October 11, 2025

Anita Gates  of the New York Times: “Diane Keaton, the vibrant, sometimes unconventional, always charmingly self-deprecating actress who won an Oscar for Woody Allen’s comedy 'Annie Hall' and appeared in some 100 movie and television roles, an almost equal balance of them in comedies like 'Sleeper' and 'The First Wives Club' and dramas like 'The Godfather' and 'Marvin’s Room,' has died. She was 79.”

Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Apoorva Mandavilli & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Saturday raced to rescind layoffs of hundreds of scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who were mistakenly fired on Friday night in what appeared to be a substantial procedural lapse. Among those wrongly dismissed were the top two leaders of the federal measles response team, those working to contain Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, and the team that assembles the C.D.C.’s vaunted scientific journal, The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. After The New York Times reported the dismissals, two federal health officials said on Saturday that many of those workers were being brought back.... The [C.D.C.'s] entire Washington office, which was laid off on Friday, will not be rehired. Nor will employees of the office of the director of the center for injury prevention, or those at the division of violence prevention policy.”

Tony Romm, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Saturday that he had 'identified funds' that would allow the government to pay members of the military during the federal shutdown, even though Congress has not approved additional money for the troops. Pentagon officials said that they planned to tap about $8 billion in unspent research, testing and evaluation money from the prior fiscal year, which they would use 'to issue mid-month paychecks to service members in the event the funding lapse continues' beyond Oct. 15, the next date that they are set to be paid. Mr. Trump’s budgetary maneuvering appeared unorthodox.... It was not clear how long the Trump administration could rely on such accounting moves to pay troops in the event that Congress cannot strike a spending deal.... Mr. Trump has repeatedly pushed the limits of his power in the current shutdown. The president and his aides have lessened the pain of the closure for some, and maximized it for others, including Democrats....”

Emily Badger & Alicia Parlapiano of the New York Times: “Elon Musk once pledged that his Department of Government Efficiency would find $1 trillion in savings in the federal budget by Sept. 30, the date the government closes its books on the fiscal year. That date has now come and gone, Mr. Musk has long since left Washington, and DOGE never came close to cutting as much money as he promised. But because its work has been obscured by crude accounting and White House maneuvers, it’s impossible to know how much DOGE and its allies actually did cut from the budget — or even what happened to that money. Outside budget experts can’t nail down a number. Even congressional appropriators — the people who decide how federal funds should be spent in the first place — don’t know. And the public may never have a clear answer.... 'The fact that Congress, who constitutionally has the power of the purse, can’t figure out what’s been going on is a deep, deep, deep constitutional issue,' said Zach Moller ... of the think tank Third Way.” Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

 

Kelly O'Donnell & Nick Duffy of NBC News: "Former President Joe Biden is undergoing a new phase of treatment for an aggressive form of cancer that was diagnosed in May, a spokesperson said Saturday. 'As part of a treatment plan for prostate cancer, President Biden is currently undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment,' according to the spokesperson for the former president. The radiation treatment is expected to span five weeks and marks a new point in his care, a source familiar told NBC News. He has already been taking a pill form of hormone medication."

Here's an update on Trump's physical (an earlier report is linked below): ~~~

~~~ Josephine Walker of Axios: Donald "Trump's second 'routine yearly checkup' on Friday determined that he is in 'exceptional health.'... 'President Trump continues to demonstrate excellent overall health,' White House physician Capt. Sean Barbabella said in a memo released Friday.... The results revealed little new info about the 79-year-old's health that wasn't shared after his April exam....  Barbabella said in the new memo: 'Comprehensive laboratory studies performed in conjunction with the visit were exceptional, including stable metabolic, hematologic, and cardiac parameters.' He added, Trump received  'preventative health screenings and immunizations, including annual influenza and COVID-19 booster vaccinations' to prepare for planned international travel." 

Erika Edwards of NBC News: "A bubbling measles outbreak in the upstate of South Carolina has forced 153 unvaccinated children out of the classroom and into quarantine for a minimum of 21 days. In Minnesota, where a small outbreak has been growing for the last month, 118 students are also under quarantine in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area after being exposed to the highly contagious virus, health officials said Friday. The restrictions mean three weeks of remote learning as parents monitor for fever, rash and other symptoms."

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Cat Zakrzewski, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Friday said he would impose a new 100 percent tariff on goods from China, escalating tensions with Beijing after Chinese leader Xi Jinping issued new export restrictions that upended months of trade negotiations between the world’s two largest economies. Trump announced the levy shortly after the markets closed — and after stocks sank on his earlier threats to increase tariffs and cancel a meeting later this month with Xi. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down almost 900 points, and the S&P 500 sank 2.7 percent in the biggest one-day drop since April.” (Also linked yesterday.) A CBS News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Joe Rennison & Rebecca Elliott of the New York Times: “The stock market slumped to its worst one-day showing since tariffs roiled markets in April, as the specter of the trade war returned between Beijing and Washington. The S&P 500 dipped 2.7 percent for the first time in six months, and the Nasdaq Composite also fell by the most it has since April, when ... [Donald] Trump’s tariff plans for dozens of countries spooked markets.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "...  Donald Trump's newly released physical results from the White House sing the praises of his health and physical fitness, and claim that he, in fact, has the heart of a man in his mid-60s, rather than late 70s." MB: What authority issued that report? Why, Press Secretary/Professional Liar Karoline Leavitt. So we can believe her, or we can believe what our lying eyes show us almost daily: a fat, stooped ball of mush with perpetually swollen ankles, bruised hands, & occasionally drooping mouth, who can't seem to walk a straight line, constantly garbles his words, loses his train of thought, can't seem to comprehend (or hear??) simple questions, believes and promotes insane conspiracy theories and often nods off during public meetings. But, yeah, he's a picture of health.

Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: “Across from the Lincoln Memorial, barely inside the boundaries of Washington, sits a traffic roundabout known as Memorial Circle.... If ... Donald Trump and his advisers have their way, the small patch of federal land will soon host a new monument — a triumphal arch to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary next year.... Justin Shubow, president of the National Civic Art Society, who has advised the Trump administration on its architectural plans, presented the idea to Trump and other officials earlier this year, and they were enthusiastic about the concept.... The arch initially was intended to be temporary and require expedited construction to coincide with next year’s anniversary.... Now White House officials are considering plans for a permanent arch.... Construction of a triumphal arch to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, which was first publicly suggested by art critic Catesby Leigh in an article last year, would represent the president’s most audacious effort to remake the landscape of D.C.... A mock-up [of the proposed arch] ... appeared on Trump’s desk on Thursday, according to photos by Agence-France Presse.” 

     ~~~ Here's a photo of the mock-up. A touch of gold, of course, and a place for a frieze of Trump leading soldiers in battle against Americans: ~~~

Victoria Craw & Alec Dent of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump offered a measured response Friday to being passed over for a Nobel Peace Prize that he openly coveted in favor of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.... In a post on Truth Social, Trump shared a social media post from Machado in which she credited him for U.S. support of the resistance against an increasingly authoritarian regime in Venezuela. 'We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy,' Machado wrote.... Secretary of State Marco Rubio even signed a letter nominating Machado for the Nobel Prize last year, and Trump has called her a 'freedom fighter' in the past. Machado has praised Trump in kind, and in a follow-up to her initial post on X, she dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize 'to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause.'...

“While Trump did not offer any direct criticism of Machado, he did thank Russian President Vladimir Putin, attaching a video in which Putin told reporters that the Nobel Prize Committee has awarded the Peace Prize to people who have 'done nothing for the world,' while Trump 'solves complex problems, crises that last for decades.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ RAS posted this Trump parody and wrote, "... it was probably close to his initial reaction to the Nobel news...." Trump is such a narcissistic revenge machine, it's almost hard to believe the tweet was not from him. The parodist has captured Real Donald Trump. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Here was the White House's actual initial reaction, and it was hardly magnanimous: ~~~

     ~~~ Ashleigh Fields of the Hill: “White House Communications Director Steven Cheung accused the Norwegian Nobel Committee of putting 'politics over peace,' early Friday, after the panel did not select ... [Donald] Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. 'He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,' Cheung wrote in a statement on social platform X, referring to Trump.” MB: I'd like to remind Trump & his goons that the purpose of working for international safety and peace is not to win a shiny gold medal. It is to make conditions better for everyone on Earth. And let me just add that many of the winners of the Peace Prize did their work on their own time, under their own initiative. Making the world safer for democracy is Trump's job. It's what he is supposed to do. Without complaint. Unfortunately for all of us, he is destroying democracy instead, and making the world a less safe place by abandoning the rule of law in his own country and encouraging dictators in other countries. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Michelle Ellner in Common Dreams: “Anyone who knows what [Maria Corina Machado] stands for knows there’s nothing remotely peaceful about her politics. If this is what counts as 'peace' in 2025, then the prize itself has lost every ounce of credibility. I’m Venezuelan-American, and I know exactly what Machado represents. She’s the smiling face of Washington’s regime-change machine, the polished spokesperson for sanctions, privatization, and foreign intervention dressed up as democracy. Machado’s politics are steeped in violence. She has called for foreign intervention, even appealing directly to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the architect of Gaza’s annihilation, to help 'liberate' Venezuela with bombs under the banner of 'freedom.'... She is part of a global alliance between fascism, Zionism, and neoliberalism, an axis that justifies domination in the language of democracy and peace.” Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If Ellner's assessment is correct, then Trump lost the Nobel Peace Prize to someone who is as bad as or worse than he is.  

Marie: RAS reminded me yesterday that I should post this video of Seth Meyers' "A Closer Look," which aired yesterday. The part that begins at about 4:35 in -- about Trump's and Noem's alarming ignorance of the meaning and importance of habeas corpus -- is why I'm posting the video here. Trump's excuse is that he does not have a very good brain. However, the right of habeas corpus is prescribed in Article I of the U.S. Constitution. Article I describes the rights, duties and limitation of the U.S. Congress, so Kristi Noem, what with having been a member of Congress for some years, should have known all along what habeas corpus meant. She and Trump both are certainly required to know its meaning now that they are threatening to suspend habeas corpus (and apparently already have suspended it for hundreds of possibly undocumented immigrants). ~~~

Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "Eight of the Ukrainian children kept in Russia have been returned and reunited with their families in the last 24 hours, first lady Melania Trump announced at the White House Friday, and said there were plans to reunite 'more children in the immediate future.' She also said Russia has agreed to coordinate the return of Ukrainians who were children when they were displaced by the war, but have since turned 18, 'within a short period of time.' CBS News has reported that Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine included the systematic and forcible abduction of children by Russia. Ukraine's state-run 'Bring Kids Back' program, launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says more than 19,500 Ukrainian kids have been abducted. The first lady did not describe the children as 'abducted,' and mostly referred to them as having been separated from their families as a result of the conflict. The first lady said she has been working for months with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his team to bring missing Ukrainian children home, first writing Putin a letter urging him to return Ukraine's children." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Gosh, you might think Melanie was a better deal-maker than her husband. 

“The Enemy Within” Is Trump. New York Times Editors: “America is now in a dangerous period, in which the president can order investigations and indictments against his enemies. Mr. Trump is criminalizing Americans’ ability to challenge their leaders.... Presidents since Watergate have mostly tried to insulate the Justice Department from politics.... Mr. Trump has eroded this system from within. His replacement of a career prosecutor with a crony is only one example. He has staffed the Justice Department and the F.B.I. with loyalists. His administration has pushed out lawyers who investigated misconduct and corruption. He has tried to punish law firms that represent his political opponents. He has repeatedly warned officials, sometimes in public social media posts, that they should not go against him. He has sent a message that federal law enforcement’s main concern should be not the country’s laws or the Constitution but his personal interests.... Mr. Comey and Ms. James’s indictments may be just the beginning....

“Mr. Trump and his supporters claim that Democrats started this era of 'lawfare' with their investigations into him. Yet those investigations were vastly different. Special counsels, chosen to operate more independently than typical prosecutors, carried out the federal inquiries into Mr. Trump.... The investigations into Mr. Trump came in response to his alarming actions, not dubious claims of mortgage problems but efforts to overturn the outcome of a presidential election. The investigations followed a potential crime, not a personal vendetta.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dueling Editorials. Marie: The Times editorial is the kind of opinion piece you will not find in the Washington Post ... because billionaire owner Jeff Bezos has essentially forbidden opinions critical of the administration. He has commanded that the Post write publish happy opinion pieces about "personal liberties and free markets." As Akhilleus pointed out in yesterday's Comments, what we get from the WashPo is exactly the opposite of a point the NYT editors make. According to the Post editors, Trump is destroying democracy not in darkness but in broad daylight because, "Many Democrats still cannot see how their legal aggression against Trump during his four years out of power set the stage for the dangerous revenge tour on which he is now embarked." The Times says, Nope, the investigations of Trump "came in response to his alarming actions." Indeed, the investigations came far too slowly; and as a result, we are where we are. 

Heather Cox Richardson gives a clear account of  Trump & Co.'s latest attempts to subvert justice. She mentions something I haven't heard others discuss: "On September 20, Trump posted on social media a message apparently intended privately for Attorney General Pam Bondi — such a communication is a violation of the Presidential Records Act, by the way — demanding prosecution of Comey, James, and Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA)." MB: Theoretically, I think Trump could have used his personal account to DM Bondi, but he would have had to forward a complete copy of the memo to his official account within 20 days. Today is the 20th days since Trump sent the message; do you suppose he's uploaded it to his official account? (Okay, just kidding; of course he hasn't.) (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Okay, maybe no longer his latest attempt. Now hear this: ~~~ 

~~~ Carol Leonnig & Ken Dilanian of MSNBC: "The acting U.S. Attorney in Maryland is moving forward quickly to seek criminal charges against ... Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, according to two people familiar with the case. A complaint or an indictment could come as early as next week, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters without authorization. A grand jury in Maryland has been hearing evidence for several weeks related to claims that Bolton improperly kept classified national security information in his Maryland home. But the pace of the case has recently sped up, the two people said.... Unlike the widespread resistance career prosecutors in Virginia have shown to Trump’s pressure campaign to charge former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, career prosecutors in Maryland consider charges against Bolton to have some factual merit.... Kelly Hayes, the acting U.S. Attorney for Maryland, has told Justice Department colleagues she believes there is a reasonable basis to pursue charges against Bolton...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Surprise! Devlin Barrett & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy were not given notice that a Trump-allied prosecutor in Virginia planned to indict Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, for bank fraud on Thursday afternoon.... Their lack of awareness was a striking conclusion to weeks of fierce internal debate and drama over President Trump’s public demand that Ms. Bondi act quickly to deliver charges against Ms. James.... Current and former Justice Department officials said that the way the James case played out behind closed doors suggested that the president, in his desire to exert control over who gets charged and when, could end up fracturing the department as law enforcement officials in various offices take directions from the White House.” MB: So brand-new prosecutor & former beauty queen Lindsey Halligan reports directly to Trump, not to up through the usual channels to Bondi. Either Halligan just doesn't know any better, or she know exactly what she's doing, and she purposely skipped following the “usual channels.”

DOJ Makes Up Stuff. David Fahrenthold & Andrew Duehren of the New York Times: “When the Justice Department urged federal prosecutors last month to investigate the billionaire George Soros, it cited a report by a conservative watchdog group that accused the liberal megadonor of financing groups 'tied to terrorism or extremist violence.' But the report by Washington-based Capital Research Center does not show evidence that Mr. Soros’s network knowingly paid for its grantees to break the law.... The report, which was published Sept. 17, largely catalogs statements in which Soros grantees offered support for Palestinians in the wake of violent attacks against Israel, suggested tactics for civil disobedience and urged people to turn out for a protest aimed at blocking an Israeli ship from arriving at a port in Oakland, Calif.... Scott Walter, the president of Capital Research Center, agreed that his group had not found evidence that the Soros network had committed a crime.... Mr. Walter said that his group was taken aback that the group’s work had been cited by the Justice Department, but said he supported the idea of investigating the Soros network, saying prosecutors might find something his organization had not.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Somebody should tell the attorney general of the U.S.A. that peacefully protesting genocide is not terrorism. Check the First Amendment, Blondie! Evidently, it's full of surprises for you.

Drunk Pete Misspeaks. Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that the United States will host a Qatari air force training facility at an Idaho air base. Hegseth later said the air base itself would remain under U.S. jurisdiction, after his announcement triggered online backlash from those mistakenly thinking that the decision would amount to having a foreign military base on U.S. soil.... Air force units from friendly countries such as Singapore and Germany are hosted at training facilities in the United States, while pilots from NATO countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Britain have trained in the United States for decades.... Qatari air force personnel will train on F-15 fighters that Qatar purchased at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, located about 40 miles southeast of Boise. They will operate under the command of the U.S. 366th Fighter Wing....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe if Drunk Pete hadn't fired all of the military advisors who could try to help him do his job better, he would do his job (at least marginally) better. 

Brad Reed of Common Dreams: "A longtime TV news produced at Chicago-based station WGN on Friday was forcefully pinned to the ground and then hauled off in an unmarked van by masked federal agents. As reported by the Chicago Tribune, WGN producer Debbie Brockman was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a law enforcement action in the city’s Lincoln Square neighborhood on Friday morning, purportedly on the grounds that she was obstructing their work. Video of the arrest taken by an onlooker showed ICE agents handcuffing Brockman after they forced her to lie on her stomach. As the agents were detaining her, Brockman told the onlooker her name and asked him to let her employer, WGN, know what had happened to her. She was then placed into an unmarked silver van and taken away to an unknown location, according to the Tribune." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The incident is mighty suspicious because, (a) as linked here yesterday, ~~~ 

     ~~~ Gregory Svirnovskiy of Politico: “A federal judge [-- Sara Ellis, an Obama appointee --] in Illinois has barred federal agents from using force or threatening to arrest journalists in Chicago, as the White House continues to send troops to the city amid ... Donald Trump’s national street crime crackdown." The judge issued her restraining order at 11:30 am Thursday, the day before agents wrestled Brockman to the ground. AND (b), as Chris Hayes reported yesterday, the feds released Brockman without charging her. Video of ICE agents manhandling Brockman begins at about 6:30 min. in, but the whole segment is worth watching, IMO. ~~~

Jonathan Matisse & Adrian Sainz of the AP: “As National Guard troops arrive in Memphis, the memory of thousands of them with bayonetted rifles and tanks in 1968 is still fresh for Joe Calhoun. Back then, he marched in the streets with sanitation workers and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. King had come to support some 1,300 predominantly Black sanitation workers striking to protest inhumane treatment after a malfunctioning garbage truck killed two laborers. King led a demonstration in late March, but it turned violent when police and protesters clashed and an officer fatally shot a 16-year-old. The National Guard quickly lined the streets in response.... Al Lewis, then 14, still recalls a week later when Walter Cronkite said on television that King had been shot and killed in his city. Almost immediately, gunfire erupted in a cacophony Lewis said he had not heard in such volume other than on New Year’s. The National Guard quickly returned, and he saw military vehicles and troops downtown during the day and Guard members on neighborhood night patrols.”

Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “An enormous solar power project in the Nevada desert that would have been one of the world’s largest has been canceled, according to the Interior Department.... The project appeared to be the latest casualty of the Trump administration’s efforts to thwart the construction of solar and wind energy projects on millions of acres of public lands, predominantly in the American West. The project, known as Esmeralda 7, would have comprised a sprawling network of solar panels and batteries across 118,000 acres of federally owned land in the Nevada desert northwest of Las Vegas. It was expected to produce up to 6.2 gigawatts of energy, enough to power nearly two million homes.... 'The Trump Administration’s lack of transparency around wind and solar projects has caused chaos and confusion,' Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Democrat of Nevada, said in a statement, adding that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum should 'clarify the administration’s actions soon.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Nevada has two Democratic U.S. senators, and three out of four Members of Congress are Democrats. There's not a chance in hell Trump would allow a massive clean-energy project to go forward in the state. 

Oops! Labor Department Tells the Truth. Again. Lauren Gurley of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration said that its immigration crackdown is hurting farmers and risking higher food prices for Americans by cutting off agriculture’s labor supply. The Labor Department warned in an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that 'the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens' is threatening 'the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.... Unless the Department acts immediately to provide a source of stable and lawful labor, this threat will grow,' with increased funding for immigration enforcement from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Labor Department said in the Federal Register.... 

“Also, contradicting comments made by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins that the U.S. farm workforce will become '100 percent American' as an effect of mass deportations, the Labor Department noted that Americans are not willing to step into farm work and lack the skills to fill agricultural jobs that undocumented immigrants are abandoning.... The combination of Trump’s economic policies, including higher tariffs and fewer immigrant workers, is starting to weigh on prices overall, including food. The consumer price index was up 2.9 percent in August, the most recent month for which there is data.” The Axios story is here.

Hannah Natanson, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration moved to begin laying off federal workers Friday while the government was shuttered, fulfilling threats from ... Donald Trump to take advantage of the closure to shave off still more parts of the federal workforce he dislikes. 'The RIFs have begun,' White House budget director Russell Vought posted on X Friday afternoon, using an acronym for reductions in force. A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans, confirmed that the RIFs were starting, and said 'they will be substantial.' The White House did not provide specifics on how many employees were affected, or at which departments.... The shutdown layoffs are the culmination of years of groundwork laid by Vought, an architect of the Project 2025 playbook for Trump’s second term, which outlined a drastically reduced federal bureaucracy.” (Also linked yesterday.) A Politico story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: “Dozens of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — including 'disease detectives,' high-ranking scientists and the entire Washington office — were notified late Friday that they were losing their jobs as part of the Trump administration’s latest round of federal layoffs.... It was the latest blow to an agency that has been wracked by mass resignations, a shooting at its Atlanta headquarters in August and the firing of its director under pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” UPDATE: The link has been changed to a gift link., via Scott Lemieux in LG&M, who writes, “RFK Jr. wants more terrible viral infections to cull the herd, the shutdown is a pretext to further destroy the country’s public health infrastructure, and it’s only a question of how many unnecessary deaths there will be.” ~~~

~~~ Andrew Solender of Axios: "Members of Congress pushed back Friday against the White House announcing layoffs of federal workers as part of the government shutdown.... 'This is a disaster for Virginia,' said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.).... Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.) told Axios in a statement: 'As a former prosecutor, let me be clear: firing federal workers during a government shutdown is illegal.'... Democrats on the House Budget Committee said in a two-pager that there could be legal consequences for Trump officials who send out RIF notices. 'Agency leaders who direct this work and Human Resources employees who conduct this work run the risk of being prosecuted under the Antideficiency Act, which could result in fines or imprisonment,' it said. House Oversight Committee Democrats urged federal workers who were 'illegally fired' to call their 'whistleblower tip line.'" ~~~

~~~ Surina Venkat of the Hill: “Republican Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) said she 'strongly' opposes the White House’s move to fire hundreds of furloughed federal workers, calling the layoffs announced Friday  'arbitrary.'... She was one of three Republicans to vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and also opposed a rescission measure meant to claw back money Congress had already appropriated.” MB: Also, too, she has a new Democratic challenger for her Senate seat; story linked below. ~~~

~~~ Mike Lillis of the Hill: “House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Friday that he won’t call House lawmakers back to Washington until the government shutdown ends. 'We will come back, and get back to legislative session, as soon as the Senate Democrats turn the lights back on,' Johnson told reporters in the Capitol, as the lapse in funding stretched into a 10th day. 'That’s the fact. That’s where we are.'” ~~~

~~~ Andrew Solender of Axios: "Democrats railed against House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Friday after he cancelled yet another week of House votes amid the ongoing government shutdown.... The move comes just as the shutdown is ratcheting up in severity, with the Trump administration announcing layoffs and military service members set to miss their first paycheck on Oct. 15.... The House will not return to session until Oct. 20 at the earliest.... Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.) tried unsuccessfully during a brief pro forma session on Friday to pass House Democrats' bill to ensure troop pay during the shutdown. Elfreth sought to be recognized to pass the bill by unanimous consent, but Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) ignored her and gaveled the House out of session.... Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), in a post on X, also proposed a change to House rules requiring the chamber to remain in session as long as there is a government shutdown

It's All a Game of Chicken. Andrew Duehren of the New York Times: “A political party with total control of Washington wants to put more money back in the pockets of Americans. Doing so is expensive, and so the lawmakers vote to put a new policy in place for only a few years to hold down the cost. The hope is that once it is actually set to end, even lawmakers who initially opposed the policy will want it to continue, fearful of taking a benefit away from voters.... This is the strategy at the heart of the government shutdown. Democrats used it when they passed expanded health insurance subsidies three years ago, scheduling the benefits to expire this year so they had to pay for them only temporarily. Now they want the subsidies continued as part of a deal to reopen the government. It is a tactic with a long history. Republicans have repeatedly used it to transform what were initially temporary tax cuts into permanent reductions in government revenue. Indeed, much of the nation’s current fiscal predicament is a result of lawmakers’ hesitation to let policies expire as scheduled.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Minho Kim of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Friday expressed strong doubt that the Trump administration had legal authority to continue detaining Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man now in immigration custody after Trump officials wrongfully deported him and then brought him back. Judge Paula Xinis of the U.S. District Court in Maryland had called the hearing to give the Trump administration a chance to demonstrate evidence of lawful plans to deport Mr. Abrego Garcia soon, without which she said she was inclined to release him. But instead, she said, the government seems to be switching arguments at will to try to lengthen his detainment, resulting in a 'totally inconsistent' case. 'You’re not even close,” the judge told administration lawyers at one point during the six-hour session. 'We’re getting to “three strikes and you’re out.’” If Judge Xinis orders Mr. Abrego Garcia released, it would be his first time walking free since he was briefly released for three days in August, after two judges ruled against Mr. Abrego Garcia’s continued detention for criminal charges the administration is separately pursuing against him. The release would also amount to the latest judicial rebuke of the Trump administration in a long and twisting case that began with what officials admitted was an 'administrative error' that led to Mr. Abrego Garcia’s detention in a Salvadoran prison.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Abrego Garcia may or may not be the finest exemplar of upstanding immigrants, but he has brought to light the Kafkaesque nature of the Trump criminal "justice" system. He is the canary-in-the-coal-mine who first alerted us that none of us is safe ... and that Trump is -- as I wrote earlier -- "the enemy within."

Supremes' Shadow Docket Leaves Judges in the Dark. Mattathias Schwartz & Zach Montague of the New York Times: “More than three dozen federal judges have told The New York Times that the Supreme Court’s flurry of brief, opaque emergency orders in cases related to the Trump administration have left them confused about how to proceed in those matters and are hurting the judiciary’s image with the public. At issue are the quick-turn orders the Supreme Court has issued dictating whether Trump administration policies should be left in place while they are litigated through the lower courts.... While the orders are technically temporary, they have had broad practical affects, allowing the administration to deport tens of thousands of people, discharge transgender military service members, fire thousands of government workers and slash federal spending. The striking and highly unusual critique of the nation’s highest court from lower court judges reveals the degree to which litigation over Mr. Trump’s agenda has created strains in the federal judicial system.... 

“Of the judges who responded [to a Times questionnaire], 28 were nominated by Republican presidents, including 10 by Mr. Trump; 37 were nominated by Democrats. While those nominated by Democrats were more critical of the Supreme Court, judges nominated by presidents of both parties expressed concerns.”

⭐Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: “The United Nations Security Council convened a rare meeting focused on the United States on Friday to discuss the Trump administration’s recent military strikes on Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean, and the risks these actions posed to regional stability. Though the meeting itself was noteworthy — the council seldom holds meetings on the conduct of the United States, a permanent member — the 15 members of the council were hardly unanimous in support for Venezuela’s government or in open condemnation of the United States.... Russia and China sharply criticized the United States on Friday, saying its actions violated international law and violated the sovereignty of Venezuela.... But other diplomats — from European and African countries, as well as from Guyana, a South American member of the council — crafted their words carefully, avoiding direct denunciation of the Trump administration. They instead spoke in general terms about the need to engage diplomatically and conduct all actions against drug cartels within the boundaries of international laws and the U.N. charter.”

MIT Rebuffs Trumpist Extortion Attempt. Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: “MIT’s president turned down the Trump administration’s offer of priority access for federal funding Friday, publicly releasing a letter that emphasized the elite university’s values including free expression and 'the core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.'... Sally Kornbluth, MIT’s president, was the first to publicly turn down the offer. She shared her letter to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Friday with the campus community.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Brain Drain. Le Monde with AFP: "United States-based Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will soon join the University of Zurich, where they will establish a new center for development economics, the institution said on Friday, October 10. The University of Zurich (UZH) said the married couple, who currently work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), would join its economics faculty from July next year."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Writers Guild Doesn't Trust CBS News' New Right-Wing Editor. Danial Hampton of the Raw Story: "The union representing many employees at CBS News told the workers to ignore an email from new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, warning any reply could lead to their ouster."

Marie: If you are interested in right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel's paranoid theory of the anti-Christ, then this Washington Post story is for you. Here; I've even made it a gift link. Because somebody's got to read it, and it won't be me. (Also linked yesterday.)

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Louisiana. Aimee Ortiz of the New York Times: A New Orleans couple find a 1,900-year-old Roman gravestone in their back yard. The Guardian's story is here.

Maine Senate Race. Dan Merica & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: “Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a two-term Democrat who drew the national spotlight after sparring with ... Donald Trump, plans to launch a campaign for Senate early next week, according to two people.... Mills, who had been expected to announce a campaign for weeks, would join an already crowded field of Democratic candidates hoping to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R), who has held the seat for nearly three decades. Democrats see the race as a critical opportunity to flip a seat.... At 77, Mills would be the oldest freshman senator ever.... Meanwhile, several of the other candidates in the Democratic primary — including Maine Beer Co. co-founder Dan Kleban, oyster farmer and veteran Graham Platner, and 'anti-corruption reformer' Jordan Wood — have centered their campaigns on the need to buck the establishment.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Tennessee. Kyle Rempfer of the Washington Post: “Nineteen people are missing after an explosion Friday morning demolished part of a munitions manufacturing plant in rural Tennessee, according to local authorities. An undetermined number of people were killed in the blast and four or five people were evacuated to a hospital, Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said at a news conference Friday afternoon. The building is owned by Accurate Energetic Systems, which manufactures military explosives at a compound in McEwen, about 60 miles west of Nashville. Davis declined to specify how many people died, but said authorities are searching the area.” (Also linked yesterday.)

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France. Aurelien Breeden of the New York Times: “President Emmanuel Macron of France reappointed Sébastien Lecornu as the country’s prime minister on Friday, less than a week after Mr. Lecornu resigned — a risky, whiplash-inducing move that could backfire as Mr. Macron tries to steady a roiling political crisis. The president’s office said in a statement that Mr. Lecornu, a centrist and a close ally of Mr. Macron, had been tasked with forming a government, just days after his previous cabinet of centrists and conservatives imploded. A new government formed by Mr. Lecornu would be France’s fourth in less than a year, a degree of governmental instability not seen since the founding of the country’s Fifth Republic in 1958.”

Greece. Free at Last, Free at Last. AP: “Walking along the broad pedestrian street that runs along the base of Athens’ famed Acropolis Hill, visitors can now enjoy something not seen in decades: an unobstructed, scaffolding-free view of the Parthenon temple. The scaffolding set up along the 5th century B.C. temple’s western façade for conservation work about 20 years ago has been removed, allowing an uncluttered view of the UNESCO World Heritage site.... Culture Minister Lina Mendoni noted it also marks the first time in about 200 years that the Parthenon’s exterior is completely free of any kind of scaffolding on any side.”

Israel/Palestine, et al. Liam Stack, et al., of the New York Times: “Thousands of people began the long walk from the south to the north of the Gaza Strip on Friday after the Israeli military announced a cease-fire that mediators hoped would lead to the end of the two-year war.... Though the surroundings were bleak, the mood was jubilant.... Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Mideast envoy, said the U.S. military had verified that Israeli troops had withdrawn to the agreed-upon line inside Gaza. That, he said on social media, opened a 72-hour window in which Hamas must hand over the remaining hostages.” An AP story is here.

Peru. Tobi Raji & Matthew Brown of the Washington Post: “Peru’s Congress voted early Friday to remove deeply unpopular President Dina Boluarte from office amid worsening crime and allegations of personal corruption, the latest turn in the country’s years-long political crisis. José Jerí, the president of Congress, was sworn in as Peru’s acting president, the country’s eighth leader in the past 10 years.”