September 4, 2025

An Early Birthday Present from Donnie to Vlad. Noah Robertson of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration intends to halt longtime security assistance programs for Europe, including an initiative to fortify the continent’s eastern flank against a potential attack by Russia, as it endeavors to recast Washington’s role within NATO, according to six people familiar with the matter. The decision would impact hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military aid relied upon by some of the alliance’s most vulnerable members. It has alarmed U.S. allies struggling to comprehend the administration’s policy toward Europe and its chief adversary in the Kremlin after ... Donald Trump, eager for a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, rescued its mercurial leader, Vladimir Putin, from diplomatic isolation. U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, are confused by the move.... A Senate aide said that the Defense Department has not provided lawmakers with a briefing on the issue, despite requests to do so.”

Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: “The world during Donald Trump’s second presidency has entered a period of danger with 'certain similarities to the 30s', according to Mitch McConnell, the veteran Republican former Senate leader. McConnell made the comments primarily in reference to tariffs and foreign affairs, in a wide-ranging interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader published on Wednesday as he prepares to enter his final year in office. Calling it 'the most dangerous period since before world war two', McConnell was openly critical of the Trump administration’s fixation with trade tariffs, which he likened to the isolationist policies of the US in the 1930s that historians say hastened a global depression that paved the path to conflict. But ... McConnell – ... [who] announced his upcoming retirement – did not discuss the Trump administration’s own moves towards authoritarianism. He also glossed over his own responsibility for handing Trump so much power.”

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a withering barrage of questioning from a Senate committee on his vaccine policy and his record as ... [Donald] Trump’s health secretary, responding at times with clear disdain for the senators, public health data and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which he oversees. Appearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, Mr. Kennedy blamed the C.D.C. for the number of American deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic, and said he did not trust the data that showed vaccines saved millions of lives in the United States and elsewhere during the pandemic. Mr. Kennedy also falsely asserted that there were no cuts to Medicaid in ... [Mr.] Trump’s domestic policy bill, and rejected bipartisan criticism that his actions were making it harder for people to obtain vaccines. Mr. Kennedy ... spoke in a tone rarely used by a Senate witness — angry at times, dismissive at others — and repeatedly accused senators who belong to his family’s party of lying, telling them they were 'making stuff up' and 'talking gibberish.' Some Republicans, including two doctors — Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Barrasso of Wyoming — also put Mr. Kennedy on the spot. Mr. Cassidy, who voted to confirm Mr. Kennedy on the condition he wouldn’t disrupt access to vaccines, said..., 'We’re denying people vaccine,' Mr. Cassidy.... Mr. Kennedy responded: 'You’re wrong.'” At 2:20 pm ET, this is the pinned item in a liveblog. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Well, thanks RFKJ. Now I know how to appear as a witness before a Congressional committee. Put my fists over my ears, sing "la la la la la," which I occasionally interrupt by shouting, "You're lying," or some other insult. ~~~

~~~ Susan Monarez in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: “Reporters have focused on the Aug. 25 meeting where my boss, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., pressured me to resign [from my position as CDC director] or face termination.... One of the troubling directives from that meeting more than a week ago: I was told to preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric.... Those seeking to undermine vaccines use a familiar playbook: discredit research, weaken advisory committees, and use manipulated outcomes to unravel protections that generations of families have relied on to keep deadly diseases at bay. Once trusted experts are removed and advisory bodies are stacked, the results are predetermined. That isn’t reform. It is sabotage.” MB: Evidently the link is a gift link, because I got access to the op-ed. If you can't read it, I was able to get at the essence of Monarez' essay here.

Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: “Federal Reserve nominee Stephen Miran, a senior White House economic adviser, told Senate lawmakers Thursday that he does not plan to resign from the Trump administration if confirmed to the Federal Reserve’s board of governors — an unusual arrangement likely to raise concerns about the central bank’s independence. Testifying in the Senate on Thursday, Miran said he plans to take an unpaid leave instead of stepping down from the White House because he would only be filling a short-term slot on the seven-member Fed board. He said repeatedly he was citing the advice of an attorney.... Miran told lawmakers that he could remain independent.”

~~~ Independent? Sen. Elizabeth Warren tests that. And as the former professor says, Miran failed: ~~~

Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: “The Justice Department has opened a fraud investigation into a Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, elevating claims ... [Donald] Trump has promoted in trying to oust her, according to people familiar with the situation. The move, which centers on whether she falsified a mortgage application, was instigated by Ed Martin, a hyperpartisan Trump loyalist with little prosecutorial experience. He has said that it is legitimate for federal officials to publicly air criminal investigations into people targeted by the president, even if an investigation does not result in a conviction or even an indictment.... Federal prosecutors have begun issuing subpoenas, one of the people ... said.” The link looks like a gift link.

Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: “The District of Columbia sued the Trump administration in federal court on Thursday, challenging the president’s deployment of National Guard troops in the city. Thousands of Guard members from the city and seven states were mobilized last month as part of a sweeping federal intervention that has also brought hundreds of federal law enforcement agents to the city’s streets.... 'No American city should have the US military — particularly out-of-state military who are not accountable to the residents and untrained in local law enforcement — policing its streets,' Brian Schwalb, D.C.’s attorney general, said in a statement.... The suit argues that the deployment of the local guard for public safety reasons, and without the mayor’s consent, violated Washington’s autonomy under the 52-year-old Home Rule Act.” The NBC News story is here.

Because Mail-in Voting. Trump, Wednesday: ~~~ 

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Rule by Emergency. Adam Kushner of the New York Times: Donald Trump “has declared nearly a dozen [emergencies.] Trump says he can impose tariffs because he says it’s an emergency to contain trade deficits. He can deport immigrants without due process because it’s an emergency to fight a Venezuelan gang’s invasion. He can dispatch the National Guard to American cities like Los Angeles because it’s an emergency to quell protests and crime. He can ask the Supreme Court for emergency rulings on legal challenges to his authority because we can’t afford to wait for judges to debate his policies. All this exposes a diabolical problem in our legal order: An emergency is in the eye of the beholder.... Carl Schmitt, a Nazi political theorist, wrote extensively on the 'state of exception.' The main attribute of a sovereign leader, he argued, was the ability to pause the normal legal order during a time of crisis.”

A review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that Defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.... The idea that fighting antisemitism is Defendants’ true aim is belied by the fact that the majority of the demands they are making of Harvard to restore its research funding are directed, on their face, at Harvard’s governance, staffing and hiring practices, and admissions policies — all of which have little to do with antisemitism and everything to do with Defendants’ power and political views. -- Judge Allison Burroughs, Harvard v. HHS ~~~

~~~ Alan Blinder of the New York Times: “Harvard University won a crucial legal victory in its clash with the Trump administration on Wednesday, when a federal judge [-- Allison D. Burroughs of the U.S. District Court in Boston --] said that the government had broken the law by freezing billions of dollars in research funds in the name of stamping out antisemitism.... Although the ruling was a milestone for Harvard, the only university to sue over the administration’s assault on its research funding..., [Donald] Trump had vowed to appeal any decision that went against him. His administration has spent months seeking to pressure Harvard in ways beyond research money, and while Judge Burrough’s ruling may not put an end to that campaign, her opinion was a bracing rebuke.... As a part of the decision, Judge Burroughs said the Trump administration could not issue new blockades on Harvard’s federal research funding 'in retaliation for the exercise of its First Amendment rights, or on any purported grounds of discrimination without compliance with the terms' of civil rights law.” The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) The NBC News report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Kind of a kick in the nuts for Trump's retaliation & retribution program. The ultimate question to be answered by this and other unconstitutional and/or unlawful crooked Trump stunts is whether or not the Supine Supremes can rewrite the law fast enough to accommodate Dictator Don's complete usurpation of every aspect of American life. 

~~~ Hmmm, Maybe Judge Burroughs Is Right about Combating Antisemitism Being Pretextual. Arno Rosenfeld of the Forward (September 2): A Justice Department attorney who has defended the Trump administration’s crackdown on Harvard over allegations of antisemitism once praised Adolf Hitler’s autobiography and submitted an undergraduate assignment written from the Nazi leader’s perspective, according to an article in The Boston Globe. Michael Velchik, the government lawyer, received both his undergraduate and law degree from Harvard. After Harvard sued the Trump administration over the suspension of hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding, Velchik defended the move in federal court.... After graduating, Velchik told a peer that Mein Kampf, Hitler’s autobiography and manifesto, was the book he had enjoyed reading the most while spending a year traveling, according to an email obtained by the Globe.” ~~~ 

     ~~~ Via Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "In the quaint-by-comparison first Trump term, Darren Beattie attending a white nationalist conference was enough to get him fired. In Trump 2.0, white nationalism is more like a job requirement." See also Akhilleus' commentary on this in yesterday's thread. ~~~

      ~~~ AND Scott Lemieux in LG&$: “The bad faith of the 'fighting antisemitism' pretext was facially indisputable even before it was revealed that an admirer of Mein Kampf was one of the administration’s point persons. The soundness of the decision, needless to say, will not necessarily save it from the Roberts Court’s shadow docket buzzsaw.” Lemieux also links to this BlueSky skeet by Rick Hasen. You have to click on the text to figure out what Gorsuch wrote and how Burroughs responded, but, as Lemieux writes, she does take the “opportunity to tell Neil Gorsuch to eat shit.” ~~~

~~~ Lawrence Hurley of NBC News: "Federal judges are frustrated with the Supreme Court for increasingly overturning lower court rulings involving the Trump administration with little or no explanation.... Some judges believe the Supreme Court, and in particular Chief Justice John Roberts, could be doing more to defend the integrity of their work as ... Donald Trump and his allies harshly criticize those who rule against him and as violent threats against judges are on the rise. In rare interviews with NBC News, a dozen federal judges — appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents, including Trump, and serving around the country — pointed to a pattern they say has recently emerged: Lower court judges are handed contentious cases involving the Trump administration. They painstakingly research the law to reach their rulings. When they go against Trump, administration officials and allies criticize the judges in harsh terms. The government appeals to the Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority. And then the Supreme Court, in emergency rulings, swiftly rejects the judges’ decisions with little to no explanation."

Don and Pete and Marco like to blow up things and kill people. They like to boast about it, too. And they don't care if it's immoral and illegal to blow up those things and kill those people. ~~~

~~~ Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration declared the start of a new and potentially violent campaign against Venezuelan cartels on Wednesday, defending a deadly U.S. military strike on a boat that officials said was carrying drugs even as specialists in the law of war questioned the legality of the attack. The U.S. Navy has long intercepted and boarded ships suspected of smuggling drugs in international waters.... Tuesday’s direct attack in the Caribbean was a marked departure from that decades-long approach. The administration has said 11 people were aboard the vessel. It was unclear whether they were given a chance to surrender before the United States attacked.

“The Trump administration has not offered any legal rationale. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an appearance on 'Fox & Friends' on Wednesday that administration officials 'knew exactly who was in that boat' and 'exactly what they were doing,' although he did not offer evidence.... Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a news conference,] 'What will stop them is when we blow up and get rid of them.'... But some officials at the Defense Department privately expressed concern on Wednesday about the administration’s shifting narratives, including where the vessel was headed.... Pentagon officials were still working Wednesday on what legal authority they would tell the public was used to back up the extraordinary strike in international waters.” The AP's report is here. ~~~ 

~~~ Marc Caputo of Axios: Donald "Trump's war on drugs is officially a war, not a mere law enforcement action.... The U.S. has entered a new era in which narcotraffickers are classified as terrorists — and Trump is claiming the right to kill them before they or their drugs reach this country....The attack was denounced by critics accustomed to the U.S. conducting the drug war as a law-enforcement matter in which high-seas interdictions mainly involve the Coast Guard. Until now, the goal was to try to capture drug runners and their narcotics to build a case for federal prosecution. What happened Tuesday was 'a murder anywhere in the world,' Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, wrote on X.... 'Trump admits he ordered a summary execution — the crime of murder,' former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth posted on X. 'Drug traffickers are not combatants who can be shot on sight. They are criminal suspects who must be arrested and prosecuted.'" ~~~

~~~ Nancy Youssef, et al., of the Atlantic: “Yesterday’s strike in the Caribbean came after Trump secretly signed a directive authorizing Pentagon action against drug smugglers earlier this summer.... There was no congressional notification beforehand, congressional officials told us.... Both domestically and internationally, the U.S. armed forces are tackling threats once assigned to police officers, Drug Enforcement Administration agents, Coast Guardsmen, and other law-enforcement personnel.... The new tactics represent a shift away from the vision, dating back to the colonial revolt against an overbearing superpower, that U.S. armed forces should defend the country from external threats but not be used to routinely enforce the law.” Thank you to akaWendy for this gift link. ~~~

~~~ Brian Finucane in Just Security: “...  the Trump administration’s extraordinary lethal attack on this purported smuggling vessel – and its vow that the strike was a start of a campaign – raise a number of significant potential legal issues. And ... the strike constitutes a deeply troubling gratuitous use of the military that resulted in the unnecessary killing of 11 individuals.... In my view, the U.S. attack on this supposed smuggling vessel constituted the introduction of U.S. armed forces into hostilities, triggering both the reporting requirements of the War Powers Resolution as well as its 60-day clock for withdrawing U.S. forces. The attack not only resembles previously reported incidents during the Reagan administration, but U.S. armed forces were deliberately introduced into the situation with the U.S. president himself reportedly giving the order to 'blow up' the supposed smuggling vessel.... If U.S. forces are targeting individuals who are civilians—not qualifying as combatants/fighters or directly participating in hostilities—this raises the specter of accountability under the War Crimes Act.” ~~~

~~~ Cheryl Rofer in LG&$: "With the destruction of the boat, its passengers, and contents, that claim ... that the eleven [people assassinated] were members of Tren de Aragua, trafficking drugs ... will be difficult to prove or disprove.... Even if the claims about the boat are true, the action was most likely illegal, removing the possibility of due process and going directly to execution for something that is not a capital crime in the US."

Lawrence Hurley & Steve Kopack of NBC News: "The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to quickly decide whether he has the power to impose broad tariffs under a law designed for use during times of emergency. The Justice Department is appealing a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday that ... Donald Trump had exceeded his authority, the filings said.... The administration submitted two filings [to the Supreme Court]: an appeal and a motion to expedite." The New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ Ankush Khardori of Politico Magazine: “Donald Trump is making a last-ditch effort to salvage his beloved, beleaguered tariff policy, heading to the Supreme Court in hopes that the Republican appointees will come to his rescue. The desperation is both palpable and warranted given the conspicuous weakness of the administration’s legal arguments, as underscored by a series of lower court rulings against him. That has in turn led the president and his aides to make increasingly histrionic public claims about what will happen if the Supreme Court does not cave and side with Trump.... He doubled down on [false] claims on Tuesday while tacking on the transparently ridiculous assertion that the U.S. is “taking in $17 trillion … because of tariffs.'... A less[-than-]generous read of the situation is that this is an effort to politically blackmail the court into giving Trump what he wants even if it is clearly unlawful or unconstitutional.” 

Maxine Joselow, et al., of the New York Times: “The White House has taken the extraordinary step of instructing a half-dozen agencies to draft plans to thwart the country’s offshore wind industry as it intensifies its governmentwide attack on a source of renewable energy that ... [Donald] Trump has criticized as ugly, expensive and inefficient. Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and Stephen Miller, a senior White House adviser, are leading the effort.... Agencies that typically have little to do with offshore wind power have been drawn into the effort.... At the Health and Human Services Department, for instance, officials are studying whether wind turbines are emitting electromagnetic fields that could harm human health. And the Defense Department is probing whether the projects could pose risks to national security.” The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yes, I myself have patented a device that fits into the windmills and sends subliminal messages to people downwind from the turbines: "Vote Democrat, vote Democrat."  

We all know that Donald Trump bonds with people accused or convicted of sexual assault. So this is not too surprising. ~~~  

~~~ Trump May Meddle in NYC Mayoral Race. Dana Rubenstein, et al., of the New York Times: “Advisers to ... [Donald] Trump have discussed the possibility of giving Mayor Eric Adams of New York City a position in the administration as a way to clear the field in November’s mayoral election and damage the chances of the Democratic front-runner, Zohran Mamdani, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. The talks have also involved finding a possible place in the administration for the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa. The goal, the people said, would be to give former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo a better chance of defeating Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, in November’s general election.” ~~~

     ~~~ Nick Reisman, et al., of Politico: “Adams has been offered a position at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to a person with direct knowledge of the offer.... The mayor, who has a friendly working and political relationship with Trump, met with the president’s team during his visit Tuesday to Florida, two people familiar with the plans said.”

Heather Cox Richardson highlights Trump/GOP policies that have hollowed out the middle class and discouraged working Americans. She summarizes other unrelated stories, too.

Akhilleus linked the video below a few days ago. What Neil deGrasse Tyson says in the video is what you should know when you read the reports that follow: 

     ~~~ What Tyson says, of course, is the result of many medical advances, not only vaccines. But vaccines are a big part of the reason life expectancy has increased so dramatically since about 1900. ~~~

~~~ Rule by Quackery. Apoorva Mandavilli, et al., of the New York Times: “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to nominate seven new advisers to a scientific committee that recommends which vaccines Americans should take and when, according to two former federal officials with knowledge of the matter. The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, wields enormous influence. Insurance companies and government programs like Medicaid are required to cover the vaccinations it recommends. After Mr. Kennedy’s confirmation hearing, Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, said he had received assurances that Mr. Kennedy would 'maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.' In June, Mr. Kennedy fired all 17 members of the panel, asserting without evidence that the committee members were 'plagued with persistent conflicts of interest,' even though they had been carefully vetted for such conflicts.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gosh, Senator Bill, this might be a good time to ask your friends in the House to please begin impeachment proceedings against RFKJ. 

Christina Jewitt of the New York Times: “Memos released in recent days by the Food and Drug Administration show that the agency’s vaccine chief overruled staff scientists who favored widespread access to Covid shots, setting off a firestorm of criticism from lawmakers, state officials and doctors. Agency staff members had concluded that the F.D.A. should allow a wide range of age groups to receive the vaccines, citing high hospitalization rates among young children with Covid and saying that the virus’s evolution is 'complex and remains unpredictable.' But Dr. Vinay Prasad, the agency official in charge of vaccines and gene therapies at the F.D.A., disagreed, overriding those scientists and deciding to issue very narrow eligibility limits. The F.D.A. last week said that no one under 65 was eligible to receive the Covid vaccines made by Moderna or Pfizer unless they had underlying medical conditions that put them at risk for severe disease.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Florida. Curt Anderson of the AP: “Florida plans to become the first state to eliminate vaccine mandates, a longtime cornerstone of public health policy for keeping schoolchildren and adults safe from infectious diseases. State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who announced the decision Wednesday, cast current requirements in schools and elsewhere as 'immoral' intrusions on people’s rights that hamper parents’ ability to make health decisions for their children.... Florida’s move, a significant departure from decades of public policy and research that has shown vaccines to be safe and the most effective way to stop the spread of communicable diseases, especially among schoolchildren, is a notable embrace of the Trump administration’s agenda led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist.” The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The first vaccinations I remember getting I got in school in Miami, Florida, in 1950 or 1951. I assume the shots were mandated at some government level, and I'm reasonably sure my parents didn't pay for them. People like Ladapo, DeSantis, Prasad, RFKJ & Trump, who are stealing the health of today's children, belong in Guantanamo. 

Marianne LeVine & Maria Paul of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it is ending temporary protections granted in 2021 for more than 250,000 Venezuelan migrants, a move that could force them to return to potentially dangerous conditions in their homeland. In a news release, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said the temporary protected status program for Venezuelans acted as a 'magnet' for 'irregular migration' from that country. Authorities said the termination of their legal status in the United States could come within about two months.... In a ruling earlier this year, the Supreme Court permitted the Department of Homeland Security to move forward with ending temporary protected status for a separate group of Venezuelans — who were granted the designation in 2023 — while the legal fight continues in the lower courts. That case is under the jurisdiction of a federal judge whose decision could affect all of the estimated 600,000 Venezuelans who have received temporary protected status in the United States.”

Rick Rojas of the New York Times: “The maximum-security prison known as Angola, notorious for a history of violence and harsh conditions, has long been the repository for Louisiana’s worst offenders. Most inmates arrive with life sentences. Now, the prison, officially the Louisiana State Penitentiary, will also hold immigrants who have been detained as part of the Trump administration’s widening crackdown, federal and state officials said on Wednesday. Like the prison itself, Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana said, the immigrant detention center there will house 'the worst of the worst,' allowing federal immigration authorities to 'consolidate the most violent offenders into a single deportation and holding facility.'... Officials said that as of Wednesday, 51 male detainees had been moved into the facility, and that by later this month, it would hold more than 200. It has a total capacity of about 400. The immigrants detained at Angola will be 'completely isolated' from the rest of the prison’s population, and the center will be run by ICE contractors, the governor said.”

Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: “The Justice Department has challenged several states that offer in-state tuition to unauthorized immigrants, contending that the policies discriminate against U.S. citizens.... Texas officials moved to end the law [granting in-shate tuition to undocumented immigrants] shortly after the Trump administration challenged the policy in June.... After the Justice Department filed a complaint against Texas, it challenged similar policies in Kentucky, Minnesota and Oklahoma. On Tuesday, the department also filed a complaint against Illinois for offering in-state tuition and scholarships to unauthorized immigrants. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia offer in-state tuition to their undocumented students....”

Konstantin Toropin of the AP: “Rep. Ronny Jackson announced that the Navy has restored his retired rank of rear admiral, overturning a 2022 demotion that followed a scathing investigation that found major issues with his behavior while he was the top White House physician. The Texas Republican on Wednesday posted a June 13 letter from Navy Secretary John Phelan saying he had reinstated Jackson to the retired rank of a one-star admiral following a 'review of all applicable reports and references.' The Navy confirmed the move.... The decision to restore Jackson’s rank comes as the Pentagon has become increasingly transparent in offering benefits and consideration to those it sees as personally loyal supporters of ... Donald Trump, while those who are seen as unsupportive of Trump have been pushed out of senior roles across the military. Two weeks ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who oversaw the intelligence agency that produced an initial intelligence assessment of U.S. damage to Iranian nuclear sites that angered Trump.”

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: “Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee and a long-serving member of the panel, had planned to visit the Virginia headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency this week.... Mr. Warner’s visit was classified and not intended to be publicized.... But Pentagon officials told his office on Tuesday that the visit was canceled, and also imposed new requirements on congressional visits to military intelligence facilities ...  after the far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer complained [about Sen. Warner].... The Trump administration has been steadily eroding the power of Congress, chipping away at its ability to set spending priorities and ignoring its role in authorizing military force. Restrictions on oversight now appear to be an emerging front in the administration’s efforts to enhance executive authority.... While the public and journalists have broad access to most government agencies, intelligence agencies operate under a veil of secrecy, making congressional oversight particularly important.” (Also linked yesterday.) The Guardian's story is here.

Michael Gold of the New York Times: “With the Capitol towering behind them, several women who said they had been among Jeffrey Epstein’s victims shared harrowing stories of sexual abuse, pleading with members of Congress to demand that the Trump administration release all of its investigative files in the case. Lawmakers in both parties stood behind them, vowing to keep the pressure on for the disclosures. Even one of Mr. Trump’s closest allies, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, said the files must come out. None of it appeared to be enough to outweigh the pressure from Mr. Trump and Republican leaders, who have moved quickly to squelch legislation that would require the Justice Department to quickly and completely release what it uncovered about Mr. Epstein.... Momentum was flagging behind an effort by Representatives Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, to force the House to vote on the measure, after most Republicans who initially said they would back it fell in line with the president’s exhortations to let the issue die.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Alex Griffing of Mediaite: “A reporter asked Trump during an Oval Office presser about Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) ongoing effort to release the Epstein Files.... 'He says ... many of your friends and donors may be [implicated in these files], and he says that’s why the Justice Department is redacting them and slow-walking the release. Is the Justice Department protecting any friends or donors?'  asked the reporter about Massie’s accusations. [Trump replied, in part,] '... from what I understand..., thousands of pages of documents have been given. But it’s really a Democrat hoax because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ David Moye of the Huffington Post: “Trump simply referring to the scandal as a 'Democrat hoax' wasn’t enough to stop people from forgetting the details of his long friendship with Epstein. In fact, it led to some massive online mockery, as people called out the president’s hypocrisy.” Examples included.

~~~ Jason Lalljee of Axios: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) suggested on Wednesday that she's willing to take advantage of a constitutional immunity rule to reveal sex offenders from Epstein's trafficking ring.... Greene said at a press conference that if asked, she would make accusations on behalf of accusers of Epstein's sex trafficking operation. 'If they want to give me a list, I will walk in that Capitol on the House floor and I'll say every damn name that abused these women,' she said. Greene also called for more transparency into the investigation, urging Congress to vote on releasing the full files." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) defied ... Donald Trump to vote to advance the release of files from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case — but then quickly stepped in to give a full-throated MAGA defense of Trump's own involvement with the late financier....  Mace is herself a sexual assault survivor and was visibly emotional after listening to testimony from those victimized by Epstein, being seen striding away from the vote in tears.... However..., she took to X again to clarify that ... she considers him the hero of the story. 'President Trump is the one who banned Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-a-Lago. President Trump is the one who cooperated with the feds to get this guy,' wrote Mace. 'President Trump is the one who is COMMITTED to protecting women and kids.'" Right.

Tara Copp of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is expected to approve an extension of U.S. troops’ deployment in D.C. that could stretch until Dec. 31, to ensure that National Guard forces sent to the capital are mobilized long enough to receive the full complement of service-related benefits, said two people familiar with the matter. National Guard officials are assessing the list of troops deployed to support Joint Task Force-D.C. to ensure everyone was on at least 30-day orders..., and the extension to Dec. 31 is intended to ensure that anyone rotating in to replace those here now also would be covered for 30 days of active-duty service. It is unlikely the military will remain in the city that long, [one] person said.” MB: Maybe Trump didn't like the bad publicity he got when it was reported last week that he had called up the Guard on 29-day orders to avoid paying them full benefits. ~~~

     ~~~ Update?? Konstantin Toropin of the AP: “District of Columbia National Guard troops who are deployed as part of ... Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement intervention in the nation’s capital have had their orders extended through December, a National Guard official said.” 

I have no interest in moves that would make the Fed really come under direct control of the executive branch. -- Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) ~~~

~~~ Jasper Goodman & Jordain Carney of Politico: “Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said Wednesday he would not consider a nominee to replace ousted Fed Gov. Lisa Cook until the legality of ... Donald Trump’s move to fire her has been determined in court, signaling that the Senate is unlikely to approve a new nominee for her seat while the issue is being litigated.... Tillis, a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, is a key swing vote on any Fed nominee. Republicans likely need unanimous GOP support to advance picks out of the Banking panel, where they have a 13-11 majority.” MB: Tillis is not seeking re-election.” 

Andrew Solender of Axios: "House Democrats, with help from more than half a dozen Republicans, succeeded in killing a motion to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) for clashing with ICE officers in April.... McIver is being prosecuted by the Justice Department on charges of assaulting law enforcement, but she has denied wrongdoing and alleged that both the charges and the censure measure are purely political.... The House voted 215 to 207 to table — kill — the censure resolution.... The charges and the censure attempt stem from an incident in which McIver and several Democratic colleagues clashed with ICE officers outside the Delany Hall detention facility in Newark." The New York Times story is here.

Adam Goldman of the New York Times: “... a sweeping cyberattack by a group known as Salt Typhoon is China’s most ambitious yet, experts and officials have concluded after a year of investigating it. It targeted more than 80 countries and may have stolen information from nearly every American, officials said. They see it as evidence that China’s capabilities rival those of the United States and its allies. The Salt Typhoon attack was a yearslong, coordinated assault that infiltrated major telecommunications companies and others, investigators said in a highly unusual joint statement last week. The range of the attack was far greater than originally understood, and security officials warned that the stolen data could allow Chinese intelligence services to exploit global communication networks to track targets including politicians, spies and activists.... British and American officials have described the attack as 'unrestrained' and 'indiscriminate.' Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain were also signatories to the statement, which was part of a name-and-shame effort directed at the Chinese government.”

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