Noah Robertson, et al., of the Washington Post: “In targeting [Sen. Mark] Kelly [D-Az.] and another prominent Democratic critic of the administration, Rep. Eugene Vindman of Virginia, the Defense Department under [Pete] Hegseth has been co-opted into the president’s norm-shattering bid to exploit what are supposed to be the nonpartisan tools of government to crush political foes.... Enlisting the Pentagon in this effort poses a unique threat to American democracy, according to historians, retired military officers and legal experts. Long-standing taboos against using the armed forces to further a president’s political machinations have helped ensure that service members obey their civilian leaders — and prevent this powerful institution from being used to suppress Americans’ constitutional rights. Discarding that standard, experts say, risks setting a harmful precedent.... Like the president, Hegseth has shown little regard for boundaries intended to insulate the military from political interference.” The link is a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: It may be the Bezos Post where democracy goes to die (or something like that), but a few reporters are managing to at least get in some sideways swipes at Trump and the Dancing Trumpettes. Sadly, many top reporters & some columnists of yesteryear understandably have left the building.
~~~~~~~~~~
⭐David Rothkopf on Substack: “We have descended into utter madness.... Take the news of just the past few days.... We are about to go to war against another country for no reason. Our president is delusionally barking out orders to the planet, seemingly convinced he rules the entire globe. He commands closed the skies of a foreign land. He demands the people of another nation vote for his political ally or he will punish them. He sets free a convicted drug lord while arguing that he is waging a hemispheric battle against narco-terrorists. His minions are committing war crimes in his name.... He and his aides are making racist proclamations and promising sweeping draconian measures.... He has turned the legal apparatus of this country against his perceived opponents.... His emissaries are selling out our allies and seeking to pressure them into capitulation to foreign enemies....
“Starkly unqualified crackpots have been put in charge of our healthcare system... [Administration officials] are responding to a climate crisis by systematically stopping programs that might contain it and accelerating those that will certainly make it worse. Corruption is rampant, in the open, almost celebrated. The White House has been partially torn down and is being replaced by a monstrous monument to the president’s ego.... Heroes are called traitors. Journalists and others ... are crudely bullied or worse.... Armed thugs are on the march in our cities rounding up the innocent. Vital programs upon which millions depend are being shutdown. Universities are being directed away from learning.... The mentally unstable man who is leading this country believes he can reverse every executive order of his predecessor and threaten him with prosecution.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't like to cite this much of an essay, but it's such a good summary of the horrifying, overwhelming week that was. However, there's much more to Rothkopf's cri de cœur, and I hope you'll have time to read it.
Julian Barnes & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: Donald “Trump warned airlines and pilots on Saturday that the airspace near Venezuela was closed, ratcheting up what his administration has characterized as a war against drug cartels. In a post on social media to 'all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers,' the president wrote that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered 'CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.'... As president of the United States, Mr. Trump has no authority over Venezuelan airspace. But foreign governments and airlines often follow the United States’ lead.... There are no scheduled direct flights between the [United States & Venezuela].... Direct flights from the United States to other South American destinations generally avoid Venezuelan airspace.... Whether Mr. Trump plans to conduct strikes [within Venezuela] imminently is not clear, but the actions and threats have the effect of increasing pressure on Mr. Maduro and his government.” ~~~
~~~ Ben Johansen & Gregory Svirnovskiy of Politico: “The Federal Aviation Administration recently issued a security notice warning airlines and pilots to avoid Venezuelan airspace, citing 'a worsening security situation,' increased military activity and potential GPS interference as risks to flights. On Thursday, Venezuela revoked operating rights for six major international airlines that had suspended flights to the country following the FAA’s warning. But Trump’s move to close the airspace “in its entirety” goes further than the FAA’s decision, signaling the U.S. now views Venezuelan skies as an active security threat, not just a risky transit zone. In a statement, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gill said that Trump’s post constituted a 'hostile, unilateral, and arbitrary act,' prohibited by the Charter of the United Nations.”
Santul Nerkar, et al., of the New York Times: “At the federal trial of Juan Orlando Hernández in New York, testimony and evidence showed how the former president maintained Honduras as a bastion of the global drug trade. He orchestrated a vast trafficking conspiracy that prosecutors said raked in millions for cartels while keeping Honduras one of Central America’s poorest, most violent and most corrupt countries.... He once boasted that he would 'stuff the drugs up the gringos’ noses.' He accepted a $1 million bribe from El Chapo to allow cocaine shipments to pass through Honduras. A man was killed in prison to protect him.... Prosecutors said Mr. Hernández was key to a scheme that lasted more than 20 years and brought more than 500 tons of cocaine into the United States.... On Friday..., [Donald] Trump announced that he would pardon Mr. Hernandez, 57, who he said was a victim of political persecution, though Mr. Trump offered no evidence to support that claim. It would be a head-spinning resolution to a case that for prosecutors was a pinnacle, striking at the heart of a narcostate.” Read on. The link is a gift link. ~~~
Hernández was convicted of conspiring to traffic 400 tons of cocaine in to the United States, and he gets a pardon.... Meanwhile, these unknown individuals who may or may not be fisherman or drug traffickers — we don’t really know — are getting murdered in the open seas. The policy is nonsensical and blatantly illegal. -- Tommy Vietor, a former Obama official ~~~
~~~ Tyler Pager of the New York Times: Donald “Trump ... signaled on Saturday that he was ratcheting up his campaign against drug cartels, saying in a social media post that airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered 'CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.' Less than 24 hours earlier, Mr. Trump had announced on social media that he was granting a full pardon to Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras who had been convicted in the United States of drug trafficking charges.... That pardon has not yet been officially granted. The two posts displayed a remarkable dissonance in the president’s strategy, as he moved to escalate a military campaign against drug trafficking while ordering the release of a man prosecutors said had taken 'cocaine-fueled bribes' from cartels and 'protected their drugs with the full power and strength of the state — military, police and justice system.' In fact, prosecutors said that Mr. Hernández, for years, allowed bricks of cocaine from Venezuela to flow through Honduras en route to the United States.” Update. New link; it appears to be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Here's an interesting tidbit Pager adds, "... one of the lead investigators in the case [against Hernandez] was Emil Bove." Maybe Trump could have phoned his former lawyer, now Appeals Court Judge Bove, to ask if the Hernandez prosecution was bogus. Oh, wait. Facts don't count for much when weighed against heavy bags o' cash. And, gosh, I'll speculate there was yet another handoff from a fellow closer to home: ~~~
~~~ Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has set free a private equity executive who had served less than two weeks of a seven-year sentence for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of victims. David Gentile, 59, a onetime resident of Nassau County, N.Y., had reported to prison on Nov. 14, and was released on Wednesday, according to Bureau of Prisons records and a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the matter. Mr. Gentile and a co-defendant, Jeffry Schneider, were convicted in August 2024 of securities and wire fraud charges, and sentenced in May. Unlike a pardon, the commutation granted to Mr. Gentile will not erase his conviction. Mr. Schneider, who was sentenced to six years, does not appear to have received clemency from Mr. Trump.... It was not clear whether the commutation would affect any financial penalties.” MB: Hmm, maybe Mr. Schneider there didn't give Trump enough “incentive” to grant him a commutation.
~~~ Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. As he pointed out in commentary yesterday, “[While] the fascist wannabes, and venal vultures chowed down with Louis XVI-Marie Antoinette food bags..., hundreds of thousands in Africa have already died because of his gutting of USAID funding, something the self absorbed pigs at Marred a Lardo could not have cared less about. And here in this country, Fatty starved American families to win political points....”
Yesterday, the Washington Post and CNN reported that the Secretary of Defense personally issued orders to 'kill everybody' aboard a civilian vessel suspected of narcotrafficking. The attack on 2 September 2025 targeted a vessel carrying 11 civilians and, allegedly, an unknown quantity of drugs. The first strike resulted in near-total destruction of the vessel. However, two survivors were apparently observed via surveillance video clinging to wreckage, whereupon the commander directing the operation ordered a second strike. The second strike killed both survivors.
The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both. Our group was established in February 2025 in response to the SECDEF’s firing of the Army and Air Force Judge Advocates General and his systematic dismantling of the military’s legal guardrails. Had those guardrails been in place, we are confident they would have prevented these crimes. -- Former JAGs Working Group, introduction to a statement (thanks to Heather Cox Richardson for the link) ~~~
~~~ José Olivares of the Guardian: “The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has declared recent reporting that he may have illegally ordered all people to be killed in a military strike in the Caribbean as 'fake news' on Friday evening, adding that the series of strikes of people on boats had been 'lawful under both US and international law'. Hegseth lambasted reports about his role in the strike as 'fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland'. The remarks came after a Washington Post report this week alleged that Hegseth ordered defense officials to 'kill everybody' traveling on a boat that was being surveilled by analysts on 2 September, the first strike of many carried out in recent months by the Trump administration.... 'The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people,”' Hegseth said in a social media post on Friday evening. 'Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.'” ~~~
~~~ Better Headline Writers Wanted. Marie: Olivares' report is correct, but the headline on his report is not. It reads, “Pete Hegseth denies he gave orders to ‘kill everybody’ on alleged ‘narco-boat.’” To the contrary, Hegseth does not deny that he ordered the military to “kill everybody.” He just lambastes the media for daring to suggest the serial murders were illegal. ~~~
~~~ Conservative Charlie Sykes: “Before the first Caribbean boat strike on September 2, Secretary of War Defense, Pete Hegseth reportedly issued a blunt order: Kill them all.... This was either a war crime (if we believe that the killings are
covered by the laws of war) or it was simply cold-blooded murder.... Harvard's Jack Goldsmith [MB: a former Bush II lawyer] writes that even accepting all of the Trump/Hegseth assumptions about the boat strikes, 'killing helpless men is murder.'... The murders dramatically highlight (and explain) the warnings from six members of Congress who reminded members of the military that they did not have to obey illegal orders.... In this case, the illegal orders were obeyed by subordinates including Seal Team 6. But nota bene: the top admiral overseeing the operations resigned abruptly amid drug boat strikes. Pete Hegseth is not denying the murders, instead insisting that we just can’t handle the truth. [Friday] night he posted on X: 'We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.'... And finally — and this the most important point — the 'kill them
all' order is absolutely consistent with Donald Trump’s own
longstanding fetish for war crimes....”
Maia Coleman, et al., of the New York Times: “Several protesters were arrested on Saturday amid scuffles with police officers outside the entrance of a parking garage in Lower Manhattan where dozens of federal agents had appeared to be gathering for an immigration raid nearby, according to the police and witnesses. The confrontation, which appeared to foil the raid, underscored the numerous challenges the federal government faces in trying to stage raids in a dense city like New York, where pushback from protesters in a largely liberal city appears inevitable.” The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Arelis Hernandez, et al., of the Washington Post: “Two months ago, DHS sent immigration officers to Chicago to detain and deport 'violent offenders' that the agency said were released from state and local jails because of 'sanctuary' policies. So far, the agency says it has arrested more than 4,000 people. Officials have publicly identified only about 120 of those as having a criminal arrest or conviction, some for major crimes such as murder, and others for nonviolent offenses such as illegally crossing the border. When the operation began, the agency highlighted 11 serious criminals it said had been released and remained at large. DHS did not answer questions from The Washington Post about whether it had found them.... Though ICE framed its operation as focusing on criminal threats, its agents have drawn attention for bringing an aggressive approach to detaining people with no criminal record or relatively minor charges. In one incident, an undocumented immigrant who had just dropped off his two young sons at school was pulled over, shot and killed. DHS said he had tried to flee and hit an officer. His criminal history consisted of traffic violations.”
Matthew Herper & Helen Branswell of STAT News: “The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator asserted in an email to staff sent Friday that the Covid-19 vaccine caused at least 10 deaths in children and called for changes to the way the agency regulates vaccines. But experts told STAT they are skeptical of the memo’s 'extraordinary' claim because it was not presented with detailed data. Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER)..., [wrote in the memo,] 'For the first time, the US FDA will acknowledge that COVID-19 vaccines have killed American children.'... Outside experts said they would need much more evidence to understand whether it had been established that the Covid vaccine caused deaths in children. They said it was surprising that more data were not included in the memo.... Some claims in the memo, such as the implication that the federal government sets school vaccine mandates, are incorrect. 'It’s irresponsible science at best and it’s dangerous to the public at the very least,' said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. ”
David McAfee of the Raw Story: "Stuart Stevens, Chief Strategist of [Mitt] Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, wrote an article on Saturday called None Dare Call It Treason: The Republican Party Is Compromised in which he argues that 'Republican Senators understand the grave threat Russia poses.... Yet they refuse to uphold their oath of office due to their fealty to Trump.' According to Stevens, 'The Republican Party is compromised and is now a functional asset of the Russian Federation.... There are very few United States Republican Senators who agree with Donald Trump’s position that Ukraine started a war it can’t win. If a Democratic president asserted such an obvious falsehood, these Republican Senators would be outraged and label the Democratic president a fool and a traitor.... Republican Senators ... understand that a Russian victory in Ukraine is not an end goal of Russia but the next step in an ongoing Russian war against the West... It is clear that the Trump Administration is actively conspiring with Russia to accelerate a Russian victory.'... Read the full essay here (subscription required)." ~~~
~~ But, Soft! What Light through Yonder Window Breaks? Victoria Bisset, et al., of the Washington Post: “Republican-led committees in the Senate and the House say they will amplify their scrutiny of the Pentagon after a Washington Post report revealing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken order to kill all crew members aboard a vessel suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea several weeks ago.... Late Friday, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Jack Reed (Rhode Island), the committee’s top Democrat, issued a statement saying that the committee ... 'has directed inquiries to the Department, and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.' The leaders of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Alabama) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Washington), followed suit late Saturday.... The development is significant. Since ... Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the Republican majorities in Congress have shown considerable deference to his administration.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I agree that "The development is significant." More so, I would say, than the release the Epstein files, which Republicans voted for largely to scratch the MAGA base's itch to "prove" their wacko conspiracy theories about "Democrat pedophile rings." The serial murders of civilians merely suspected of trafficking drugs is a grave matter than demands Congressional attention. ~~~
~~~ Heather Cox Richardson suggests that Congressional Republicans' newfound "willingness to cross Trump suggests members are recalculating Trump’s power relative to their own." She cites some polls that show how unpopular Trump has become.
Bruce Weber of the New York Times: “Tom Stoppard, the Czech-born English playwright who entwined erudition with imagination, verbal pyrotechnics with arch cleverness, and philosophical probing with heartache and lust in stage works that won accolades and awards on both sides of the Atlantic, earning critical comparisons to Shakespeare and Shaw, has died at his home in Dorset, England. He was 88.... Mr. Stoppard himself said he wrote plays 'because dialogue is the most respectable way of contradicting myself.'”
~~~~~~~~~~
Indiana. Alexandra Marquez of NBC News: "Indiana state Sen. Michael Bohacek said Friday that he wouldn’t support an effort in his state to redraw congressional district lines that favor Republicans after ... Donald Trump used a slur for those with intellectual disabilities to describe Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz."
Minnesota. Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: “Over the last five years, law enforcement officials say, fraud took root in pockets of Minnesota’s Somali diaspora as scores of individuals made small fortunes by setting up companies that billed state agencies for millions of dollars’ worth of social services that were never provided. Federal prosecutors say that 59 people have been convicted in those schemes so far, and that more than $1 billion in taxpayers’ money has been stolen in three plots they are investigating.... Minnesota’s fraud scandal stood out even in the context of rampant theft during the pandemic, when Americans stole tens of billions through unemployment benefits, business loans and other forms of aid, according to federal auditors.... Gov. Tim Walz and fellow Democrats are being asked to explain how so much money was stolen on their watch, providing Republicans ... with a powerful line of attack. In recent days..., [Donald] Trump has weighed in, calling Minnesota 'a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity' and saying that Somali perpetrators should be sent 'back to where they came from.'”
