The Conversation -- June 28, 2025

⭐Natasha Bertrand & Zachary Cohen of CNN, republished by AOL: "The US military did not use bunker-buster bombs on one of Iran’s largest nuclear sites last weekend because the site is so deep that the bombs likely would not have been effective, the US’ top general told senators during a briefing on Thursday. The comment by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, which was described by three people who heard his remarks and a fourth who was briefed on them, is the first known explanation given for why the US military did not use the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb against the Isfahan site in central Iran. US officials believe Isfahan’s underground structures house nearly 60% of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, which Iran would need in order to ever produce a nuclear weapon. US B2 bombers dropped over a dozen bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites. But Isfahan was only struck by Tomahawk missiles launched from a US submarine." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump already had it in for Bertrand, writing Wednesday on his failing social media site that CNN should fire her "like a dog" for breaking the story that the Pentagon's Defense Intel Agency assessment of the U.S. strikes on Iran did not "completely obliterate" Iran's nuclear program as Trump has repeatedly asserted. (BTW, Cohen and another reporter also were part of the team, with Bertrand, who broke the original DIA assessment story. Yet Trump singled out Bertrand & leveled a string of insults against her.) What Bertrand & Cohen are reporting here is that Trump knew -- or should have known -- all along that the U.S. strikes could not have "completely obliterated" Iran's nuclear program because the U.S. attacks did not even try to "completely obliterate" one of the sites where the program is developed and operated. So Bertrand & Cohen just showed that Trump either knowingly lied to the public about -- or is ignorant of -- the mission he approved. Congress, of course, should investigate whether Trump deliberately lied or is too stupid to comprehend the nature and purpose of the military missions he authorizes.

Not surprisingly, Heather Cox Richardson's latest "letter" is a good shortcourse in the history of birthright citizenship in the U.S. “To reporters, [Donald Trump] claimed: 'If you look at the end of the Civil War — the 1800s, it was a very turbulent time. If you take the end day — was it 1869? Or whatever. But you take that exact day, that’s when the case was filed. And the case ended shortly thereafter. This had to do with the babies of slaves, very obviously.' This is a great example of a politician rooting a current policy in a made-up history. There is nothing in Trump’s statement that is true, except perhaps that the 1800s were a turbulent time. Every era is.”

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Marie: Yesterday was an extraordinary day. What happened yesterday did not just speed up the United States' descent from democratic republic to dictatorship. Yesterday, the Senate and the Supreme Court made it official. The proofs are linked below. Senate Republicans (and John Fetterman [D-Pa.]) voted to cede to the dictator Congress's Constitutional prerogative to declare war. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has stripped all the lower courts of their right and responsibility to broadly estop the dictator and his administration from flagrantly violating the Constitution and the laws. 

Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court on Friday backed ... Donald Trump’s request to scale back nationwide orders that have for months blocked the administration’s ban on automatic citizenship for the U.S.-born babies of undocumented immigrants and foreign visitors, a signature piece of Trump’s efforts to restrict immigration. The 6-3 decision, with the liberal justices dissenting, sends the cases back to the lower courts to determine the practical implications of the ruling and leaves open a path for challengers to try to continue to block the president’s policy.... The justices were not directly addressing the constitutionality of the president’s birthright citizenship order, which opponents say conflicts with the 14th Amendment, past court rulings and the nation’s history.... Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said such universal injunctions likely exceed the power that Congress has granted to the federal courts.... Justice Sonia Sotomayor read a lengthy summary of her dissent from the bench to emphasize her strong disagreement with the opinion, which she called a 'travesty' and warned would 'cause chaos for the families of all affected children.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Supreme Court has handed ... Donald Trump a major victory by narrowing nationwide injunctions that blocked his executive order purporting to end the right to birthright citizenship. In doing so, the court sharply curtailed the power of individual district court judges to issue injunctions blocking federal government policies nationwide.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The decision, concurrences and dissents are here, via the Supreme Court.  (Also linked yesterday.) 

No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates. Today, the threat is to birthright citizenship. Tomorrow, a different administration may try to seize firearms from law abiding citizens or prevent people of certain faiths from gathering to worship…. That holding renders constitutional guarantees meaningful in name only for any individuals who are not parties to a lawsuit.... The Executive Branch can now enforce policies that flout settled law and violate countless individuals’ constitutional rights, and the federal courts will be hamstrung to stop its actions fully. -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissent, Trump v. CASA

I have no doubt that, if judges must allow the Executive to act unlawfully in some circumstances, as the Court concludes today, executive lawlessness will flourish, and from there, it is not difficult to predict how this all ends.... Eventually, executive power will become completely uncontainable, and our beloved constitutional Republic will be no more. -- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissent, Trump v. CASA 

Birthright citizenship was added to the Constitution at the end of the Civil War. It’s a basic idea: When you’re born in America, you’re an American. That’s what Trump is trying to take away. By failing to protect this basic constitutional right, the Supreme Court is declaring open season on all our rights. -- Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus ~~~

~~~ New York Times live updates are here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: BTW, Sotomayor, in her dissent, compares this decision to the most notorious case in the history of the Supreme Court: Dred Scott. ~~~

Children born in the United States and subject to its laws are United States citizens. That has been the legal rule since the founding, and it was the English rule well before then. This Court once attempted to repudiate it, holding in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 19 How. 393 (1857), that the children of enslaved black Americans were not citizens. To remedy that grievous error, the States passed in 1866 and Congress ratified in 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which enshrined birthright citizenship in the Constitution. There it has remained, accepted and respected by Congress, by the Executive, and by this Court. Until today. -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissent, Trump v. CASA (Thanks to Blaise Malley of Salon for the heads-up.) ~~~

~~~ Chris Geidner, the Law Dork: The Three-Names-Supremes -- Amy Phony Barrett & Ketanji Brown Jackson -- brawl over what the real-world impact of the decision will be. ~~~

~~~ Jacob Knutson of Democracy Docket: “Not long after the ruling, Trump claimed that his administration was now free to move ahead in amassing power on a range of fronts.... In reacting to the ruling, Trump repeated his attacks on federal judges, calling them 'radical' and their rulings 'a grave threat to democracy.' The president jumped on the ruling as giving him complete freedom to plow ahead with many of the policies that have made up his unprecedented power grab and that had been blocked by the courts. He falsely said that the Supreme Court has allowed his administration to proceed with ending birthright citizenship. He also named ceasing funding for sanctuary cities, suspending refugee resettlement and cutting funding for transgender healthcare as areas where his administration can move ahead unfettered. 'Thanks to this decision, we can now properly file to proceed with these numerous policies and those that have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis,' Trump said. 'This is a decision that covers a tremendous amount of territory.'” ~~~

~~~ Wherein Trump Admits He's a Bigger Outlaw Than All 20th-Century Presidents Combined. Caleb Howe of Mediaite: “'... Trump’s actions have been so extreme the courts have had to use that power to stop him more than any other president in modern history. Any other president,' [Jen] Psaki [of MSNBC said Friday]. 'And that’s something that even Trump himself admits.' She then played Trump from his presser saying: 'We’ve been hit with more nationwide injunctions than were issued in the entire 20th century together. Think of it more than the entire twentieth century. Me.' 'Yes, you. The courts have had to stop you, Donald Trump, more than any other president,' Psaki responded. 'It’s not the brag you think it is either, by the way.'” ~~~

~~~ Miriam Jordan of the New York Times tries to answer questions about what will and may happen next as a result of the decision. ~~~

~~~ Unequal Protection Under the Law. Mel Barclay of the 19th: “While challenges to the executive order move through the courts, the administration will only be blocked from enforcing its order against some immigrants. That will likely include people in the 22 Democrat-led states that directly challenged the order, along with the members of two immigrants’ rights organizations and individually named plaintiffs. The Supreme Court ordered the lower courts to 'expeditiously' reexamine which plaintiffs will be covered by more narrow injunctions. Immigrant parents who expect to give birth soon in one of the 28 Republican-led states that didn’t challenge the executive order are in a more 'tenuous' situation, said Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell.” ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: “Immigrants rights’ advocates on Friday filed a nationwide class action lawsuit challenging ... Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship, just hours after the Supreme Court partially blocked nationwide injunctions challenging Trump’s order. The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Legal Defense Fund and other groups, was brought on behalf of a class of babies subject to the executive order, along with their parents. It charges the Trump administration with flouting the Constitution, congressional intent, and longstanding Supreme Court precedent.” ~~~

~~~ Laurence Tribe weighs in. Thanks to laura h. for the lead: ~~~

~~~ Marie: A number of the articles I've linked note that Pam Blondie said yesterday that the Supremes likely would resolve the issue of birthright citizenship in the fall, implying we shouldn't get all pissy about a few thousand kids falling into the chasm created by this ruling. But NYU law professor Melissa Murray pointed out on MSNBC that's not apt to be true. “Sotomayor ... wrote [in her dissent] that the administration didn’t ask the Supreme Court to allow the birthright citizenship order to go fully into effect because proving that the policy is likely legal before the Supreme Court would be 'an impossible task in light of the Constitution’s text.'” So let's assume that the plaintiffs -- that is, those advocating for birthright citizenship -- prevail in every case before the lower courts, as Sotomayor suggests was likely. That would leave only the government -- Blondie's tribe -- to appeal the decisions to the Supreme Court. And Blondie has zero incentive to appeal because as Sotomayor wrote, the government would lose. So the patchwork will remain in place. That is, as Mrs. Ken W. told Mr. Ken W. (see yesterday's Comments), a child born in Washington State will be a citizen, but one born in Idaho will not.

Justin Jouvenal & David Ovalle of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a portion of the Affordable Care Act that requires health plans to provide free preventive care such as screenings for cancer and HIV. In a 6-3 decision, the justices ruled against a Christian-owned business and individuals who objected to being forced to offer medications intended to prevent the spread of HIV among people at risk. The plaintiffs contend the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) treatment administered to prevent infections, 'encourage and facilitate homosexual behavior' in conflict with their religious beliefs.... Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch dissented.... Public health groups on Friday hailed the decision but also worried it may prove a double-edge sword under Trump administration health officials who have rejected long-standing public health guidance. The opinion paves the way for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent anti-vaccine activist, and his successors to exert greater control over the panel’s recommendations, said Jose Abrigo ... of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund....”

Justin Jouvenal & Will Oremus of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court ruled Friday that an $8 billion fund that provides telephone and internet service in rural and low-income communities is constitutional, a break from a string of major rulings by the high court that have sharply curtailed the power of federal agencies. In a 6-3 ruling, the justices found Congress properly granted the Federal Communications Commission discretion to collect fees from telecommunications companies to pay for the Universal Service Fund, which helps ensure equal access to critical communication services. The ruling is a blow to conservatives who had hoped the high court would — for the first time since 1935 — find that Congress had violated a constitutional provision that bars it from delegating too much of its authority to other branches of the government, namely the executive and federal agencies.” Gorsuch, Thomas & Alito dissented.

     ~~~ The decision, concurring opinions & dissent are here, via the Supreme Court.

Michael Schmidt & Michael Bender of the New York Times: “The University of Virginia’s president, James E. Ryan, has told the board overseeing the school that he will resign in the face of demands by the Trump administration that he step aside to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, according to three people briefed on the matter. For the leader of one of the nation’s most prominent public universities to take such an extraordinary step demonstrates ... [Donald] Trump’s success in harnessing the investigative powers of the federal government to accomplish his administration’s policy goals. The New York Times reported on Thursday evening that the Justice Department had demanded Mr. Ryan’s resignation as a condition to settle a civil rights investigation into the school’s diversity practices. In a letter sent on Thursday to the head of the board overseeing the university, Mr. Ryan said that he had planned to step down at the end of the next academic year but 'given the circumstances and today’s conversations' he had decided, 'with deep sadness,' to tender his resignation now.... The school’s board has accepted Mr. Ryan’s resignation, according to two of the people briefed on the matter.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is a mistake. Whatever Ryan's personal plans may have been, he had a duty to the principles of the academy to tell the Trump administration to stick it. Same with the board, which should not have accepted his resignation. These people are not as bright as you would expect them to be if they don't understand that they do not have the freedom to knuckle under to a despot.

Tony Romm, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Friday said that the United States would terminate all trade discussions with Canada, 'effective immediately,' over the country’s plan to begin collecting digital services taxes from U.S. technology giants. Mr. Trump described those taxes as a 'blatant attack,' and promised on social media that he would inform Canada within the next seven days about the duties 'they will be paying to do business with the United States of America.'... 'We have all the cards. We have every single one,' Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office, adding that 'economically we have such power over Canada.'... In ceasing talks, Mr. Trump once again upended the increasingly fraught relationship between the United States and Canada, which has traditionally been one of America’s closest allies and largest trading partners....

“Canada’s 3 percent digital services tax has been in place since last year, but the first payments are only due beginning on Monday. Because the tax is retroactive, American companies were preparing to turn over roughly $2.7 billion to the Canadian government, according to a trade group for large American tech companies.... On Friday, Mr. Trump singled out Europe, where several countries have imposed versions of the tax, describing them as 'very nasty.' But he did not suggest that he planned to halt ongoing trade negotiations with the European Union.” MB: Trump's stupid and embarrassing “We have all the cards” power play is, of course, simple an attack on American consumers of Canadian products.

Colby Smith of the New York Times: Donald “Trump continued his assault on the chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday, saying he would like Jerome H. Powell to resign. The president, who has berated Mr. Powell for weeks, called the chair a 'stubborn mule' who has 'Trump derangement syndrome' for his refusal to immediately lower borrowing costs. 'I’d love for him to resign if he wanted to,' the president told reporters in the Oval Office.... Mr. Trump recently said that he was choosing among three or four people to replace Mr. Powell, whose term ends in May, and that an announcement would be coming soon.... Mr. Trump ... has repeatedly toyed with removing Mr. Powell as chair before his term expires. The Supreme Court recently signaled that the president was not authorized to do that, however. Mr. Powell’s term as a governor does not expire until 2032, meaning he could technically stay on even after stepping down as chair.”

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: “Though Trump likes to hug the flag — and just raised two huge ones on the White House North and South Lawns — he ignores a basic tenet of patriotism: It is patriotic to tell the public the truth on life-or-death matters, and for the press to challenge power. It is unpatriotic to mislead the public in order to control it and suppress dissent, or as a way of puffing up your own ego.”

Dan Diamond & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: “The U.S. DOGE Service has lost the power to control the government’s process for awarding billions of dollars in federal funds, the latest sign of the team’s declining influence following Elon Musk’s high-profile exit from Washington.... Three months ago, DOGE employees wrested control of a key federal grants website, grants.gov, which serves as a clearinghouse for more than $500 billion in annual awards, The Post reported.... But on Thursday, federal officials were instructed to stop routing the grant-making process through DOGE.... The decision follows fears that months of DOGE-linked delays would lead to what critics allege would be the illegal impoundment of federal funds.... Contacted for comment Friday, the White House sent a statement attributed to an unnamed senior administration official saying DOGE will continue to 'facilitate the review of grants, working alongside agency secretaries to determine which grants should continue, which should be terminated, and which require further scrutiny.'”

Christine Hauser of the New York Times: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that the U.S. Navy was renaming the U.S.N.S. Harvey Milk, a fleet replenishment ship that had been named for a Navy veteran and one of the country’s first openly gay elected officials. He said that the vessel would be renamed for Oscar V. Peterson, a chief petty officer who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for valor during World War II. 'We are taking the politics out of ship naming,' Mr. Hegseth said in a statement released on social media. The announcement — which came during Pride Month — was not unexpected. Earlier this month, Mr. Hegseth said he had ordered a review of Navy vessels named after prominent civil rights leaders, and the ship named after Mr. Milk was seen as a possible candidate for a change. The review was in keeping with the Trump administration’s drive to expunge diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from the federal government, a senior defense official familiar with the decision said at the time.... In 2009, Mr. Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s top civilian medal, by President Obama.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You will notice that Drunk Pete has caught onto authoritarian opposite-speak, wherein dictators and their minions make pronouncements that are in direct opposition to the facts. So when Pete sez, “We are taking the politics out of ship naming,” what he means is, “We are putting politics into ship-naming.” What he does not address is that he is doing so in the most shameful possible way, stripping from an American hero an honor well-earned, and only because that hero was gay. (This is not to say, of course, that Mr. Peterson's heroism does not deserve similar recognition; rather, it should not be awarded at the expense of another deserving person.)

Adam Taylor, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration’s plan for mass layoffs at the State Department has left much of the workforce exasperated and embittered, tanking morale as extra demands were made to assist U.S. citizens seeking to flee the Middle East amid Israel’s war with Iran, employees say. At the direction of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department informed Congress in May that it planned to reduce its U.S. workforce by more than 15 percent — almost 2,000 people — as part of a sweeping reorganization intended to streamline what he has called a 'bloated bureaucracy that stifles innovation and misallocates scarce resources.' Separately, he has accused certain bureaus within the department of pursuing a 'radical political ideology.' Rubio had set a July 1 timeline for the dismissals, but execution of the plan is contingent on a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court, which is evaluating ... Donald Trump’s sweeping attempt to fire federal workers across numerous government agencies. It’s unclear when the court could act.” ~~~

~~~ Edward Wong & Michael Crowley of the New York Times: “Sixty Democratic lawmakers told Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday to refrain from moving ahead with mass layoffs of State Department employees and to lift a hiring freeze at a time of widening global crises. In a letter to Mr. Rubio, the lawmakers said they were concerned about reported plans to fire about 700 career diplomats, known as Foreign Service officers, based mainly on the fact that those employees are currently posted in the United States rather than overseas. Diplomats spend much of their career abroad but rotate through Washington and other U.S. posts such as the United Nations, so firing people who happen to be currently on assignment in the country is seen as arbitrary and unfair by many State Department employees, as well as by the lawmakers.... [The State Department] sent a memo to Congress with ... details [of its reorganization plan], including plans to fire about 2,000 people. The State Department says it aims to do the overhaul by July 1.” MB: You might think that Little Marco doesn't know how the diplomatic rotation works. And/or you might think Marco is an arbitrary and capricious junior dictator who doesn't give a flying fig.

Marie: A tragedy, in the Greek sense, is a story in which the main character comes to an unhappy ending through some fault -- or character flaw -- of his own. We may not be talking "Oedipus Rex" here, but perhaps a more homely, Arthur Miller-type tragedy: Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette on the death of Canadian immigrant Johnny Noviello, a small-time drug dealer and Trump fan who died in ICE custody. Pennacchia concludes, "I couldn’t tell you what made a non-citizen with a history of drug offenses think that Donald Trump was his guy. Maybe he thought because he was white, because he was Canadian and not Mexican, that he was conservative, that he’d get a pass. He cheered for Donald Trump because he thought it would be other people getting hauled away to these detention centers and not him. Clearly, he was wrong." More on Noviello's death linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “The Senate on Friday blocked a Democratic resolution that would have forced ... [Donald] Trump to go to Congress for approval of further military action against Iran, dealing a blow to efforts to rein in his war powers. The 53-to-47 vote against bringing up the resolution, mostly along party lines, came nearly a week after the president unilaterally ordered strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities without consulting the House and Senate. It also followed a searing debate on the Senate floor over the role of Congress in authorizing the use of military force. The measure, sponsored by Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, invoked the War Powers Act, a 1973 law aimed at limiting a president’s power to enter an armed conflict without the consent of Congress. It would have required the White House to notify lawmakers and seek the approval of both the House and Senate before U.S. forces could take further military action against Iran.” 

Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Washington ruled on Friday that an executive order ... [Donald] Trump signed imposing penalties against the law firm Susman Godfrey was unconstitutional, permanently barring the government from enforcing its terms. The decision by Judge Loren L. AliKhan of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia effectively ended, at least for now, the president’s campaign to subjugate several of the nation’s top law firms. It also completed a perfect record among those firms that risked fighting the administration in court, notching four decisive rulings from four separate judges, none of which the Trump administration has, so far, tried to appeal.” A pdf of the decision, linked in the text, is provided by the courts.... In April, Mr. Trump went after Susman Godfrey with an order claiming the firm 'spearheads efforts to weaponize the American legal system and degrade the quality of American elections' — an apparent reference to its work representing Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine manufacturer, in a major defamation case against Fox News.” A CBS News story is here.

Laurel Rosenhall of the New York Times: “Gov. Gavin Newsom of California sued Fox News on Friday, accusing the network of defaming him in its coverage of a phone call he had with ... [Donald] Trump this month. The suit, filed in Delaware, where Fox News is incorporated, seeks damages of at least $787 million and a court order prohibiting Fox from broadcasting or posting segments that mistakenly say Mr. Newsom lied about his call with Mr. Trump.... Mr. Newsom’s lawyers also sent Fox News a letter demanding a formal retraction and an on-air apology from Jesse Watters, a host who said on his show that Mr. Newsom had lied about the call with the president. If those conditions are met, the letter states, Mr. Newsom will dismiss the lawsuit. The punitive damages sought by Mr. Newsom mirror the amount that Fox News agreed to pay in 2023 to settle a lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems that accused the network of publicizing false election conspiracies that damaged the company. 'If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf, it should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case,' Mr. Newsom said in a statement. 'I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet.' Fox News responded by questioning the sincerity of Mr. Newsom’s lawsuit.” Montague goes on to explain the background that led to the suit.

Ashley Wu, et al., of the New York Times chart how key provisions of the House & Senate versions of Trump's Big Bad Bill differ. They note that the “page will be updated to reflect the final version of the Senate bill when it’s available.”

Maxine Joselow, now of the New York Times: Some right-wing outdoorsmen are denouncing “a plan by Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, to sell millions of acres of federal lands as part of President Trump’s sprawling tax and spending bill.... Mr. Lee’s proposal would require the Bureau of Land Management to sell as much as 1.225 million acres of public property across the American West. Proponents have said the region has a severe shortage of affordable housing and that developers could build new homes on these tracts.... Opponents include Representative Ryan Zinke, a Republican of Montana, who led the Interior Department during Mr. Trump’s first term. On Thursday, Mr. Zinke said he would vote against the bill if it included the provision.... Five House Republicans — including Mr. Zinke — said on Thursday that the land sale was a 'poison pill' that would cost their votes for the package.” MB: By “the bill” and “the package,” it appears Joselow means the Big Bad Bill, though she doesn't make that entirely clear.

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Minnesota. New York Times: “Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. joined thousands of mourners who streamed through the Minnesota State Capitol on Friday to pay their respects to State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. The couple were killed at their home this month in suburban Minneapolis, in what officials have described as a broader plan to assassinate Democratic officials. The procession past their caskets under the ornate dome of the State Capitol began shortly after the man accused of the fatal shooting appeared briefly in a federal courthouse about a mile away. The suspect’s detention hearing was delayed until next week after his lawyer told the judge that he had been placed on suicide watch and had been unable to sleep in jail. At the Capitol, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and his wife were the first to pay respects to the Hortmans just after noon local time. President Biden made a surprise visit about four hours later. He knelt briefly and crossed himself in front of the caskets, which flanked an urn containing the remains of the family’s dog, Gilbert, who was also killed in the attack.” This is part of the pinned item in a liveblog.

Nebraska. Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Representative Don Bacon, the five-term Nebraska Republican who represents a centrist district in a deeply red state, will not seek re-election, according to a person familiar with his plans, handing Democrats a prime opportunity to pick up a seat in the closely divided House. Mr. Bacon’s official announcement is expected on Monday, and his departure is not unexpected. His willingness to publicly disagree with ... [Donald] Trump has made him an anomaly in the tribal House Republican Conference, where members tend to fall in line behind the president’s agenda and rarely criticize him in the open.”

The Conversation -- June 27, 2025

Michael Schmidt & Michael Bender of the New York Times: “The University of Virginia’s president, James E. Ryan, has told the board overseeing the school that he will resign in the face of demands by the Trump administration that he step aside to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, according to three people briefed on the matter. For the leader of one of the nation’s most prominent public universities to take such an extraordinary step demonstrates ... [Donald] Trump’s success in harnessing the investigative powers of the federal government to accomplish his administration’s policy goals. The New York Times reported on Thursday evening that the Justice Department had demanded Mr. Ryan’s resignation as a condition to settle a civil rights investigation into the school’s diversity practices. In a letter sent on Thursday to the head of the board overseeing the university, Mr. Ryan said that he had planned to step down at the end of the next academic year but 'given the circumstances and today’s conversations' he had decided, 'with deep sadness,' to tender his resignation now.... The school’s board has accepted Mr. Ryan’s resignation, according to two of the people briefed on the matter.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is a mistake. Whatever Ryan's personal plans may have been, he had a duty to the principles of the academy to tell the Trump administration to stick it. Same with the board, which should not have accepted his resignation. These people are not as bright as you would expect them to be if they don't understand that they do not have the freedom to knuckle under to a despot.

Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court on Friday backed ... Donald Trump’s request to scale back nationwide orders that have for months blocked the administration’s ban on automatic citizenship for the U.S.-born babies of undocumented immigrants and foreign visitors, a signature piece of Trump’s efforts to restrict immigration. The 6-3 decision, with the liberal justices dissenting, sends the cases back to the lower courts to determine the practical implications of the ruling and leaves open a path for challengers to try to continue to block the president’s policy.... The justices were not directly addressing the constitutionality of the president’s birthright citizenship order, which opponents say conflicts with the 14th Amendment, past court rulings and the nation’s history.... Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said such universal injunctions likely exceed the power that Congress has granted to the federal courts.... Justice Sonia Sotomayor read a lengthy summary of her dissent from the bench to emphasize her strong disagreement with the opinion, which she called a 'travesty' and warned would 'cause chaos for the families of all affected children.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Supreme Court has handed ... Donald Trump a major victory by narrowing nationwide injunctions that blocked his executive order purporting to end the right to birthright citizenship. In doing so, the court sharply curtailed the power of individual district court judges to issue injunctions blocking federal government policies nationwide.” The opinion, concurring opinions & dissents are here, via the Courts. ~~~

Birthright citizenship was added to the Constitution at the end of the Civil War. It’s a basic idea: When you’re born in America, you’re an American. That’s what Trump is trying to take away. By failing to protect this basic constitutional right, the Supreme Court is declaring open season on all our rights. -- Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus ~~~

~~~ New York Times live updates are here.

Marie: A tragedy, in the Greek sense, is a story in which the main character comes to an unhappy ending through some fault -- or character flaw -- of his own. We may not be talking "Oedipus Rex" here, but perhaps a more homely, Arthur Miller-type tragedy: Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette on the death of Canadian immigrant Johnny Noviello, a small-time drug dealer and Trump fan who died in ICE custody. Pennacchia concludes, "I couldn’t tell you what made a non-citizen with a history of drug offenses think that Donald Trump was his guy. Maybe he thought because he was white, because he was Canadian and not Mexican, that he was conservative, that he’d get a pass. He cheered for Donald Trump because he thought it would be other people getting hauled away to these detention centers and not him. Clearly, he was wrong." More on Noviello's death linked below.

Meeting with kings and queens isn't all it's cracked up to be. Here's Queen Maxima of the Netherlands mocking Trump's weird mouth contortions during a photo-op with Trump & King Willem: ~~~

~~~ AND then there's the incredible shrinking Donald: Trump claims to be 6'3", and perhaps he once was. But he isn't anymore. While King Willem is said to be 6'2" or 6'3", in the photo seen here, it's clear that Willem is taller than Donald. Donald didn't suddenly shrink, what with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Here was Donald with another royal this past December: Prince William of Great Britain. William is also 6'3", yet in the stills posted here, he's clearly taller than Trump. Donald should consult with Little Marco on where to get a few pairs of those Cuban boots. ~~~

~~~ PLUS, look who's picking on missing First Lady Melanie. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) does not reckon posing nude qualifies a person for a "genius" visa: ~~~

     ~~~ But doesn't Melania get points for helping explain proper ICE procedures? (Thanks to RAS for the link): ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

The Supremes are about to go on their luxurious, all-expenses-paid vacations, so today is the day they will be issuing their final dreadful decisions.

Paul Glastris of the Washington Monthly spoke with a person "who has had a decades-long career in the U.S. military and the intelligence community" about the implications of the leaked Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report. Now we know, the source said, that "this latest weapon, long in development but never deployed, has demonstrated once again that if an adversary simply digs deeply enough, the laws of physics are on their side." Okay, so that's bad, but of course it's way worse than that: "As long as we didn’t use them, Iran didn’t know for sure how damaging they could be. That gave us leverage with them. Now the situation is reversed. We’ve revealed or confirmed that our most fearsome weapon, or the most fearsome we’re willing to use — we could drop nukes or send in the 82^nd Airborne, but that’s not going to happen — can collapse the entrances of tunnels but not destroy facilities buried deeply in a mountain. Going into any negotiations with them, they know our limits.... And not just Iran. Every other adversarial regime now knows these weapons are essentially duds. That weakens our leverage considerably with all of them. I am sure Kim Jung Un is happy in North Korea today." Via digby, via RAS. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: AND, once again, do bear in mind that Obama & Kerry's Iran nuclear agreement was working when the Quicker Fucker Upper wiped it away. And speaking of that, this: ~~~

    ~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Contrarian: "There is no agreement, pledge, or promise Donald Trump won’t break. Constant reversals, betrayals, lies, and bullying risk isolating us from valuable allies and incentivizing our enemies to resort to hard power. In Iran, Trump’s 2018 decision to tear up the Iran nuclear deal, followed by resorting to brute force, gives Iran an incentive to regard negotiations as useless and to instead race to make a bomb to ensure survival." Read on. See also Lawrence O'Donnell (video embedded yesterday) on Trump's pronouncements regarding a deal with Iran (at about 11:30 min. into the video). (Also linked yesterday.) 

NYT, CNN Stand Up to Trump.Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Wednesday threatened to sue The New York Times and CNN for publishing articles about a preliminary intelligence report that said the American attack on Iran had set back the country’s nuclear program by only a few months.In a letter to The Times, a personal lawyer for the president said the newspaper’s article had damaged Mr. Trump’s reputation and demanded that the news organization 'retract and apologize for' the piece, which the letter described as 'false,' 'defamatory' and 'unpatriotic.' The Times, in a response on Thursday, rejected Mr. Trump’s demands, noting that Trump administration officials had subsequently confirmed the existence of the report, issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency, and its findings. 'No retraction is needed,' the paper’s lawyer, David McCraw, wrote in a letter. 'No apology will be forthcoming,' he added. We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so.' A spokeswoman for CNN, which was the first outlet to report elements of the preliminary report, confirmed that the network had responded to a similar legal threat from the president’s team.... 

“On social media, Mr. Trump has called for journalists at both news outlets to be fired; he has also claimed, without evidence, that the articles were intended to demean the military personnel who participated in the attacks. The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, held a televised news conference on Thursday in which he reiterated those complaints about the journalists who covered the preliminary report. Mr. Hegseth pushed back on the findings of the report, but did not deny its existence, and offered no new assessments of the damage to the nuclear sites that were attacked.” ~~~

~~~ Alex Griffing of Mediaite: “On Thursday, [Trump] took to his Truth Social platform and wrote, 'FAKE NEWS REPORTERS FROM CNN & THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOULD BE FIRED, IMMEDIATELY!!! BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!' On Wednesday, Trump called for CNN’s lead reporter on the story to be fired, writing, 'Natasha Bertrand should be FIRED from CNN! I watched her for three days doing Fake News. She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out “like a dog.’” CNN released a statement in response, saying: 'We stand 100% behind Natasha Bertrand’s journalism and specifically her and her colleagues’ reporting of the early intelligence assessment of the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities....'” The White House itself appears to have confirmed the authenticity of the reporting by stating it was “declaring a war” on leakers. 

Marie: I have not fully appreciated what a dick Drunk Pete is. Here he was Thursday morning, attacking the press for, well, reporting: ~~~

~~~ Here he is berating Fox "News" Pentagon reporter Jennifer Griffin: ~~~

~~~ AND in Thursday's Comments, Elizabeth pointed to this NYT story and the excerpt below: ~~~

~~~ Eric Schmitt & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: “Mr. Hegseth ... took a combative tone at Thursday’s news conference, singling out reporters who have covered the Pentagon for years under successive administrations, both Republican and Democratic, and complained that they were not properly cheering for the one he represented. Then he reached for history. 'President Trump directed the most secret and most complex military operation in history,' Mr. Hegseth said. No mention was made of the D-Day landings at Normandy, which involved intricate planning, 160,000 troops from allied nations, fake radio transmissions and false radar readings, paratroopers, pilots, Army rangers and spies. Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt was unaware of the exact time of the mission until just before it began.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: (1) The operation was not “secret”: As the New York Times reported Sunday, in the lead-up to the bombing, “Mr. Trump was making blustery statements indicating he was about to take the country into the conflict.... These public pronouncements generated angst at the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command, where military planners began to worry that Mr. Trump was giving Iran too much warning about an impending strike.” Because of Trump's boasting leaks, military planners had to add a deceptive maneuver to the operation, sending decoy B-52s on a mock bombing mission using a different flight path. Meanwhile, Trump helpfully gave Iran the heads-up to move its enriched uranium and centrifuges to other places. (And as Jennifer Griffin of Fox pointed out to Hegseth, moving stuff appears to be what Iran did.) ~~~

     ~~~ (2) The operation was not “complex” (except to the extent Trump's Big Mouth required the military to build in the subterfuge): Take off, fly to sites, drop bombs, fly home. Admittedly, it's not as easy as that, especially because of the length of the flights and the need to refuel en route. But it was made a lot easier by the fact that the Israelis took out most of Iran's anti-aircraft defenses. More important, this was no D-Day. Not just D-Day or Hiroshima was a more secret and complex operation, many a less significant military mission has been more complex. ~~~

     ~~~ (3) Donald Trump didn't “direct” anything. I forgot the verb. As Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out Thursday night, the general outlines of the plan have been around for years. Trump just said, “go.” BTW, Drunk Pete made this assessment near the top of his rant against hateful reporters, suggesting to me that it was a planned part of his scolding. When the issue of the day is Trump's wanton hyperbole, Hegseth certainly won't be fired for exaggerating the Boss's fabulousness. But the Bootlicker's glorification of Looselips von Clusterfuck is embarrassing.

Julian Barnes & David Sanger of the New York Times: “After days of debate over how severely U.S. strikes had damaged three nuclear facilities in Iran, the fate of the country’s stockpile of enriched uranium remains a bigger mystery.... There is little doubt that Iran’s entire nuclear program was substantially diminished by U.S. and Israeli strikes, and that it would struggle to quickly produce additional nuclear fuel. But U.S. intelligence agencies had long assessed that, faced with the possibility of an attack on its nuclear facilities, Iran would try to move its stockpile of enriched uranium, either to keep as leverage in diplomatic negotiations or to use in a race to build a bomb.... On Thursday..., [Donald] Trump suggested that the stockpile was destroyed or buried by the bombing of the site at Fordo. 'Nothing was taken out of facility,' Mr. Trump posted on his social media site. 'Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!'... U.S. intelligence collected on Iranian officials shows they have different understandings of the stockpile’s fate.... There is confusion also about where the stockpile was originally.”

Desperately Seeking the Peace Prize. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post urges the Nobel Peace Prize committee to give Trump the prize "before he bombs Oslo." This is a gift link.

Marie: If you thought this authoritarian administration would quit after punishing a few elite universities for failing to offer courses on The Great White Race, and the Magnificence of Trump, think again. As Ali Davis asserts in an essay linked below, the Trumpistas wants to destroy the country's university system with all its academic freedom & kumbaya we-are-the-world hoohah: ~~~

~~~ The Trumpists' Charlottesville Revenge Tour. Michael Schmidt & Michael Bender of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has privately demanded that the University of Virginia oust its president [James E. Ryan] to help resolve a Justice Department investigation into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, according to three people briefed on the matter. The extraordinary condition the Justice Department has put on the school demonstrates that President Trump’s bid to shift the ideological tilt of the higher education system, which he views as hostile to conservatives, is more far-reaching than previously understood.... Justice Department officials have told University of Virginia officials that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding are at risk because of what the department says is the school’s disregard for civil rights law over its diversity practices, according to two of the people.” The link is a gift link. Read on for the particulars. It appears a couple of UV grads who landed in Trump's DOJ were not happy with their university experiences. It's not easy being White. ~~~

~~~ Michael Bender of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Thursday targeted California’s education system for the second time in two days, announcing a new Justice Department investigation into whether a plan to build a university system that more closely reflects the state’s racial and ethnic diversity violates civil rights laws against discrimination. The investigation was made public just 24 hours after the U.S. Education Department declared that California was breaking federal law by allowing transgender girls to compete on female sports teams. The federal government gave the state 10 days to reverse its policies or face 'imminent enforcement action.'... Since ... [Donald] Trump took office, California has had to contend with multiple threats from his administration to withhold federal funding.”

Joe Heim of the Washington Post: “The mystery artists responsible for a statue on the National Mall mocking ... Donald Trump last week have done it again — this time with a multimedia work taking aim at comments the White House made about them. On Thursday morning, a replica of an old-school television set showing clips of Trump dancing was set up near Third Street NW in direct view of the U.S. Capitol. The set displays a 15-second silent video loop of Trump’s signature slow-motion shimmy from various times and locations. In one, Trump is dancing next to multimillionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged with sex trafficking minors in 2019 and killed himself while awaiting trial.... The television is spray-painted gold, as is a replica of a bald eagle with wings outstretched that sits atop the television. Ivy, also spray-painted gold, bedecks the display.... The White House was not amused.” MB: Perhaps the only useful thing Trump has ever done in his life is to inspire artists in many genres to find new ways to mock him.

The Right Hand Doesn't Know What the Right Hand Is Doing. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Less than three weeks after Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was brought back from a wrongful deportation to El Salvador to face criminal charges in the United States, the Trump administration indicated on Thursday that it planned to deport him again — this time to a different country. Jonathan Guynn, a Justice Department lawyer, acknowledged to a judge that there were 'no imminent plans' to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia. Still, the assertion that the administration intends to re-deport a man who was just returned to the country after being indicted raised questions about the charges the Justice Department filed against him.... Mr. Guynn’s admission that the administration intends to expel Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is from El Salvador, to a third country raised the possibility that he could be deported before going on trial [on smuggling charges related to murder and drug trafficking which AG Pam Bondi dramatically announced earlier this month. Mr. Guynn's] remarks came as the judges overseeing his separate criminal and civil deportation cases struggled to figure out what the government planned to do with him. Shortly after this article was published, a White House spokeswoman posted a message on social media describing news accounts of Mr. Guynn’s statements as 'fake news.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Ben Finley & Alanna Richer of the AP: “But DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press that Abrego Garcia will first be tried in court on the charges [before being deported].... White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson posted on X later Thursday: 'Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for the egregious charges against him. He will face the full force of the American justice system — including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed.'”

Hannah Ziegler of the New York Times: “The authorities are investigating the death of a Canadian citizen who died Monday in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency said in a statement. The man, Johnny Noviello, 49, was found unresponsive on Monday at around 1 p.m. at the Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center in Miami.... Medical staff administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation, automated external defibrillator shock and called 911, ICE said. Mr. Noviello was pronounced dead by the Miami Fire Rescue Department at 1:36 p.m., the agency said. ICE said that it had notified the Canadian consulate of Mr. Noviello’s death.... Mr. Noviello entered the United States in 1988 with a legal visa status and became a lawful permanent resident in 1991, the agency said. In October 2023, he was convicted of charges of racketeering and drug trafficking in Volusia County, Fla., and was sentenced to 12 months in prison.... Mr. Noviello is the 10th person to die in ICE custody this year and the fourth person to die in custody in Florida, according to the agency’s website.” ~~~

~~~ For some reason, Canada doesn't trust the U.S. anymore: ~~~

     ~~~ Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post: “Canada is 'urgently seeking more information' about the death this week of a 49-year-old Canadian citizen while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Miami, Foreign Minister Anita Anand said Thursday in a post on social media.” The Miami Herald's story is here.

Elizabeth Goitein of Just Security: "Last week, federalized National Guard forces who were deployed in Los Angeles in response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids assisted the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in conducting a routine counter-drug operation 130 miles east of the city.... Based on currently available information, it appears to be illegal, as well. Around 315 Guard personnel were deployed to assist DEA in executing a federal search warrant as part of an investigation into three large marijuana growth operations in the eastern Coachella Valley region.... The operation also involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Customs and Border Protection; ICE; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosions; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Internal Revenue Service. During the raid, ICE agents arrested between 70 and 75 workers believed to lack documentation, and one U.S. citizen was arrested for impeding law enforcement.... The lack of any legal authorization for this use of federalized National Guard forces is, of course, highly concerning in its own right. But the use of federal forces to assist with drug raids also represents a massive shift in, and an expansion of, Trump’s domestic use of the military." (Also linked yesterday.) 

Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “The U.S. DOGE Service has sent staff to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the goal of revising or eliminating dozens of rules and gun restrictions by July 4, according to multiple people.... The revisions are part of a seismic shift unfolding at ATF as the Trump administration proposes slashing the law enforcement agency’s budget and dramatically reducing the number of inspectors who ensure that gun sellers are in compliance with federal laws. Some Republicans in Congress have called for abolishing the agency altogether, and Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she wants to merge ATF with the Drug Enforcement Administration.”

Infamous Hacker Big Balls Now Has Access to Your Personal Data. Rhian Lubin of the Independent: “Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old nicknamed 'Big Balls' who was working in the Department of Government Efficiency, has landed a new role at the Social Security Administration. Coristine, who was hired by Elon Musk to join the DOGE team, recently left the White House but a Social Security Administration spokesperson confirmed he has since joined the agency as a special government employee. 'Edward Coristine joined the Social Security Administration this week as a special government employee,' spokesperson Stephen McGraw told WIRED.... Coristine’s appointment at the agency follows a recent report that Musk and allies insisted on giving [another] 21-year-old former Silicon Valley intern sweeping access to personal data on hundreds of millions of Americans at the Social Security Administration.” MB: Coristine no no doubt has been designated a “special government employee” because this status does not require a federal background check, something multiple experts have said he could not pass.

As the Crackpots Convene. Jason Mast of STAT News: “The meeting [of the CDC's vaccine advisory board] began with an airing of pandemic-era grievances and closed with a move to cement a decades-old, long-dismissed anti-vaccine talking point into U.S. national policy. In the intervening 13 hours came technical issues, forgotten procedures, and a public comments session featuring a parade of alarmed experts speaking on behalf of health organizations. At one point, a panelist asked staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention whether a 'pattern of broad-based energy of some type' may be responsible for a surge in flu deaths this year. Another member, one of the few with public health credentials, beseeched his colleagues to quit raising what he and career officials at the CDC consider long-investigated and discarded concerns.... By the end, it was clear that a new era in U.S. vaccine policy had arrived, one in which individuals with long-simmering objections to public health conventions — and in some cases, ties to the conspiracy-ridden anti-vaccine movement — had been empowered to make critical health recommendations for an entire nation.” ~~~

~~~ Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “An advisory panel recently appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted on Thursday to walk back longstanding recommendations for flu vaccines containing an ingredient that the anti-vaccine movement has falsely linked to autism. The vote signaled a powerful shift in the way federal officials approach vaccines, putting into action Mr. Kennedy’s deep skepticism about their safety and delivering the first blows to a scientific process that for decades has provided effective vaccines to Americans.... Dozens of studies have shown the vaccine ingredient, called thimerosal, to be harmless. It has not been a component of most childhood shots since 2001.... To critics, the two-day meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices offered the clearest signs yet that the Trump administration intends to unravel the system that has long guided clinical decisions about vaccination.... 'It’s striking how little the voting members seem to know about the diseases and vaccines that they are discussing' said Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist and expert on vaccine policy.In a separate vote, the new panel recommended seasonal flu vaccines to all Americans 6 months and older. The common single-dose flu shots do not contain thimerosal.” An AP report is here.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: “Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy warned Thursday that acrimonious political discourse and threats to judges are eroding the ability of the United States to serve as an example of democracy worldwide. 'Many in the rest of the world look to the United States to see what democracy is, to see what democracy ought to be,' Kennedy said during an online forum about threats to the rule of law. 'If they see a hostile, fractious discourse, if they see a discourse that uses identity politics rather than to talk about issues, democracy is at risk. Freedom is at risk.' Kennedy, who stepped down from the court in 2018, avoided specifics during his 10-minute speech as part of a series of presentations by current and former judges. However, the Reagan appointee’s remarks appeared to be triggered at least in part by strident attacks ... Donald Trump has mounted against judges, including some whom he appointed during his first term, who have ruled against the administration’s policies on immigration, firings of federal workers and his implementation of broad-based tariffs.”

Shame on Marcie Jones of Wonkette for making me LOL in her account of the hearing in which Emil Bove, the “answer to the question 'What would Stephen Miller look like in the Upside Down?' was in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee [Wednesday], because ... Donald Trump has nominated him to be a judge on the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals that hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, GOOD LORD.” Jones also provides some of the background on Bove that might have slipped your mind. More on the hearing linked yesterday, but not so funny. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Alan Rappeport & Colby Smith of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has directed Republican lawmakers to remove a provision from their tax and spending bill that would have hit some international companies operating in the United States. The decision to remove the so-called revenge tax came as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that the United States had reached a deal with other Group of 7 nations that exempts American companies from a separate “global minimum tax.” That global tax was brokered by the Biden administration and was opposed by President Trump and Republican lawmakers who argued it was giving control of the U.S. tax base to other nations. The move to drop the revenge tax follows intense lobbying pressure from international business groups, which warned the new tax would hurt American workers and chill foreign investment in the United States.” ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Brian Faler of Politico: “Republicans said Thursday they are dropping a so-called revenge tax from a sweeping domestic policy megabill now pending in the Senate after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it was no longer necessary.”

Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: “Tucked into the more than 1,000 pages of the GOP domestic policy bill winding its way through Congress is a provision that would water down a nearly century-old firearms law — changes that the gun industry has sought for years but that gun-control advocates warn would come at the expense of public safety. The legislation would ease restrictions established by the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA) on suppressors — often called silencers — and certain long guns such as short-barreled rifles and sawed-off shotguns. The change would eliminate the $200 federal tax on suppressors and the requirement that owners register them with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Republicans, including Rep. Andrew Clyde (Georgia), who took credit for the provision, said it would relieve citizens of burdensome taxes on their Second Amendment rights. But partially repealing the NFA would dismantle one of the few — and one of the most effective — federal gun laws ever enacted, according to Robert Spitzer..., author of 'The Gun Dilemma.'”

Jason DeParle of the New York Times: “From the start of his second term..., [Donald] Trump has bet that he can appeal to low-income voters while slashing safety net programs on which many of those voters depend. The enormous tax-and-spending bill he is trying to push through Congress is a high-stakes test of that proposition, a gamble that Mr. Trump can retain the loyalty of his blue-collar supporters despite moves that could harm their immediate economic self-interest. As approved by the House, the legislation cuts hundreds of billions of dollars in food benefits and removes nearly 11 million people from the health care rolls, while offering large tax cuts skewed to the rich and adding trillions to the national debt. Senate Republicans are considering a similar measure, with bigger Medicaid cuts and smaller reductions in nutritional aid. Whether Republicans succeed in passing the bill — and whether voters punish them for lost assistance — could affect next year’s congressional elections and determine the long-term size and strength of the social welfare system.”

Tony Romm of the New York Times: “Senate Republicans said on Thursday that they would forge ahead with a plan to slash federal food assistance to the poor, after they devised a workaround that would allow them to cut the program to help pay for their sprawling package of tax cuts. The proposal, which would force states to shoulder new costs for providing food stamps, is part of a larger set of changes targeting federal safety net programs that may result in millions of lower-income Americans losing access to aid. For decades, the federal government has shouldered the primary financial burden for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or S.N.A.P., which provides about 42 million low-income Americans on average with monthly food benefits. Its supporters say the payments are essential, with roughly one in seven Americans reporting inconsistent access to food in 2023, government data show. But Republicans insist S.N.A.P. is riddled with waste, fraud and abuse, and they have sought to scale back its benefits as part of the package of tax cuts they are crafting with the input and support of ... [Donald] Trump.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Obviously, Senate Republicans are relying on the stupidity of their voters, which might be a sensible calculation, given the stupidity of their voters. Even assuming states can immediately do as good a job as the feds at getting food assistance to the needy, taxpayers will still have to pay the cost. The Senate's argument, then, is, "We're not lowering your tax bills, people; we're changing who sends you the bill."

Marie: Here is an aspect of Trump's Big Bad Bill that has escaped my attention: ~~~

~~~ Ali Davis, in a guest post on Wonkette: “Hello, college and university administrators! You have homework! You have serious homework, and it is due now.... Donald Trump and the Republicans’ 'One Big Bill' is designed, in part, to financially devastate colleges and universities. Part of the plan is to make it impossible for lower- and middle-income students to get student loans, and part of is intended to cripple the higher education system itself by slashing access to federal funding for any school that doesn’t stick to spouting party-line conservative ideas. You have already begun to see the effects of having your research grants yanked around as the Trump administration tries to frighten and/or ban your foreign students.... The Project 2025 devotees who have poured into the second Trump administration have an explicit goal of destroying our nation’s universities.” Davis had advice for universities, their donors (and those who think maybe a university education is a plus) on how to fight the Big Bad plan to destroy higher education now. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Steven Moity of the New York Times: “The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Harvard on Thursday in its investigation into whether Ivy League universities have coordinated their pricing, turning up pressure on a school already in an all-out battle with the Trump administration. In the subpoena letter, Representatives Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Scott Fitzgerald, a Wisconsin Republican who leads a key subcommittee, demanded documents and communications about the university’s tuition and financial aid by July 17. They said they were issuing the subpoena after Harvard’s response to an earlier request for information was 'inadequate' and 'substantively deficient,' with much of the material that was turned over already publicly available. Harvard disputed the committee’s assessment.”

Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Representative Andy Ogles, a hard-right Tennessee Republican, on Thursday used Islamophobic language on social media to refer to Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, and said he should be deported. Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, implied that Mr. Mamdani was somehow tied to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which occurred when he was 9. That came after Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, reacted on Wednesday to Mr. Mamdani’s apparent victory with an edited image of the Statue of Liberty clothed in a burqa. The responses to Mr. Mamdani’s electoral triumph were the latest examples of how far-right Republicans in Congress have become overt in their use of bigoted language and ethnically offensive tropes, in both casual comments and official statements. Mr. Mamdani ... was born in Uganda and has lived in New York City since 1998, when he was 7 years old. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018.... There is no credible evidence to suggest Mr. Mamdani is not, or shouldn’t be, a U.S. citizen.”

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Planned Parenthood and one of its patients cannot sue South Carolina over its effort to deny funding to the group, reasoning that the relevant federal statute does not authorize such suits. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court’s three liberal members in dissent.... In shutting down such suits in federal court, the majority made it easier for states to deny funding to Planned Parenthood, particularly given the current administration’s hostility to abortion rights.” ~~~

     ~~~ Lindsay Whitehurst of the AP: “States can block the country’s biggest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid money for health services such as contraception and cancer screenings, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. The 6-3 opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by the rest of the court’s conservatives was not directly about abortion, but it comes as Republicans back a wider push across the country to defund the organization. It closes off Planned Parenthood’s primary court path to keeping Medicaid funding in place: patient lawsuits. The justices found that while Medicaid law allows people [to] choose their own provider, that does not make it a right enforceable in court.” ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$, with a big assist from Slate, best explains the ruling. MB: This isn't even about mean old men hating young women who have sex for reasons other than procreation. Even a genuine vestal virgin still requires gynecological care. These old bastids, along with fellow traveler Amy Phony Barrett, want to make sure women can't receive care from doctors and caregivers who are sympathetic to their needs.

The Cheese Stands Disbarred. Tim Balk of the New York Times: “Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who helped spearhead a brazen legal effort to use phony slates of pro-Trump electors to overturn the 2020 presidential election, was disbarred in New York on Thursday, cementing an indefinite ban issued last year. The decision by a New York State appellate court concluded a strange legal journey for a Harvard-educated lawyer who worked for former Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 presidential election recount in Florida and later evolved into a supporter of ... [Donald] Trump. In a seven-page opinion, the court cited a criminal racketeering case centered on the fake electors in Georgia, where in 2023 Mr. Chesebro pleaded guilty. The New York court said Thursday that Mr. Chesebro’s 'criminal conduct — conspiracy to commit filing false documents — is unquestionably serious'  and that he had undercut 'the very notion of our constitutional democracy that he, as an attorney, swore an oath to uphold.'” An NBC News report is here.

Janny Scott of the New York Times: “Bill Moyers, who served as chief spokesman for President Lyndon B. Johnson during the American military buildup in Vietnam and then went on to a long and celebrated career as a broadcast journalist, returning repeatedly to the subject of the corruption of American democracy by money and power, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 91.” The Associated Press's obituary is here.

Clyde Haberman of the New York Times: “Carolyn McCarthy, a former nine-term congresswoman from Long Island who became a champion of gun regulation after her family was shattered by a deranged shooter on a commuter train — transforming herself from a nurse and homemaker into a national symbol of unflinching, if largely frustrated, advocacy — died on Thursday at her home in Fort Myers, Fla. She was 81.” The Associated Press's obituary is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

(-21)

The Conversation -- June 26, 2025

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link. Need more proof? ~~~

~~~ Paul Glastris of the Washington Monthly spoke with a person "who has had a decades-long career in the U.S. military and the intelligence community" about the implications of the leaked Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report. Now we know, the source said, that "this latest weapon, long in development but never deployed, has demonstrated once again that if an adversary simply digs deeply enough, the laws of physics are on their side." Okay, so that's bad, but of course it's way worse than that: "As long as we didn’t use them, Iran didn’t know for sure how damaging they could be. That gave us leverage with them. Now the situation is reversed. We’ve revealed or confirmed that our most fearsome weapon, or the most fearsome we’re willing to use — we could drop nukes or send in the 82^nd Airborne, but that’s not going to happen — can collapse the entrances of tunnels but not destroy facilities buried deeply in a mountain. Going into any negotiations with them, they know our limits.... And not just Iran. Every other adversarial regime now knows these weapons are essentially duds. That weakens our leverage considerably with all of them. I am sure Kim Jung Un is happy in North Korea today." Via digby, via RAS. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: AND, once again, do bear in mind that Obama & Kerry's Iran nuclear agreement was working when the Quicker Fucker Upper wiped it away. And speaking of that, this: ~~~

    ~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Contrarian: "There is no agreement, pledge, or promise Donald Trump won’t break. Constant reversals, betrayals, lies, and bullying risk isolating us from valuable allies and incentivizing our enemies to resort to hard power. In Iran, Trump’s 2018 decision to tear up the Iran nuclear deal, followed by resorting to brute force, gives Iran an incentive to regard negotiations as useless and to instead race to make a bomb to ensure survival." Read on. See also Lawrence O'Donnell (video embedded below) on Trump's pronouncements regarding a deal with Iran (at about 11:30 min. into the video). 

Marie: I have not fully appreciated what a dick Drunk Pete is. Here he was Thursday morning, attacking the press for, well, reporting: ~~~

~~~ Here he is berating Fox "News" Pentagon reporter Jennifer Griffin: ~~~

~~~ AND in Thursday's Comments, Elizabeth points to this NYT story and the excerpt below: ~~~

~~~ Eric Schmitt & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: “Mr. Hegseth ... took a combative tone at Thursday’s news conference, singling out reporters who have covered the Pentagon for years under successive administrations, both Republican and Democratic, and complained that they were not properly cheering for the one he represented. Then he reached for history. 'President Trump directed the most secret and most complex military operation in history,' Mr. Hegseth said. No mention was made of the D-Day landings at Normandy, which involved intricate planning, 160,000 troops from allied nations, fake radio transmissions and false radar readings, paratroopers, pilots, Army rangers and spies. Even President Franklin D. Roosevelt was unaware of the exact time of the mission until just before it began.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: (1) The operation was not “secret”: As the New York Times reported Sunday, in the lead-up to the bombing, “Mr. Trump was making blustery statements indicating he was about to take the country into the conflict.... These public pronouncements generated angst at the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command, where military planners began to worry that Mr. Trump was giving Iran too much warning about an impending strike.” Because of Trump's boasting leaks, military planners had to add a deceptive maneuver to the operation, sending decoy B-52s on a mock bombing mission using a different flight path. Meanwhile, Trump helpfully gave Iran the heads-up to move its enriched uranium and centrifuges to other places. (And as Jennifer Griffin of Fox pointed out to Hegseth, moving stuff appears to be what Iran did.) ~~~

     ~~~ (2) The operation was not “complex” (except to the extent Trump's Big Mouth required the military to build in the subterfuge): Take off, fly to sites, drop bombs, fly home. Admittedly, it's not as easy as that, especially because of the length of the flights and the need to refuel en route. But it was made a lot easier by the fact that the Israelis took out most of Iran's anti-aircraft defenses. More important, this was no D-Day. Not just D-Day or Hiroshima was a more secret and complex operation, many a less significant military mission has been more complex. ~~~

     ~~~ (3) Donald Trump didn't “direct” anything. I forgot the verb. As Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out Thursday night, the general outlines of the plan have been around for years. Trump just said, “go.” When the issue of the day is Trump's wanton hyperbole, Hegseth certainly won't be fired for exaggerating the Boss's fabulousness. But the Bootlicker's glorification of Looselips von Clusterfuck is embarrassing.

Shame on Marcie Jones of Wonkette for making me LOL in her account of the hearing in which Emil Bove, the “answer to the question 'What would Stephen Miller look like in the Upside Down?' was in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee [Wednesday], because ... Donald Trump has nominated him to be a judge on the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals that hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, GOOD LORD.” Jones also provides some of the background on Bove that might have slipped your mind. More on the hearing linked below, but not so funny. 

Elizabeth Goitein of Just Security: "Last week, federalized National Guard forces who were deployed in Los Angeles in response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids assisted the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in conducting a routine counter-drug operation 130 miles east of the city.... Based on currently available information, it appears to be illegal, as well. Around 315 Guard personnel were deployed to assist DEA in executing a federal search warrant as part of an investigation into three large marijuana growth operations in the eastern Coachella Valley region.... The operation also involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Customs and Border Protection; ICE; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosions; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Internal Revenue Service. During the raid, ICE agents arrested between 70 and 75 workers believed to lack documentation, and one U.S. citizen was arrested for impeding law enforcement.... The lack of any legal authorization for this use of federalized National Guard forces is, of course, highly concerning in its own right. But the use of federal forces to assist with drug raids also represents a massive shift in, and an expansion of, Trump’s domestic use of the military."

Marie: Here is an aspect of Trump's Big Bad Bill that has escaped my attention: ~~~

~~~ Ali Davis, in a guest post on Wonkette: “Hello, college and university administrators! You have homework! You have serious homework, and it is due now.... Donald Trump and the Republicans’ 'One Big Bill' is designed, in part, to financially devastate colleges and universities. Part of the plan is to make it impossible for lower- and middle-income students to get student loans, and part of is intended to cripple the higher education system itself by slashing access to federal funding for any school that doesn’t stick to spouting party-line conservative ideas. You have already begun to see the effects of having your research grants yanked around as the Trump administration tries to frighten and/or ban your foreign students.... The Project 2025 devotees who have poured into the second Trump administration have an explicit goal of destroying our nation’s universities.” Davis had advice for universities, their donors (and those who think maybe a university education is a plus) on how to fight the Big Bad plan to destroy higher education now.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: I refuse to withhold my outrage. I refuse to read stories about Trump and his lackeys with resignation or acceptance. 

Barack Ravid of Axios: Donald "Trump is going to extraordinary lengths to defend his claim that U.S. airstrikes 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear program, determined to cement the operation as a defining victory of his presidency.... He has treated the leak of an initial Pentagon battle damage assessment as an act of sabotage, launching an aggressive campaign to discredit the report as preliminary, inaccurate and already outdated.... The FBI has launched an investigation into the [leak], and the administration plans to limit sharing classified information with Congress to crack down on leakers, as Axios first reported....  The messaging campaign has become a whole-of-government priority.... [Pete] Hegseth and ... Marco Rubio stepped forward at NATO to denounce attempts by leakers to 'spin' the intelligence, stressing that the early assessment was labeled 'low confidence.'" ~~~

CNN is scum. MSDNC is scum. The New York Times is scum. They're bad people. They're sick. And what they've done is they've tried to make this unbelievable victory into something less. -- Donald Trump, at NATO, complaining about accurate press coverage of the Pentagon's early assessment of the extent of damage to Iran's nuclear program ~~~

~~~ Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: “Classified intelligence about the damage to Iran’s nuclear program from U.S. strikes was at the center of a political tempest on Wednesday as spy chiefs pushed out new assessments and ... [Donald] Trump continued to defend his assertion that Iran’s key facilities had been 'obliterated.'... Mr. Trump’s angry responses to the news reports, given during a news conference at a NATO summit in the Netherlands, centered on just how much damage the attacks had caused at two of the nuclear sites.... The C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe, said the strikes had 'severely damaged' Iran’s nuclear program, and the administration suggested that the initial report, by the Defense Intelligence Agency, was based on preliminary assessments and was already outdated. The damage was also being assessed by other U.S. spy agencies. No information that has become public from those assessments has supported Mr. Trump’s description of the level of destruction from the U.S. attack, though they all confirmed that the damage had been substantial.... 'This repeated pattern of manipulating or shading intelligence to support a political narrative is deeply alarming,” [Sen. Mark] Warner [(D-Va.) ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee,] said.  'We’ve seen where this road leads.'” ~~~

The administration has no right to stonewall Congress on matters of national security. Senators deserve information, and the administration has a legal obligation to inform Congress precisely about what is happening right now abroad. -- Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), speaking on the Senate floor ~~~

~~~ Emily Davies, et al., of the Washington Post: “The White House plans to limit classified intelligence sharing with Congress after leaks to the press of an early assessment undermined ... Donald Trump’s claim that U.S. airstrikes obliterated Iranian nuclear facilities, a senior Trump administration official said, setting the stage for a contentious classified briefing before senators Thursday. Amid a political battle over what the intelligence shows, the White House is expected to send four of its top national security officials to brief lawmakers: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, administration officials said. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who testified in March that U.S. intelligence agencies assessed that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, will be notably absent.... Trump has called Gabbard’s assessment of Iran’s nuclear program 'wrong' and largely sidelined her in navigating the United States’ role in the war between Iran and Israel, current and former U.S. officials and people close to the White House told The Washington Post.... 

“The Trump administration’s tour to convince lawmakers and Americans of the mission’s success will include a Thursday morning stop at the Pentagon, where Hegseth and unnamed 'Military Representatives' will hold a 'Major News Conference' to 'fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots,' Trump announced on Truth Social on Wednesday. 'These Patriots were very upset!' Trump said, without offering any evidence. The president erroneously said that pilots had endured '36 hours of dangerously flying through Enemy Territory' — conflating the length of the entire round trip..., i and lambasted media reports about the initial intelligence assessment.” ~~~

     ~~~ Gettin' On Board the Trump Train. Amy Mackinnon & John Sakellariadis of Politico: “Two of ... Donald Trump’s top intelligence chiefs issued statements on Wednesday stating that new intelligence indicates Iran’s nuclear facilities were 'destroyed' in U.S. airstrikes over the weekend. CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued their statements within hours of each other, reinforcing the administration’s daylong blitz to counter media reports of a preliminary government assessment that the strikes had not significantly set back Iran’s nuclear program.” ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson has a pretty good summary of Trump's extraordinary efforts to direct the narrative. MB: I liked the part where Trump wrote on social media that "They [the B-52 pilots] felt terribly!" If in fact the pilots' ability to feel things they touched was impaired, perhaps they should not have been flying a big ole aeroplane with all those buttons & levers to push and pull. ~~~

~~~ Max Boot of the Washington Post states the obvious: “History teaches that it is nearly impossible to eradicate a nuclear program by air power alone. Failing a ground invasion — something that no one is contemplating in the case of Iran — the only viable option to guarantee denuclearization is a binding international agreement. The irony is that President Barack Obama had negotiated just such an agreement with Iran in 2015 — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — but Trump foolishly pulled out of it in 2018, leading Iran to accelerate its enrichment of uranium. The Iran nuclear deal had its flaws. But as long as Iran abided by it — and there were international inspections to ensure that it did — Tehran was prevented from moving toward a nuclear weapon for at least 15 years. Even the most optimistic scenarios of the damage achieved by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes suggest that they delayed the Iranian program by a much, much shorter length of time.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That is to say, none of this multi-billion-dollar effort would have been necessary had Trump not scrapped the hard-won Iran nuclear deal. Speaking of bombing Iran, RAS points to this: ~~~

     ~~~ Yelena Mandenberg of the Daily Mirror: "... Donald Trump, facing a new low in approval ratings, posted a 'parody' video that jovially sings 'bomb bomb bomb Iran,' set to a Beach Boys tune. The video features American B-52s soaring through the sky, reminiscent of recent joint strikes with Israel on Iranian uranium enrichment sites in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz. As the planes drop bombs in the video, the lyrics remain upbeat. The disturbing lyrics include phrases like 'bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,' and 'went to a mosque, gonna throw some rocks.' It also echoes Trump's previous threats to assassinate Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's despot, with the line, 'tell the Ayatollah: gonna put you in a box.'... The rest of the song ... also threatens to 'turn Iran into a parking lot.'" MB: Needless to say, real presidents don't make jokes about the use of lethal force.

Steven Erlanger & Lara Jakes of the New York Times: “A NATO summit designed to please ... [Donald] Trump ended on Wednesday with his European allies approving an ambitious spending goal to meet the threat of a militarizing Russia, and clinching a long-elusive public commitment from the mercurial American leader for the alliance’s collective defense. Since his first term, Mr. Trump has been pressing for the allies to spend more on their own defense. On Wednesday, after a one-day meeting in the Netherlands, they agreed to raise their spending on the military to 5 percent of their national income by 2035. That amount consists of 3.5 percent on traditional military needs like troops, weapons, shells and missiles, up sharply from the current target of 2 percent. It also includes another 1.5 percent on 'militarily adjacent' projects like improved roads and bridges, better emergency health care, better cybersecurity and civic resilience. Mr. Trump was pleased.” ~~~

~~~ Here's Lawrence O'Donnell on Trump's NATO performance. Thanks to NiskyGuy for the link: ~~~

Edward Wong, et al., of the New York Times: “The [Trump] administration is pushing nations around the world ... to take people expelled by the U.S. government who are not citizens of those countries.... American diplomats are reaching out to countries in every corner of the globe, even some shattered by war or known for human rights abuses. U.S. officials have approached Angola, Mongolia and embattled Ukraine. Kosovo has agreed to accept up to 50 people. Costa Rica is holding dozens. The U.S. government paid Rwanda $100,000 to take an Iraqi man and is discussing sending more deportees there. And the administration recently planned to fly citizens of mainly Asian and Latin American countries to war-torn Libya and South Sudan, until a U.S. district court blocked those expulsions.... The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the Trump administration has the right to expel people to countries other than their own, possibly paving the way for the deportation flight to South Sudan and similar moves across the globe. 'Fire up the deportation planes,' Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman, wrote on social media.... Mr. Trump ... is ... trying to set up a network of nations that accept people from anywhere in the world and put them in prisons, camps or other facilities. In some cases, the foreign governments could allow the people to apply for asylum or try to send them back to their countries of origin.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Sues Entire District Court. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “On Tuesday evening, the Trump administration ... filed a lawsuit against ... [15] federal judges who serve on the bench in Maryland, seeking a court order that would block [a ruling by] ... the district’s chief judge, George L. Russell III..., [that] any immigrant who sought to challenge their removal from the country by filing ... a habeas petition would be automatically granted a temporary order stopping the government from expelling them for at least one day.... On its face, the spectacle of the Trump administration suing an entire district court made clear just how ugly and bizarre the relationship between the executive and judicial branches has become.” MB: Pretty crazy. ~~~

     ~~~ Salvador Rizzo & Katie Mettler of the Washington Post: “Legal experts described the move as an unprecedented attack on judicial independence, while government lawyers said it was necessary to preserve ... Donald Trump’s constitutional authority over immigration. Longtime court watchers said they could not recall another instance in which the Justice Department, which usually represents members of the judicial branch in court, sued the entire roster of judges in a district.”

Marie: Oh, dear, is there a fight brewing between Pam Blondie & Kristi Gnome? ~~~

~~~ Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “A pair of federal judges balked Wednesday at Justice Department claims that the agency would be powerless to stop the deportation of Kilmar Abrego García — the Maryland man illegally deported to El Salvador — should he be released from criminal custody while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges. U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw said such an argument 'defies logic' in an opinion rejecting the government’s request that he immediately halt a lower-court ruling ordering that Abrego be released pending trial to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.... Still, the judge left open the possibility he could revoke the lower court’s ruling after more consideration and set an evidentiary hearing for next month. Separately Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes — who had ordered Abrego’s release — also expressed skepticism about concerns raised by prosecutors that Abrego would be removed [by ICE!] from the country before he could stand trial.”

Dhruv Mehrotra & Dell Cameron of Wired: “Records of hundreds of emergency calls from ICE detention centers ... — including audio recordings — show a system inundated by life-threatening incidents, delayed treatment, and overcrowding.... A Wired investigation into 911 calls from 10 of the nation's largest immigration detention centers found that serious medical incidents are rising at many of the sites. The data ... show that at least 60 percent of the centers analyzed had reported serious pregnancy complications, suicide attempts, or sexual assault allegations.... Wired spoke with immigration attorneys, local migrant advocates, national policy experts, and individuals who have been recently detained or have family currently in ICE custody. Their accounts echoed the data: a system overwhelmed, and at times, seemingly indifferent to medical crises. Experts believe the true number of medical emergencies is far higher.”

⭐Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “Just minutes into the first meeting of new scientific advisers appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., it was clear that the skeptical panelists intended to upend longstanding vaccine recommendations in the United States, particularly those pertaining to children. The meeting on Wednesday marked a remarkable and fraught moment in public health. Mr. Kennedy has replaced the gatekeepers of immunization policy in the United States, mostly scientists with deep expertise, with people who often have been critical of vaccine safety and efficacy. The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy. Its determinations have a powerful impact. Insurance companies and government programs like Medicaid are required to cover immunizations that the C.D.C. recommends, and states base their school mandates on the agency’s guidance.... Breaking with decades of tradition, the American Academy of Pediatrics boycotted the meeting, saying 'we won’t lend our name or our expertise to a system that is being politicized at the expense of children’s health.'” The link is a gift link.

CDC to Hire Crackpot Nurse/RFKJ Ally. Alexander Tin of CBS News: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hiring Lyn Redwood, a nurse and the former head of a group critics have denounced as anti-vaccine, to work in its vaccine safety office, multiple CDC officials tell CBS News.  Redwood was the president of the group now called Children's Health Defense, which lists as its founder Robert F. Kennedy Jr.... Children's Health Defense has sued to curb vaccine requirements, petitioned federal agencies to revoke vaccine authorizations and spread misinformation about vaccines. Kennedy was listed as the group's founder and chairman before becoming the nation's top health official in the second Trump administration. She is joining the CDC office responsible for overseeing most of the agency's work and data to probe potential safety risks from vaccines, including databases used by health officials to collect and analyze reports from the public and health care systems. Redwood is expected to be hired as a special government employee, the CDC officials said...."

Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: “In the wake of two court rulings taking issue with the axing of medical research grants by the Trump administration, a senior official at the National Institutes of Health has directed agency staff members not to cancel any additional research projects, at least for now. The directive, in an internal memo sent Tuesday and reviewed by The New York Times, is a retreat by the agency. Since [...] Donald Trump’s return to office, N.I.H. has slashed funding for medical research by ending hundreds of awards, part of his administration’s broader effort to end the use of public money on diversity issues and the health of sexual and gender minority groups. It was not clear how long the directive would hold.”

Stephanie Nolen of the New York Times: “The United States will withdraw its financial support of Gavi, a global organization that helps purchase vaccines for children in poor countries, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the United States secretary of Health and Human Services, told the group’s leaders on Wednesday, accusing them of having 'ignored the science' in immunizing children around the world. Mr. Kennedy made the incendiary remarks in a brief, prerecorded video message sent overnight to a gathering of health ministers and other leaders in Brussels focused on raising funds to support the work of Gavi. It was to be played for the group later on Wednesday.... The United States was the largest donor to Gavi, whose work is estimated to have saved the lives of 17 million children around the world over the past two decades.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Stephanie Nolen of the New York Times: “There is more potential than ever before to end the H.I.V. epidemic, scientists and public health experts say. But now, H.I.V. programs across Africa are scrambling to procure drugs that the United States once supplied, replace lost nurses and lab technicians, and restart shuttered programs to prevent new infections.... Already, there are fears that H.I.V. infection rates are rising in the hardest-hit countries, but there is no clear way to measure the damage because data collection was mostly reliant on the terminated U.S. funding. Stocks of prevention drugs once supplied by the U.S. are running out across Africa.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Christopher Flavelle, et al., of the New York Times: “The rapid dismantling of [U.S.A.I.D.] remains one of the most consequential outcomes of ... [Donald] Trump’s efforts to overhaul the federal government, showing his willingness to tear down institutions in defiance of the courts.... This is the story of [the] two weeks [during which Trump tore down the aid agency].... A New York Times examination found that Trump administration officials came to U.S.A.I.D. with no plan to dismantle the agency, at least not so quickly. Instead, that decision emerged day by day, marked by rash demands, shock and confusion.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times profiles Usha Vance. MB: Unless she gets out now, which apparently she will not, Usha is a traitor to human decency. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Texas granted a temporary reprieve to two small money services operations that had argued that a new Trump administration policy intended to ensnare drug traffickers was instead driving them out of business. The ruling, handed down late Tuesday, marked the third time a court had rejected a new Treasury Department rule that calls for increased scrutiny of financial service businesses along the southern border, which are already highly regulated. The government in March required businesses in certain ZIP codes in Texas and California to report any transaction larger than $200, along with personal identifying information about the customer. For decades, the government’s reporting threshold for transactions had been set at $10,000. In a brief order, Judge Leon Schydlower of the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas wrote that drug traffickers could simply go outside the targeted areas to make the policy 'completely toothless.... Innocent businesses can be profoundly disadvantaged if they are located on the ‘wrong’ side of an El Paso street, and thus within a covered ZIP code, vis-à-vis their competitors across the street in an uncovered ZIP code,' he wrote.”

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “A senior Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, denied to Congress on Wednesday that he had expressed to subordinates an intent to ignore court orders to accomplish ... [Donald] Trump’s rapid deportation goals. The remarks, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, came during Mr. Bove’s confirmation hearing for an appeals court judgeship in Philadelphia, a lifetime appointment that is one rung below the Supreme Court. Mr. Bove, a key driver of the Trump administration’s sweeping changes at the Justice Department, was repeatedly questioned about a whistle-blower complaint that portrayed political appointees as willing to mislead judges and defy the courts.... Mr. Bove’s nomination has generated significant resistance from current and former Justice Department lawyers, as Mr. Bove has led the administration’s efforts to fire, demote and undermine career law enforcement officials who worked on cases that President Trump dislikes.... Democrats repeatedly pressed him about what they viewed as troubling aspects of his tenure at the Justice Department. In addition to the whistle-blower’s accusation that he stated an intent to disregard judicial rulings, they included his move to drop criminal charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York.... At the end of the questioning, [Sen. Cory] Booker [D-N.J.] suggested that Mr. Bove might have lied to the lawmakers. 'I am hoping that more evidence is going to come out that showed that you lied before this committee,' Mr. Booker said. 'What’s your red line, I really wonder. What could the president ask you to do that you wouldn’t do?'” ~~~

~~~ Marie: I did not find a good YouTube video recap of the hearing, but here's the line of questioning that got the most attention. If you want a little more of the same, just go to YouTube & do a search for "Emil Bove": ~~~

Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency that oversees Voice of America and other government-funded news operations was necessary because it is 'incompetent, corrupt, biased, and a threat to America’s national security and standing in the world,' Kari Lake told a House committee Wednesday. Making her first-ever appearance before Congress, Lake defended her tenure and said the U.S. Agency for Global Media needs to be shrunk until it can be eliminated.... Most USAGM staffers have been placed on paid administrative leave since March, more than 500 contractors have been fired, and more than 600 full-time staffers received termination notices last week.... In the hearing, points of debate split down partisan lines.” Read on. The Guardian's report is here. The AP's report is here.

Jacob Bogage, et al., of the Washington Post: “As Senate Republicans eye the finish line on ... Donald Trump’s massive tax and immigration proposal, there may be one more obstacle standing in the way of what they hope to be era-defining legislation: their GOP colleagues in the House. The Senate has transformed a slew of key provisions from the House-passed version of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a measure that would extend trillions of dollars in tax cuts, spend hundreds of billions on immigration enforcement and defense and cut spending on social benefit and anti-poverty programs. Now to many House Republicans, the legislation looks unrecognizable — and no longer adheres to hard-fought compromises lawmakers in the lower chamber secured just a month ago.... At least for now, lawmakers in the lower chamber don’t appear ready to pass the bill the Senate is drafting.” MB: What they're arguing over, of course, is which chamber will win the battle to make the bill worse. ~~~

~~~ Jordain Carney of Politico: “Sen. Thom Tillis warned his colleagues during a closed-door meeting Wednesday that he would not vote to take up the party’s sweeping domestic policy bill without further clarity on Medicaid changes, a person granted anonymity to disclose private discussions said.... Multiple other Republican senators warned Majority Leader John Thune during the lunch that they were not ready to vote to launch floor debate on the megabill, according to three attendees.... A clutch of deficit hawks also still aren’t on board with the bill.... 'All of our guys are going to keep advocating for what they want until we pass it,' said Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), predicting that GOP leaders will ultimately get votes to proceed with the bill.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: If you are wondering how you and your family would fare under the House-passed Big Bad Bill, the Washington Post has a calculator here. (Gift link.) There are some sample situations, but you also can fill in your own information. (Click on "Your Profile.") I tried it, using numbers that may or may not be close to my real financial situation (it varies a lot from year to year and I don't pay close attention anyway). Based on the numbers I plugged in, I would come out significantly ahead of the status quo. So forget everything I've written disparaging the bill. It's absolutely wonderful, Bible Mike is the best & Donald Trump is a genius. Okay that bit I've crossed out was a Trump-sized lie.  

Jessica Piper & Hailey Fuchs of Politico: “House GOP committees have issued new subpoenas to ActBlue, intensifying their probe of the Democratic fundraising platform. The subpoenas are an attempt to force cooperation as ActBlue has pushed back on the congressional investigation, questioning its intentions and constitutionality after the White House launched a similar probe. Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who lead the committees investigating ActBlue, issued the subpoenas Wednesday to compel a current and a former employee to testify about the platform’s fraud prevention policies.... ActBlue had slammed the congressional investigations in a letter this month as a 'partisan effort directed at harming political opponents rather than gathering facts to assist in lawmaking efforts.' The platform and its Democratic defenders have argued that any probe into foreign donations and online fundraising should also include WinRed, the largest Republican fundraising platform.”

Aimee Ortiz of the New York Times: “A federal jury on Monday ordered a man who was charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to pay $500,000 to the family of a D.C. police officer who was assaulted during the riot and later killed himself. A lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia claimed that the officer, Jeffrey Smith, of the Metropolitan Police, was hit with a hard object during the clashes, and that he became depressed in the days that followed. He killed himself a little over a week later. The man who was sued, David Walls-Kaufman, a chiropractor, was also charged criminally with parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. In 2023, he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge and served a two-month jail sentence, but he was pardoned earlier this year by ... [Donald] Trump. Mr. Walls-Kaufman has denied assaulting the officer. Officer Smith was hit in the head with a metal pole during the melee and seemed to slip into a deep depression, his wife, Erin Smith, said in 2021.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Here's another case of data confirming what you already knew: ~~~

~~~ Marie-Rose Sheinerman & Nick Mourtoupalas of the Washington Post: “Immigration is driving U.S. population growth and helping offset a broader demographic shift as the baby boom generation ages, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.... From 2023 to 2024, the number of Americans 65 and older climbed by 3.1 percent while the population under 18 declined by 0.2 percent. There are more older adults than children in nearly half of U.S. counties, and the pattern is particularly strong in sparsely populated areas, the bureau said. The gap between the two groups 'is narrowing,' in part because of a decline in births this decade.... At the same time, a historic rise in immigration, particularly among Hispanics and Asians, has counteracted some of that population decline.... A sharp drop in the number of White children is a major factor in the declining number of American children overall, and that decline has been partially offset by the rising number of non-White youth....” ~~~   

     ~~~ Marie: So this is just one more way Trump's draconian, racist, isolationist, anti-immigratation policies are devastating the U.S. economy. A contracting population means a contracting economy. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Florida. Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette: “A little over a year ago, Republican Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack could have died. Five weeks into an ectopic pregnancy, she was rushed to the emergency room where doctors told her that they could not treat her, for fear of losing their licenses or ending up in prison if they violated Florida’s then-new abortion ban. Under normal circumstances they would have given her a dose of Methotrexate to expel the pregnancy and save her life immediately, but they were wary to do so, and for good reason. Cammack, the co-chair of the Pro-Life Caucus, was able to use her connections and status to convince the hospital to treat her, but now claims that the only reason they didn’t do it right away was due to 'fearmongering' from abortion rights advocates (like all of us!) scaring them into believing that the law banned treating ectopic pregnancies.” MB: Do not think you can win an argument with any of these people even when they have life-threatening, first-hand experience with the effects of their policies (and odd beliefs). They got to where they are via un-reason, and they're sticking with un-reason. And it's your fault. (Also linked yesterday.)

New York. Joe Anuta of Politico: “Now that he’s all but won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani enters a general election against incumbent Eric Adams, who is eager to keep his seat and has nothing to lose. On Thursday, Adams will launch his attempt at resurrection in a rally from the steps of City Hall — a longshot bid as a political independent — one day after calling Mamdani a 'snake oil salesman.'... The field is crowded. In addition to Mamdani and Adams, Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent Jim Walden are running, and [Andrew] Cuomo is considering his own independent ballot line. There is no ranked-choice voting, meaning candidates can win with a plurality.”