term, ruled on Friday that he cannot, for now, remove a government lawyer who leads the watchdog agency that protects whistle-blowers. But the court's brief, unsigned order indicated that it may soon return to the issue, noting that a trial judge's temporary restraining order shielding the lawyer, Hampton Dellinger, is set to expire next week. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said that they would have rejected the Trump administration's request for Supreme Court intervention outright. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, joined by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., filed a dissent. The majority, Justice Gorsuch wrote, presumably acted as it did because temporary restraining orders like the one in place in the case generally cannot be appealed.... Justice Gorsuch wrote that there were powerful reasons to 'look behind the label' and treat the temporary restraining order in Mr. Dellinger's case as a preliminary injunction, which can be appealed." NPR's report is here.

Julian Mark of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked key portions of ... Donald Trump's executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the federal government and corporate America. U.S. District Judge Adam B. Abelson granted a preliminary injunction on Friday that bars portions of Trump's orders to cancel federal contract with DEI components and require government contractors to certify that they do not engage in DEI practices that violate antidiscrimination laws. The order also prohibits enforcement against publicly traded companies and large universities with comparable policies. In reference to enforcement against companies and universities, Abelson noted that the plaintiffs were 'likely' to succeed on their claim that such actions would violate constitutionally protected free speech." Politico's story is here. The AP report is here.

Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "The Associated Press sued top White House officials on Friday, accusing them of violating the First and Fifth Amendments by denying A.P. reporters access to press events in retaliation for references to the Gulf of Mexico in its articles. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It named as defendants Taylor Budowich, the White House deputy chief of staff; Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary; and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff. In the complaint. The A.P. said that the White House had ordered it to use certain words in its reporting and that it was suing 'to vindicate its rights to the editorial independence guaranteed by the United States Constitution and to prevent the executive branch from coercing journalists to report the news using only government-approved language.'... According to the lawsuit, Ms. Leavitt informed The A.P.'s chief White House correspondent, Zeke Miller, on Feb. 11 that at Mr. Trump's direction, The A.P. would be barred from certain areas of the White House as a member of the press pool unless the organization used the Gulf of America term." Both Budowich & Wiles informed the AP, in so many words, its reporters would be blackballed until the AP went with Trump's new name for the Gulf of Mexico. ~~~

     ~~~ The AP's story is here. It includes a facsimile of the complaint to the court. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As usual, Trump is either lying about the AP ban, or he so out of it he genuinely has no idea what he ordered a few days ago. On Tuesday, Feb. 18, the AP reported that Trump verified the ban that day: "'We're going to keep them [the AP] out until such time as they agree that it's the Gulf of America,' Trump said, speaking to reporters who witnessed the signing of an executive order at Mar-a-Lago.... 'We're very proud of this country, and we want it to be the Gulf of America.'" Here's video of Trump's remarks (this is a ridiculously long link, but I'm not sure where I can cut it off). BUT THEN. Brian Kilmeade asked Trump in an interview Friday about the AP ban: "Do you worry about the precedent of banning something like the Associated Press, even though you might have legitimate concerns about their reporting: Trump seemed to know nothing about it: "I don't care if they come or not. It doesn't matter to me. The fake news. They're all fake. Or most of them. So if they don't come in, that doesn't matter to me," he said. (See this video, at 13:20 for the text of the exchange between Trump & Kilmeade.)

Aatish Bhatia, et al., of the New York Times: "Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency say they have saved the federal government $55 billion through staff reductions, lease cancellations and a long list of terminated contracts published online this week as a 'wall of receipts.'... [Donald] Trump has been celebrating the published savings, even musing about a proposal to mail checks to all Americans to reimburse them with a 'DOGE dividend.' But the math that could back up those checks is marred with accounting errors, incorrect assumptions, outdated data and other mistakes, according to a New York Times analysis of all the contracts listed. While the DOGE team has surely cut some number of billions of dollars, its slapdash accounting adds to a pattern of recklessness by the group, which has recently gained access to sensitive government payment systems. Some contracts the group claims credit for were double- or triple-counted. Another initially contained an error that inflated the totals by billions of dollars. In at least one instance, the group claimed an entire contract had been canceled when only part of the work had been halted. In others, contracts the group said it had closed were actually ended under the Biden administration." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I, among many others, have repeatedly criticized New York Times reporters, analysts & editors for failing to call a liar a liar. Ever. Even when the headline and lede should have been "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire." But the article above, its underlying data compiled and explained by the paper's serious bean counters and reporters, is a scathing indictment of Fool No. 1, Fool No. 2 and All the Little Fools who are merrily destroying the federal government. Maybe the reporters who are askeert to lose their inside lines to Trump tattlers won't write frank reports, but the numbers Bhatia and his colleagues have collated don't lie, and these reporters are not afraid to tell it like it is. ~~~

~~~ Marcy Wheeler weighs in on the question of the moment: incompetence or design? Or, as she put it, is it "simply a reflection of the ignorance of the DOGE boys Musk has infiltrated into government, the shoddiness of the AI tools they're using, or simply a disinterest in giving a fuck, because once Elon claims this website says something, the right wing will follow along like sheep."? After checking out some of the reporting, she concludes, "It's not that the DOGE boys are not accountants, though they are not. It's that their function is something other than the EO [executive order] authorizing their work says it is, and the DOGE receipts page exists solely to sustain the fraud that they're still pursuing waste, fraud, and abuse." Thanks to RAS for the link. This is a damning report.

It's Worse Than You Know. Andrew Egger of the Bulwark: "Media reports have treated the firings [at the National Nuclear Security Administration] as a deeply unwise DOGE hatchet job that was, thankfully, quickly reversed.... [But] the episode represents the clearest illustration to date of the potential real-world repercussions of Elon Musk's slash-and-burn project.... One of the officials who was locked out of his work accounts was Acting Chief of Defense Nuclear Safety James Todd, a senior executive official and the top authority for all nuclear-safety matters in the agency.... At the agency's Los Alamos field office alone, there was the site's emergency preparedness manager, who is responsible for maintaining plans to minimize the effects of a nuclear accident on site and in surrounding areas. There was the radiation protection manager, responsible for minimizing radiation exposure to on-site workers. There was the security manager, the fire protection engineer, and two facility representatives, who are the office's day-to-day eyes and ears on site manufacturing facilities.... Some senior staff have already taken Musk's resignation offer; others are now contemplating moving up their retirements. Thanks to the hiring freeze, when they go, they can't be replaced, and they're taking a lifetime of intensely specialized knowledge out the door." Thanks to laura h. for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A disastrous outcome would have been predicted by anyone with a little work experience and the teeniest bit of common sense. But Musk and Trump are so high on their own supply that it doesn't occur to them that the expertise of anyone other than they themselves has value. It doesn't occur to the kids who are doing the firing, because (a) they're too inexperienced to know better, (b) they're too careless, and (c) "first, do no harm" is definitely not in their remit.

Marianne LeVine & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has removed the top official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement one month into his tenure, as White House officials have become increasingly frustrated that the agency isn't arresting immigrants fast enough to satisfy the president's deportation goals. Caleb Vitello, a veteran ICE official who was installed as acting director when ... Donald Trump took office, will be reassigned to a senior role overseeing daily enforcement operations, according to Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. She did not say who would replace him." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For several reasons, some explained in the report, the number of arrests isn't going to increase much. Scapegoating Caleb and whoever gets the ax next and next and next won't increase the number of supposedly hardened immigrant criminals ICE can locate. Eventually, Trump may have to switch to other acts of cruelty to satisfy his malicious proclivities.

Of Course They Did. Doha Madani & Daniella Silva of NBC News (Feb. 20): "The Trump administration on Thursday canceled an extension of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, the latest move by the president targeting the form of immigration relief for people coming from countries facing political upheaval and natural disasters. In June, amid the island's violent domestic turmoil, the Biden administration announced the temporary immigration protection was extended for Haitians until February 2026. The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that it was vacating the extension and the protections would end on Aug. 3. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the decision by the former administration as an attempt to 'tie the hands' of ... Donald Trump. 'President Trump and I are returning TPS to its original status: temporary,' Noem said in the statement."

Ha Ha. Nadra Nittle of the 19th News: As part of its effort to comply with Donald Trump's order to root out books seeming to promote diversity, equality and inclusion, the Department of Defense's Education Activity division has placed on compliance review the book Hillbilly Elegy, the memoir that made famous our favorite hillbilly and current vice president JayDee. "The pending review appears to be a case of 'soft censorship, which occurs when officials temporarily pull books for evaluation, require parental permission for students to read, relocate materials to certain parts of libraries or impose other restrictions short of a ban." MB: For our next lesson, we're going to study "Irony in American Literature." Thanks to RAS for the link.

Kash Is on the Job! Jeremy Roebuck, et al., of the Washington Post: "FBI managers were told Friday that up to 1,500 staff and agents would be transferred out of the bureau's Washington headquarters to satellite offices across the country.... The information came hours before Kash Patel, the bureau's newly confirmed director, took his oath of office. In a message Patel sent to all of the FBI's more than 30,000 employees Friday morning, he hinted that such staffing changes could be coming.... The more specific plan to relocate hundreds of staff and agents was outlined to top managers in a separate meeting after Patel's message went out.... Patel, before his nomination, had vowed to shutter the building and turn it into a /museum to the Deep State.' He made similar recommendations at his confirmation hearing and in appearances on conservative TV news shows.... Patel accused news reporters covering [his swearing-in] ceremony of having written 'fake, malicious, slanderous and defamatory' stories about him during his confirmation." ~~~

     ~~~ An AP story is here. According to the AP story, Trump said of Patel Friday, "agents love this guy." Marie: But I wonder. I saw on the teevee that Patel -- in a manner consistent with his bizarre conspiracy theories, I guess -- ordered staff to hide all his movements in the FBI building and to cordon off his office. I don't think you do that if you figure everybody loves you.

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday delayed a ruling on the Justice Department's request to drop the corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, instead appointing an outside lawyer to present independent arguments on the motion, which was otherwise unopposed. The lawyer, Paul D. Clement, is a political conservative who was the U.S. solicitor general during President George W. Bush's administration. The judge, Dale E. Ho of Federal District Court in Manhattan, also called for additional briefs from the parties and said he would hold an oral argument on March 14 if he felt it was necessary. Judge Ho noted in his order on Friday that, with a top Justice Department official and the mayor's lawyers agreeing the case should end, he needed to hear other arguments."

What we have is a U.S. attorney in D.C. who is undermining the prosecutorial independence of the Justice Department. -- Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration

Just because you have no case, that doesn't mean you can't make someone's life miserable by opening a grand jury investigation if you're willing to act in bad faith. -- Randall Eliason, a former D.C. federal prosecutor ~~~

~~~ Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "In the two years before he became D.C.'s top federal prosecutor, interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin publicly discussed investigating high-profile Justice Department officials who played a role in bringing charges against ... Donald Trump and his allies.... The conversations on Martin's ... podcast and related radio show often revolved around Trump's desire for 'retribution' against current or former department prosecutors. After one month in office, Martin appears to be following through, taking actions that have alarmed lawyers inside and outside his office who say he's leveraging the power of the Justice Department against political opponents and intimidating career prosecutors seen as insufficiently loyal to Trump. He fired prosecutors who investigated Trump as a part of special counsel Jack Smith's team and those who worked on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot cases. He ordered the head of the criminal division in his office to freeze the assets of a $20 billion Biden climate change program without sufficient evidence of a crime, she claimed in her resignation letter. And he's attempting to probe two Democratic lawmakers over critical remarks they directed at conservative Supreme Court justices and billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk." ~~~

~~~ It seems that Democrats and others who don't kowtow to Trump must abide harassment from Trump, Trump officials and Trump's violent fans, but Republicans cower and fall into line under the threats of "retribution" or worse. ~~~

~~~ David Badash of AlterNet speculates that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) was the deciding vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary because Tillis was afraid that if he voted against Hegseth, as he was inclined to do, someone who had made some of the "credible death threats" against him would try to kill him. Badash goes on to offer some evidence of the way fear of actual harm appears to influence Republican decisions. MB: Badash does not mention Trump's second impeachment when Mitt Romney heard from a congressman & from senators that they were afraid to impeach or convict Trump out of fear for their personal safety, what with the January 6 marauders still out and about. Thanks to RAS for the link.

It turns out far-right extremists are very sensitive. ~~~

~~~ Justine McDaniel & Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: "Stephen K. Bannon ... made a gesture with his right arm that resembled a Nazi salute while speaking before the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday night, prompting a far-right French leader to pull out of a scheduled appearance at the conference Friday in protest. Jordan Bardella, a leader of France's far-right National Rally party, canceled a speech he was set to give at CPAC, citing the gesture as the reason in a statement, Politico reported. In his statement, Bardella said a CPAC speaker had 'allowed himself, as a provocation, to make a gesture referring to Nazi ideology.' He continued, 'Therefore, I have taken the immediate decision to cancel my scheduled speaking engagement at the event this afternoon.'... Bannon told The Post that the gesture was a 'wave' and said no when asked by reporters at CPAC whether it was a Nazi salute.... 'Of course it's a Nazi salute,' [Deborah Dwork of CCNY's center for Holocaust studies] said. 'That's the message that Trump's circle has been sending for some time.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Musk, Bannon, et al., absolutely love trolling the media and others with their Nazi salutes.

Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Town halls this week for congressional Republicans from Georgia to Wisconsin to Oregon grew testy as voters showed up to vent, outraged at the firing of workers and the Department of Government Efficiency's access to sensitive data. Protesters showed up around the country at lawmakers' offices. The backlash extends far beyond federal workers in the Beltway, reaching purple districts that will decide control of Congress in 2026 and swing states like Georgia that helped return Trump to the White House.... Activist groups helped organize demonstrations outside dealerships for Musk's electric car company, Tesla.... New Washington Post-Ipsos polling suggests some of Trump and Musk's moves are unpopular beyond the Democratic base." Here's an NBC News story.

Owen Hayes, et al., of NBC News: "Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader granted clemency by ... Donald Trump last month, was arrested outside the U.S. Capitol on Friday and charged with assaulting a female protester. Tarrio was handcuffed, searched and put in a police van by U.S. Capitol Police after he appeared on Capitol Hill with several other members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers for a 'press conference.' The police said he was charged with assault. Capitol Police said in a statement that the incident happened around 2:30 p.m. ET when 'our officers witnessed a woman (a counter protester) put a cell phone close to a man's face' while they were both walking. 'Then the officers witnessed the man strike the woman's phone and arm,' the statement said." MB: I think this case goes to Ed Martin, Trump's man at the D.C. U.S. attorney's office, so I expect charges to be dropped right soon.

~~~~~~~~~~

California. Jesus Jimenez, et al., of the New York Times: "Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles abruptly removed the city's fire chief on Friday, seeking to end the increasing acrimony between the two officials in the weeks since a wildfire devastated the city's Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Ms. Bass said in a statement that she had removed Kristin Crowley, the chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, effective immediately. The announcement came after Ms. Bass said publicly that she herself made a mistake in leaving the country and traveling to Ghana days before the fires broke out. For weeks, she has privately told friends that she never would have left had she been fully briefed on the scope of the threat. The mayor pinned the blame for that lack of warning on Ms. Crowley, an assertion the chief has disputed. In the hours before Ms. Bass left on her trip, the chief pointed out, there had been numerous warnings from weather forecasters about dangerously high winds and dry weather conditions. The announcement capped weeks of tension. Veteran fire officials in the region had claimed that the response helmed by Chief Crowley was significantly less aggressive and experienced than the department had mounted in past situations of high fire risk. Chief Crowley maintained that the department had been underfunded, which the mayor and city budget officials denied."

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel, et al. Loveday Morris & Victoria Bisset of the Washington Post: "Two of the six Israeli hostages expected to be released on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza, in what is expected to be the largest swap under a ceasefire agreement that began last month.... Around 600 Palestinian prisoners are expected to be released in return." ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated. New Lede: "Five Israeli hostages were released in Gaza on Saturday, with one further hostage expected to be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in what is set to be the largest swap under a ceasefire agreement that began last month."

Marie: This infuriates me. ~~~

~~~ Ukraine, et al. Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration and the Ukrainian government were nearing a deal Friday to hand Ukrainian mineral resources over to the United States in exchange for continued security assistance, a person familiar with the negotiations said, potentially easing ... Donald Trump's days of attacks against the embattled country and its leadership. Both Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that they were making progress in their discussions after the Ukrainian leader last week initially declined a demand from the Trump administration that he hand over half of Ukraine's mineral resources to the United States. The request shocked the Ukrainians, officials said, because the potential value of the resources far exceeded that of U.S. assistance. The progress being made toward a deal underscored the way in which Trump has quickly reshaped Washington's role in the world by shifting U.S. power toward winning deals from other nations rather than acting to uphold alliances or pushing back on efforts to redraw boundaries by force." ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, never mind. It's worse than I thought. ~~~

     ~~~⭐It's Not Negotiating. It's Not Even Bullying. It's Straight-up Extortion. Daniel Hampton of the Raw Story: "American negotiators reportedly threatened to revoke Ukraine's access to Elon Musk's vital Starlink satellite internet network if they refuse to give the U.S. access to critical minerals. Three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday that Ukraine's access to the network of satellites was raised during talks between officials between the two nations after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected a proposal from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Starlink access was raised again Thursday, according to the report, and Ukraine was threatened that's its access could be imminently shut off. 'Ukraine runs on Starlink. They consider it their North Star,' a source told Reuters. 'Losing Starlink ... would be a massive blow.'"

News Lede

New York Times: "Pope Francis was in critical condition on Saturday night after having a long 'asthmatic respiratory crisis' earlier in the day that required 'high flows of oxygen' as well as a blood transfusion, the Vatican said, adding to concerns about the health of the 88-year-old pontiff."