September 6, 2025

 

~~~ Trump Threatens to Go to War Against Chicago. Chicago Sun Times & Wires: “...  Donald Trump’s Truth Social post saying Chicago was about to find out 'why it’s called the Department of War' drew swift rebuke from Illinois leaders Saturday morning. 'I love the smell of deportations in the morning,’ he posted on Truth Social, a reference to the 1979 war movie 'Apocalypse Now' where Robert Duvall’s character Lt. Colonel Kilgore says, 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning.' “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of War,” the post continued.... The White House shared the post on its X account. Gov. JB Pritzker responded to Trump’s post Saturday on X, saying it 'is not normal.' 'The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city,' Pritzker said in the post.... Speaking from the 24th annual Mexican Independence Day Parade in Pilsen Saturday, Sen. Dick Durbin called the post 'disgusting.'... In a post on X, Mayor Brandon Johnson called on Chicagoans to protect each other amid the threats.” Thanks to aka Wendy for the lead. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This really is insane. Donald Trump does not seem to understand he is POTUS* and neither does whoever posted his tweet on the White House account.  Also too those are somebody else's hands because they're not covered with bruises.

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: “The alumni association at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has canceled an award ceremony for actor and veterans advocate Tom Hanks.... Hanks, 69, was to receive the prestigious Sylvanus Thayer Award, which recognizes an 'outstanding citizen' who did not attend West Point and has a distinguished record of service that exemplifies the academy’s ideals.... A ceremony and parade were scheduled for Sept. 25.... Retired Army Col. Mark Bieger, president ... of the West Point Association of Graduates..., apologized for the cancellation. The email did not say whether Hanks’s award has been revoked or if it will be presented in some other format.... The planned celebration appears to have run headlong into Trump-era politics.”

Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: “Ticket sales at the Kennedy Center have continued to plummet following Donald Trump’s takeover of Washington DC’s premier performing arts venue, with the prestigious Stuttgart Ballet expected to dance next month to houses less than 20% full. Audiences are 'voting with their feet to skip out' on shows that would once have been packed, in protest at the US president inserting himself into the center’s management and operations as its new chairman, amid discussions around the notion of renaming it after Trump, according to an analysis by the Washingtonian magazine.”

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley. Marie: With constant tending, you can tame a natural setting into geometrically-shaped gardens of exotic trees and flowering, man-made hybrids. But try as you may, Mother Nature is persistent in doing what she will. Paving over her stilleto-unfriendly elements does not eliminate all of her pitfalls. Now Trump may have to tent over the new pavement in the White House Rose Garden. ~~~

~~~  AP: “... Donald Trump hosted a dinner Friday night for members of Congress in the newly paved White House Rose Garden, telling them they were the first gathering of what he dubbed the 'Rose Garden Club.' The president held a microphone as he addressed about 100 people, mostly House Republicans along with some GOP senators, thanking them for their support of his legislation. 'We call it the Rose Garden Club. And it’s a club for senators, for congresspeople and for people in Washington, and frankly, people that can bring peace and success to our country,' Trump said. Trump said he intended for the tech executives he dined with Thursday night, including Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Apple CEO  Tim Cook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, to be the first ones to enjoy the space. That dinner was moved indoors due to rain.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Even when the tech giants went indoors, there were problems. At least one tech guru had trouble with, well, tech. Zuck got caught on a hot mic accidentally revealing that those pledges of gigantic tech investments are just numbers Trump made up. Everything is fake. The entire administration is a charade, a Potemkin village of idiots. Thanks to akaWendy for the link.

Josh Marshall of TPM "connects a few dots" to come up with a theory about what may explain Trump's efforts to keep the Epstein files under wraps. Marshall uses some fairly tenuous "dots" to theorize that Trump outed Epstein's child sex abuse to the FBI. In 2004, Epstein was interested in purchasing a property in Palm Beach, & one time he brought his long-time friend Trump around to see it. Trump, being the kind of "friend" he is, then went behind Epstein's back and bought the property himself. Epstein told Trump he would get back at him by revealing in lawsuits how Trump's was laundering millions of dollars for a Russian oligarch. Trump and Epstein had gone catting together for years, so Trump of course knew about Epstein's preference for underage sexual partners. So Trump informed on Epstein to the feds, not because he was appalled by Epstein's abuse of young women, but because he wanted to get back at Epstein AND undercut Epstein's credibility. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Marshall may be right about all this, but Trump is so paranoid about those files I think the "Big Secret" is something worse than "Trump is a snitch." I suspect Trump has learned that some underage girls have accused him of abusing them, possibly in ways that are kinky enough to embarrass him. 

Daniel Hampton of the Raw Story: "CNN anchor Erin Burnett ... brought KFILE reporter Andrew Kaczynski on her show ... on Friday evening to discuss his new reporting on E.J. Antoni, Trump's pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the president ousted the agency's longtime chief because he didn’t like the jobs numbers.... Kaczynski said his team found 'highly disturbing posts.' 'Sexually graphic, degrading, misogynistic comments about Kamala Harris. We found anti-gay slurs. We also found that he spread a lot of conspiracy theories about COVID, about the 2020 election,' said Kaczynski.... 'Very hateful things,' Burnett said, remarking that Antoni was replying to vulgar posts. 'The image that he was responding to of Kamala Harris was absolutely disgusting. We can’t even show it.... It was beyond pornographic. It was disgusting.'" CNN's report, which (I think) is here, is subscriber-firewalled.

Joanna Walters of the Guardian: “The surgeon general from the first Trump administration on Saturday said that the US president should 'absolutely' fire health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr over his “dangerous” policies on vaccines and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Jerome Adams, who has become a pointed critic of the controversial public health decisions being swiftly rolled out in the second Trump administration, made his most fierce attack yet on what has been unfolding. 'He’s putting us at risk,' Adams said of RFK Jr, adding that Kennedy is  'endangering America at large' with moves to limit access to vaccines, such as shots to protect against the deadly Covid-19 virus.”

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Marie: I've had enough Trumpy stuff for this morning. I'll post a bit more later in the day.  

An Embarrassing, Warmongering Rebrand, Ctd. Erica Green of the New York Times: Donald “Trump signed an executive order on Friday that ceremonially recognized the Defense Department as the 'Department of War,' a name that was dropped after World War II and that the president claimed had caused the country to enter wars it 'never fought to win.' 'We won World War II. We won everything before, and as I said, we won everything in between,' Mr. Trump said at an event in the Oval Office, where he signed the order. 'And we were very strong, but we never fought to win. We just didn’t fight to win.' Mr. Trump argued that the name, which was changed by President Harry S. Truman to combine all of branches of the military, had been changed because the country 'decided to go woke.... 'We could have won every war, but we really chose to be very politically correct, or wokey, and we just fight forever.'... 

“Mr. Trump said that he anticipated pushing to codify the name change into law. He added that in the meantime, 'we’re going with it, and we’re going with it very strongly.' The Defense Department, he said, would be moving ahead with the name as a 'secondary title,' including by using it on stationery.” The AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ ⭐David Sanger of the New York Times: Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth “say they want to return to the era when America won wars. They largely ignore the greatest accomplishment of the past 80 years: avoiding superpower conflict....  At a moment when deterrence is more critical than ever — in cyberspace, outer space and a world where Russia and China are celebrating an uneasy partnership to challenge American pre-eminence — Mr. Trump argues that the answer is to go back to the good old days.... Certainly in recent months Mr. Trump has shown less interest in building deterrence than he has in investing in new weaponry.... This change in name, assuming Congress is willing to rewrite the Truman-era laws, plays right into the narrative that Russia and China propagate about the United States. In their telling, all of America’s talk about being a peace-loving, law-abiding international player is thin cover for a country that truly just wants to strike at any target it regards as a threat.” ~~~

~~~ The Brass Are Not Amused. Jack Detsch, et al., of Politico: “Pentagon officials grappled Friday with the Herculean task of fulfilling ... Donald Trump’s executive order to remold the enormous, global agency into the Department of War. Many expressed frustration, anger and downright confusion at the effort, which could cost billions of dollars for a cosmetic change that would do little to tackle the military’s most pressing challenges — such as countering a more aggressive alliance of authoritarian nations.... 'This is purely for domestic political audiences,' said a former defense official.'“Not only will this cost millions of dollars, it will have absolutely zero impact on Chinese or Russian calculations. Worse, it will be used by our enemies to portray the United States as warmongering and a threat to international stability.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I would consider the name-change task an inconvenience to be effected by lower-level staff. For those who seldom send out correspondence, the aides could just cross out "Defense" by hand and hand-write in "War UFN." Other offices might want to have rubber stamps made up to do the same. When they have to have new stationery printed, they can order it with the new name or "War Department (for now)". On buildings, use removable spray-paint. Or do nothing. This is an annoying order that should be obeyed with minimal effort & maximal contempt. In the story linked next, Jennifer Bendery of the HuffPost refers to "War Department" as a "nickname": ~~~

     ~~~ Here is something that happened in the lead-up to the Mighty Announcement. Maybe we should stipulate that there's "performance" and there's "clown show." The White House was aiming for the latter: ~~~

     ~~~ Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: “... Donald Trump is announcing Friday that he’s officially giving a new nickname to the Department of Defense — and when he makes his Oval Office declaration, he’s hoping to have some sharp-looking military personnel standing behind him. Air Force leadership on Thursday sent an urgent request to service members asking them to nominate colleagues who have a 'highly professional image' to stand behind Trump for a formal announcement on Friday. The directive, which originated with the White House Military Office and was channeled through the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, is referring to Trump’s scheduled announcement about rebranding the Defense Department.... Air Force leadership also requested 'bios' of these fine-looking service members, which usually include a photo.... At a June event with Trump commemorating the Army’s 250th anniversary, Army leadership handpicked soldiers for the audience based on their political leanings and their looks.” ~~~

 

     ~~~ Marie: The Air Force's effort to gather a cast of handsome officers apparently failed. The only people standing behind Trump for the signing were the newly-minted Secretary of War Pete Hegseth & Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine. Caine, now a four-star Air Force general, does look very nice in his uniform with all the stars and bars, and it appears Drunk Pete spent the requisite time in Hair & Makeup to prepare for his Oval Office walk-on.

Jeff Schogol of Task & Purpose: “Days after the U.S. military destroyed a boat in the Caribbean that it claimed was being used to smuggle drugs, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the legal basis for the strike lay in the status of the traffickers as an 'imminent threat' to the United States. 'A foreign terrorist organization poisoning your people with drugs coming from a drug cartel is no different than al-Qaida — and they’ll be treated as such, as they were in international waters,' Hegseth told reporters on Thursday.... When asked on Thursday what legal authority the Defense Department invoked for the strike on the boat, Hegseth said that the U.S. military has the 'absolute and complete authority' to carry out the attack, describing deaths caused by drugs as 'an assault on the American people.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that Drunk Pete just made up the "legal justification." He is not a lawyer; he is a former Fox weekend host. Not only that, there's no reason to believe the boat was headed to the U.S. According to Marco Rubio's initial statement, it was probably headed for Trinidad & Tobago, which is just off the coast of Venezuela and nowhere near the U.S. 

Trumponomics. Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Job creation sputtered in August, adding to recent signs of labor market weakening and likely keeping the Federal Reserve on track for a widely anticipated interest rate cut later this month. Nonfarm payrolls increased by just 22,000 for the month, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for payrolls to rise by 75,000. The report showed a marked slowdown from the July increase of 79,000, which was revised up by 6,000. Revisions also showed a net loss of 13,000 in June after the prior estimate was lowered by 27,000." Ken W. was wondering in yesterday's Comments what BLS statisticians Trump will fire today. ~~~

~~~ Marie: In normal times, presidents have little effect on the economy. In crises, they -- along with Congress -- can take extraordinary steps to make it better -- or worse. But the economy Trump inherited from Biden was the best in the world. Bidenomics -- and the Covid vaccine -- had worked, although income disparity remained far too great, and inflation was a problem, especially for Americans most hurt by income inequality. So there was no reason Trump couldn't have left the U.S. economy humming along, taking credit for the good times and finding someone else to blame for the occasional bad report. But Donald Trump is an idiot. So that's not what he did. ~~~

~~~ Economy Flagging Because Trump. Tony Romm & Ben Casselman of the New York Times: “When the federal government last month reported a sharp decline in the nation’s hiring..., [Donald] Trump dismissed the numbers, claiming without evidence that they were 'rigged,' and then ousted the official responsible for producing them. The release of a second consecutive poor jobs report on Friday confirmed the reality that Mr. Trump has been trying to avoid. The labor market is stalling — and the nation is facing real strains — under the weight of his economic agenda. Eight months into his second term, the sum of Mr. Trump’s high tariffs and mass deportations appear to have created noticeable pressure on employers.... And the revised data showed that employment fell by 13,000 in June, the first net loss of jobs since the end of 2020, when the pandemic was raging.

“Analysts offered a variety of explanations for the slowdown. The president’s tariffs on nearly all imports have driven up costs for companies and prices for consumers. Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown has made it harder for many businesses to find workers, while simultaneously reducing the need for them because they now have fewer customers. The federal government has cut jobs directly and canceled grants and contracts that have bled into the private sector. The uncertainty surrounding Mr. Trump’s ever-shifting policies has made corporate executives more cautious about hiring and investing[.]... Mr. Trump, who regained control of the White House on promises of faster growth and lower prices, has established policies that are having precisely the opposite effect.” ~~~

~~~ Odd Nation Out. New York Times Editors: “When the United States pushed to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers in the wake of World War II, much of the world followed its lead, embracing the argument from America’s leaders that increasing trade would increase prosperity. Now, as ... [Donald] Trump pushes to reverse that history, raising new barriers to limit imports, it is increasingly clear that ... the rest of the world is rejecting Mr. Trump’s protectionism.... While other nations regret [the U.S.'s] departure [from the global trading order], they are not inclined to follow in its self-destructive footsteps.... One reason that other nations are not raising their own tariffs is that Mr. Trump’s policies are not delivering the promised benefits.... The most telling evidence that countries are not merely putting a brave face on a bad situation is that they are not raising tariffs on other trading partners.... Instead, Mr. Trump has prompted a wave of efforts to negotiate lower tariffs for trade that does not involve the United States.” ~~~

~~~ Robert Reich: "Trump blames Jerome Powell and the Fed for not cutting interest rates sooner, but that’s not the reason employers have stopped hiring. They’ve stopped because the risk is too great. Trump’s arbitrary, capricious, and mercurial decisions about tariffs and everything else that affects the economy have made it impossible for employers to make even modest predictions about the future. So they won’t hire. Meanwhile, the Fed can’t cut interest rates much without risking more inflation.... A jobs crash coupled with soaring prices is bad for everyone — including Republicans seeking to be reelected to Congress next year." ~~~

~~~ BUT Crap Jobs Reports Pressure Fed to Do What Trump Wants. Victoria Guida of Politico: “...  despite the gloomy report, there is some upside for the president. Not only does this increase the odds that the Fed will lower short-term interest rates by a larger amount this year, but longer-term yields — which are a key driver of mortgage rates — also dropped on the news.... [Fed Chair Jerome] Powell signaled last month that the central bank is now more worried about deterioration in the labor market than he is about tariffs leading to sustained inflation, suggesting a rate cut is likely in September.”

BTW. Pot ... Kettle.... Marisa Taylor, et al., of Reuters: “Close relatives of the federal official who has accused a Federal Reserve governor of improperly claiming primary residence on two properties have declared the same status on two homes in two different states, public records show. Mark and Julie Pulte, the father and stepmother of Bill Pulte..., Donald Trump’s appointee as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, since 2020 have claimed so-called 'homestead exemptions' for residences in wealthy neighborhoods in both Michigan and Florida, according to the records. The exemption is meant to give a discount to homeowners on taxes for properties they use as their primary residence.... After Reuters contacted tax officials in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, to inquire about the dual claims, Darrin Kraatz, director of assessing, on Thursday said the township 'as of today' would revoke the exemption on the Pultes’ residence there. According to public real estate records, and a resident at the Michigan house on Thursday evening, the home was rented out by the Pultes this year, a move that also violates rules for the exemption.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Please don't surmise that Mark & Julie are a couple of doddering old folks who didn't realize they were violating the law. Mark Pulte is the founder of a hugely successful luxury housing Florida construction company, so he knows state real estate law. Several years ago, I called my county's tax assessor to ask her if I could vote in a New Hampshire presidential primary and still keep my Florida homestead exemption (I was not applying for a N.H. homestead exemption). She said no. She said I would lose my Florida homestead exemption -- which would have cost me thousands of dollars. That is to say, Florida laws are strict. A homestead is a homestead is a homestead, not a mere legal convenience.

Notes from the Kleptocracy. Erica Green & Chris Cameron of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Friday that he would host next year’s Group of 20 summit at the Trump National Doral golf club near Miami, ignoring the glaring ethical concerns that led him to drop a similar idea to host an economic summit at the property during his first term. 'Everybody wants it there,' Mr. Trump said to reporters, without elaborating who had called for such a thing.... The plan would violate a criminal statute and ethics regulations that prohibit conflicts of interest for government employees — were it not for the fact that Mr. Trump is president. He is exempt from such rules, and the Supreme Court ruled last year that presidents have a broad but not fully defined criminal immunity for official acts taken while in office.... [Trump's 2019 plan to host a G7 meeting at Doral led to] overwhelming criticism — from Democrats and members of his own party.... That criticism from Republicans did not immediately resurface on Friday, a sign of just how much Mr. Trump has worked to quash internal dissent and remake the G.O.P. in his image....” Politico's story is here.

Corrupt President* Allegedly! to Nominate Allegedly! Corrupt Mayor to Be Ambassador to Corrupt Nation. Dana Rubenstein, et al., of the New York Times: “Close advisers have been crafting a plan for ... [Donald] Trump to nominate Mayor Eric Adams to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia, in an effort to end the mayor’s long-shot campaign for re-election in New York City.... Steve Witkoff, a billionaire real estate investor and adviser to Mr. Trump, has actively pursued the matter in recent days, meeting personally with Mr. Adams earlier this week in Florida and speaking with other people close to him.... Mr. Trump has indicated to several associates that he believes former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, 67, is best positioned to win a one-on-one race against [Zohran] Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, despite losing to him in June’s Democratic primary.” ~~~

     ~~~ That was early afternoon Friday. Later that same afternoon ~~~

     ~~~ Jeff Coltin, et al., of Politico: “Mayor Eric Adams defiantly announced he’s staying in the mayoral race Friday afternoon, despite intense pressure by ... Donald Trump and others to consolidate opposition to Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani. '... Andrew Cuomo is a snake and a liar. I am in this race. And I’m the only one who can beat Mamdani,' Adams said, blaming the former governor and mayoral race opponent for trying to get him out of the contest.” MB: Of course, maybe Hizzoner is just angling for a better gig. 

Luke Broadwater & David Sanger of the New York Times: “'Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China,' Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning, as he posted a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. The three leaders met in China earlier this week.... Later on Friday, Mr. Trump tried to downplay his rift with India.... In his social media post, the American president made no mention of his own role in alienating India. But while Russia and China have been growing closer for years, the shift in the relationship with India has been on Mr. Trump’s watch — and in large part because of his own actions.” This is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The reporters call Trump's tweet “a rare acknowledgment that [his] attempts at blunt-force diplomacy, not to mention punishing tariffs, were having some unintended consequences.” Not really. Not only did Trump quickly backtrack, but I wouldn't take the “we” in his tweet to be a royal we. Rather, Trump is pointing out that Modi has had a momentary bad-faith lapse and made a terrible mistake in seeming to embrace “deepest, darkest China.”  

The Trump Chronicles. Journalists Turn up New Old Failure. Dave Philipps & Matthew Cole of the New York Times: In 2019, a team of Navy SEALs landed in the dead of night on a North Korean shore. Their top-secret mission “was to plant an electronic device that would let the United States intercept the communications of ... Kim Jong-un, amid high-level nuclear talks with ... [Donald] Trump.... [The operation] was so risky that it required the president’s direct approval. [Just as the SEAL team landed,] a North Korean boat appeared out of the dark. Flashlights from the bow swept over the water. Fearing that they had been spotted, the SEALs opened fire. Within seconds, everyone on the North Korean boat was dead. The SEALs retreated into the sea without planting the listening device. The 2019 operation has never been publicly acknowledged, or even hinted at, by the United States or North Korea. The details remain classified and are being reported here for the first time. The Trump administration did not notify key members of Congress who oversee intelligence operations, before or after the mission. The lack of notification may have violated the law.” The link appears to be a gift link. If you prefer action stories to dry political theorizing, this one's for you. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: AND of course we don't know how many other secret smash-ups Trump has illegally withheld from Congress. Because El Gordo de Mar-a-Lardo would approve all kinds of action-movie-style ops. And if people die? Meh. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Charlie Savage of the New York Times looks into Trump's failure to inform Congress about the SEAL operation. “... in 2021, the Biden administration decided to brief top congressional officials [about the Trump mission]. The difference in approach raises the question of whether the Trump team improperly or illegally withheld the information.” After Savage outlines the various laws that may apply to the notification requirement, he lets on that the president* has some leeway. So maybe you're wondering what Trump has to say about all this.... Aw, c'mon, you can guess: “... [Donald] Trump, who had authorized the incursion by the SEAL team, addressed the matter publicly for the first time on Friday when asked about it by reporters in the Oval Office. 'I could look but I know nothing about it,' Mr. Trump said. 'I don’t know anything about it. I’m hearing about it for the first time.'”

Herb Scribner of Axios: Donald "Trump said he's supportive of vaccines on Friday, breaking with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump was asked Friday during an Oval Office meeting about Kennedy's vaccine mandate changes, which include limiting which children are eligible for vaccines. 'I think you have to be very careful when you say that some people don't have to be vaccinated,' Trump said of Kennedy's vaccine mandates for children. 'They're just, pure and simple — they work,' he added.  'They're not controversial at all. And I think those vaccines should be used.'... Trump has a history of changing his tune on vaccines, initially expressing skepticism about them in the early days of Operation Warp Speed — launched in 2020 to fast-track development of a COVID-19 vaccine. He later called the vaccine a 'medical miracle' that could 'save millions of lives.'" ~~~

~~~ Jacob Wendler of Politico: “Prominent members of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s family called on him Friday to resign from his post atop the Department of Health and Human Services.... Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III released a statement calling his uncle 'a threat to the health and wellbeing of every American.' He accused the secretary of choosing 'to dismiss science' and  'sow confusion' during his congressional testimony.... Kerry Kennedy, one of RFK Jr.’s 10 siblings, released a statement singling out what she called 'the decimation of critical institutions, like the NIH and the CDC,' and calling for him to resign.... Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former president John F. Kennedy..., [responded] to the statement from former Rep. Kennedy: 'Couldn’t agree more – RFK LOSER IS A THREAT TO PUBLIC HEALTH and AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC LEADERSHIP. WHO PLEASURES HIMSELF by lying to Congress.'”

~~~ Jessica Grose of the New York Times: “There was a lot of yelling in the Senate on Thursday morning, when the health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., came to defend the many boneheaded decisions he had made recently.... Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon [D] accused Kennedy of filling his organization with a cavalcade of 'conspiracy theorists, crackpots and grifters.'” Grose then covers an exchange between RFKJ & Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in which Kennedy promised to remember the farmers, in what Grose claims is Kennedy's acknowledgment that his own fingerprints were all over a recently-leaked White House/HHS draft report that pandered to pesticide-happy Big Ag.  

Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: “The United States has for years pressured South Korea to invest billions of dollars in American industry, a push that has only increased over the last few months. That made it all the more shocking for South Koreans when they learned that U.S. immigration officials had raided the construction site of a major Hyundai-LG plant in Georgia on Thursday, arresting hundreds of South Korean citizens. U.S. officials said they had arrested 475 people during the raid, in Ellabell, Ga., because they were in the country illegally or working unlawfully. Most of them were South Korean nationals who had been sent to help finish building an electric-car battery factory, according to industry officials familiar with the project.  Most, they said, were subcontractors working for the carmaker Hyundai and the battery maker LG Energy Solution.... [South Korea's] unease was highlighted when ​[its] Foreign Ministry issued an unusual statement ​on Friday, conveying its 'concern and regrets' to Washington.” ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post calls the raid “the largest worksite raid in ... Donald Trump’s second term..” 

President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer. --- Kristi Noem, in a statement ~~~ 

~~~ Hamed Aleaziz & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “The Trump administration warned in immigration court on Thursday that if Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s recent attempt to open an asylum case in the United States is successful, government officials will seek to deport him back to El Salvador.... The filing indicates the administration is opening another front in its efforts to expel Mr. Abrego Garcia from the United States for a second time — this time back to his homeland, where a court already ruled that he cannot be sent because he could face threats or persecution there.... Trump officials said that they would seek to overturn the decision barring Mr. Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador, claiming it was no longer valid....  

“Since his arrest by immigration officials on Aug. 25, Mr. Abrego Garcia has been held in a detention center in Virginia. He is fighting the government’s efforts to expel him from the country again on two tracks — through his asylum request and through a separate civil case that would prevent officials from sending him to Uganda, a country to which he has no ties. On Friday afternoon, the Trump administration pivoted again, sending Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers an email saying they were now planning to send him to ... Eswatini.”

     ~~~ Marie: If you can find Eswatini on an unmarked map, my congratulations to you. (No kudos if you've been stationed in the vicinity.) 

The Word from Energy Secretary Frackin' Fred Flintstone. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: “Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Friday defended the Trump administration’s decision to block a nearly completed $6.2 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island by saying offshore wind increases electricity prices and by downplaying the jobs at stake. Energy experts accused Mr. Wright of oversimplifying the economics of offshore wind energy, noting that while it requires a significant amount of upfront capital to build a project, it was expected to create more than 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade and enough electricity to inexpensively power 22 million homes before the Trump administration took steps to throttle the nascent industry. A former fracking executive, Mr. Wright said the focus in the United States to transition away from fossil fuels had hurt the country. It’s a message he said he intended to take on a multileg trip next week to Europe, where he will encourage countries to buy more American gas. The United States is currently the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas as well as the largest producer of oil.” ~~~

~~~ The dinosaurs are dead, and -- try as he may -- there's nothing Dino Don, Frackin' Fred and the dinosaur extraction companies can do to revive them. ~~~ 

~~~ Rebecca Elliott of the New York Times: “In the last couple of years, the largest U.S. oil companies gobbled up smaller ones. Now, contending with persistently mediocre oil prices, those giants are laying off many workers in hopes of squeezing more fuel from the ground at lower cost. The latest is ConocoPhillips of Houston, which said on Wednesday that it would cut up to 25 percent of its global staff, or as many as 3,250 people, most of them this year.... While the [fossil fuel] sector has secured many policy wins this year, from promises of speedier permitting to more frequent lease sales and relaxed emissions regulations, many of those changes will take years to lift profits.... What affects the companies today is the price of oil and natural gas.”

The dictators of the world have got nothing to fear from this hearing. -- Jamie Raskin ~~~

     ~~~  Marie: The "reactions"" to Baby Raskin's remarks are pretty fab. 

Annals of  “Journalism,” Ctd. Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: “CBS News on Friday abruptly altered its rules for editing interviews on the long-running political show 'Face the Nation,' days after Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, accused the network of deceptively editing her appearance on the program. 'Face the Nation' will now air only interviews that are conducted live, or prerecorded with no cuts or edits, according to a CBS News spokeswoman. A statement attributed the change 'to audience feedback over the past week.' 'This extra measure means the television audience will see the full, unedited interview on CBS, and we will continue our practice of posting full transcripts and the unedited video online,' the network added.” MB: Could they bow any lower?

Maryland Faces Off the Biggest Bully. Dana Munro & Erin Cox of the Washington Post: “With ... Donald Trump’s threat to send National Guard troops into Baltimore in the air, Maryland leaders said Friday that they will pour more of their own resources to further bring down crime in the state’s largest city. The open-ended increase in public safety efforts, announced by Gov. Wes Moore (D) and Mayor Brandon Scott (D), builds on an existing partnership that has already funneled cash to violence-interrupter groups and state prosecutors, an effort that the two men credit with helping drive Baltimore’s homicide count to its lowest in 50 years.... [Scott] called the city’s population 'a resource to be invested in, not a problem to be solved.' Trump has characterized Baltimore as a 'hellhole' and pointed to the city, along with Chicago and New Orleans, as a place he may want to replicate his intervention in D.C.... On Tuesday, in talking about the need to go into Baltimore, Trump said some of the people arrested in D.C. were 'born to be criminals' [MB: as Akhilleus pointed out here yesterday] and could not be rehabilitated.”

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Israel/Palestine, et al. Gerry Shih & Lior Soroka of the Washington Post: “On Tuesday, a top Emirati official told Israeli and international media outlets that [its] annexation [of the occupied West Bank] would be a 'red line' for the United Arab Emirates and would 'foreclose on the idea of regional integration.' The Emiratis followed the rare, coordinated interviews by special envoy Lana Nusseibeh with a flurry of back-channel warnings.... By Thursday..., the issue of annexation was removed from the official agenda of a high-level consultation among Netanyahu and several senior ministers hours before it began. An Israeli official acknowledged that the warning from the Emirates, one of the Arab countries most supportive of integrating Israel and its economy into the Middle East, caught Netanyahu’s government off guard.”