October 16, 2025

Saturday, October 18, is "No Kings Day." Here's the No Kings main page, where you can find events near you. 

Eric Tucker, et al., of the AP: “Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton was charged Thursday in a federal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.... Though the investigation that produced the indictment began before Trump’s second term, the case will unfold against the backdrop of broader concerns that his Justice Department is being weaponized to go after his political adversaries.” MB: This, of course, is just what Trump himself was indicted for. ~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post story, by Perry Stein & others, is here: “The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury sitting in Greenbelt, Maryland, alleges Bolton shared with two relatives hundreds of pages of “diary-like” updates detailing his sensitive work between 2018 and 2019. It also accuses Bolton of printing and storing many of those records at his home in Bethesda, Maryland, which FBI agents searched earlier this year.... Unlike ... cases ... pursued by Trump’s handpicked U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia over the objections of career staff members, the indictment against Bolton was signed by Kelly O. Hayes, a respected veteran prosecutor appointed in February to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland. Tom Sullivan, a career prosecutor who heads the office’s national security division, presented the case to the grand jury and also signed the document.”

     ~~~ MSNBC is reporting on-air that John Bolton has been indicted. Bolton has been charged with 18 federal counts. Some are for transmission of classified information. Others are for retention of national defense information.  

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: “A federal appeals court on Thursday said that it would not let ...  Donald Trump deploy troops in Illinois for now, leaving in place a judge’s ruling that blocked the administration from placing the National Guard in the Chicago area. National Guard troops can remain under federal control, but the Trump administration cannot deploy them anywhere in Illinois, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit wrote in an opinion.”

Eric Schmitt & Tyler Pager of the New York Times: “The military commander overseeing the Pentagon’s escalating attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration says are smuggling drugs is stepping down, three U.S. officials said on Thursday. The officer, Adm. Alvin Holsey, is leaving his job as head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees all operations in Central and South America, even as the Pentagon has rapidly built up some 10,000 forces in the region in what it says is a major counterdrug and counterterrorism mission. It was unclear why Admiral Holsey is leaving now, less than a year into his tenure, and in the midst of the biggest operation in his 37-year career. But one of the U.S. officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said that Admiral Holsey had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the alleged drug boats.”

Marie: It seems we're having a Nixonian moment. Remember that infamous 18+ minutes gap in the Nixon tapes? Well, now we have a one-minute-plus gap in the Trump Hungry Man tape. ~~~  

     ~~~ First, there's this story in which  Republican National Committee chair Joe Gruters tells a podcaster about a plane trip he took with Donald Trump: “He had hot fries waiting for him from McDonald’s [when boarded the plane.] ... And then he had a Filet-O-Fish, a Quarter Pounder, and a Big Mac, and I think he combined two of them." Gruters explains how amazed he was that Trump could eat so much in one sitting -- along with downing some kind of orange soda. But Then. Maybe Gruters' revelation embarrassed the Fat Fascist, because this guy says the original podcast "mysteriously disappeared from the Internet." The podcast has been completely removed from some sites. In other cases, the podcast is available, but the part where Gruber discusses Trump's Happy Happy Happy Meal has been deleted.

Nicole Foy of ProPublica: “When the Supreme Court recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn’t be concerned. 'If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,' Kavanaugh wrote, 'they promptly let the individual go.' But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched. About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones.” ProPublica has found more than 170 U.S. citizens whom federal agents have detained.

Mattathias Schwartz & Roberto Chiarito of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Chicago said on Thursday that she was 'profoundly concerned' that federal agents might have violated a court order that she had issued setting strict limits on their use of tear gas and requiring them to give protesters warnings to disperse. During a 55-minute hearing, Judge Sara L. Ellis of Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said she would order the director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Chicago field office to appear in her courtroom on Monday morning. She also said she would broaden her initial order, issued last week, to require federal agents to wear body cameras.”

Jacob Rosen & Scott McFarlane of CBS News: "The Justice Department is expected to present a possible criminal case and seek a grand jury indictment against former national security adviser John Bolton as soon as Thursday afternoon at a federal courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland, according to two sources familiar with the matter."

Doktor Zoom of Wonkette: “... after ignoring months of protests against Dipshit Hitler’s authoritarian takeover, Republicans are finally noticing how little Americans want the whole 'Trump can do anything he wants' thing. That’s why they’re doing their damnedest to portray the nationwide No Kings rallies planned for Saturday as a terrible threat, a scary gathering of 'antifa' radicals who all hate America.... One of the stupidest talking points the administration has been pushing — not simply about No Kings, but about all protests against Trump — is the notion that some malign shadowy hand is behind Americans’ discontent with Trump. Americans could never object to what he’s doing unless some sinister bad guy — usually George Soros, but often just 'they' — led them astray.... It’s really quite impressive how many impossible things you have to believe before breakfast in order for any of this Trumped up 'antifa is planning a Hate America rally this weekend' to make sense — and even then, it still makes no sense.” Includes list!

~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Marie: I'm sorry, but we do have a king, and that king/dictator is supported by all three branches of government. He is using the DOJ, DOD, DHS, Treasury, etc. to attack and defang his political adversaries. He is usurping the powers of Congress & the courts, when it suits him. The Congress itself is about to come under permanent GOP control, thanks to a likely Supreme Court decision to entirely gut the Voting Rights Act. The Supremes will retain and even grow their current 6-3 majority. And because of the Electoral College, Democratic presidential candidates often win the popular vote but lose the presidency. The press, the media, the universities, major law firms and big corporations have all capitulated to one degree or another. We the majority may protest, but the minority controls us. And laughs at us.

Watching Democracy Die on Live Teevee. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: “The nation’s three most powerful law enforcement officials — Attorney General Pam Bondi and her top deputy, Todd Blanche, along with Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director — padded into the Oval Office on Wednesday for a public show of unity and to herald some recent successes. They left about an hour later, after ... [Donald] Trump tossed out, offhandedly, three names of people he wanted prosecuted: Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought two criminal indictments against him; Andrew Weissmann, a former F.B.I. official who was a lead prosecutor for the team investigating the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia in the 2016 election; and Lisa Monaco, the deputy attorney general under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.... Mr. Trump also reiterated his demand that the department go after Senator Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who pushed for his impeachment as a member of the House.... 

“[The scene] was also a diorama of the administration’s lopsided power dynamic between a president bent on controlling federal law enforcement and appointees unwilling or unable to fight for the historic independence of their institutions....  There was no pushback, or even an effort to downplay it. That was by design.... They smiled, nodded and shuffled in place as he spoke.” The link is a gift link because Thrush does such a nice job of skewering the Three Stooges, especially Kash. See more on the decimation of the DOJ in Devlin Barrett's article, linked below, and the Justice Connection video. ~~~

     ~~~ Zoe Richards of NBC News: “Trump suggested this afternoon that he could be playing a bigger role in efforts to prosecute his perceived political foes when a reporter asked him in the Oval Office about claims that he has weaponized the Justice Department to seek political retribution. 'If anything, I think this Justice Department has been so respectful of the law,' Trump said. Trump also suggested that the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden had targeted him unfairly. 'What they did to go after his political opponent is legendary, worse than any third-world country, banana republic, and what we're doing is nothing. Are you kidding? Nothing,' Trump said. 'I don't have to leave it up to them, but I choose to at this moment at least,' he added.” (This is part of a liveblog, so you might have to scroll down to find the item.) ~~~

~~~ Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: “We are now seeing how a truly unshackled Trump uses his power. Nine months into Trump’s second term, he has done several things he was stopped from doing during his first term.... Many of the stark warnings about what would happen without [the guardrails] ... have proved true.... Since returning to office, Trump has largely done exactly what [former chief-of-staff John] Kelly and the former aides warned he would. He has engaged in an aggressive retribution campaign. He has pierced the Justice Department’s prosecutorial decision-making process by publicly and privately telling Attorney General Pam Bondi ... whom to charge.... Trump has deployed the National Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to several American cities run by Democratic mayors over their objections. He has dismantled large parts of the federal bureaucracy and work force, challenging Congress’s control over spending. And his administration’s responses to some high-profile court rulings related to immigration issues have raised questions about whether they are following judges’ orders.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's a bitter irony to see Mike Schmidt, who in breaking and overhyping The Emails! story, did as much as anyone to bring us President* Donald Trump, now almost acknowledge that gosh, Trump is out of control.

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum seeking to significantly expand his administration’s authority to repurpose unspent federal funds to pay members of the military during the government shutdown. The memo escalates his challenge to Congress’s authority on spending matters, but it is unclear whether he has the legal authority undertake such a move. Mr. Trump’s memorandum purports to give Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, wide authority to repurpose funds, even though no such permission has been granted by Congress.... Separately, Mr. Trump also said he planned to provide funding to pay F.B.I. agents during the shutdown. He did specify the source of that funding.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If we had a real Congress & a real Supreme Court, Trump's signing a memo giving himself authority to do whatever he wants would be downright comical. But those two branches of government, both of which are supposed to check the executive's authority, are instead bolstering Trump's dictatorship. The real scandal is not the Fat Fascist; it's his enablers.

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: Donald “Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday that directed federal agencies to restrict hiring across the government, though with exceptions for political appointees, positions related to immigration enforcement, national security and public safety and other positions cleared by the Office of Personnel Management. The executive order came as Mr. Trump’s hiring freeze, in place since Jan. 20, expired. The terms of the new order indicate that the agencies will be hiring only with the approval of his political appointees.”

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: Donald “Trump hosted dozens of wealthy spenders for a dinner on Wednesday in exchange for what he called the 'tremendous amounts of money' they agreed to donate to construct a $200 million ballroom addition to the White House, a project that has sparked concerns from ethics watchdogs.... More than three dozen corporate executives and wealthy businesspeople attended the dinner, where Mr. Trump expressed gratitude for their opening their checkbooks for his long-desired state ballroom. Representatives from companies including Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin were in attendance.... Richard W. Painter, who served as the chief ethics lawyer ... under President George W. Bush, said in an interview that Mr. Trump’s dinner for the corporate executives 'shows what the ballroom is really all about: pay to play.'” The article includes a list of the represented organizations & individuals invited to the pay-for-play party. A CBS News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the guest list the White House gave the NYT: Altria Group, Amazon.com, Apple, Booz Allen Hamilton, Caterpillar, Coinbase Global, Comcast, Hard Rock International, Google, HP, Lockheed Martin, Meta Platforms, Micron Technology, Microsoft, NextEra Energy, Palantir Technologies, Ripple, Reynolds American, T-Mobile US, Tether, Union Pacific Railroad, J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul, Adelson Family Foundation, Stefan E. Brodie, Betty Wold Johnson Foundation, Charles and Marissa Cascarilla, Edward and Shari Glazer, Harold G. Hamm, Benjamin Leon Jr., The Lutnick Family, The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Konstantin Sokolov, Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher, Paolo Tiramani, Cameron Winklevos, Tyler Winklevoss.

     ~~~ Marie: Here too we see the oligarchy at work -- even in ways that may affect us personally. I guess if I were really smart, I could soup up a computer with a Linux operating system, but the reality is that I'm not that innovative, so I must rely on Apple, Microsoft or Google (ChromeOS) or go without a computer. So I cannot do what I like to do -- and that's to boycott businesses that offend me. I am ashamed to say I contribute to the coffers of a couple of other companies who are supporting the monstrous Lump That Ate the White House. So, yes, I too am a contributor. 

Robert Davis of the Raw Story: "...  Donald Trump is reportedly planning sweeping changes at the Internal Revenue Service that would make it easier for his administration to go after left-leaning groups.... The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration has turned over a list of targets to IRS agents, which includes some high-profile Democratic donors. Trump also plans to install loyalists in the IRS criminal-investigative division, which would give him influence over criminal investigations, according to the report." 

Only White People Supremacists Welcome Here. Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “The Trump administration is considering a radical overhaul of the U.S. refugee system that would slash the program to its bare bones while giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration, according to documents obtained by The New York Times. The proposals, some of which already have gone into effect, would transform a decades-old program aimed at helping the world’s most desperate people into one that conforms to Mr. Trump’s vision of immigration — which is to help mostly white people who say they are being persecuted while keeping the vast majority of other people out.” Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Warren Strobel, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump said Wednesday that he had authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct operations in Venezuela, markedly escalating U.S. pressure on President Nicolás Maduro amid a string of lethal strikes against alleged drug trafficking boats in Caribbean waters off that country’s coast. Trump declined to say whether he had authorized the CIA to overthrow Maduro, a step some of his top national security aides have urged.... Trump’s order was reported earlier by the New York Times.... People familiar with the matter said the spy agency has surged personnel to the Caribbean and Central America as part of the Trump administration’s move against Western Hemisphere drug cartels. They are there to collect intelligence, not conduct armed operations....” The AP's story is here. 

Trump's Meddling Backfires in Argentina. Ana Ionova & Daniel Politi of the New York Times: “As President Javier Milei of Argentina faced a deepening economic crisis..., [Donald] Trump rushed to the rescue of his political ally with a generous $20 billion bailout.... To secure help from the United States, Mr. Trump made clear on Tuesday, Mr. Milei’s embattled political party would have to first pull off a victory in what are emerging as momentous and challenging legislative elections this month. 'If he doesn’t win, we’re gone,' Mr. Trump said.... In Argentina, those comments were taken by many as a clear attempt by Mr. Trump to put his thumb on a sovereign country’s electoral process. The fallout was swift. The peso tumbled as investors went on a panicked selling spree of Argentina’s currency. Mr. Milei’s political opponents railed against what they called American extortion, urging voters to reject his party at the polls.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Judd Legum put together an ingredients list for the Middle East's pay-for-play recipe for Trump à la Mode. We covered most of these here the other day (except the Saudi ones, I think), but it never hurts to remind ourselves of how openly Trump invites and accepts bribes. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Paul Krugman argues that Trump has created a reverse-Sputnik moment that means the U.S. will never be able to keep up with China: “Rather than acknowledging that the US is in danger of being permanently overtaken by China’s technological and economic prowess, the Trump administration is slashing support for scientific research and attacking education. In the name of defeating the bogeymen of 'wokeness' and the 'deep state', this administration is actively opposing progress in critical sectors while giving grifters like the crypto industry everything that they want. The most obvious example of Trump’s war on a critical sector, and the most consequential for the next decade, is his vendetta against renewable energy.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Julianne McShane of Mother Jones: “Vice President JD Vance would like you to do anything but pay attention to those abhorrent leaked texts from young Republicans that Politico covered on Tuesday. And if you do read them, he wants you to think they’re just 'kids' saying 'edgy, offensive' things.... 'By focusing on what kids are saying in a group chat — grow up! I’m sorry,' Vance said [Wednesday]. 'Focus on the real issues. Don’t focus on what kids say in group chats.'... Except that they appear to be full-grown adults, according to Mother Jones’ analysis of public records and reports of the participants’ ages.... By scanning public records and media reports, Mother Jones determined the ages of eight of the 11 participants in the chat: They appear to range from 24 to 35.” [Chris Hayes said last night on MSNBC that their ages ranged up to age 40, a year younger than Sofa Man.] 

Caroline Kitchener of the New York Times: “The Trump administration has targeted a federal office that oversees a $300 million family planning program for layoffs, raising fears that it is effectively ending an initiative that provides contraception for millions of low-income women, according to three people with knowledge of the events. The decimation of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Population Affairs — part of a larger effort by ... [Donald] Trump to fire federal employees during the government shutdown — threatens a program that has existed for over 50 years and also offers testing for sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, as well as basic infertility care. The layoffs targeting the office represent one of the most striking examples yet of Mr. Trump’s vow to fire people in an effort to purge the government of what he has called 'Democrat programs' during the shutdown, a stark departure from past practice that has raised major legal and constitutional questions. Almost everyone in the office was locked out of their government emails and computers on Friday....” ~~~

~~~ Well, maybe that won't work just yet. ~~~ 

~~~ Tony Romm of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from conducting mass federal layoffs during the government shutdown, siding with unions that have argued that the firings were illegal. The decision delivered an early legal blow to ... [Donald] Trump, who has sought to use the fiscal stalemate to slash the federal work force. Yet the president appeared unfazed by the decision, threatening soon after to cut federal agencies, fire more workers and rearrange the budget while the government remained at a standstill. In a sharp and lengthy rebuke, Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California raised deep unease about the actions of the White House, just days after the government began to lay off about 4,000 workers across eight federal agencies. The early evidence, according to Judge Illston, suggested that the White House budget office had 'taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them anymore and they can impose the structures that they like.'” Politico's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “Jack Smith, the special counsel who investigated Donald J. Trump and is now the subject of intense attacks from Republicans, appeared in a new video advocating on behalf of Justice Department employees who were fired or forced out by the Trump administration. The video, published Wednesday, comes as Mr. Smith has ended his self-imposed silence since resigning from his position days before Mr. Trump returned to office. In recent weeks, he has begun to speak out publicly on the administration’s purge of prosecutors and agents who worked on cases related to Mr. Trump, and on the president’s effort to punish his perceived enemies. The new video was released by Justice Connection, a group of former department employees who provide legal services and counseling to the agency’s work force. The group has been highly critical of the Trump administration’s firings of prosecutors and agents, often without cause, or for the expressed reason that they worked on cases related to Mr. Trump.” Related stuff linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Again, it's worth asking, "Where's Merrick?" Still the Unready, evidently. 

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. David Bauder of the AP: “Dozens of reporters turned in access badges and exited the Pentagon on Wednesday rather than agree to government-imposed restrictions on their work, pushing journalists who cover the American military further from the seat of its power. The U.S. government has called the new rules 'common sense.' News outlets were nearly unanimous in rejecting new rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that would leave journalists vulnerable to expulsion if they sought to report on information — classified or otherwise — that had not been approved by Hegseth for release. Many of the reporters waited to leave together at a 4 p.m. deadline set by the Defense Department to get out of the building. As the hour approached, boxes of documents lined a Pentagon corridor and reporters carried chairs, a copying machine, books and old photos to the parking lot from suddenly abandoned workspaces. Shortly after 4, about 40 to 50 journalists left together after handing in badges.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Shawn Musgrave of the Intercept: “As part of the Trump administration’s drive to lionize the late Charlie Kirk and chill criticism of his politics, the State Department announced on Tuesday that it had revoked visas for a half-dozen noncitizens who had 'celebrated' his assassination in recent weeks online. The State Department shared the offending remarks in a thread on X, redacting the posters’ handles and avatars. Many of the comments were crass and incendiary — the kind of protected political speech at the heart of the First Amendment, which applies to citizens and noncitizens alike. One Argentine suggested that Kirk should 'rest in fucking piss'  because of his life devoted to 'spreading racist, xenophobic, misogynistic rhetoric,' while a Brazilian national asserted that Kirk  'DIED TOO LATE.' Nota Baloyi, a South African who spoke to The Intercept on Wednesday, had his visa revoked for tweeting that Kirk 'won’t be remembered as a hero. He was used to astroturf a movement of white nationalist trailer trash!'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'd never heard of Balovi but he is apparently quite a well-known music impresario. His tweet doesn't read to me like a celebration of Kirk's death. Besides, Balovi is 34 years old, according to the Google's Art Intel. Surely JayDee will ring up Li'l Marco & tell him to chill out, grow up, and "stop focusing on what kids are saying." 

Brown Fights Back. Cate Latimer of the Brown Daily Herald: Brown University “President Christina Paxson ... announced that she formally rejected the Trump administration’s compact in a Wednesday letter to the Brown community. The compact, which was sent to the University on Oct. 1, would require Brown to freeze tuition for five years, limit grade inflation and cap international undergraduate enrollment at 15% in exchange for financial and other benefits. Of the nine universities to have been sent the compact, Brown was the second to formally reject it after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which announced its refusal last week. In her response — which was sent to the Education Secretary Linda McMahon and White House Officials May Mailman and Vince Haley — Paxson wrote, 'I am concerned that the compact by its nature and by various provisions would restrict academic freedom and undermine the autonomy of Brown’s governance, critically compromising our ability to fulfill our mission.'” The New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ Marie: Donald Trump has used a fake abhorrence of universities' failures to do enough to fight antisemitism, so you might think he would discourage blatant antisemitic content in his own administration's propaganda products. But no. ~~~  

~~~ Anna Merlan of Mother Jones: “Two months ago, U.S. Border Patrol posted a hype video on Facebook and Instagram showing agents picking up guns and trawling the desert in trucks and off-road vehicles. 'Gear up. Lock in. The mission doesn’t wait,' the video’s caption proclaimed. The soundtrack, however, said something quite different; it featured the so-called 'banned' version of Michael Jackson’s 1995 song 'They Don’t Care About Us,' specifically a 13-second clip in which Jackson sings, 'Jew me, sue me, everybody do me, kick me, kike me, don’t you black or white me.' The video was deleted sometime on Wednesday, shortly after Gizmodo journalist Matt Novak posted about it on Bluesky. Border Patrol has thus far failed to respond to questions about why it posted a video using baldly offensive terms for Jews, even as their use of the song is being celebrated by antisemitic social media accounts.” 

Chicagoans Fight Back. Julie Bosman of the New York Times: “Federal agents deployed tear gas on Chicago residents and more than a dozen police officers on Tuesday, the latest clash in the nation’s third-largest city as the Trump administration has carried out its immigration crackdown.The clash began on Tuesday morning when federal agents were seen chasing a car through a working-class, heavily Latino neighborhood on the city’s far South Side, witnesses said.... An S.U.V. driven by the federal agents collided with the car they were pursuing.... After the crash, dozens of additional immigration agents in masks arrived and residents emerged from their houses, gathering on streets and sidewalks, throwing objects at agents and shouting, 'ICE go home!' As the agents left, they released tear gas, apparently without warning, sending people coughing and running for cover. Among those affected by the gas were 13 Chicago Police Department officers, the police department said....

“The agents repeatedly have been observed releasing smoke bombs, tear gas and pepper balls to disperse residents who gather or capture videos on cellphones, including when the agents were making arrests in densely populated neighborhoods. Chicago police officers, who have been called to the scenes of some clashes, have been exposed to tear gas from federal agents twice in the last two weeks. As the intensity of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has risen, residents of Chicago are increasingly pushing back with fury.” With photos. Related Sun-Times story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Kelly Rissman of the Independent: “A clarinet player was arrested after playing her instrument to the tune of the 'Ghostbusters' theme song outside of a Portland ICE facility, which has recently become a site of daily clashes between federal agents and demonstrators. Oriana Korol, 38, was playing 'Ghostbusters' with her group — the Unpresidented Brass Band — during a massive protest outside the ICE facility in Oregon’s largest city Sunday evening when federal agents arrested her, her loved ones said. She has since been taken to a jail in Washington as her husband and bandmates demand answers about her arrest. 'Why are they targeting a clarinet player? A clarinet player standing on the sidewalk far away from the street, following instructions,' her husband wondered.... She was arrested around 5 p.m., but her husband didn’t hear about her whereabouts until 2 a.m. the next day, only to discover she was being held at Clark County Jail in Vancouver, Washington.... It’s not immediately clear why she was transported across state lines.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Jonathan Wolfe of the New York Times: “Los Angeles County voted on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency over federal immigration raids, the latest move by the county to push back against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Southern California. The emergency declaration, traditionally used in response to events like natural disasters, would allow the county to provide resources for those who have been affected by the raids. County officials say the move will provide help for those who have refrained from going to work for fear of being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or who lose their income after family members are detained.” (Also linked yesterday.)

It's kind of amazing all the stuff Mike Johnson is too busy to know about. Here's another one: ~~~

~~~ Hailey Fuchs of Politico: “Speaker Mike Johnson is shrugging off news that a judge granted the request for a restraining order against embattled Rep. Cory Mills sought by the Florida Republican’s former girlfriend. 'I have not heard or looked into any of the details of that,' Johnson told reporters at a Wednesday morning press conference. 'I’ve been a little busy. We have a House Ethics Committee. If it warrants that, I’m sure they’ll look into that.'” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Samuel Benson of Politico: “U.S. Capitol Police were called about an American flag altered to include a swastika and displayed inside the office of Rep. Dave Taylor (R-Ohio), his spokesperson said. Politico obtained an image taken during a virtual meeting that shows the flag pinned to what appears to be a cubicle wall behind Angelo Elia, one of Taylor’s staffers. Alongside the flag — with altered red and white lines in the shape of a swastika — are pinned images, including a pocket Constitution and a congressional calendar. It is unclear what role, if any, Elia had in the incident.... 'I am aware of an image that appears to depict a vile and deeply inappropriate symbol near an employee in my office,' Taylor said in a statement. 'The content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms.'”

Supreme Racists Favor Racism. Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court appeared poised on Wednesday to weaken a key provision of a landmark civil rights law by sharply limiting the ability of lawmakers to use race as a factor in drawing voting maps, which could lead to widespread redistricting efforts. If the justices determine that lawmakers cannot consider race when drawing districts, the consequences for the country’s political balance could be sweeping. The decision could end the practice, endorsed by the court for decades, of crafting congressional districts with the purpose of helping minority voters elect the candidates of their choice. Republican state legislatures could use the ruling to eliminate around a dozen Democratic-held House districts across the South, according to a New York Times analysis. The court typically issues major rulings by late June or early July, but could rule more quickly in the voting case.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: This is not a case that Louisiana brought to the Court; rather, the Supremes demanded it. Mark Elias explains, beginning at about 4:00 minutes in here: ~~~

The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. -- Chief Justice John Roberts, Schools v. Seattle, 2007 ~~~ 

     ~~~ "The Conservative Justices Have So Many Ideas For How to Kill the Voting Rights Act." Madiba Dennie of Balls & Strikes: "Because the Voting Rights Act has done more than perhaps any other statute to build a multiracial democracy, the Supreme Court’s conservative justices have spent decades casting the law as constitutionally unsound.... On Wednesday, the Republican justices ... ponder[ed] the strengths and weaknesses of different methods of writing a majority opinion that would deny Black voters’ right to equal representation. The upshot ... is already clear; the only outstanding question is which bits of legal jargon they cobble together to justify it.... Samuel Alito’s preferred vehicle for blocking remedies for (illegal) racial gerrymandering was conflating it with (legal) partisan gerrymandering.... Brett Kavanaugh similarly returned to one of his hobbyhorses: imaginary expiration dates for statutes addressing racism.... Neil Gorsuch cut to the ... classic argument of the conservative legal movement: Any awareness or use of race, even (or perhaps especially) if used to remedy racial discrimination, is inherently also racial discrimination." ~~~

     ~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: "In [Wednesday’s] hearings, the right-wing majority indicated it opposes the use of race in redistricting, suggesting the previous understanding of this issue is unconstitutional. Overturning the decision of the lower court would finish the gutting of the Voting Rights Act the Roberts Court began with the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision. This shift shows the willingness of the right-wing majority on the court to gather the power of the U.S. government into its own hands.... The Supreme Court is on the cusp of saying that it, rather than Congress, can determine how to enforce the right of citizens to vote." Do read on.

The New York Times liveblogged the Supreme Court's hearing of a Louisiana case where the goal is to toss the last vestiges of the Voting Rights Act. From the pinned item at 12 noon: “The Supreme Court is hearing a case on Wednesday whose outcome could cause congressional seats throughout the country to flip from blue to red to cement Republican control of Congress. The case, a challenge to Louisiana’s congressional map, is a battle over whether states can use race as a factor in drawing electoral districts. But it could have much broader implications for the law, politics, and the remaining pillar of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The dispute centers on whether Louisiana lawmakers violated the Constitution when they adopted a new electoral map in 2024, creating the state’s second majority-Black district. If the justices decide that lawmakers cannot consider race in drafting maps, redistricting could follow. Those changes could allow Republican state legislatures to eliminate at least a dozen Democratic-held House districts across the South. During the argument, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh suggested that aspects of the 60-year-old Voting Rights Act might have an implicit sunset date.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In case you are wearing your rose-colored glasses today and think Bart's questions about the "implicit sunset" of the VRA have nothing to do with those Young Republican KKK Kids Politico outed in the bombshell report linked yesterday, think again. Abbie VanSickle, who wrote the pinned item, calls O'Kavanaugh "part of the court’s conservative supermajority." Nah, he's part of the court's racist supermajority. (And, yes, weirdly, that includes Clarence Thomas.)

Karen Zraick of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Montana on Wednesday dismissed a novel lawsuit filed by 22 young people alleging that three of ... [Donald] Trump’s executive orders on energy and the environment violated their constitutional rights. Judge Dana L. Christensen wrote that he had 'reluctantly' made the decision, despite convincing evidence presented by the plaintiffs during a two-day hearing last month showing that the executive orders would hasten climate change and exacerbate risks to the plaintiffs’ health and safety. In the 31-page decision, Judge Christensen wrote that the plaintiffs in the case, Lighthiser v. Trump, lacked a legal basis to bring the suit, largely because the harms they described could not be ameliorated by a judicial decision. The suit was simply too broad in scope and too amorphous to be actionable, he said.”

Emily Ngo & Jason Beeferman of Politico: “Two more members of a Young Republican group chat strewn with racist epithets and hateful jokes stepped down from their jobs Tuesday after Politico published an exclusive report on the Telegram exchanges. Peter Giunta’s time working with New York Assemblymember Mike Reilly “has ended,” the Republican lawmaker said. Giunta served as chair of the New York State Young Republicans when the chat took place. Joseph Maligno, who previously identified himself as the general counsel for that group, is no longer an employee of the New York State Unified Court System, a courts spokesperson confirmed. Another chat member, Vermont state Sen. Sam Douglass, faced mounting calls for his resignation as well, including from the state’s Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, and Douglass’ fellow Republican lawmakers, who called his statements 'deeply disturbing.'... Before the article even published[,] William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair at the time of the chat, [found himself] 'no longer employed' at Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office. Bobby Walker, who was chair of the New York State Young Republicans as of Tuesday, will not be brought onto New York congressional candidate Peter Oberacker’s campaign as originally planned.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Ronda Kaysen of the New York Times: “MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist, on Wednesday donated $40 million to a program dedicated to the preservation of African American history, culture and activism. The gift is her second contribution to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a division of the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2021, Ms. Scott, who has pledged to divest her Amazon fortune, valued at $41.2 billion, according to Bloomberg, donated $20 million to the fund, which was used to support a range of projects and operations. The fund will use this latest donation to grow its endowment and invest in new and existing programs.”

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David Ovalle & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: “Fifteen Democratic governors on Wednesday announced the formation of a state public health alliance designed to counter turmoil at federal agencies under the Trump administration. Leaders of the Governors Public Health Alliance said it will serve as a hub for governors and public health leaders to monitor disease outbreaks, establish public health policy guidance, prepare for pandemics and buy vaccines and other supplies. The alliance, spanning states where roughly 1 in 3 Americans live, underscores the increasing fragmentation of the public health system that has been upended by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.” (Also linked yesterday.)

California. Laurel Rosenhall of the New York Times: “Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed legislation this month to create a state agency that will determine who qualifies as a descendant of slavery. But he vetoed measures that would have given descendants preference in college admissions, home loan assistance and restitution for property seized in past years by the government through eminent domain.” 

New York. Maya King of the New York Times: “Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, directly addressed ... [Donald] Trump during a Fox News interview on Wednesday, vowing to work with his administration to help fulfill his own campaign pledge to make the city more affordable. The direct-to-camera appeal also included digs at his closest rival, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and the current mayor, Eric Adams. 'I will not be a mayor like Mayor Adams, who will call you to figure out how to stay out of jail,' Mr. Mamdani said. 'I won’t be a disgraced governor like Andrew Cuomo, who will call you to ask how to win this election. I can do those things on my own.... I will, however, be a mayor who is ready to speak at any time to lower the cost of living,' he continued. “That’s the way that I’m going to lead this city. That’s the partnership that I’m going to build.....' [Even though Fox 'News' and its contributors have extensively criticized him,] Mr. Mamdani ... avoided contentiousness, even in his characterization of the president, who has ratcheted up his own threats against Mr. Mamdani.”

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Israel/Palestine, et al. Hamas Is Still a Horrible, Murderous Terrorist Organization. Iyad Abuheweila, et al., of the New York Times: “Masked gunmen, some wearing green headbands associated with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, lined up eight captives in the middle of a crowded street in Gaza City on Monday. They forced the men to bend over, leveled their rifles at them, and opened fire, leaving their bodies in the dirt. A Hamas internal security official confirmed that the video, which The New York Times geolocated to Gaza City, showed Hamas fighters executing Palestinian rivals. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists. The execution took place just days after a cease-fire with Israel began on Friday and Israeli forces pulled back from parts of Gaza. Analysts say that Hamas appears to be trying to assert that it is still the dominant force in the territory, no matter how weakened it is after two years of war with Israel.” ~~~

     ~~~ Gerry Shih, et al., of the Washington Post: “Hamas may have stopped fighting Israel, but it has launched a new, violent campaign to reassert control over local families and militias that had challenged its power during the past two years of war — including those who, according to the leaders of two clans, had received support from Israel. Whether by carrying out armed raids in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip or holding public executions farther north in Gaza City, Hamas is trying to send a clear message that, after months of hiding from Israeli fire, the militant group is back as the only visible authority inside the Gaza Strip, according to rival militia leaders, Palestinian officials and political analysts.”