The Conversation -- January 25, 2025

Marie: Here's something I missed in all the excitement over Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Thanks to Jeanne for the heads-up: ~~~

[It is my hope that the president] exercises his presidential authority so the Council can continue to advocate for fitness and good health for all Americans. These are bipartisan issues ... nonpartisan issues.... May God give you the wisdom, Mr. President, to put politics and name calling aside ... and instead lift up the everyday people working to bring America together. Let's build longer tables.... -- José Andrés, responding to Donald Trump's false claim that he had fired Andrés ~~~

~~~ Kelly McCarthy of Good Morning America/ABC News: "Humanitarian and chef José Andrés spoke out Tuesday after ... Donald Trump claimed he had 'fired' Andrés from the President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition shortly after being sworn in for his second term. Andrés served as co-chair of the federal advisory committee for two years, having been appointed to the position on March 23, 2022. Trump posted what he called a 'Official Notice of Dismissal' on social media early Tuesday morning, stating that his office would be 'identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again.... Let this serve as Official Notice of Dismissal for these 4 individuals, with many more, coming soon: Jose Andres from the President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars, and Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President's Export Council -- YOU'RE FIRED!'...

"Andrés responded in his own social media post later on Tuesday morning, stating that he had already submitted his resignation earlier in the month, at the conclusion of his two year term. Less than three weeks ago, the Spanish American chef and World Central Kitchen founder was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in part due to his work providing relief to 'communities affected by natural disasters and conflict around the world,' the White House stated at the time." ~~~

~~~ Marie: I cannot figure out what upside even a cartoon villain like Trump sees in publicly insulting someone who is best known for providing humanitarian aid in the worst of conditions. We know Trump is the biggest jerk in the world but does he want more recognition for it? Or what???

The Way We Were. This week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had to remind Americans that in this country, "We hate Nazis." Yesterday Heather Cox Richardson went into some detail on that topic. A fine read. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What we're seeing now is a metaphorical Battle of the Bulge. The fascistic forces who championed the Lost Cause of the Confederacy are prevailing to the extent that they feel emboldened to demand our surrender. There's no doubt they're "bulging." But it's up to us to say "NUTS!"

Here's a Guardian's story on the same topic as a Politico story linked below: "The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has ordered a halt to virtually all foreign aid, but made an exception for funding to Israel and Egypt, according to an internal memo to staff at the US state department.... [The underlying executive order, issued by Trump on Monday,] is unlawful, argued a source, [because]... the US Congress sets the federal government budget.... 'Organizations will have to stop all activities, so all lifesaving health services, HIV/Aids, nutrition, maternal and child health, all agriculture work, all support of civil society organizations, education,' said [a USAid] official." P.S. Take a look at the Guardian's new(ish) fundraising pitch at the bottom of the article. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Okay, Trump & Rubio may be acting illegally, but who would have standing to sue? Foreign governments who expected aid? Maybe. But their case is kind of embarrassing: you promised us a gift; now you must send it. Or the Congress whose powers Trump & Rubio have usurped? Uh, would Bible Mike have the nerve to sue Trump?

~~~~~~~~~~

⭐This Was the Week That Was, An Overview. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "'I think we're going to do things that people would be shocked at...,' Donald Trump declared on his second day in office. It was one of the few true things he said all week. The crush of vindictive, cruel, unconstitutional and just plain bonkers orders and actions coming from the restored Trump administration in its first week makes even the worst-case predictions look conservative. But if you're feeling knocked off-kilter by the fire hose of bad policies, well..., Trump himself seems downright bewildered."[Milbank reports incident after incident in which Trump shows his "astounding ignorance" by contradicting his own orders or remarks, misstating facts or just seeming to know nothing about what he's doing.] MB: I'd give this column a Pulitzer, even if Milbank did have to share it with Trump for providing all the raw material. ~~~

     ~~~ Melissa Goldin of the AP: "... Donald Trump stepped back into the presidency this week moving quickly to set a new agenda, but from his inaugural address continuing through a flurry of executive actions, press conferences and interviews Trump relied on an array of false and misleading information to support his case. Here's a closer look at the facts." Way less fun than Milbank's column.

Abigail Hauslohner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Senate on Friday confirmed ... Donald Trump's nomination of Pete Hegseth ... to become the country's next defense secretary.... Hegseth secured his post Friday night in a vote of 51-50, after Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote. It marks the second time in U.S. history that a vice president's vote was necessary to confirm a Cabinet official, and Republicans applauded as Vance entered the chamber. Three Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) joined the chamber's Democrats and independents in opposing Hegseth, following a heated confirmation process that centered on allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and financial mismanagement. Hegseth steadily and vigorously denied any wrongdoing.'Winning is what matters, right?' Trump told reporters in Los Angeles, upon hearing news of Hegseth's confirmation." The NBC News story is here. The AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For anyone thinking of giving props to the Turtle for doing the right thing for once, I remind you that we very likely would not be stuck with a president* who would even think of nominating a falling-down-drunk misogynist teevee personality to head the Pentagon had Mitch had the spine to lead his party in finding against Trump in his impeachment trials. Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution: "Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States...." Once again, we're in a terrible fix because Mitch & Trump's many other GOP enablers. P.S. Wondering who was the only other Cabinet officer to require the veep to break a tie for confirmation (because, weirdly, the WashPo article, doesn't tell us)? Why, it was Forrest M.'s neighbor, the lovely Betsy DeVos, another Trump nominee (NYT link).

David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House late Friday fired the independent inspectors general of at least 12 major federal agencies in a purge that could clear the way for ... Donald Trump to install loyalists in the crucial role of identifying fraud, waste and abuse in the government. The inspectors general were notified by emails from the White House personnel director that they had been terminated immediately, according to people familiar with the actions, who like others in this report spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private messages. The dismissals appeared to violate federal law, which requires Congress to receive 30 days' notice of any intent to fire a Senate-confirmed inspector general. Oversight of some of the government's largest agencies was affected: the departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Energy, Commerce and Agriculture, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Small Business Administration and the Social Security Administration." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story, published later, puts the number of IGs Trump fired at 17. Oh, Trump "violated federal law"? Meh. It's what a felon does.

Different Strokes for Different Folks. Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "President Trump toured disaster zones on Friday in North Carolina and California, where he sparred with Democrats over recovery efforts, called the Federal Emergency Management Agency 'a big disappointment' and said government help -- at least for one blue state -- would come with a catch. The visits were a reminder of Mr. Trump's willingness to flout the unwritten rules that have long governed the nation's disaster responses: Cooperate with officials at all levels of government. Bury political differences. Act as a comforter and healer. And promise aid with no conditions attached. Mr. Trump began the day by warmly embracing supporters in hurricane-ravaged North Carolina and pledging to deliver 'the support that you need to quickly recover and rebuild.' He said that he would also help fire-scorched California, which unlike North Carolina is a state he lost in the November election, but he first wanted the state to impose voter identification laws and change its environmental policies." ~~~

~~~ Once Again, Trump Shows He Does Not Know How to Behave in Public. Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "... [Donald] Trump repeated falsehoods about California's firefighting efforts on Friday and blamed Democratic officials for a wide variety of issues affecting the response to wildfires as he toured areas of Los Angeles damaged by the disaster. In a meeting with state leaders in Pacific Palisades, a community that was heavily damaged by fire..., Mr. Trump blamed the local bureaucracy, Democratic politicians, and a small species of protected fish known as the delta smelt for water supply issues that made it harder for firefighters to get the blazes under control. Water experts in California have said that many of those claims are wrong.... [Trump singled out officials who were at the meeting, including L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.] In one bizarre exchange, Mr. Trump accused Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat who represents Pacific Palisades, of causing insurance companies to pull out of the state of California. 'You did something, Brad, where every insurance company in the country left California,' Mr. Trump said. 'So you have no insurance. You made it so impossible, and the people that think like you --' 'People like me? Mr. President, I don't know,' Mr. Sherman said before Mr. Trump cut him off." ~~~

~~~ Blake Jones, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday demanded concessions from California Democrats on two pet issues unrelated to the devastating Los Angeles County wildfires -- requiring voter ID at the polls and sending more water from Northern California to other parts of the state -- in his clearest public indication yet of what he wants in exchange for federal disaster aid. The stunning salvo -- mere hours before Trump was set to land in Los Angeles to tour the area -- instantly undermined a strategy from local officials and members of Congress, who had hoped a firsthand view of the destruction would appeal to the president's emotions.... Democrats decried the notion of wildfire aid being used as leverage in an election policy debate."

Alice Ollstein & Carmen Paun of Politico: "... Donald Trump's campaign-trail promise to leave abortion regulation to the states lasted just a few days into his presidency. He issued executive orders on Friday that revive some anti-abortion policies from his first administration -- including restrictions on federal funding for family planning and other health programs abroad that discuss abortion as an option or provide referrals for the procedure. The president signed the executive orders hours after addressing the annual anti-abortion March for Life in a prerecorded video that included no mention that the policies were coming.... Vice President JD Vance, who spoke at the march in person, similarly did not mention them or other policy promises, but assured the crowd that Trump would be 'the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes.'... The order[s] came on the same day that Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed the U.S. Mission to the United Nations to rejoin the Geneva Consensus Declaration, an international anti-abortion pact signed during Trump's first term. One day earlier, in another move that thrilled abortion opponents, Trump issued pardons for roughly two dozen people convicted of forcibly entering and blocking access to abortion clinics."

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Dr. Anthony S. Fauci's government security protection was canceled Thursday night and he has now hired his own security detail, according to a person familiar with the move. Dr. Fauci, one of the nation's top health officials for decades, had received death threats during the coronavirus pandemic, when he became a frequent target of conservative critics.... Dr. Fauci did not have Secret Service protection; he was protected by federal marshals, and later by a private contractor whose fees were paid by the government, the person said. Dr. Fauci's chief critic on Capitol Hill, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, had publicly called for the security arrangement for Dr. Fauci to be withdrawn.... [Dr. Fauci] is the latest prominent former government official to lose his security protection since ... [Donald] Trump returned to the White House." (Also linked yesterday.)

David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: "... [Donald] Trump on Thursday issued an executive order to support the growth of the cryptocurrency industry, calling for a new plan to regulate a business in which he has substantial personal investments. The executive order, which was light on details, said the Trump administration would create a working group on digital assets to come up with a comprehensive plan including 'regulatory and legislative proposals.' The group would also consider establishing a national cryptocurrency stockpile, the order said -- a government-controlled stash of digital coins that the industry has spent months lobbying the new administration to create." (Also linked yesterday.)

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "In virtual remarks to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland..., Donald Trump on Thursday spouted many false or misleading economic claims. Here's a quick rundown." MB: If you check out Dana Milbank's column at the top of today's page, you'll notice that many of Stupid Hitler'sTM:digby remarks were spoken off-the-cuff; not so here. The Davos speech was scripted, & Trump read it from a teleprompter. That is, Trump's speechwriters are writing porkies for him, perhaps at his direction, perhaps not. Lies and propaganda are administration policy.

Katie Hawkinson of the Independent: "... Donald Trump told Denmark's prime minister he is serious about taking over Greenland in a 'fiery' phone call last week, the Financial Times reports. Trump and Mette Frederiksen spoke on the phone for 45 minutes last week after the president said he wanted the US to take Greenland, despite officials repeatedly saying it's not for sale. One official with knowledge of the conversation call[ed] it 'horrendous'. 'He was very firm, another unnamed source told the Financial Times. '... Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous.' Officials also told the Financial Times Trump was aggressive and confrontational, despite Frederiksen's offer to increase Greenland-US cooperation on military bases and natural resource exploitation."

Robbie Gramer, et al., of Politico: "Secretary of State Marco Rubio halted spending Friday on most existing foreign aid grants for 90 days. The order, which shocked State Department officials, appears to apply to funding for military assistance to Ukraine. Rubio's guidance, issued to all diplomatic and consular posts, requires department staffers to issue 'stop-work orders' on nearly all 'existing foreign assistance awards,' according to the document.... It is effective immediately. [The order] appears to go further than ... Donald Trump's recent executive order, which instructed the department to pause foreign aid grants for 90 days pending review by the secretary. It had not been clear from the president's order if it would affect already appropriated funds or Ukraine aid."

Courtney Kube & Jonathan Allen of NBC News: "Mexico denied a U.S. military plane access to land Thursday, at least temporarily frustrating the Trump administration's plans to deport immigrants to the country, according to two U.S. defense officials and a third person familiar with the situation. Two Guatemala-bound Air Force C-17s, carrying about 80 people apiece, flew deportees out of the U.S. Thursday night, the sources said. The third flight, slotted for Mexico, never took off. It was not immediately clear why Mexico blocked the flight, but tensions between the U.S. and Mexico, neighbors and longtime allies, have risen since President Donald Trump won the November election.... After the publication of this article, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tweeted, 'Yesterday, Mexico accepted a record 4 deportation flights in 1 day!' A White House official, however, did not clarify whether they were military, commercial or private flights." MB: I see Leavitt is into Trumpunctuation.

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "U.S. officials are preparing to send thousands of additional troops to the U.S.-Mexico border -- including, potentially, infantry soldiers equipped with 20-ton Stryker combat vehicles, according to four U.S. officials familiar with the planning. The Pentagon is rushing to cobble together options for an operation that ... Donald Trump has declared a national emergency. These additional service members and capabilities, if all approved, would vastly expand the military's footprint from Texas to California, where roughly 2,500 troops are positioned to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the detection and apprehension of migrants seeking to enter the United States illegally.... The flow of people and illegal drugs across America's southern frontier ... plummeted last year after U.S. and Mexican authorities introduced new efforts to stem the flow of migrants looking to enter the United States."

Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: "Department of Homeland Security officials have ordered what amounts to a pause for a range of programs that allowed immigrants to settle in the United States temporarily, including a key initiative providing an entryway for Ukrainians. The directive, contained in an email sent by the top official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Thursday..., demands an immediate end to 'final decisions' on applications related to the programs while the administration reviews them and decides whether to terminate them. The scope of the programs mentioned in the pause is vast, and the decision will block the entrance of immigrants fleeing some of the most unstable and desperate places in the world. In addition to Ukraine..., the programs offered a pathway to immigrants from Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela, among others.... [Donald Trump] signed an order on Monday demanding that the Department of Homeland Security end 'all categorical parole programs that are contrary to the policies of the United States established in my executive orders,' or programs that allow a wide number of people to enter the country under a temporary status known as parole."

Ali Bauman of CBS News New York: "The mayor of Newark, New Jersey said federal Immigration agents 'raided a local establishment' Thursday. Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained multiple people, including United States citizens, a U.S. military veteran and undocumented individuals. According to Baraka, the agents did not produce a warrant. 'Today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided a local establishment in the City of Newark, detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant. One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned,' Baraka said in a statement. 'This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees "the right of the people be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures....'... In a joint statement late Thursday night, Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, of New Jersey, said they were 'deeply concerned about the news of an ICE raid in Newark today.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Zach Montague of the New York Times: "The Education Department said on Friday that it would no longer investigate schools that remove books from their libraries, emphasizing its new stance by dismissing 11 pending civil rights complaints related to book bans in public schools. The move, immediately hailed by conservative groups, represents a significant whittling-down of the department's traditional authority as President Trump's incoming administration makes rapid strides toward its goal of relinquishing oversight of education to the states."

Weird Nominee Was MIA for Key Meeting. Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "For two hours [last week], incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem and other intended members of ... Donald Trump's Cabinet hashed out their roles and responsibilities in the event of a crisis -- splitting their time between a hypothetical avian flu outbreak and a hypothetical terrorist attack in New Orleans -- as outgoing Biden officials shared lessons and guidance from their real-world experience. National security officials in previous administrations have characterized the exercise, which is a required part of the presidential transition, as essential preparation to ensure that a new government is ready for an emergency on Day 1. But ... Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the pivotal agency when a pandemic strikes, [did not attend].... Kennedy was two miles away, on Capitol Hill, seeking to sway senators skeptical of his candidacy to serve as the nation's top health official.... Kennedy left some of them deeply rattled by sharing debunked theories about vaccines and making other questionable assertions, the people said.... It would fall to Kennedy -- who has never held a senior government role nor steered an emergency response -- to oversee key decisions [during a pandemic], or make them himself."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A little over two years ago, prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Washington obtained a landmark conviction against Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia, on charges of seditious conspiracy for the role he played in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. On Friday, the same office -- now led by one of ... [Donald] Trump's appointees, Ed Martin -- effectively assumed the role of Mr. Rhodes's defense lawyer, filing court papers that sought to reverse a federal judge's order from earlier in the day that barred him and other convicted members of the far-right group from visiting Washington without permission.... On Friday morning, Judge Amit P. Mehta, who oversaw Mr. Rhodes's case, issued an order altering the terms of his supervised release, saying he could no longer enter Washington without the judge's permission. Unlike hundreds of other Jan. 6 defendants, Mr. Rhodes was not fully pardoned by Mr. Trump; his 18-year prison term was reduced to time served. So Judge Mehta asserted control over his conditions of release....

"[Mr. Martin] was a prominent member of the 'Stop the Steal' movement that sought to overturn Mr. Trump's loss in the 2020 election.... According to his own social media posts, he also appears to have been at the Capitol on Jan. 6.... Moreover, Mr. Martin is still listed as a board member of the Patriot Freedom Project, one of the most prominent fund-raising organizations working to help pay legal fees for Jan. 6 defendants. He has also represented some of those defendants himself, squaring off against the very same federal prosecutors he now leads."

Hannah Ziegler & Julian Mark of the Washington Post: "Target said Friday that it plans to scale back many of its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, including efforts to hire from underrepresented groups, amid a tougher legal environment for those programs and new threats from the White House. The retailer ... said it will end the DEI goals it sets in three-year cycles and curtail racial equity initiatives aimed at improving representation for Black businesses and suppliers, according to a memo shared with staff by Kiera Fernandez, Target's chief community impact and equity officer. The company also said it will stop conducting external diversity surveys and submitting information to the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which evaluates corporate policies on LGBTQ+ inclusion....

"The shift comes only days after ... Donald Trump issued executive orders meant to quash DEI programs in the public and private sectors. He directed agency heads to draw up lists of publicly traded companies to investigate over their DEI programs, which legal experts said could send further chills through the corporate sector. Many large companies began reassessing the legality of their programs after the Supreme Court in 2023 overturned affirmative action in university admissions, which sparked dozens of lawsuits alleging that certain programs violated federal civil rights laws."

~~~~~~~~~~

North Carolina. Ari Berman of Mother Jones: "In early January, the Republican majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court blocked the State Board of Elections from certifying the victory of Democratic Justice Allison Riggs after she led by 734 votes following two recounts. Riggs' Republican opponent, Jefferson Griffin, had asked the court to overturn the election by throwing out more than 60,000 ballots. On Thursday, the court rejected Griffin's extraordinary request to appoint him the winner -- for now -- and sent the case back to the lower courts for a full trial. The court continued to block the state board from certifying the election; it is now the last uncertified race in the country. Worse, three of the court's Republican justices expressed full-throated support for overturning the election -- a stunning outcome that would have major ramifications for free and fair elections across the country....

"Rather than accept a narrow defeat, Griffin challenged the eligibility of 60,000 voters, claiming that ballots were wrongly counted from people who submitted incomplete voter registration records. But Griffin's campaign couldn't point to a single instance of an ineligible voter casting a ballot, and all of the 60,000 voters he challenged showed identification while voting by mail or during early voting. His list of challenged ballots included example after example of lawful voters -- including Riggs' own parents...."

~~~~~~~~~~

Shira Rubin of the Washington Post: "Four Israeli female soldiers were released by Hamas in Gaza City on Saturday morning, marking the start of a second week of a protracted ceasefire and hostage release deal that has halted 15 months of fighting and delivered Hamas a new platform to project optics of power. The highly choreographed event showed the women, dressed in army-green outfits, being forced by their captors to take the stage, smile and raise their arms for a gaggle of cameras before being transferred to the Red Cross vans that would bring them home to Israel. Shortly afterward, the Israel Defense Forces said the women had been transferred to them in the Gaza Strip. The event in Gaza City occurred several hours earlier than expected. The women's parents, siblings and friends could be seen crying, overjoyed to see the women walking on their own feet, and waiting to embrace them in Israel."

The Conversation -- January 24, 2025

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Dr. Anthony S. Fauci's government security protection was canceled Thursday night and he has now hired his own security detail, according to a person familiar with the move. Dr. Fauci, one of the nation's top health officials for decades, had received death threats during the coronavirus pandemic, when he became a frequent target of conservative critics.... Dr. Fauci did not have Secret Service protection; he was protected by federal marshals, and later by a private contractor whose fees were paid by the government, the person said. Dr. Fauci's chief critic on Capitol Hill, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, had publicly called for the security arrangement for Dr. Fauci to be withdrawn.... [Dr. Fauci] is the latest prominent former government official to lose his security protection since ... [Donald] Trump returned to the White House."

David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: "... [Donald] Trump on Thursday issued an executive order to support the growth of the cryptocurrency industry, calling for a new plan to regulate a business in which he has substantial personal investments. The executive order, which was light on details, said the Trump administration would create a working group on digital assets to come up with a comprehensive plan including 'regulatory and legislative proposals.' The group would also consider establishing a national cryptocurrency stockpile, the order said -- a government-controlled stash of digital coins that the industry has spent months lobbying the new administration to create."

Ali Bauman of CBS News New York: "The mayor of Newark, New Jersey said federal Immigration agents 'raided a local establishment' Thursday. Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained multiple people, including United States citizens, a U.S. military veteran and undocumented individuals. According to Baraka, the agents did not produce a warrant. 'Today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided a local establishment in the City of Newark, detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant. One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned,' Baraka said in a statement. 'This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees "the right of the people be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures'.'... In a joint statement late Thursday night, Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, of New Jersey, said they were 'deeply concerned about the news of an ICE raid in Newark today.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: When you look over the news stories of the week, what you'll find is quite a good approximation of a comic-book presidency* run by a comic-book villain. The cartoonish president* is utterly brutish and cruel and careless and stupid and conniving to degrees that we seldom see in real life. I reckon there are some teenagers -- comic-book readers -- who admire & try to emulate these qualities because they're not mature enough to know better. But few adults behave as Donald Trump does. For one thing, they can't get away with it.

~~~ Here's digby, on living in a country where "Stupid Hitler" is president*: Bishop "Budde's message [to Trump] was something we grew up with in Sunday School or lived with as part of our social contract as long as we could remember. AOC's is the simplest political message you can imagine: 'we're against Nazis.' And yet they have to say these things out loud now because a large number of Americans have either forgotten these simple, children's lessons or never learned them in the first place." Read the full post for context. MB: The fact is that Donnie & Elon are among those who don't get Budde's and AOC's messages.

I've been on the bench for over four decades, I can't remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.... There are other times in world history where we look back and people of goodwill can say where were the judges, where were the lawyers? -- District Judge John Coughenour, (seeming to invoke Nazi Germany) from the bench, re: Trump's order to end birthright citizenship ~~~

~~~ Mike Baker & Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked ... [Donald] Trump's executive order to end automatic citizenship to babies born on American soil, dealing the president his first setback as he attempts to upend the nation's immigration laws and reverse decades of precedent. In a hearing held three days after Mr. Trump issued his executive order, a Federal District Court judge, John C. Coughenour, sided at least for the moment with four states that sued. 'This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,' he said. Mr. Trump's order, issued in the opening hours of his presidency, declared that children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants would no longer be treated as citizens. The order also extended to babies of mothers who were in the country legally but temporarily, such as tourists, university students or temporary workers." MB: Coughenour is a Reagan appointee. The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump promised to crack down on illegal immigration.... But so far, his administration has been much more fixated on punishing legal immigrants -- by threatening to raise their taxes, expatriate their kids and block them from the United States altogether.... In his first term, he had almost no effect on illegal immigration levels, but he did manage to demolish legal immigration levels. At one point, he cut legal immigration by the fastest annual pace in U.S. history. Trump this week threatened to double taxes on foreigners working in this country legally. The move received virtually no attention because it was slipped into a broader executive order on trade. [Here Rampell explains the order.]... The executive order attempting to overturn the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship ... would also deny citizenship to children born to most categories of legal immigrants.... Finally, Trump is eliminating many of the pathways for immigrants to come here legally." Rampell provides examples. ~~~

~~~ Wait, Wait! There's More. Russell Payne of Salon: "In the Trump administration's arguments defending his order to suspend birthright citizenship, the Justice Department called into question the citizenship of Native Americans born in the United States, citing a 19th-century law that excluded Native Americans from birthright citizenship.... The [cited law, the] Civil Rights Act of 1866..., predates the 14th Amendment by two years." IOW, Trump would take away U.S. citizenship from all Native Americans subject to tribal law. Astounding. ~~~

~~~ Dred Scott All Over Again. Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's executive order purporting to abolish birthright citizenship is unambiguously and profoundly racist. We can conclude only that this is the whole point.... The saga begins before the Civil War with the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision in 1857, which denied citizenship to people of African descent even if they were not enslaved.... After the war, the race-based Dred Scott theory of citizenship was overturned by the very first sentence of the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868: 'All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.' The whole point was race: Black people born here have the same status, and the same rights, as White people."

Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: "The Trump administration is giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials the power to quickly deport migrants who were allowed into the country temporarily under Biden-era programs, according to an internal government memo obtained by The New York Times. The memo, signed Thursday night by the acting head of the Homeland Security Department, offers ICE officials a road map on how to use expansive powers that were long reserved only for encounters at the southern border to quickly remove migrants. It also appears to give the officials the ability to expel migrants in two major Biden-era programs that have allowed more than a million people to enter the country temporarily."

Cruelty Is of the Essence of the Scheme. Miriam Jordan & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: "The State Department abruptly canceled travel for thousands of refugees already approved to fly to the United States, days before a deadline that ... [Donald] Trump had set for suspending the resettlement program that provides safe haven for people fleeing persecution. The cancellation of the flights comes on the heels of an executive order signed by Mr. Trump on Monday that indefinitely paused the refugee resettlement.... More than 10,000 refugees were currently in the pipeline to travel to the United States.... They include Afghans who faced danger because of their association with the United States before the military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Among other refugees who had been approved for travel were people from Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. The sudden halt to the flights was an agonizing blow to refugees who had been following a complicated and lengthy process to enter the country legally, resettlement group workers said." (Also linked yesterday.)

WABC 7 New York: "Federal law enforcement and ICE agents have arrested over 500 undocumented migrants wanted for outstanding crimes in sanctuary cities, including three in New York. ICE says it has made 538 arrests, and detained 373 undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities across the country.... There were similar scenes in Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, and Washington, DC. A Justice Department memo threatened criminal charges against state and local officials who don't cooperate with ICE, but New York Attorney General Letitia James says the Trump administration cannot force local law enforcement to help them detain and deport immigrants.... The NYPD issued a memo as well, saying officers should not assist with federal immigration enforcement.... New York is a so-called sanctuary city, and laws forbid city agencies from cooperating with immigration agents in all but criminal deportations." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Apparently these raids were the story-du-jour on Fox "News" yesterday, with Fox reporters exclaiming about the wonderfulness of Trump for catching these murderous criminales. However, MSNBC reported that these raids yesterday were not different from the raids carried out during the Biden administration and were in fact planned during Biden's tenure; the raids did not represent some new Trump awesomeness. This is a good example of how a news report can be both accurate and misleading.

Teddy Rosenbluth, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration, moving quickly to clamp down on health and science agencies, has canceled a string of scientific meetings and instructed federal health officials to refrain from all public communications, including upcoming reports focused on the nation's escalating bird flu crisis. Experts who serve on outside advisory panels on a range of topics, from antibiotic resistance to deafness, received emails on Wednesday telling them their meetings had been canceled. The cancellations followed a directive issued on Tuesday by the acting director of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, who prohibited the release of any public communication until it had been reviewed by a presidential appointee or designee...." A STAT News report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Who's in Charge??? Alexander Tin of CBS News: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is operating without an acting director, multiple health officials confirm to CBS News, leaving the agency responsible for defending the U.S. against emerging pandemics and responding to health emergencies without a clear chain of command. A leadership vacuum atop the CDC is unprecedented. Under previous administrations, including the first term of ... [Donald] Trump, officials made sure either to immediately appoint their pick for the position or decide during the transition on whom would assume the top post in an acting capacity. Other federal health agencies are also operating without publicly named acting heads, including the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health." (Also linked yesterday.)

Emily Davies of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Thursday began his crack down on telework, a sweeping decree that officials estimate could impact more than 1 million federal workers. The White House's Office of Personnel Management in a memo directed heads of federal agencies to revise their telework policies by 5 p.m. Friday and gave employees roughly 30 days from then to comply — panicking workers who rely on the flexibility for child care, affordable housing and to save time on long commutes.... 'No one knows what's going on,' said a lawyer with the Department of Veterans Affairs.... 'We're attorneys, but even us, we are scared about what to do.'" MB: Hey, if Trump has to go all the way downstairs to the office by noon on most days, all the peasants should have to show up at their offices, too. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Once again, RAS finds a very sensible way to interpret a Trumpy order. See today's Comments.

Trump Pardoned His Most Violent Trump Accomplices. Alan Feuer & Dmitriy Khavin of the New York Times: "After Daniel Rodriguez pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer during the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021, he was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison by a federal judge who called him a l 'one-man army of hate.' Two other men, Albuquerque Cosper Head and Kyle J. Young, were sentenced to more than seven years for their parts in the assault on the officer, Michael Fanone. On Monday, President Trump pardoned all three of them, lumping them together with nearly 1,600 other people who had been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot and who he suggested had been victimized by a politicized prosecution. His grant of clemency comes despite a wealth of evidence about their crimes, including videos used against them by the Justice Department." The article includes video of some of the violence Trump endorsed in his pardons.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... [Donald] Trump revoked security protection for his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and a former top aide, Brian Hook, despite warnings from the Biden administration that both men faced ongoing threats from Iran because of actions they took on Mr. Trump's behalf, four people with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Hook had been part of an aggressive posture against Iran during the first Trump presidency, most notably the drone strike that killed the powerful Iranian general Qassim Suleimani in early 2020. Mr. Trump also remains under threat because of that action, and his advisers have regularly stressed the seriousness of the situation in the years between his two terms in office. Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Hook had their security details ... pulled on Tuesday, one of the people briefed on the matter said. A day before, Mr. Trump pulled the U.S. Secret Service detail of John R. Bolton, who was Mr. Trump's third national security adviser and also faces threats." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ digby reminds us, "Mike Pompeo was one of Trump's most aggressive loyalists during his tenure in the first term. Now he’s on the hit list." She adds, "If any of these men [Trump has put at risk] are killed by Iranian assassins [his] warning will be even more powerful."

Petty, Petty, Petty. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has abruptly rescinded job offers made to dozens of recent law school graduates who were to be placed in entry-level positions in its antitrust, criminal, civil rights, immigration and national security divisions, and at the F.B.I.... The offers were made through the Attorney General's Honors Program, which has functioned without controversy -- or much notice -- under presidents of both parties for decades. The program is the latest target of Trump political appointees intent on reversing even the most workaday decisions made by their predecessors." (Also linked yesterday.)

Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the declassification of records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, former U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. 'That's a big one, huh?' he said while signing the order in the Oval Office.... Trump on Thursday directed the director of national intelligence, attorney general and other officials to present a plan for the 'full and complete release of records' related to John F. Kennedy's assassination within 15 days. He directed officials to review the documents related to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and King and present a plan for their release within 45 days." The AP story is here. MB: Trump is like a toddler, thrilled and in awe of his own, newly-discovered powers to make things happen on demand. Think potty-training: "That's a big one, huh?"

Military Massacres in the Making. Meg Kelly, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is moving to abolish a Pentagon office responsible for promoting civilian safety in battlefield operations, suggesting that incoming Defense Department leaders may attempt to loosen restrictions on U.S. military operations worldwide.... The office, housed within the Department of the Army, helps the military to limit unintended civilian deaths. As a result of that order, the Army has begun drafting a proposal to defund and potentially 'disestablish' the office.... Shuttering the office, which was established under a 2023 law, would require congressional approval.... The early moves suggest the Trump Pentagon may distance itself from a host of measures established under President Joe Biden to prioritize the safety of noncombatants in conflict zones. Trump's nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who has promised to make the U.S. military more lethal, has complained about overly restrictive rules of engagement...." ~~~

~~~ Marie: If you were wondering why the statements & affidavits concerning Hegseth's second marriage seemed so convoluted, here's the answer: ~~~

     ~~~ Lisa Rubin of MSNBC: "... Pete Hegseth testified during his confirmation hearing this month that he wasn't aware of any nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) in connection with his two divorces. While a review of court documents from Hegseth's divorce from his second wife, Samantha Hegseth, does not reflect a full NDA, it includes a court-ordered agreement precluding either of them from saying anything publicly that would disparage the other.... Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia ... [D], had asked [Hegseth] during the Jan. 14 confirmation hearing whether there were NDAs between him and his first ... or his second wife.... 'Senator, it is not something I am aware of,' Pete Hegseth responded. Pressed whether he would release either of those women from the NDAs if they exist, Hegseth said, 'Senator, that is not my responsibility.'... Asked whether Kaine had any comment on whether he thought Hegseth was untruthful or misleading during his testimony, a spokesperson for the senator told MSNBC, 'Yes, he does think that.'" ~~~

~~~ Tara Copp of the AP: "Pete Hegseth..., Donald Trump's nominee for defense secretary, paid $50,000 to the woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017, according to answers he provided to a senator during his confirmation process that The Associated Press has obtained. The written answers were provided to Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in response to additional questions she had for Hegseth as part of the vetting process." BUT that's okay, because ~~~

~~~ Abigail Hauslohner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Pete Hegseth..., Donald Trump's contentious pick for defense secretary, narrowly cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Thursday, as Republicans demonstrated en masse that they are undeterred by the allegations of misconduct that have clouded his nomination. The full Senate voted 51 to 49 to advance Hegseth's nomination toward a final confirmation vote, expected Friday night, with two Republicans, moderate Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), joining the chamber's Democrats in opposing the former Fox News personality's bid to run the Defense Department." The NBC News story is here.

Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: "John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during ... Donald Trump's first term, was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday to serve as CIA director. The vote to confirm Ratcliffe was 74-25." The CBS News story is here.

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: "To people who have studied conspiracy theories, [Kash] Patel's suspicion of the government is a public embrace of conspiracist thinking. The approach, some say, raises concerns over how Mr. Patel would run the F.B.I., whose core mission centers on sifting fact from fiction."

Dasha Burns & Holly Otterbein of Politico: "Some of ... Donald Trump's key aides and allies are furious with Elon Musk for publicly trashing his $500 billion artificial intelligence mega-deal. A White House official said Musk 'very much' got over his skis when the tech tycoon launched a daylong screed against the AI project.... Another Republican close to the White House ... [said] Trump's staff is 'furious' over Musk using his massive social media platform to pour cold water on the infrastructure deal that Trump called 'tremendous' and 'monumental' just a day prior.... 'The problem is the president doesn't have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero fucks.'... Trump [told reporters] it did not bother him that Musk criticized the deal, saying, 'No, it doesn't. He hates one of the people in the deal.'&"

GOP House Members Sexted Trump Aide. Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson advised Republican colleagues against subpoenaing former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson as part of their investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack in an effort to prevent the release of sexually explicit texts that lawmakers sent her, according to written correspondence reviewed by The Post and a person familiar with the effort. The aide intervened last June.... Multiple colleagues had raised concerns with the speaker's office about the potential for public disclosure of 'sexual texts from members who were trying to engage in sexual favors' with Hutchinson, according to correspondence produced at the time that detailed the conversation.... Johnson revived the investigation this week as part of an effort by ... Donald Trump and his allies to seek retribution against perceived political enemies, including those who investigated his role in the Capitol attack.... The Washington Post ... has not seen the purported sexually explicit messages nor identified who sent them or whether Hutchinson responded." (Also linked yesterday.)

Dan Mangan of CNBC: "A Republican House member introduced a resolution Thursday to amend the U.S. Constitution in order to allow ... Donald Trump -- and any other future president -- to be elected to a third term in the White House. Trump 'has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation's decay and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal,' said Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, who proposed extending the current maximum of two elected terms." MB: These Republicans seem to like the idea of dictatorships.

Even Big, Tough CEOs are A'Skeert. Emma Goldberg of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump ... revoked an executive order signed in 1965 that prohibited discriminatory hiring and employment practices for private government contractors. Perhaps most alarming for business leaders was the order's focus on private corporations, whether they do business with the government or not.... The executive order instructs the federal government to look at private sector D.E.I. initiatives: Each federal agency, it says, will identify 'up to nine potential civil compliance investigations' that could include publicly traded corporations, nonprofits and large foundations, among others. 'We're already seeing that this flurry of orders has created fear and confusion,' said David Glasgow ... at N.Y.U. Law.... Plenty of companies, reading the writing on the wall, had begun to shift their approaches to D.E.I. before Mr. Trump took office.... Some companies have stood firm in support of D.E.I., including Costco, Patagonia and Microsoft." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It is quite amazing that Trump is effectively telling private corporations, even those with no government contracts, "You must hire the white boys."

Claire Miller, et al., of the New York Times: "Instagram and Facebook have recently blurred, blocked or removed posts from two abortion pill providers. Instagram also suspended the accounts of several abortion pill providers and hid the providers from appearing in search and recommendations. The actions ramped up in the last two weeks, and were especially noticeable in the last two days, abortion pill providers said. Content from their accounts -- or in some cases, their entire accounts -- were no longer visible on Instagram. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, confirmed some account suspensions and the blurring of posts. The company restored some of the accounts and posts on Thursday, after The New York Times asked about the actions. Meta has been under scrutiny since Mark Zuckerberg, its chief executive, announced sweeping changes to the company's speech policies earlier this month. Mr. Zuckerberg vowed to loosen restrictions on online speech, causing concerns among misinformation researchers and others...."

Marie: As you may know, the Associated Press has a "stylebook" that many news organizations and writers follow when deciding how to, say, refer to a bishop or place commas and semicolons, or spell names in translation. So now there's this: ~~~

~~~ "President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday shortly after his inauguration calling for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the Gulf of America, and Denali, the tallest peak in the United States, to revert to the name Mount McKinley. The Associated Press sent its staff the following style guidance for both geographic areas. We will use Gulf of Mexico, while acknowledging the name Gulf of America in our copy. We will also use Mount McKinley rather than Denali. -- The AP"

The Conversation -- January 23, 2025

Mike Baker & Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked ... [Donald] Trump's executive order to end automatic citizenship to babies born on American soil, dealing the president his first setback as he attempts to upend the nation's immigration laws and reverse decades of precedent. In a hearing held three days after Mr. Trump issued his executive order, a Federal District Court judge, John C. Coughenour, sided at least for the moment with four states that sued. 'This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,' he said. Mr. Trump's order, issued in the opening hours of his presidency, declared that children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants would no longer be treated as citizens. The order also extended to babies of mothers who were in the country legally but temporarily, such as tourists, university students or temporary workers." MB: Coughenour is a Reagan appointee. The AP story is here.

Teddy Rosenbluth, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration, moving quickly to clamp down on health and science agencies, has canceled a string of scientific meetings and instructed federal health officials to refrain from all public communications, including upcoming reports focused on the nation's escalating bird flu crisis. Experts who serve on outside advisory panels on a range of topics, from antibiotic resistance to deafness, received emails on Wednesday telling them their meetings had been canceled. The cancellations followed a directive issued on Tuesday by the acting director of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, who prohibited the release of any public communication until it had been reviewed by a presidential appointee or designee...." A STAT News report is here. ~~~

~~~ Who's in Charge??? Alexander Tin of CBS News: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is operating without an acting director, multiple health officials confirm to CBS News, leaving the agency responsible for defending the U.S. against emerging pandemics and responding to health emergencies without a clear chain of command. A leadership vacuum atop the CDC is unprecedented. Under previous administrations, including the first term of ... [Donald] Trump, officials made sure either to immediately appoint their pick for the position or decide during the transition on whom would assume the top post in an acting capacity. Other federal health agencies are also operating without publicly named acting heads, including the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... [Donald] Trump revoked security protection for his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and a former top aide, Brian Hook, despite warnings from the Biden administration that both men faced ongoing threats from Iran because of actions they took on Mr. Trump's behalf, four people with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Hook had been part of an aggressive posture against Iran during the first Trump presidency, most notably the drone strike that killed the powerful Iranian general Qassim Suleimani in early 2020. Mr. Trump also remains under threat because of that action, and his advisers have regularly stressed the seriousness of the situation in the years between his two terms in office. Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Hook had their security details ... pulled on Tuesday, one of the people briefed on the matter said. A day before, Mr. Trump pulled the U.S. Secret Service detail of John R. Bolton, who was Mr. Trump's third national security adviser and also faces threats."

Petty, Petty, Petty. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has abruptly rescinded job offers made to dozens of recent law school graduates who were to be placed in entry-level positions in its antitrust, criminal, civil rights, immigration and national security divisions, and at the F.B.I., according to people familiar with the situation. The offers were made through the Attorney General's Honors Program, which has functioned without controversy -- or much notice -- under presidents of both parties for decades. The program is the latest target of Trump political appointees intent on reversing even the most workaday decisions made by their predecessors."

Cruelty Is of the Essence of the Scheme. Miriam Jordan & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: "The State Department abruptly canceled travel for thousands of refugees already approved to fly to the United States, days before a deadline that ... [Donald] Trump had set for suspending the resettlement program that provides safe haven for people fleeing persecution. The cancellation of the flights comes on the heels of an executive order signed by Mr. Trump on Monday that indefinitely paused the refugee resettlement.... More than 10,000 refugees were currently in the pipeline to travel to the United States.... They include Afghans who faced danger because of their association with the United States before the military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Among other refugees who had been approved for travel were people from Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. The sudden halt to the flights was an agonizing blow to refugees who had been following a complicated and lengthy process to enter the country legally, resettlement group workers said."

Even Big, Tough CEOs are A'Skeert. Emma Goldberg of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump ... revoked an executive order signed in 1965 that prohibited discriminatory hiring and employment practices for private government contractors. Perhaps most alarming for business leaders was the order's focus on private corporations, whether they do business with the government or not.... The executive order instructs the federal government to look at private sector D.E.I. initiatives: Each federal agency, it says, will identify 'up to nine potential civil compliance investigations' that could include publicly traded corporations, nonprofits and large foundations, among others. 'We're already seeing that this flurry of orders has created fear and confusion,' said David Glasgow ... at N.Y.U. Law.... Plenty of companies, reading the writing on the wall, had begun to shift their approaches to D.E.I. before Mr. Trump took office.... Some companies have stood firm in support of D.E.I., including Costco, Patagonia and Microsoft." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump is effectively telling private corporations, even those with no government contracts, "You must hire the white boys."

GOP House Members Sexted Trump Aide. Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson advised Republican colleagues against subpoenaing former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson as part of their investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack in an effort to prevent the release of sexually explicit texts that lawmakers sent her, according to written correspondence reviewed by The Post and a person familiar with the effort. The aide intervened last June.... Multiple colleagues had raised concerns with the speaker's office about the potential for public disclosure of 'sexual texts from members who were trying to engage in sexual favors' with Hutchinson, according to correspondence produced at the time that detailed the conversation.... Johnson revived the investigation this week as part of an effort by ... Donald Trump and his allies to seek retribution against perceived political enemies, including those who investigated his role in the Capitol attack.... The Washington Post ... has not seen the purported sexually explicit messages nor identified who sent them or whether Hutchinson responded."

~~~~~~~~~~

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "At a late-night inaugural ball on Monday..., [Donald] Trump, flush with his restoration to power, began waving a ceremonial sword he had been given almost as if it were a scepter and he were a king.... His return to the White House has been as much a coronation as an inauguration, a reflection of his own view of power and the fear it has instilled in his adversaries. His inaugural events have been suffused with regal themes. In his Inaugural Address, he claimed that when a gunman opened fire on him last summer, he 'was saved by God to make America great again,' an echo of the divine right of kings. He invoked the imperialist phrase 'manifest destiny,' declared that he would unilaterally rename mountains and seas as he sees fit and even claimed the right to take over territory belonging to other nations.... And in the weeks since his comeback election in November, Mr. Trump has asserted his dominance in the political space, making little effort to recognize anyone else's authority in a three-branch government, but instead making it clear that he expects other actors in the system to bend to his will." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

~~~ Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: "His vice president, JD Vance, said he 'obviously' wouldn't do it. His nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, agreed there was no way: 'The president does not like people that abuse police officers,' she told senators last week. The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, gave similar assurances that ... [Donald] Trump would not pardon 'violent criminals' -- the kind who bashed police officers with pieces of broken furniture or stashed an arsenal of weapons in Virginia to be used if their breach of the Capitol failed on Jan. 6, 2021. Even public opinion was against Mr. Trump. Just 34 percent of Americans thought he should pardon the Jan. 6 rioters, according to a Monmouth University poll in December. But on Monday..., he ... did exactly what he wanted: He decreed that every rioter would get some sort of reprieve. It didn't matter what crimes they committed.... [Mr. Trump] intends -- even more so than in his first term -- to test the outer limits of what he can get away with." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Trump Pardons Two More Violent Criminals. Paul Duggan & Peter Herman of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned two D.C. police officers convicted of misconduct in a vehicle chase that killed a young Black man and sparked a night of destructive civil unrest in the city during the nation's 2020 racial reckoning. Officer Terence Sutton and Lt. Andrew Zabavsky were convicted on charges of conspiracy and obstructing justice, and Sutton also was found guilty of second-degree murder. They were sentenced to prison terms of 5½ years and four years, respectively, but remained free pending the outcomes of their appeals.... On Oct. 23, 2020..., Zabavsky and Sutton, both White, conducted what federal prosecutors said was an unjustified, illegally reckless vehicular pursuit. They were chasing 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown, who was riding a rented moped during the low-speed chase and crashed into an SUV in traffic." Although a lawyer for Mr. Hylton-Brown's mother said he was born in the U.S., Trump twice referred to him this week by the derogatory term "an illegal." CNN's story is here.

In an unusual remark that closely echoed actual journalism, Sean Hannity said to Donald Trump last night, "The only criticism or pushback I've seen is about people that were convicted or involved in incidents where they were violent with police. Why did they get a pardon?" You can read Trump's response in this item by Charlie Nash of Mediaite. It kind of boils down to: It would be a lot of trouble to figure out who might have been involved in "very minor incidents" vs. who was completely innocent. Most of them were totally innocent and some were elderly but they got really long sentences & the government treated them "like the worst criminals in history" while Philadelphia murderers are sitting happily at home acting holier-than-thou. More on this interview linked below.

Erica Green of the New York Times: "... [Donald Trump on Wednesday revoked a 60-year-old executive order banning discrimination in hiring practices in the federal government, his latest action aimed at gutting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. His order, which the White House called 'the most important federal civil rights measure in decades,' revokes Executive Order 11246 signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. It prohibited discriminatory practices in hiring and employment in government contracting and asserted the government&'s commitment to affirmative action. Mr. Trump's order says that his action 'protects the civil rights of all Americans and expands individual opportunity.' Among its provisions is the elimination of any references to diversity, equity and inclusion in federal contracting and spending.... The administration has moved swiftly to eradicate all programs and practices in the federal government aimed at addressing systemic inequities." (Also linked yesterday.) The Huffington Post's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Do notice the gaslighting. In Trump's upside-down world, he labels undoing an historic civil rights initiative "the most important federal civil rights measure in decades." Trump pretends that he is undoing a wrong by guaranteeing "equal rights" to white men, a group that has held almost every bit of power since, well, the birth of our nation. ~~~

~~~ Perry Stein & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department has ordered the civil rights division to halt much of its investigative activity dating from the Biden administration and not pursue new indictments, cases or settlements, according to a memo sent to the temporary head of the division.... A separate memo sent to [Kathleen] Wolfe [-- designated by the Trump administration as supervisor of the division --] on Wednesday says the civil rights division must notify the Justice Department's chief of staff of any consent decrees the division has finalized within the last 90 days. That directive suggests that police-reform agreements the Justice Department has negotiated with cities including Minneapolis, Louisville and Memphis could be in jeopardy."

Trump: Snitch on Your Co-workers or Else. Erica Green & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Wednesday threatened federal employees with 'adverse consequences' if they fail t report on colleagues who defy orders to purge diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from their agencies. Tens of thousands of workers were put on notice that officials would not tolerate any efforts to 'disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.' Emails sent out, which were based on a template from the Office of Personnel Management, gave employees 10 days to report their observations to a special email account without risking disciplinary action." ~~~

     ~~~ Robert King & Ben Leonard of Politico: "Federal government websites devoted to diversity, equity and inclusion went offline Wednesday as the White House threatened 'adverse consequences' for agencies that fail to report DEI-related information within 10 days. The sites went down a day after the Office of Personnel Management sent a memo to all agencies Tuesday calling for all DEI workers to be placed on paid leave by 5 p.m. Wednesday. One of the instructions in the letter directed agency heads to remove 'all outward facing media' related to DEI work by 5 p.m. Wednesday." ~~~

~~~ Andrew Prokop of Vox: "New executive actions from the Trump administration on Tuesday make clear that not only is ... Donald Trump using his power to purge the practice of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) from the federal government -- he's acting to try and purge it from American culture as a whole.... In an executive order [issued] Tuesday night..., [Trump declared that] every federal agency ... must send a recommendation to the attorney general of up to nine potential investigations of corporations, large nonprofits, foundations with assets of $500 million or more, higher education institutions with endowments of $1 billion or more, or bar and medical associations. All this, the order said, was meant to 'encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI.'... For now, what is clear is that Trump's team is making an all-out effort to dismantle both the legal framework and the larger culture that have underpinned affirmative action and DEI in recent years."

Ellen Nakashima & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "National security adviser Michael Waltz has authorized a 'full review' of dozens of career officials who staff the White House on issues ranging from Iranian and North Korean nuclear proliferation to cyberespionage and Russia's war in Ukraine, according to his spokesman.... The officials, known as aides or detailees, were told Wednesday in a brief call conducted by Waltz's chief of staff, Brian McCormack, that they were to leave the building immediately, go home and be 'on call.' They were given instructions to return only if asked by their supervisors -- senior directors appointed by the Trump administration...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's plan to grant temporary security clearances to anyone he chooses opens the door to breaches and even espionage, experts and former officials say." (Also linked yesterday.)

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Trump White House is moving to paralyze a bipartisan and independent watchdog agency that investigates national security activities that can intrude upon individual rights.... Congress established the agency, called the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, as an independent unit in the executive branch after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It has security clearances and subpoena power, and is set up to have five members, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, who serve six-year terms. Some members are picked by the president, and some are selected by congressional leaders of the other party.... On Tuesday evening, each of the three members who were picked by Democrats -- Sharon Bradford Franklin, Edward W. Felten and Travis LeBlanc -- received an email from the White House telling them to submit resignation letters by the close of business on Jan. 23.... [Their] departure ... would mean the agency would lack enough members to function...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nick Miroff, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is preparing to send around 10,000 troops to the southern border, where they will support Border Patrol agents under new orders to shut off access to asylum, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection briefing document obtained by The Washington Post. The order directs border agents to block entry to migrants on the grounds that they have passed through countries where communicable diseases are present, without citing any specific health threat." MB: Obviously, there isn't a country or a U.S. city where communicable diseases are not present. Got a cold? You've got a communicable disease. ~~~

~~~ Erik De La Garza of the Raw Story: "The country's agricultural sector is in full-blown panic mode as President Donald Trump's long-promised mass deportations are starting to become a reality in farming communities across the United States. And the ripple effect could soon hit supermarkets, as the chaos surrounding Trump's strict immigration policies -- which already include stepped-up ICE raids -- is already threatening to send food prices soaring before long, according to a report in The New Republic. 'Bakersfield, California saw a massive drop off in the number of field workers showing up for work Tuesday while ICE agents in unmarked Chevy Suburbans rounded up and detained immigrants in the area, profiling individuals they believed to be field workers,' the outlet reported. The roundup resulted in acres of oranges left unpicked in the California sun during the most active period of the season."

Cat Zakrzewski, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal aid from California as it works to recover from devastating wildfires, recycling several baseless claims and attacks against California's Democratic leaders during his first sit-down interview since his inauguration. 'I don't think we should give California anything until they let water flow down,' he told Sean Hannity during a Fox News interview that aired Wednesday night. Trump was repeating a false claim he has repeatedly made that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-California) and other public officials have refused to allow water from the northern part of the state to flow down into the Los Angeles area. Withholding aid, or making it conditional, would be a significant change in standard practice for how the government responds to natural disasters. Recent hurricane funding for mostly GOP-led states passed Congress without condition." An AP story is here.

     ~~~ Marie: So the WashPo reports matter-of-factly that the better part of recent disaster funding went to red states. Then we have this: ~~~

     ~~~ Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "... [Donald] Trump plans to have a 'whole big discussion very shortly' on the Federa Emergency Management Agency because he'd 'rather see the states take care of their own problems,' according to an interview broadcast Wednesday evening.... Trump and others in the GOP have in recent months complained that FEMA's disaster response has been biased against Republicans.... [Trump told Sean Hannity], 'FEMA has not done their job for the last four years.'... Project 2025 suggests 'reforming FEMA emergency spending to shift the majority of preparedness and response costs to states and localities instead of the federal government' -- though during the 2024 campaign Trump disavowed the Heritage Foundation-backed blueprint that some of his Cabinet picks have ties to." ~~~

~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "... [Donald] Trump on Wednesday repeatedly suggested it was a mistake that former President Biden did not preemptively pardon himself before leaving office. Trump, in a sit-down interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, also danced around questions on whether Biden should be investigated. But on multiple occasions, Trump signaled Biden should have taken advantage of the pardon power to protect himself." ~~~

     ~~~ Irie Sentner & Ali Bianco of Politico: "... Donald Trump appeared to suggest Wednesday that former President Joe Biden should be investigated and should even have pardoned himself on the way out of the White House. Trump did not specify what offenses the former president may have committed, only that his predecessor should endure the kind of legal scrutiny he endured before he was reelected."

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Coast Guard will surge additional resources to the 'Gulf of America' and several other locations, the service said in a statement Tuesday, after the Trump administration sacked its top admiral and alleged that she had failed to prioritize the security of U.S. borders. The statement marked one of the U.S. government's first official uses of ... Donald Trump's desired name for the Gulf of Mexico, a policy shift that has elicited derision from his domestic political foes and leaders in Mexico. Trump signed an executive order soon after his inauguration Monday setting a 30-day deadline for the Interior Department to take 'all appropriate action' needed to codify the new name." (Also linked yesterday.)

⭐Judges Get the Last Word, After All. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A prominent federal judge on Wednesday ripped ... Donald Trump's mass clemency for Jan. 6 rioters, saying the justification he offered in his proclamation -- to correct an 'injustice' and trigger a 'national reconciliation' -- was 'flatly wrong' and a 'revisionist myth.' 'No "national injustice" occurred here, just as no outcome-determinative election fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election,' U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell wrote in an eight-page order in the case of two Jan. 6 defendants who pleaded guilty to felonies. 'No "process of national reconciliation" can begin when poor losers, whose preferred candidate loses an election, are glorified for disrupting a constitutionally mandated proceeding in Congress and doing so with impunity.... She said his decision 'merely raises the dangerous specter of future lawless conduct by other poor losers and undermines the rule of law.'...

"U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan -- who was slated to preside over Trump's own criminal prosecution for seeking to subvert the 2020 election before his 2024 victory ended the case -- said Trump's mass pardons 'cannot whitewash the blood, feces, and terror that the mob left in its wake.'... U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said Trump's action could never change the 'immutable' record of violence and heroism of law enforcement, which will remain enshrined in court records."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Fresh from being freed by ... [Donald] Trump's sweeping grants of clemency, two of the nation's most notorious far-right leaders -- Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers militia -- spoke out this week.... They asserted unrepentantly that they wanted Mr. Trump to seek revenge on their behalf for being prosecuted in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Before Mr. Trump offered them a reprieve on Monday night, both men had been serving lengthy prison terms -- Mr. Tarrio 22 years and Mr. Rhodes 18 years -- on seditious conspiracy convictions arising from the roles they played in the storming of the Capitol.... 'Success,' Mr. Tarrio said, 'is going to be retribution.'... When asked how history should remember Jan. 6, [Mr. Rhodes] said, 'As Patriots' Day -- that we stood up for our country because we knew the election was stolen.' As for any regrets, he said he had none, adding, 'Because we did the right thing.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

You remember how a little while ago we learned that Elon did not play well with Vivek so Elon kicked Vivek out? Well, he's not playing much better in Donnie's sandbox. Oh, how will this end? ~~~

~~~ Theodore Schleifer & Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "Elon Musk is casting doubt on the first major tech investment announcement made by ... [Donald] Trump, openly questioning the administration he now serves. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump announced a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to create at least $100 billion in computing infrastructure to power artificial intelligence, some of which is already underway. But in two late-night messages on X, Mr. Musk said that the venture, dubbed Stargate, did not have the financing to achieve the promised investment levels. 'They don't have the money,' Mr. Musk wrote in reply to an OpenAI post on the announcement. 'SoftBank has well under $10B secured....' ... It's ... an unusual move for any senior policy official to question an initiative trumpeted by the president.... Mr. Musk has been battling with OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Elon's pique with the project likely means that Trump's "people" planned this hu-u-u-ge AI project either (a) without consulting Musk, who has an AI product of his very own (Grok/xAI), or (b) consulting him but ignoring his advice. That is, by Day 2 in the Realm of Trump II, there's trouble at the top.

Marie: Long, long ago (2009, to be exact), I warned that Republican men should never publicly speak or write about anything having to do with sex (or gender, if you prefer), because they seldom know WTF they're talking about. Nevertheless, they persisted. So it's not surprising that this is where we are: ~~~

     ~~~ I hope you're all feeling your feminine side, because Donald Trump just declared by executive fiat that you are a female. Congratulations, Girls! Eric Garcia of the Independent: "Specifically, the order defines a female as a 'a person belonging, at conception to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,' while a male is a 'person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.'... Critics pointed out that genitalia at conception are 'phenotypically female,' according to the National Library of Medicine. For the first several weeks after conception, all human embryos follow a 'female' developmental blueprint until the activation of the SRY gene initiates sexual differentiation. Embryos with an XY genotype will begin developing male traits linked to the Y chromosome at roughly six weeks. Before then, human embryos have only developed female traits linked to the X chromosome. One social media critic scoffed that the order was 'written by morons.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: If you look pretty far down the page in yesterday's Comments, you'll find that RAS has suggested an excellent way to manage this conundrum.

Heather Cox Richardson has some thoughts about Trump's stunts, and shares some of Will Bunch's observations about Trump's performance. Here's Richardson on Bunch: "Trump's first day on the job was 'a dangerous display of rapid mental decline.' Bunch recorded Trump's slurred speech, rambling, and nonsensical off-the-cuff speeches and said that his 'biggest takeaway from a day that some have anticipated and many have dreaded for the last four years is seeing how rapidly the oldest new president in America is declining right in front of us.' Thanks to laura h. for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ AND Jonathan Chait of the Atlantic strikes an optimistic tone: "... a politician and a party that are built for propaganda and quashing dissent generally lack the tools for effective governance. As far as policy accomplishments are concerned, the second Trump term could very well turn out to be as underwhelming as the first.... Even by realistic standards..., Trump seems unprepared to deliver on some of his biggest stated goals.... Trump's fiscal agenda is where the desires of his wealthy benefactors, the preferences of his voters, and economic conditions will clash most violently.... A leader surrounded by sycophants cannot receive the advice he needs to avoid catastrophic error, and to signal that his allies can enrich themselves from his administration is to invite scandal. In his inaugural spectacle of dominance and intimidation, Trump was planting the seeds of his own failure." Thanks to laura h. for this gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Chait argues that Trump & Co. won't do all that much harm because they don't know how to govern & Trump's "sweeping" executive orders were so vague as to be meaningless. I hope Chait is right, but I have no such confidence. ~~~

~~~ Paul Waldman, in a Substack essay, also is somewhat confident Trump's reign of terror will fizzle because it's based almost entirely upon the sense that "The real Americans have been betrayed, their world and their place in it taken from them." Waldman thinks Democrats can fix that with "strategic thinking." MB: I could not agree less. That backlash we're seeing is an extension of the backlash that arose when the South lost the Civil War. There's no break, no loss of continuity between then and now. Sure, the white (majority male) bigots may have more clearly identified a few more groups to despise -- Latinos, LGBTQ+, & so forth -- but it's all that same bedrock belief that white men should rule and everybody else should "know your place." These yahoos were willing to die for white supremacy in 1860 and they're still willing to fight for it in 2025.

Catie Edmondson & Matthew Duehren of the New York Times: "Top Republicans are passing around an extensive menu of ideas to cover the cost of a massive tax cut and immigration crackdown bill. They could create a 10 percent tariff on all imports, bringing in an estimated $1.9 trillion. They could establish new work requirements for Medicaid recipients, bringing in $100 billion in savings. They have even calculated that they could generate $20 billion by raising taxes on people who can use a free gym at the office, according to a 50-page list of options that the House Budget Committee has circulated in recent days." MB: Yes, the plans are to raise your cost-of-living, raise your taxes AND reduce your benefits. That's what passes for "ideas" in the GOP today.

Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "The reverend who called on ... [Donald] Trump to have mercy on transgender children and immigrants during a prayer service for his inauguration said in a new interview she would not apologize for her remarks. 'I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others,' Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde told Time magazine in an interview published Wednesday afternoon. The interview comes after Trump criticized Budde as a 'Radical Left hard-line Trump hater' and called on her to apologize for her 'nasty' remarks at the National Cathedral prayer service on Tuesday.... Trump also called on her and the church to apologize to him." MB: I recall how furious Trump was when Nancy Pelosi said she prayed for him. He just can't stand it when women of faith obliquely demonstrate what a cruel, empty person he is, so he lashes out, proving their unspoken premise.

~~~~~~~~~~

Just as we know "Two dogs walked into a bar...." is the preface to a joke, so do we know that "A state senator in Mississippi has filed a bill" also promises a joke, usually a downright ridiculous one. ~~~

~~~ Mississippi. WLBT News (Jackson): "A state senator in Mississippi has filed a bill entitled the 'Contraception Begins at Erection Act.' A written by Sen. Bradford Blackmon, the bill would make it 'unlawful for a person to discharge genetic material without the intent to fertilize an embryo.' There are also fines involved, the third strike resulting in the loss of $10,000 from the perpetrator." Really, Brad, that's great. What was I saying yesterday about how Republican men should not write or say anything about sex or gender? Well, Brad's a Democrat. Looks like a good percentage of Democratic men should STFU, too.

News Lede

New York Times: "A new brush fire rapidly exploded on Wednesday north of Los Angeles, bringing new terror to Southern California more than two weeks after wildfires first tore through the region. The blaze forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate, shut down schools and businesses, and temporarily closed parts of Interstate 5. The new threat, named the Hughes fire, ignited just before 11 a.m. local time near Castaic Lake, a reservoir about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. By 10 p.m., it had grown to more than 10,000 acres, burning mostly brush around a state park called the Castaic Lake State Recreation Area. By late Wednesday night, firefighters had been able to contain 14 percent of the fire, the U.S. Forest Service said. No injuries had been reported and no structures had been destroyed, officials said." This is a liveblog.