August 27, 2025

Lena Sun, et al., of the Washington Post: “Susan Monarez was ousted Wednesday weeks into her tenure as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after she faced pressure to change vaccine policy. Several senior CDC officials announced their resignations shortly after, plunging the public health agency into turmoil. Monarez was pressed for days by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., administration lawyers and other officials over whether she would support rescinding certain approvals for coronavirus vaccines.... Kennedy and other officials questioned Monarez Monday on whether she was aligned with the administration’s efforts to change vaccine policy.... Monarez, who was a longtime federal government scientist before ... Donald Trump nominated her to lead the CDC, declined to commit to support changing coronavirus vaccine policy without consulting her advisers, two people said. That prompted Kennedy to urge her to resign for 'not supporting President Trump’s agenda.'...” ~~~

~~~ Rachel Roubein & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: “The Food and Drug Administration signed off Wednesday on coronavirus vaccines for those considered higher risk, narrowing approval for shots once routinely provided to nearly all Americans. The agency cleared shots manufactured by Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax. Companies were working to reformulate their vaccines to better target new strains of the virus. The move comes as the country is in the midst of a midsummer wave of coronavirus cases. The FDA limited approval of the new vaccines to those at 'higher risk,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an X post announcing the approvals. 

“Trump administration officials previously described those at higher risk as being ages 65 and older or having an underlying condition that increases the risk of severe disease. An HHS spokesman pointed to a New England Journal of Medicine article written by top FDA officials in May that listed covid risk factors, including asthma, smoking, physical inactivity and obesity. That article accompanied an announcement from the Trump administration that it would take a new targeted approach to coronavirus vaccines, rejecting universal recommendations for all Americans ages 6 months and older to receive annual shots.”

New York Times: “A gunman fired a rifle through the windows of a Catholic church in Minneapolis where students were celebrating their first Mass of the new school year on Wednesday, killing an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old in the pews and injuring 17 others, the police said. The attacker then shot and killed himself in the rear of the church, the Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, said at a news conference. Of the 17 people injured, 14 were children, the chief said. Two were in critical condition, he said. The shooting, at about 8:30 a.m. Central time, took place at the Annunciation Catholic Church, which has a school for children from prekindergarten through eighth grade. Monday was the first day of school, and the all-school Mass on Wednesday is an annual tradition.” This is a liveblog.

Ha! U.S. Attorney Boxwine Fails to Indict a Ham Sandwich. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “Federal prosecutors on Tuesday were unable to persuade a grand jury to approve a felony indictment against a man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent on the streets of Washington this month.... The grand jury’s rejection of the felony charge was a remarkable failure by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington and the second time in recent days that a majority of grand jurors refused to vote to indict a person accused of felony assault on a federal agent. It also amounted to a sharp rebuke by a panel of ordinary citizens against the prosecutors assigned to bring charges against people arrested after ... [Donald] Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and federal agents to fight crime and patrol the city’s streets. The rejection by grand jurors was particularly noteworthy given the attention paid to the case of the man who threw the sandwich, Sean C. Dunn. Video of the episode went viral on social media, senior officials talked about the case, and the administration posted footage of a large group of heavily armed law enforcement officers going to Mr. Dunn’s apartment.” 

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: “The Transportation Department is planning to take over management of D.C.’s Union Station, Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced Wednesday, in another example of the White House exerting power over the District as National Guard soldiers and federal law enforcement officers continue to patrol the city.... Duffy said it will involve a cooperative agreement with the nonprofit Union Station Redevelopment Corp., which controls the station, and Amtrak, which leases space from the USRC.... The announcement came hours before Duffy was set to join an inaugural ride on one of the Acela trains going into service this week between D.C. and Boston. His agency also has taken control of renovations at New York’s Penn Station....” 

Dan Rather & Team: “Trump has inserted himself into just about every aspect of American life — beyond politics and governance. He is staging a cultural revolution reminiscent of the one in China in the 1960s and ‘70s that destroyed much of the country’s heritage and suppressed intellectual thought. Trump wants to fundamentally change the culture of our country to reflect not America as it is today, but as it once was, controlled by an old, white, conservative patriarchy. He is attempting to turn back the tide of what he calls left 'woke' messaging in everything from university curriculum to Hollywood movies to elementary school reading lists.” Thanks to akaWendy for the link.

Aimee Picchi of CBS Money Watch: "The individuals who make up the Forbes 400 list, topped by Tesla CEO Elon Musk with a fortune of $244 billion, paid an average effective tax rate of 24% from 2018 to 2020, compared with a 30% rate for all other U.S. taxpayers, the researchers said in a new paper published in the National Bureau of Economic Research.  The research comes as ... [Donald] Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' signed into law on July 4, delivers its largest benefits to the highest-earning Americans through a mix of new and extended tax breaks. Those include raising the estate-tax exemption to $15 million per person, up from about $14 million."

~~~~~~~~~~ 

I have the right to do anything I wanna do. I’m the President of the United States. -- Donald Trump, at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday ~~~

~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trump declared on Tuesday that he had unlimited power as president to deploy the National Guard in any state.... In a televised cabinet meeting that lasted more than three hours, Mr. Trump attacked Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat who has pushed back against a threat by the president to deploy troops in Chicago.... 'You have a guy in Illinois, the governor of Illinois, saying that crime has been much better in Chicago recently and Trump is a dictator,' Mr. Trump said. 'Most people are saying, “If you call him a dictator, if he stops crime, he can be whatever he wants” — I am not a dictator, by the way.' About half an hour later, Mr. Trump said that he 'would have much more respect for Pritzker' if the governor approved a National Guard deployment in his state. 'Not that I don’t have — I would — the right to do anything I want to do,' Mr. Trump said. 'I’m the president of the United States. If I think our country is in danger — and it is in danger in these cities — I can do it.'” ~~~

~~~ Cabinet Meeting as Farce. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: At a marathon three-hour-and-fifteen-minute meeting in the Cabinet room, “in front of a wall of cameras, the old 'Apprentice' host offered a clear window into the way he was running his administration, starting with an ego that appeared to need frequent feeding, and blustery stamina: 'This has never been done before,' the president said at one point, in between calling on secretaries to speak and marveling over the waiting reporters’ abilities to hold microphones and cameras aloft for several hours. There in the Cabinet Room — which is starting to take on the gilded-cage look of Mr. Trump’s Oval Office — all of the president’s men and women took their turns, each working a little bit harder than the last to offer Mr. Trump praise and to assure him that they were working to tackle his long list of grievances. That list is as ever-growing as it is specific to Mr. Trump’s pet peeves and political ambitions.” This is a gift link, the better for you to fully appreciate what a buffoon our president* is. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This could be the first time that an above-the-fold straight-news story in the paper of record relentlessly ridiculed the President* of the United States and overtly exposed him as a preening imbecile. Dan Froomkin was right to complain that the major media were obscuring the reality of Trump's corrupt dictatorship (also linked yesterday), but Rogers' report is an admittedly subtle version of Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator," with Trump playing the part of Adenoid Hynkel, albeit looking a good deal more like Benzino Napaloni, the Diggaditchie of Bacteria. BTW, the marathon meeting, speech, press conference are common features of dictators' performances. They can't get enough of themselves. See also Charlie Savage's front-page NYT report, linked below. ~~~

~~~ The WashPo's description of the meeting does emphasize Trump's dictator-style performance. It's a start, if a somewhat timid one that relies on "expert" analysis to back up critical observations: ~~~ 

This is the greatest Cabinet working for the greatest president. And I just want to say thank you. -- Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, at yesterday's marathon encomium  

~~~ Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: “In ... Donald Trump’s longest on-camera appearance of his second term, he soaked up credit from his Cabinet as he moved to assert personal dominance over more and more aspects of American life.... During a three-hour-and-17-minute televised part of a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump claimed personal credit for what he portrayed as far-reaching changes in the everyday lives of Americans during his seven months in office, as his subordinates stumbled over one another to sing his praises.... The meeting ... bore similarities ... to meetings of ministers in other countries where leaders have sought to exert strong, personal control over large stretches of national life, scholars said, including in Russia and Turkey.... Journalists in the room ... had to stand for hours, some of them holding heavy cameras and microphones in the air, as Trump noted toward the end of the session.” ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: "[Tuesday], for the second time in as many days..., Donald J. Trump suggested that Americans want a dictator.... With Trump underwater on all his key issues and his job approval rating dismal, the administration appears to be trying to create support for Trump by insisting that the U.S. is mired in crime and he alone can solve the problem. The administration’s solution is not to fund violence prevention programs and local law enforcement—two methods proven to work—but instead to use the power of the government to terrorize communities. There is a frantic feel to that effort...." ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Contrarian: "As Donald Trump’s approval numbers sink under the weight of repeated failure and flubs (e.g., Ukraine, the Jeffrey Epstein files, inflation, the reverse-Robin-Hood reconciliation deal), and the Democrats race to a huge advantage in the generic polling, his panic has escalated, causing him to resort to ever more extreme authoritarian moves (the Texas power grab, occupying D.C., etc.) He’s even declared that, in fact, people would like a dictator. Rather than dispel the whiff of desperation, however, his last three gambits have only reinforced his likeness to a mad king."

What's in a Name? Matthew Bigg of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Monday that he would consider changing the name of the Defense Department to the War Department, the name it used until shortly after World War II.... At an event in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said the name War Department 'just sounded better,' adding, 'I think we’re going to have to go back to that.' He said it was a reminder of the country’s record of victories in conflicts under the old name, citing World Wars I and II. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Mr. Trump that the change was 'coming soon.'” MB: You bet Drunk Pete wants to be “Secretary of War.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Edward Wong of the New York Times: “... the Diplomatic Security Service [-- a State Department agency --] ... specializes in tasks involving global diplomacy, such as providing protection for the secretary of state, conducting background security checks of State Department employees and potential hires, and helping secure U.S. embassies and consulates. But its officers are now doing beat-cop work in Washington. They are deployed in the city alongside police officers and other federal agents in what President Trump says is a crackdown on crime.... The State Department’s security service has also been working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in American cities to try to detain noncitizens and deport them.” ~~~

~~~ Tara Copp of the Washington Post: “More than 2,200 troops, some from as far away as Mississippi and Louisiana, have been deployed in D.C. since Trump’s declaration of a 'crime emergency' [in Washington, D.C]. Ostensibly, they were mobilized to support federal law enforcement and local police, but in recent days those orders have expanded to encompass 'beautification' tasks such as trash removal and groundskeeping around the National Mall and other federal property. Service members may work on removing graffiti, too. Typically, custodial work like this falls to the National Park Service, which was already facing staffing shortfalls when the Trump administration this spring directed additional cuts as it gutted the federal workforce. The service used to have 200 people assigned to maintain thousands of acres of trees and gardens in D.C., and now there are 20, a Park Service official told The Post.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It has been obvious that calling up the National Guard to police D.C. was a means for Trump to demonstrate his racist creds to MAGA morons and to pretend he was "tough on crime" (despite having pardoned more violent criminals than has any other president in history). Now, it looks as if another purpose of calling up the Guard was to mitigate the disastrous effects of Trump and Musk's much-ballyhooed "efficiency" firings of "deep-state bureaucrats." Trump has spent half of his entire career screwing up and the other half trying to cover up the screw-ups. ~~~

     ~~~ Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: “More than 199,000 federal workers have left their jobs or have been forced out by the Trump administration since January 2025, according to an alarming new analysis by Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit focused on better government. That’s nearly 10% of the entire federal civilian workforce, which was composed of about 2.3 million employees at the start of the year.” ~~~

~~~ Carrie Johnson of NPR: "Veteran defense lawyers and law enforcement experts have been warning about the potential for overreach since the federal government muscled its way into policing decisions in the nation's capital nearly three weeks ago. Inside the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Monday, those tensions broke into open court. A federal judge dismissed a weapons case against a man held in the D.C. jail for a week — concluding he was subject to an unlawful search. 'It is without a doubt the most illegal search I've ever seen in my life,' U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said from the bench. 'I'm absolutely flabbergasted at what has happened. A high school student would know this was an illegal search.' The judge said Torez Riley appeared to have been singled out because he is a Black man who carried a backpack that looked heavy." ~~~

~~~ Emily Davies & Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Tuesday said he wants to see the death penalty imposed on every person convicted of murder in D.C., continuing his exertion of control over the capital city with a move that is likely to draw intense political and legal pushback. 'If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we’re going to be seeking the death penalty,' Trump said at a cabinet meeting. 'And that’s a very strong preventative.' In D.C...., a death sentence can only be imposed if a jury agrees, a significant challenge for prosecutors in a city where opposition to capital punishment is widespread.... The D.C. Council abolished capital punishment in 1981. In 1992, Congress placed a referendum on the D.C. ballot asking if capital punishment should be restored — the city’s voters said no by a large margin.... Under current practice, all decisions to seek the death penalty must be approved by the attorney general.” (Also linked yesterday.) The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Scientific American Editors (March 2024): “Study after study shows that the death penalty does not deter crime, puts innocent people to death, is racially biased, and is cruel and inhumane. It is state-sanctioned homicide, wholly ineffective, often botched, and a much more expensive punishment than life imprisonment.” MB: That is to say, this is just one more instance in which the dumbo dictator uses false “justifications” as the “basis” for harsh policies, often against minorities. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Marie: Now, here is an example of a milquetoast "critique" of Trump's lies: ~~~ 

~~~ Anemona Hartocollis of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has not been very welcoming toward international students, and particularly those from China. So it was striking when ... [Donald] Trump declared that the United States not only wanted but needed Chinese students, and would let 600,000 of them into American universities. 'It’s very insulting to say students can’t come here,' he said during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday. 'I like that their students come here. I like that other countries’ students come here.' He added: 'And you know what would happen if they didn’t? Our college system would go to hell very quickly.' 

“It is a little late to be beckoning international students to enroll. The fall semester is beginning at many schools and the message seemed to contradict steps the administration has taken to make it more difficult for students, including those from China, to enter and study in the United States.... There have been reports that visa appointments for students in China, as well as India, Nigeria and Japan, have been hard if not impossible to get.... The Trump administration has also moved to revoke visas from thousands of students....” MB: “not very welcoming”? “a little late”? “seems to contradict”? 

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s bid to fire a member of the Federal Reserve board is a new escalation of his efforts to amass more power over American government and society: Congress generations ago structured the agency, crucial to the health of the economy, to be independent of White House control. In purporting to fire the board member, Lisa D. Cook, Mr. Trump is setting up another test of how far the Republican-appointed supermajority on the Supreme Court will let him go in eroding the checks and balances Congress has long imposed on executive power. His attempt to fire Ms. Cook ... raises the question of whether he alone can decide whether there is cause to fire an official at an independent agency whose leaders are protected by law from arbitrary removal — or whether courts will be willing and able to intervene if judges believe his justification is a pretext.” ~~~

~~~ Zachary Basu of Axios: Donald "Trump is gradually testing, stretching and gutting the independence of America's major institutions, leaving few stones unturned in his pursuit of unchecked power.... In Trump's vision of America, authority flows only from his consent. The firing of Fed governor Lisa Cook — a first in modern history — shows that even the central bank's legendary independence is no longer untouchable.... In just seven months, Trump has consolidated vast power by following a simple playbook: Capture what he can, contest what he can't and punish those who resist." MB: This strikes me as a somewhat surprising analysis coming out of what is a right-leaning publication. ~~~ 

~~~ Dan Mangan of CNBC: “The Federal Reserve on Tuesday said it would abide by any court decision on whether ... Donald Trump has the legal authority to fire Board of Governors member Lisa Cook. The Fed, in a statement from a spokesperson, noted that 'Cook has indicated through her personal attorney that she will promptly challenge this action in court and seek a judicial decision that would confirm her ability to continue to fulfill her responsibilities as a Senate-confirmed member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.' The statement was the Fed’s first response to Trump’s announcement on Monday night that he was removing Cook as Fed governor because of allegations she committed mortgage fraud.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~ 

~~~ Paul Krugman: “[Monday] Donald Trump said that he had fired Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors ... on tissue-thin allegations of mortgage fraud.... At this point the immediate onus is on Jerome Powell, the Fed chairman. He has the right — I would say the obligation — to say, 'Show me the legal basis for this action.'... If Powell caves, or the Supreme Court acts supine again and validates Trump’s illegal declaration, the implications will be profound and disastrous. The United States will be well on its way to becoming Turkey, where an authoritarian ruler imposed his crackpot economics on the central bank, sending inflation soaring to 80 percent[.]... This is not a case a nonpolitical Justice Department would even consider bringing to trial, or have much hope of winning. And again, it has no relevance at all to Cook’s work at the Fed, providing zero justification for dismissal 'for cause.' But of course Trump’s attempt to fire Cook has nothing to do with allegations of fraud. Her real crime, in his mind, is that she isn’t an obedient minion (oh, and that she’s a black woman.)” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “Trump’s pretense to ownership of public goods and public spaces [-- like the White House, The Smithsonian and the District of Columbia itself --] isn’t some quirk to be ignored or waited out ... but a direct expression of his autocratic ambitions and despotic cast of mind.... On Monday, the president ... sign[ed] a number of executive orders .... [which] were presented as royal decrees.... Later on Monday, the president announced that he had fired Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, over allegations of mortgage fraud.... Cook has the law on her side.... Her choice to stand her ground is a reminder that while Trump may want to be a king, it is still up to us, as Americans, whether we treat him like one.” The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Matt Brown of the AP: “Trump’s move drew immediate backlash from Black lawmakers.'“Dr. Lisa Cook is the first Black woman ever to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Donald Trump is trying to remove her without a shred of credible evidence that she has done anything wrong,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a statement. The National Urban League, a civil rights group, called Trump’s move a  'witch hunt' and condemned the president’s comments about her as  'character assassination.' And the Congressional Black Caucus ... denounced Trump’s rhetoric and effort to fire Cook as 'a racist, misogynistic, and unlawful attack on the integrity and independence of the Federal Reserve. It is a dangerous attempt to politicize and exert control over the central bank — one that will only continue to damage the economy, harm hardworking Americans, and undermine our credibility on the world stage.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I do think it's important to bear in mind that the vast majority of Trump's actions against U.S. citizens and residents are against people of color. For instance, the cities he's taken over or threatened to take over have black mayors and large minority populations. All that anti-DEI crapola targets racial and other minorities. The ICE raids of course are mostly against minorities. The Congressional districts he's seeking to dilute or erase have large minority populations. And so forth. A major thrust of the Trump dictatorship is to bring back Jim Crow. ~~~

     ~~~ As RAS pointed out in yesterday's Comments, racism as national policy isn't anything new for Trump: " The three main pillars of Trump's first campaign were 1. Deport all Mexicans, i.e. any Brown people 2. Lock up all the "criminals", i.e. People of Color who don't show proper deference and 3. Ban all Muslims, i.e. most Non-Christians. It was a racist's wish list of white grievance. Trump has always been a racist pig."

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: “Trump administration officials are looking into whether the federal government could take a stake in private defense companies like Lockheed Martin, days after ... Donald Trump announced such a deal with chipmaker Intel, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday. In an interview on CNBC’s 'Squawk Box,' host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Lutnick about the U.S. government potentially becoming the largest shareholder of Intel, a private tech company, and pressed him on where the Trump administration would draw the line.... Lutnick said there was, in fact, a 'monstrous discussion' going on among Trump administration officials about taking partial ownership of defense giants.” ~~~

~~~ Jim Geraghty of the right-wing National Review, in a Washington Post op-ed, notices that “When [New York City mayoral candidate Zohran] Mamdani says it, it’s socialism. When Trump does it, it’s genius.”

Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette seems to have a good handle on Trump's flag-burning ban, and I especially appreciated her take on Glenn Greenwald, from whom I have not heard in a long time but it looks as if he's still on Xitter and has a Substack account. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Monday: ~~~

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: Immigration detention centers called “Alligator Alcatraz” (Florida), “Speedway Slammer” (Indiana), and “Cornhusker Clink” (Nebraska) are all state-federal partnerships. [Some people don't think the government should] make light of an expanding mass deportation program that has sent immigrants to countries that they are not from, separated parents from their children, and deployed masked officers in unmarked cars to grab people off the streets.... Still, ginning up indignation appears to be the point, at least in part, in this new era of government by troll.” The Trump administration is broadly mocking and humiliating immigrant detainees, “detached from concerns about impropriety.... Rick Perlstein, a progressive historian of American conservatism, said the jokey names ... [are] 'quite plainly intended to humiliate and dehumanize the people who are sent to these places.'...”

Brianna Sacks of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration placed more than a dozen Federal Emergency Management Agency employees on [paid] leave Tuesday after they signed an open letter of dissent about the agency’s leadership, according to people familiar with the situation and documents reviewed by The Washington Post. About 180 current and former FEMA staffers sent a letter on Monday to members of Congress and other officials, arguing the current leaders’ inexperience and approach harm FEMA’s mission and could result in a disaster on the level of Hurricane Katrina.... Last month, the administration put nearly 140 EPA employees on leave after they sent their own letter of dissent.” The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is the Trump administration wasting taxpayer dollars in an area where workers are desperately needed, and all because Trumpelthinskin & his Dress-up Barbie Noem can't handle the truth. 

Adam Wren & Dasha Burns of Politico: “...  Donald Trump’s escalating pressure campaign to get Indiana Republicans to gerrymander their state appeared to have some success Tuesday. Vice President JD Vance urged more than 55 Indiana Republicans to push forward with redistricting during a long-planned meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.... [One person] said some of those lawmakers who have publicly registered their disapproval [of redistricting] asked Vance questions, and eventually they committed to reconsider.... Trump then met privately in the Oval Office with Indiana House Speaker President Todd Huston and Senate President Rodric Bray....”

2020 Election Denier to Oversee Federal Election “Integrity.” Doug Clark of ProPublica: “Heather Honey, a high-profile denier of Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, has been appointed to a senior position in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in which she’ll help oversee the nation’s election infrastructure. Honey is a protege of Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who tried to help Trump overturn the 2020 election results. In 2024, ProPublica reported that Honey had played a key role in Mitchell’s behind-the-scenes effort to change Georgia’s election rules to allow Republican officials to contest a potential Trump loss in that year’s presidential race. Honey also promoted election conspiracy theories, including one Trump cited in a speech to his followers before they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.... 'We are witnessing a dangerous trend: the elevation of known bad-faith actors like Heather Honey,' said Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, in a statement....”

Meredith Hill of Politico: “... Donald Trump’s first secretary of Labor will answer questions from House investigators next month about his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein case. House Oversight Chair James Comer said Monday that Alex Acosta, who led the Labor Department from 2017 to 2019, has agreed to sit for a transcribed interview with the panel on Sept. 19. As U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Acosta signed off on a 2008 deal that allowed Epstein to plead guilty to a single state charge, ending a long-running FBI investigation without federal charges. The deal is now widely seen as being unduly favorable to Epstein....” ~~~ MB: I don't know whether or not any of the “House investigators” work for Democrats. If not, this probe of Acosta's sweetheart deal for Epstein could be a sweetheart probe. (Also linked yesterday.) 

⭐Careless, Incompetent DOGE Boys Put All Our Social Security Data at Risk. Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: “Members of the Department of Government Efficiency uploaded a copy of a crucial Social Security database in June to a vulnerable cloud server, putting the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans at risk of being leaked or hacked, according to a whistle-blower complaint filed by the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer. The database contains records of all Social Security numbers issued by the federal government. It includes individuals’ full names, addresses and birth dates, among other details that could be used to steal their identities, making it one of the nation’s most sensitive repositories of personal information. The account by the whistle-blower, Charles Borges, underscores concerns that have led to lawsuits seeking to block young software engineers at the agency built by Elon Musk from having access to confidential government data. In his complaint, Mr. Borges said DOGE members copied the data to an internal agency server that only DOGE could access, forgoing the type of 'independent security monitoring' normally required under agency policy for such sensitive data and creating 'enormous vulnerabilities.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ An NPR story is here. A TechCrunch report is here. MB: And do blame the confederate Supremes for this disaster. From Zack Whittaker's TechCrunch report: "While a federal restraining order in March initially blocked DOGE staffers from accessing the country’s database of Social Security records, the Supreme Court lifted the order on June 6, paving the way for DOGE’s access." The ruling was 6-3, with all the confederates voting to give the DOGE boys access. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

The Court opts ... to relieve the Government of the standard obligations, jettisoning careful judicial decisionmaking and creating grave privacy risks for millions of Americans in the process. -- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissenting, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor 

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “Lawyers for Jack Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Donald J. Trump, have struck back for the first time against some of the accusations conservatives have leveled against him, denouncing an ethics complaint as 'imaginary and unfounded.' For months, Mr. Smith has remained silent as the president and some of his senior advisers, including top Justice Department officials, publicly attacked him, accusing Mr. Smith of engaging in wrongdoing for overseeing two criminal inquiries and indictments of Mr. Trump.... 'Mr. Smith followed well-established legal principles in conducting the investigations into President Trump, and the courts presiding over the resulting prosecutions have already rejected the spurious allegations that the manner in which Mr. Smith prosecuted these cases was somehow improper,' [Smith's lawyers wrote to acting special counsel Jamieson Greer, whose office has no affiliation with Smith's former role]. The letter also noted that while Mr. Greer’s office had publicly confirmed it had opened an investigation, neither Mr. Smith nor his lawyers had received any inquiries from [him].” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Tuesday threw out an extraordinary lawsuit that the Trump administration had filed against the entire federal bench in Maryland, challenging a standing order intended to briefly slow down the government’s ability to deport undocumented immigrants. In a scathing 39-page ruling, the judge, Thomas T. Cullen, called the suit 'novel and potentially calamitous,' saying that the administration had simpler — and clearly more legal — ways to contest the standing order aside from bringing a suit against all 15 federal judges who sit in Maryland. Judge Cullen, who was appointed by ... [Donald] Trump..., used the ruling to take Mr. Trump and some of his top aides to task for having repeatedly attacked other judges who have dared to rule against the White House in a flurry of cases challenging aspects of its political agenda.... The case in front of Judge Cullen began in June when the Trump administration filed suit challenging a standing order ... [that] said that immigrants who sought to contest their removal from the country in the Maryland federal courts by filing what is known as a habeas petition would automatically be granted a two-day reprieve from being expelled.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Vivian Ho of the Washington Post: “Denmark’s foreign minister summoned the most senior U.S. diplomat in the country Wednesday after the nation’s public broadcaster reported that Americans have been conducting influence operations in Greenland, the semiautonomous territory that ... Donald Trump wants the United States to control.... The U.S. does not have a confirmed ambassador to Denmark, with Trump’s nomination of PayPal co-founder Kenneth Howery pending. The chargé d’affaires, or chief of mission, in Denmark is Mark Stroh.” The AP story is here.

Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Wisconsin rejected a state jurist’s claims of judicial immunity on Tuesday in a case that is testing the limits of the Trump administration’s ability to bar local officials from interfering with its deportation campaign. The failed attempt to dismiss the case means that Judge Hannah C. Dugan of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court remains on track to stand trial on federal charges of concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of proceedings. Judge Lynn Adelman, who was appointed to the Federal District Court by President Bill Clinton and who is presiding over Judge Dugan’s case, said the state judge had not shown that she should be exempted from the prosecution because of her role.” (Also linked yesterday.)  

Brianna Tucker of the Washington Post: “The NAACP, the nation’s largest civil rights organization, asked a court Tuesday to block what it called a 'racially motivated' congressional map that dilutes the political power of Black voters. The organization filed an amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, seeking to prevent Texas’s redrawn congressional map from taking effect, claiming the new district map is unconstitutional. In 2021, Republican lawmakers drew a new map after the 2020 Census, and the NAACP and others sued, arguing the districts were racially discriminatory. A panel of judges held a trial this year but has not yet ruled.” The AP report is here.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: “Mail-in ballots that Pennsylvania voters submit without proper dates on the return envelope may not be discarded, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, the latest twist in an years-long legal fight over mail voting rules in the battleground state. Pennsylvania election officials have rejected thousands of votes in recent years under a state law that requires voters to handwrite a date on the outer envelope when voting by mail. That practice disproportionately affects Democratic voters, who are far likelier than Republicans in the state to vote by mail — meaning Tuesday’s ruling, if it stands, would likely boost Democrats in future elections.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Tracey Tully & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: “Federal prosecutors on Tuesday recommended a prison sentence of at least seven years for Nadine Menendez, who was convicted of being at the center of a yearslong bribery scheme with her husband, Robert Menendez. Mr. Menendez, a former senator from New Jersey, is serving an 11-year prison term for his role in the conspiracy. Two businessmen convicted of giving the couple bribes of gold bullion and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in exchange for political favors from Mr. Menendez, are also serving lengthy sentences.”

Ann Marimow, now of the New York Times: “After years of increased scrutiny of Supreme Court justices’ off-the-bench activities, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. reported in his annual financial disclosure report released on Tuesday that he received no gifts and took a single trip to Ohio last year to deliver a commencement address.... The filing was made public two months after those of his colleagues because Justice Alito requested an extension, as he has done in previous years.... As in past years, Justice Alito reported owning stock in more than two dozen individual companies, including Boeing, ConocoPhillips and Molson Coors.... Justice Alito and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. are now the only sitting justices who own stocks in individual companies. Gabe Roth ... of Fix the Court, an advocacy group..., has pressed them to divest from individual companies to avoid having to recuse from cases and leave open the possibility of a 4-4 tie.” 

Capitulation News:  

(1) Theodore Schleifer of the New York Times: “America’s largest charitable foundation has quietly ceased backing a nonprofit network closely associated with the Democratic Party and criticized by conservatives, a symbolically significant blow to a powerful player in liberal politics. The Gates Foundation decided in late June to halt making grants to nonprofit funds administered by the consulting firm Arabella Advisors.... That decision, attributed to the foundation’s chief executive, Mark Suzman, has sparked unease in the world of progressive philanthropy. Some nonprofits that work with Arabella are already seeking distance from the firm in order to preserve their relationships with the Gates Foundation.... In addition to its consulting work on behalf of nonprofits and philanthropists, Arabella also manages several 'dark money' funds that support Democrats and the progressive movement.”

(2) Hannah Zeigler of the New York Times: “Cracker Barrel announced on Tuesday that it would keep its original logo, complete with the classic guy-and-a-barrel design, after its plans to rebrand set off a backlash on social media, including from ... [Donald] Trump.” 

The Resistance Wears Prada. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: Mark Guiducci, “the new global editorial director of venerable publication Vanity Fair[,] is confronting a firestorm of his own making by floating the prospect of putting Melania Trump on the cover of the magazine in the near future.... One editor speaking with the Daily Mail tabloid, 'I will walk out the motherf–-ing door, and half my staff will follow me.' Another staffer complained, 'We are not going to normalize this despot and his wife; we’re just not going to do it. We’re going to stand for what’s right,' before adding, 'If I have to work bagging groceries at Trader Joe’s, I’ll do it. If [Guiducci] puts Melania on the cover, half of the editorial staff will walk out, I guarantee it.'”

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Iowa State Senate Race. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “Republicans now hold every seat in [Iowa's] congressional delegation and every statewide office but one. The State Legislature, where Democrats competed for majorities less than a decade ago, is overwhelmingly Republican. Yet on Tuesday, for the second time this year, a Democrat appeared to flip a conservative-leaning district in the Iowa Senate. According to preliminary results posted by county officials, Catelin Drey, the Democratic nominee, was leading Christopher Prosch, the Republican, in a district that includes much of the Sioux City area in northwest Iowa.... Ms. Drey’s apparent victory ... would strip Republicans of a two-thirds supermajority that had allowed lawmakers to confirm the governor’s appointees without any Democratic support. Iowa Republicans have used their power in recent years to pass restrictive laws on abortion, immigration and transgender issues.” An NBC News story is here.