Marie: And here I was complaining earlier today about how Senate Democrats don't know how to recruit quality candidates. Oh, shame on me: ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: I kept on posting till 10 am ET.
Question of the Day: Just who is president*? ~~~
~~~ One person wondering about this: Chris Hayes: ~~~
~~~ Megan Mineiro & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: “The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee said on Friday that the Pentagon had refused for weeks to share with Congress key information about its strikes on marine vessels that the Trump administration says are carrying drugs, despite repeated requests that it divulge the directives initiating the operation as well as its legal justification. In a brief statement on Friday, Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the panel, and Senator Jack Reed, the senior Democrat, made public two letters that they jointly sent to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the past several weeks requesting the information. 'To date, these documents have not been submitted,' Mr. Wicker and Mr. Reed wrote. The senators’ decision to publicize their requests and Mr. Hegseth’s failure to meet them reflected growing bipartisan alarm on Capitol Hill about ... [Donald] Trump’s expanding and open-ended military campaign, undertaken without consultation with or approval by Congress. It also reflected deepening frustration with the administration’s lack of transparency about an operation whose legal justification is in question.” ~~~
~~~Nick Cumming-Bruce of the New York Times: “The United Nations human rights chief has condemned the Trump administration’s military strikes on boats that it says are being used to smuggle drugs from South America, saying that they violate international law and should be investigated. Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement released on Friday that there was no justification under international law for the strikes, which have killed at least 61 people since the start of September.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times writes more about Trump's preoccupations: “The pain of the government shutdown is growing more acute as it grinds toward the five-week mark, with Congress showing little movement toward a resolution. But ... [Donald] Trump has been attending to other matters. Just hours after returning from a trip across Asia, Mr. Trump left Washington on Friday for a Halloween party and a fund-raiser at his Florida residence. When he weighed in briefly on the shutdown, it was to cast the potential loss of benefits that millions of Americans rely on for groceries as mostly a problem for Democratic voters. Rather than offer steps he might take to bring the crisis to a close, Mr. Trump called attention to the new details of his renovation of a White House bathroom. ~~~
~~~ About That Halloween Party. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump attacked Democrats in a rant about being forced to pay SNAP benefits during the government shutdown — even as he threw a glitzy Great Gatsby-themed party at Mar-a-lago.... Shortly after [courts ruled the administration was required by law to pay SNAP benefits from contingency funds], Trump posted a lengthy rant on the rulings even as he was preparing to welcome guests to a party modeled on the epitome of obscene wealth. Trump wrote that he ... would [pay out benefits] only 'If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court': '... I do NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT....' Trump included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office phone number.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I wonder if Trump knows what happened to Gatsby. Perhaps he does, but he probably counts on being more Tom Buchanan than Jay Gatsby: "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made...." And so far, Trump has been right. ~~~
~~~ Before we get to Trump's renovation preoccupation, let us spend a moment on his assertion about Democratic voters being the main recipients of food stamps. Linda Qiu of the New York Times calculates that Democrats do appear to make up a slight majority of SNAP recipients, but that millions of Republican voters will lose their food stamps, too. However ~~~
~~~ Philip Bump looks at the not-so-sub racist subtext of Trump's assertion: First, Bump cites a few Republicans making racist assumptions about crack-smoking, hair-weaving SNAP recipients. Then he notes: "As it turns out, there are a lot more White households receiving SNAP benefits than Black (or Hispanic or Asian) households. Nationally, there are 1.8 White households getting SNAP benefits for every Black one.... t is true that a larger proportion of Black households than White households receive SNAP benefits. But, as I noted earlier this week, that’s in large part because SNAP benefits are (as you’d expect) closely correlated to household income and poverty levels. Since Black households tend to have lower incomes — itself a function of endemic and institutionalized racism! — those households are also more likely to receive SNAP benefits. Benefits, I’ll note, that are almost exclusively used for their intended purpose: food."
~~~ Bad Reno Man. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: “On Friday, Mr. Trump said he had renovated the bathroom in the Lincoln Bedroom, posting two dozen photos on social media as he continues to remodel the White House in his own style. Mr. Trump said the new design of black and white marble with gold faucets and light fixtures was 'very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln.'... Edward Lengel, who served as the chief historian of the White House Historical Association, said of the photos Mr. Trump posted: 'It doesn’t look anything like 1860s interiors to me.'... 'Highly polished, Statuary marble!' Mr. Trump declared on social media as he posted images of his new Lincoln bathroom, even as some households planned on handing out canned soup in lieu of candy.... The White House did not say, in response to questions, who paid for the renovation, how much it cost or which contractor built it.” The Independent's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trump is, appropriately enough for this discussion, full of crap. Here's one of the photos Trump posted of his reno, which he claims is appropriate to the 1860s:
~~~ Actually, no. A fancy 1860s bathroom might have had a marble or granite sink counter and backsplash. But wall-to-wall marble, a brass-framed, plain glass shower door, a bathtub niche & a hotel bathrobe? Absolutely not. There was hot-and-cold running water in the White House by 1860, and a "bathing room" with a tub, according to the White House Historical Association's Website. It isn't clear whether or not the White House had a flushing toilet then, but as it reportedly had "the best domestic technology of its time," maybe it did. If the White House had a fancy tub in the 1860s, it might have looked like this (though this is a later Victorian bathroom): ~~~
~~~ The room probably had a lot of wood in it. Whatever the style, it did not take half a marble mountain to clad its walls. Trump's renovation is (a) ahistorical, and (b) embarrassing.
Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: “Judges on Friday ordered the federal government to continue providing food assistance during the shutdown. But benefits will still most likely be interrupted. Late on Friday..., [Donald] Trump said that the administration would provide the funding for food stamps in November once a federal court could clarify 'how we can legally' supply the money. But he indicated that a delay was inevitable.... The disruption to SNAP is just one example of how federal programs have been imperiled — not just by the month-old shutdown, but also by the administration’s efforts to curtail spending on social programs as part of the domestic policy and tax cut law that [Mr.] Trump signed in July. Federal funding for several antipoverty programs will dry up this month because of the shutdown, affecting tens of millions of Americans who depend on subsidies for child care and utilities as well as food.” Read on. The link is a gift link. ~~~
Two of the most impressive Members of Congress come out of Colorado. One of them is Joe Neguse. RAS found him reframing a reporter's question: ~~~
Marie: Yesterday I linked to a New York Times story that reported that in 2019, shortly after Jeffrey Epstein's death, JPMorgan Chase told the Trump administration of more than $1 billion in suspicious transactions that may have been related to human trafficking. Here are some non-firedwalled reports: the Independent's is here; the Guardian's is here.
The Most Transparent White House Ever! Aaron Pellish of Politico: “Members of the media who cover the White House will no longer have free access to an office in the West Wing used by communications staff, the Trump administration said Friday in its latest move to rein in the press corps. Reporters seeking to speak with White House officials in the office will now need an appointment, according to a memo released Friday by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Steven Cheung, the communications director, both of whom work in the now restricted area.”
Marie: Over the past several days, I have been trying to keep up with the worst racist stuff JayDee has been saying, and I have failed. Luckily, Evan Hurst of Wonkette has curated the collection for us, and lest you think JayDee is some ordinary racist prick, Hurst's summary should disabuse you of that idea as fast and as thoroughly as JayDee can sully the sitting-room settee. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Not Just a Racist, But a Misogynist and a Christian Nationalist, Too. Amy Qin of the New York Times: “Vice President JD Vance provoked a broad backlash this week after he said that he hoped that his wife, Usha Vance, who is of Indian heritage and was raised in a Hindu family, would eventually convert to his own Catholic faith.... He said during an event at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday, in response to a question from the audience, 'Yeah, I honestly do wish that because I believe in the Christian Gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way.'... Mrs. Vance has not responded publicly to her husband’s comments or the backlash. But on Friday, Mr. Vance responded to the upswell of criticism. In a reply to a commenter on X who accused him of throwing his wife’s religion 'under the bus,' Mr. Vance called the message 'disgusting' and full of 'anti-Christian bigotry.'”
We Just Paid a Bundle for Kash's Date Night. Ellen Houghtaling of the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! News: “FBI Director Kash Patel met his girlfriend at Penn State this past weekend to watch a wrestling match — but his travel to the university stadium appears to have been on the American public’s dime. Patel made the trek to support his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, who performed a song as part of 'Real American Freestyle,' a wrestling promotion co-founded earlier this year by the late Hulk Hogan. ... Former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin noted on X that it was a government jet that arrived at and departed from State College Regional Airport, the runway nearest Penn State, on Saturday. The jet owner’s listed address, according to its FAA registration, is the FBI’s national headquarters in Washington. After Penn State, the plane flew to Nashville, where Wilkins lives. The jet’s recent flight log pre–Penn State jaunt also matches Patel’s itinerary, paralleling his travel last week between Washington and Philadelphia, reported The Bulwark. It’s a bit of a hypocritical development for the former podcaster, who used to regularly chastise government officials for needless spending before joining the Trump administration.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ See yesterday's page for Stephen Colbert's take on Kash's date night.
Katie Thomas & Julie Bosman of the New York Times: “Federal immigration agents fanned out across Chicago and its North Shore suburbs on Halloween, chasing suspects through front yards, driving S.U.V.s onto sidewalks and using chemical agents during confrontations with furious residents. Several people, including at least one woman who said that she was a U.S. citizen, were arrested after appearing to interfere with immigration operations. In Evanston, a suburb north of Chicago, Border Patrol agents detained at least one additional person after a car rear-ended the agents’ vehicle on Friday, according to the Evanston police.... Videos shared with the The New York Times show the agents tackling the driver, a woman, to the ground.... One officer briefly pulled a weapon and aimed it at the crowd, one of the videos shows.... In Albany Park, on Chicago’s Northwest Side, Border Patrol agents on Friday morning arrested at least two people who had physically confronted them, witnesses said.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Chris Hayes showed photos of federal agents who were on patrol wearing ghoulish Halloween masks. ~~~
~~~ Marieanne Levine & Robert Klemko of the Washington Post: “Federal immigration officers are using chemical irritants to disperse protesters in ways that violate American policing norms and are testing the boundaries of use of force laws, video footage from Chicago shows, in some cases hitting demonstrators directly with the munitions. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have deployed tear gas in cities around the country, but its use has been especially prevalent in Chicago.... Federal officers have thrown chemical agents out of vehicles on city streets, creating a hazard for motorists. They have thrown tear-gas canisters near stores and schools, exposing children, pregnant people and the elderly to the noxious gas. And on numerous occasions federal officers have fired pepper balls directly at protesters — in one case, striking a pastor in the head.... Last week, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official leading the Chicago operation, was videotaped throwing a tear-gas canister into a crowd.... Residents and local journalists have captured footage showing clouds of tear gas drifting toward homes, storefronts and schools.” ~~~
~~~ Bellingcat: "Bellingcat’s analysis of social media videos from 28 events in Illinois from Oct. 9 to Oct. 27 found multiple examples of force and riot control weapons being used. In total, we found seven that appeared to show the use of riot control weapons when there was seemingly no apparent immediate threat by protesters and no audible warnings given. Nineteen showed use of force, such as tackling people to the ground when they were not visibly resisting. Another seven showed agents ordering or threatening people to leave public places. Some of the events identified showed incidents that appeared to fall into more than one of these categories." ~~~
~~~ Marie: In case you're wondering who Bellingcat is, according to Wikipedia, it is "a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT).... Bellingcat publishes the findings of both professional and citizen journalist investigations into war zones, human rights abuses, and the criminal underworld.... In 2025, Bellingcat expanded operations to the United States. Bellingcat began as an investigation into the use of weapons in the Syrian civil war. It [has reported] on the Russo-Ukrainian War (including the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17), the El Junquito raid, the Yemeni Civil War, the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, and the killing of civilians by the Cameroon Armed Forces...." So -- thanks to Donald Trump and his goons, that's where the U.S. is now: lumped right in there with international war criminals and political assassins.
You can tell an idiot,
You can tell a dunce.
You can tell Donald,
But you can't just tell him once. ~~~
~~~~ Kyle Cheney of Politico: “More than 100 federal judges have now ruled at least 200 times that the Trump administration’s effort to systematically detain immigrants facing possible deportation appeared to violate their rights or was just flatly illegal.... The rulings come from judges appointed by every president since Ronald Reagan, including 12 appointed by ... Donald Trump.... Since July 8, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement reversed 30 years of practice and determined that ICE must lock up everyone facing deportation — even if they’ve lived in the country for decades and have no criminal record — federal courts have issued increasing warnings. The new ICE policy, they note, doesn’t just subject millions more people to detention while they fight deportation, it also bars them from even asking an immigration judge to consider releasing them on bond.”
Maxine Joselow of the New York Times: “Until recently, Forrest Smith was the sole employee at the National Park Service responsible for cleaning up dozens of abandoned oil and gas wells at national parks across the country. But last month, the Park Service did not renew Mr. Smith’s four-year contract. Now it is unclear whether anyone will clean up an estimated 93 abandoned wells on federal lands managed by the Park Service. The wells are at high risk of spewing planet-warming gases into the atmosphere and contaminating groundwater, posing significant threats to the environment and public health.... During the Biden administration, Mr. Smith was part of a four-person team that inspected and plugged abandoned wells with cement. The three other engineers left in recent months after accepting other jobs. The agency did not replace them, and it has not filled Mr. Smith’s role either, citing ... [Donald] Trump’s freeze on hiring civilian federal employees.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Kadia Goba & Dylan Wells of the Washington Post: “Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina), who is running for governor of her state, berated police officers and Transportation Security Administration officials at Charleston International Airport on Thursday, according to an incident report from the Charleston airport police. 'She repeatedly stated we were “F------ Incompetent,” and “this is no way to treat a f------ US Representative,’” Pfc. Aaron W. Reed, who serves with the airport police, wrote in the report. Reed also wrote that Mace told officers they 'would never treat Tim Scott like this,' referring to the U.S. senator from the state and former GOP presidential candidate.... Reed further wrote that Mace 'was cursing and complaining' as officers escorted her to her gate and that she continued her 'tirade' until boarding. Another officer present for the encounter ... offered a corroborating statement.... According to the report, the encounter between Mace and airport police began after the lawmaker grew angry with airport officials because she had not been met at her vehicle.” The New York Times report is here. The NBC News report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: There are two things going on here: (1) Mace is crazy; (2) Mace is full of herself.
Zach Montague of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Washington permanently barred the Trump administration on Friday from requiring proof of citizenship on federal voter registration forms, a change dictated in an executive order ... [Donald] Trump signed in March. The ruling definitively halted the effort to compel the Elections Assistance Commission, an independent body, to adopt nationwide changes to voting procedures at a time when the president has also called for requiring voter identification in elections and ending mail-in voting. For months, voting rights groups have warned that those changes, in tandem with the deployment of the national guard to the streets of Democratic-led cities, resembled steps of a voter-suppression strategy. In a firm 81-page opinion, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that Mr. Trump’s order clearly violated the separation of powers, claiming authority over the voting process not afforded by the Constitution.... Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesman, said the government would appeal Judge Kollar-Kotelly’s latest ruling.” The AP's report is here.
Rachel Leingang of the Guardian: “Conservatives are fighting among themselves over the far-right commentator Tucker Carlson’s decision to interview the antisemitic white supremacist Nick Fuentes on his podcast, where the two men decried conservatives who support Israel. Kevin Roberts, the head of the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank, defended Carlson after the episode, saying Carlson 'remains and, as I have said before, always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation'. The response from ... the group behind Project 2025 ... has roiled some of its supporters and deepened a chasm on the right over support of Israel and antisemitism. On the podcast, Carlson called out Republicans including Senator Ted Cruz, the former ... ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, for being 'Christian Zionists' who have been 'seized by this brain virus'.... Fuentes ... said on the podcast that 'organized Jewry' held outsize influence and said he was a fan of Joseph Stalin.... Fuentes ... [said later,] 'We are done with the Jewish oligarchy. We are done with the slavish surrender to Israel, the wars, the foreign aid, the policing of antisemitism, the Holocaust religion and propaganda.'”
~~~~~~~~~~
Maine Senate Race. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: Graham “Platner is the oyster farmer and former Marine with a baritone voice and a Bernie Sanders endorsement who this fall came seemingly out of nowhere to capture progressive hearts nationwide. Recently, a barrage of ugly revelations made it look like perhaps all the hope invested in him had been misplaced.... But people in Maine kept telling me that on the ground, the Platner campaign still looked very much alive.... Many in the grass roots resented what they saw as an attempt by Democratic leadership to take down Platner and thus boost Janet Mills, the state’s 77-year-old governor, who announced her Senate campaign two weeks ago.... He’s nothing like the edgelord caricature I encountered online. And the crowds he’s bringing out — some of the largest in Maine, I heard repeatedly, since Barack Obama ran for president — are testament to a roiling discontent among Democrats that seems bound, one way or another, to transform the party.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Goldberg expresses her reservations about Platner -- and about Mills. What's clear to me is that Senate Democrats have no idea how to recruit viable candidates. Both of these things can be true: Janet Mills is great, and a freshman senator should not be 77 years old. Both of these things can be true, too: Platner is a talented, convincing public speaker, and he is a self-absorbed, unstable phony.
New York/Texas. Pam Belluck of the New York Times: “A judge in New York State on Friday dismissed a lawsuit in the first legal challenge by a conservative state against shield laws intended to protect health care providers who send abortion pills to patients in states with abortion bans. The lawsuit was filed in July by the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, to compel a New York court to enforce an order by a Texas judge in a case filed last year against a New York doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to a patient in Texas. The order levied a $113,000 penalty on the physician, Dr. Margaret Carpenter, and barred her from continuing to send abortion medication to Texas. Mr. Paxton’s efforts had been rebuffed earlier this year by the acting clerk of Ulster County, N.Y. The clerk, Taylor Bruck, refused to accept Mr. Paxton’s legal filing, citing New York’s shield law, designed to protect health care providers who prescribe abortion pills by telemedicine and send them to patients in states with abortion bans. Under shield laws, which about 20 states have adopted in some form, the authorities are prevented from obeying subpoenas, extradition requests and other legal actions that other states take against abortion providers. The laws are a stark departure from typical interstate practices of cooperating in legal matters.”
12 comments:
"DHS: You Cannot Refuse To Have Your Face Scanned
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not let people decline to be scanned by its new facial recognition app, which the agency uses to verify a person’s identity and their immigration status, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document obtained by 404 Media.
The document also says any face photos taken by the app, called Mobile Fortify, will be stored for 15 years, including those of U.S. citizens. The document provides new details about the technology behind Mobile Fortify, how the data it collects is processed and stored, and DHS’s rationale for using it."
Balloon Juice has some videos of Brooke Rollins and Mike Johnson talking about starving Americans. Rollins briefly admits some truths before Johnson breaks his Lord's commandment.
Because they are ghouls...
"Trump Hosts “Great Gatsby” Party Amid Shutdown
President Donald Trump held a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday, just a few hours before funding for federal food assistance for millions of low-income Americans was set to lapse.
Associated Press White House Correspondent Danny Kemp posted a photo from the party, showing guests decked out in Roaring ’20s attire. The photo features Trump dressed in regular 2020s attire."
And in blaming Democrats for his administration's deliberate cruelty Trump gave out Chuck Schumer's office number for his cult to harass.
"Replying to Bill Gates’ new missive about climate, Bill McKibben " feel[s] quite strongly that we should pay less attention to billionaires" in The Crucial Years -writing: Climate Gates
"Any conversation about Bill Gates and climate should begin by acknowledging that he’s been wrong about it over and over again. He’s explained that up until 2006—i.e., 18 years after Jim Hansen’s testimony before Congress laying out the science, and well past the point where George W. Bush had acknowledged its reality—he like Trump thought the whole thing was a crock. “I had assumed there were cyclical variations or other factors that would naturally prevent a true climate disaster,” he explained—at the time he was the richest man in the world, and yet his scientific advisors couldn’t get across the simple facts to him."
Oliver Kornetzke's short essay on Marco Rubio doesn't quite square with Chris Hayes' description of Rubio's role as one of the presidents*. Instead, Kornetzke describes Rubio, frequently photographed behind t**** as t**** babbles on, as practicing for his role in Hell’s customer service department
"Just take a long, good look at Marco Rubio in this photo—standing there beside Trump like a dumb wax figurine someone forgot to unplug, smiling with the stupid, flat, haunted expression of a man whose soul’s been in escrow since 2016. You can see it in his eyes—those vacant, fogged-over little marbles that once held ambition but now just reflect fluorescent lighting and regret. There’s no pulse, no conviction—just the faint little hum of pathetic servitude, the sound a hollowed-out man makes when he’s realized he’s sold his soul not to the devil for power, but for the privilege of being the Devil’s bitch."
The Large print taketh and the small print taketh even more.
Your call is important to us!
How often have you heard that and thought "Well crap, if it was that important, how come I've been on hold now for half an hour". Usually I hang up by then, but not until I've woken the dog by yelling at a robot to PLEASE let me speak to a human being.
One of my favorite podcasts is 99% Invisible. No, the podcast isn't invisible, that's its name. It's about stuff we rarely see on the surface but which has dramatic consequences and impact in our lives. They investigate everything from counterfeit money drawn by hand (a great story) to the way rebar was improved to support concrete structures, and how those signs you see at the olympics representing the different sports were created...stuff you see (or not) but never think much about.
This particular episode looks at call centers, you know, the places you have to ring when something you bought two days ago blows up and all you want to do is cash in on their 99 year guaranteed by god warranty.
Yeah, good luck. If you've ever thought that being bounced from person to robot to robot to person and given the run around is actually a strategy companies use to make sure you can't cash in that warranty or get the help they promised, you're not wrong.
But something else they check in this podcast is the way the Trump Reich uses the same strategies to keep Americans from getting what's promised in the Big Beautiful Bullshit Bill. The bullshit they throw in your way to make sure you can't get what you're supposed to is called "Sludge", the industry term of art for "Thanks for calling, but you can fuck off and die now."
And do check out some of their other offerings, such as Elizabeth Warren deconstructing the Constitution. Other eps cover design, architecture, history, technology, objects, and cities. It's very cool stuff.
And Marie, thanks for foregrounding Bellingcat. I forget where I first heard about them but I seem to recall it involved some pretty dangerous reporting that brought to light some nasty business. They are a great operation. If they were based in the US, you can bet Fat Hitler would be siccing Kash and Carry, the Gnome, Himmler Miller, and maybe his ICE goons on these people.
@akaWendy: It is hard to argue with Kornetzke's assessment of Little Marco: "You can really see it in his eyes that have that sad embalmed glaze unique to men who’ve traded all their integrity for proximity to power and then forgot why they ever wanted either."
On the other hand, the tinpot orange messiah is not looking so lively, either.
Perhaps we should layer upon Trump's infirmity and preoccupations Hannah Arendt's observation (of which Krugman reminded us the other day) that "Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty."
That is, Trump is not interested in or capable of running the government except insofar as it benefits him financially or flatters him or amuses him. So he is willing to pass off the work of governmenting to his loyal, vicious underlings -- Marco & Miller & Vought -- while he accepts monetary tributes & jet planes & golden crowns, and designs semi-permanent monuments to himself like the golden ballroom & the Arc de Trumpf.
Marie, I read Michelle Goldberg's account of her time with Graham Platner. I live in Maine, I am 69 and I'm somewhat liberal. I'm waiting until April 2026 to tune into who's running for what. There are LOTS of people running for various offices in this state and the ad deluge is maddening. I admire Janet Mills. I liked how she put Paul Lepage in his place and I like her standing up to that asshat president. She's done a decent job of being governor, especially with the republican yahoos we have in the legislature and Covid. However, I do not want her to run for senator. It's 20 years too late. She is too old. It's time for younger people to step up and take the reins from us boomers. I emailed her when I first heard that she's running. I told her I wouldn't vote for her in the primary and if she won the primary, she'd lose to that incompetent Susan Collins. That wrecks her legacy I believe. I'm not alone in this feeling.
Marie -
I can't argue with any of your points (or Kornetzke's either)
As seen on Bluesky, tune into 60 Minutes on Sunday for a "wide-ranging" interview with t****, and count the number of probable video edits - Parlor Game?
Private ICE
"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering hiring private bounty hunters to locate immigrants across the country, according to a procurement document reviewed by The Intercept. Under the plan, bounty hunters may receive “monetary bonuses” depending on how successfully they track down their targets — and how many immigrants they then report to ICE."
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