November 8, 2025

This woman has captured the essence of Trump. Thanks to RAS for the link.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Messed-up Nation. Marie: As I read today's news, what strikes me most is not that we're becoming a fascist country. We are, but yesterday even a Trump judge said "enough" to that. What's undeniable, though, is that we're a nation in utter chaos. The government is not functioning. The president is sick and delusional and corrupt. He's anti-American. The administrative agencies, including the justice department, are understaffed and headed by incompetent toadies. Even when the justice system works, the corrupt president upends it. Members of Congress won't even try to legislate. They have decided, however, to deprive tens of millions of Americans of basic necessities. Like health care. And food. The courts are a crap shoot. The administration and the courts go so far as to tell people what sex they are. The effect on the nation is to leave everything in shambles. Even in a fascist nation, the trains can run on time. Here the planes don't move on time because we don't pay our air traffic controllers. 

The military has a policy of killing foreign nationals in violation of human rights, our own laws and international law. The federal government just kicked hundreds of thousands of law-abiding immigrants out of the country -- for no reason. Federal agents have a policy of physically attacking ordinary people. Businesses don't know what to do because at any moment, the whimsical president* may change the rules that regulate their industries. They are laying off hundreds of thousands of workers, and there's no plan to re-employ the unemployed. Americans are alarmed, confused and imbalanced by the chaos. We can't quite agree on what to protest because everything is messed up.  

⭐Tony Romm & Abbie Van Sickle of the New York Times: “Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson late Friday temporarily halted a court order that would have required the Trump administration to fund food stamps in full.... The justice ... imposed a pause meant to give an appeals court more time to weigh legal arguments in the case, as the government forged ahead in its bid to withhold funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the federal shutdown. The order, known as an administrative stay, came as a growing number of states, including New York, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Oregon, had started to release full benefits to their residents anyway. Many announced their plans on a day when even the Agriculture Department had suggested in guidance that it could soon make the money available for food stamps, after initially refusing to do so.” ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein & Marcia Brown of Politico: “Jackson, a Biden appointee, noted that the appeals court indicated it planned to release a further ruling 'as quickly as possible' and she said lifting the deadline for now would “facilitate” the appeals court’s next action, which she said she expected 'with dispatch.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Justice Jackson's order, via Politico. ~~~ 

     ~~~ Earlier That Same Day. David Lieb, et al., of the AP: “A federal appeals court leaves an order in place that requires ... Donald Trump’s administration to provide full SNAP food benefits for November amid a U.S. government shutdown.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Funk & Rio Yamat of the AP: “Anxious travelers across the U.S. felt a bit of relief Friday as airlines mostly stayed on schedule while still cutting more than 1,000 flights largely because of the government shutdown. Plenty of nervousness remained, though, as more canceled flights are coming over the next week to comply with the Federal Aviation Administration’s order to reduce service at the nation’s busiest airports. The order is in response to air traffic controllers — who haven’t been paid in nearly a month as the shutdown drags on — calling out of work in higher numbers as they deal with financial pressure.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Heather Cox Richardson touches on a boatload of topics, including Trump's urging Republican senators to pass laws that would keep Democrats out of power forever. Even the ruthless Mitch McConnell, Cox writes, “stopped Bloomberg News Senate reporter Steven Dennis in the hallway to say: 'We’re not going to do that.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ AND California Gov. Gavin Newsom makes fun of "Dozy Don" sleeping on the job.  

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: “Senate Democrats on Friday substantially scaled back their demand for ending the government shutdown, saying they would be willing to do so in exchange for a one-year extension of expiring health care subsidies. But Republicans quickly rejected the offer, leaving lawmakers no closer to ending a stalemate that has shuttered the government for 38 days. The proposal, announced by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, never had much hope of moving through the Republican-led Congress. Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to commit to even allowing a vote on extending the Obamacare subsidies, with many Republicans opposed to renewing the tax credits, at least without major changes.” (Also linked yesterday.) An NBC News story is here.

⭐Trump-Appointed Judge Curbs His Fascist Ambitions. Anna Griffin of the New York Times: Donald “Trump overstepped his authority when he sought to deploy National Guard troops to Portland, Ore., to protect the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office there, a federal judge ruled on Friday, issuing a permanent block on troop deployments to the city in response to anti-ICE demonstrations. Judge Karin J. Immergut of U.S. District Court, who was nominated to the bench by Mr. Trump, had previously issued a preliminary injunction blocking the president’s order federalizing National Guard soldiers in Oregon in a lawsuit that was brought by the States of Oregon and California and the City of Portland. In her final 106-page ruling, Judge Immergut rejected arguments from government lawyers that protests at the ICE building made it impossible for federal officers to carry out immigration enforcement, represented a rebellion or raised the threat of rebellion. She also found that the attempt to use National Guard soldiers in Oregon had violated the U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment, which gives states any powers not expressly assigned to the federal government.” 

Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: “Darryl Strawberry, the baseball slugger who won the World Series while with the New York Mets and Yankees, but whose career was tainted by drug use and other legal problems, received a pardon from ... [Donald] Trump on Thursday for his three-decade-old tax evasion conviction. In a social media post on Friday, Mr. Strawberry, 63, an eight-time All-Star, said that he received a call on Thursday from Mr. Trump telling him about the pardon in his 1995 tax case.... A White House official on Friday confirmed that Mr. Trump had granted Mr. Strawberry the pardon, saying that the onetime baseball star had served his time and paid back taxes after pleading guilty to one count of tax evasion.” MB: Is it possible that Trump pardoned someone who actually merits a pardon? (Also linked yesterday.) 

Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times: Donald “Trump has approved a pardon for a retired New York police officer who was sentenced in April to 18 months in prison for his participation in a Chinese government plot to locate, surveil and intimidate a family in the New Jersey suburbs. The former officer, Michael McMahon, of Mahwah, N.J., was convicted by a jury in 2023 of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government and interstate stalking, as well as conspiracy.... [Mr. McMahon and his wife] had support from people in Mr. Trump’s orbit, including Representative Mike Lawler, Republican of New York, and Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime Trump associate and friend who had urged the president to issue the pardon.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

Greg Jaffe, et al., of the New York Times: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired or sidelined at least two dozen generals and admirals over the past nine months in a series of ousters that could reshape the U.S. military for years to come. His actions, which are without precedent in recent decades, have come with little explanation. In many cases, they have run counter to the advice of top military leaders who fought alongside the officers in combat, senior military officials said. The utter unpredictability of Mr. Hegseth’s moves, as described in interviews with 20 current and former military officials, has created an atmosphere of anxiety and mistrust that has forced senior officers to take sides and, at times, pitted them against one another.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What's so galling is that someone who is entirely inexperienced & incompetent at his job is firing men and women who have decades of experience where they demonstrated remarkably high competence.

Oops! Adam Liptak of the New York Times highlights how, in attempting to appease Trump, Solicitor General John Sauer may have cost him his precious tariffs. Normally, according to Liptak, the Court pays little attention to politicians' public statements. But in his main brief to the Court, in order to let Trump "have his say," Sauer included -- and therefore adopted -- some of Trump's remarks about the tariffs as a vital source of revenue. Although Sauer argued in Court that the tariffs' revenue production was merely "incidental" to their purpose, the brief suggested otherwise. And revenue-raising, everyone agrees, is a function of Congress, not of the executive. ~~~

     ~~~ Paul Krugman: "... the Supremes ... have so far focused on the fact that tariffs are taxes, and that the Constitution specifically gives taxing authority to Congress and not the president. Fair point. But the Court for International Trade, in their ruling against the Trump tariffs, made a different argument. The Emergency Powers Act only empowers the president to act in response to economic emergencies. And while the White House has declared two such emergencies —trade deficits and fentanyl — the CIT found that neither declaration provided a plausible rationale for the actual tariffs Trump imposed. More broadly, supporting Trump’s tariffs requires engaging in doublethink. You have to believe Trump’s assertions that everything is wonderful, that this is the best economy ever. But you also have to believe that we’re facing an economic emergency that justifies massive tariff increases...."

Marie: We all knew Todd Blanche had no shame, but yesterday he put a bow on that: ~~~ 

~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: “The Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Todd Blanche, let loose Friday, railing against judges blocking administration policies and denying that prosecutions of ... Donald Trump’s enemies constitute weaponization of the justice system. Speaking to a friendly audience of conservative lawyers in Washington, the former Trump defense attorney did not mince words and used some of his most colorful language to denounce the actions of the Justice Department under President Joe Biden....  He ... repeatedly referr[ed] to the wave of litigation over Trump policies as a 'war,' arguing that liberal judges are involved in a broad effort to derail Trump’s agenda.” MB: I guess that includes Trump appointed Judge Karin Immergut who ruled yesterday Trump had overstepped his authority.

Ben Casselman of the New York Times: “With the federal government still shut down, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will not release its scheduled monthly jobs report on Friday, the second missed report in a row. Economists and policymakers haven’t had an official read on the state of the labor market since August — the longest such data blackout on record.... [But s]tate governments have continued to publish weekly data on applications for unemployment benefits, and a variety of private companies release figures on job openings, hiring, wages and other topics based on surveys and data from their customers.... Taken together, the available data suggest that the labor market has not changed drastically since the summer. Employers are not adding many jobs but have avoided resorting to widespread layoffs — a 'low-hire, low-fire' limbo that has kept the unemployment rate low but made it difficult for people without jobs to find them.... There are hints that a more troubling deterioration could be underway. Amazon, UPS, IBM and other big employers have disclosed plans to lay off thousands of workers in recent weeks....” (Also linked yesterday.)

Jill Cowen & Mimi Dwyer of the New York Times: Immigration “agents arrested a U.S. citizen they said had attacked them, and then they drove off with the man’s toddler. The arrest occurred during an immigration enforcement operation at a Home Depot in the Cypress Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.... The father, a U.S. citizen, faces a gun possession charge.... [As the incident unfolded,] immigrant rights activists stood nearby, taking video and shouting at the agents, who were masked and heavily armed.... [The citizen, Dennis] Quiñonez, was taken [from his] vehicle. An armed agent slid into the driver’s seat of his Chevy. 'There’s a baby in the back!' an onlooker shouted.... Another agent, wearing body armor and carrying a rifle, got into the passenger seat.... Then the driver reversed the car and drove away.... The girl was reunited with her grandmother later in the day. But immigrant rights groups say the episode underscores how federal agents across the country have pushed legal boundaries, sometimes in the presence of children, as they carry out the Trump administration’s agenda to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.”

Maria Paúl of the Washington Post: “...  more than 600,000 Venezuelans ... have, as of Friday, lost temporary protected status, or TPS — a designation that shielded them from deportation and allowed many to work and live in the United States. Overnight, some lost the jobs they’d held for years; others closed shops, walked away from leases and left homes standing empty. Many have also lost their licenses, health insurance and access to routine care. The decision to revoke the protection triggered what Venezuelan American activist Adelys Ferro called 'the largest mass illegalization of a group in this country’s history.' And it comes at a time when ... Donald Trump is sinking alleged Venezuelan drug boats and gathering U.S. forces in the region, raising the possibility of land strikes.... After years of living here under TPS, countless Venezuelans now have expired passports and no embassy to renew them. The only place that would accept them with those documents is the very country they fled — one still gripped by an authoritarian regime....

“In a Federal Register notice from February, the Trump administration contended that there had been notable improvements in Venezuela in areas such as the 'economy, public health, and crime.' However, the assertion is belied by a year marked by political repression, economic collapse and mounting threats of war.”  

Janay Kingsberry of the Washington Post: “Descendants of Norman Rockwell this week accused the Department of Homeland Security of misrepresenting the painter’s beliefs through unauthorized social media posts of his work.... Since the summer, DHS has shared posts across its Facebook, Instagram and X accounts of paintings from well-known artists that include Thomas Kinkade, John Gast and Rockwell, as well as the living painter Morgan Weistling — each accompanied by captions or slogans that promote nationalist and patriotic themes. But after members of Rockwell’s family published an opinion piece Sunday in USA Today condemning the use of his art, DHS doubled down with another post of his work — this time paired with a quote attributed to the American painter.... Daisy Rockwell, the painter’s granddaughter and spokesperson for the family, said the quote is being used out of context to suggest that the painter would have been aligned with ... Donald Trump’s 'Make America Great Again' messaging. 'They posted [that] in the spirit of trolling that they seem to be adept at,'  she said in a phone interview with The Washington Post. 'I’m not really that surprised,' she added. 'This is an administration that just randomly tore down a third of the White House, so they’re not feeling very sensitive toward our nation’s cultural heritage.'... Daisy Rockwell said the department has not contacted the family or addressed their accusations of copyright infringement....” (Also linked yesterday.)

Far above Cayuga's waters
Rose an awful smell.
Some say t'was Cayuga's waters;
Others say Cornell. 

Cornell Capitulates. Stephanie Saul & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: “Cornell University reached an agreement with the Trump administration on Friday that will restore hundreds of millions in federal funding to the university, according to school and government officials. The agreement would also end government investigations that placed the Ivy League school under months of federal scrutiny over accusations of antisemitism and admissions discrimination. It is the fifth such deal that the Trump administration has announced since early July in connection with its pressure campaign against top schools. Under the terms of the agreement, Cornell is expected to pay a $30 million fine to the government — a pledge that the president of a Cornell faculty rights group called a 'bribe' — and to invest $30 million on programs designed to enhance efficiency and lower costs in agriculture and farming. A land-grant institution, Cornell is known for its agricultural research programs.”

Juan Perez & Hassan Kanu of Politico: “A federal judge Friday ordered the Education Department to remove what he described as partisan language from employees’ automated out-of-office email responses — a win for unionized department workers who accused the Trump administration of violating their First Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said the agency wrongfully assigned workers email responses that blamed congressional Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown — siding with the American Federation of Government Employees, which sued last month to challenge email messages the labor union said forced workers to 'involuntarily parrot the Trump Administration’s talking points with emails sent out in their names.'”

Ann Marimow of the New York Times: “Justice Clarence Thomas used a concurring opinion in the [the case eliminating the right to abortion] to urge reconsideration of Obergefell v. Hodges, the ruling that legalized gay marriage nationwide.... . Now, the justices are considering whether to hear a case that would ask them to overturn the 2015 [legalization of gay marriage] decision, weighing the petition at their private conference on Friday. It would take the votes of four justices to accept the case. If they decline to hear it, as many legal experts expect, they could announce the denial as soon as Monday. Were the justices to agree to hear the case, a major step, they would likely only do so after considering it in at least two consecutive conferences.... The petition before the court was filed by Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who gained national prominence in 2015 when she defied a court order and refused to issue same-sex licenses because of her religious beliefs.” MB: Maybe everybody should get her day in court, but Kim Davis has had hers and then some. Just considering considering overturning Obergefell is so cruel. (Also linked yesterday.)

M. Gessen of the New York Times: “State-issued documents aren’t just tools to allow identification; they’re also tools to enforce hierarchies. In his book 'The Passport in America,' the historian Craig Robertson argues that the document has served both to affirm and to assign such attributes of identity as class, race and gender. That last category didn’t show up on the U.S. passport until 1976, after a panel of experts convened by the State Department noted that the rise of 'unisex attire and hairstyles' had made it harder to determine a person’s sex. 'Gender markers thus were born out of the fear that gender was becoming ungovernable,' wrote the immigration attorney Lauren DesRosiers.... As the Times editorial board has pointed out, Trump has undertaken a campaign to force trans people out of public life — by executive-ordering us out of existence. The Supreme Court’s decision [to allow] ... the State Department to stop issuing passports with the X designation ... advances that campaign significantly. The point of the executive order was not to restore 'historical facts' but to enforce a gendered social hierarchy and to punish those who do not conform to it.”

Megan Lebowitz & Peter Nicholas of NBC News: “Hours before the deadline Friday, the Trust for the National Mall mostly evaded questions in response to a letter from Democratic senators concerned about President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project. Nor did the trust, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., provide the documentation that the lawmakers had requested.... The trust is stewarding the millions of dollars in private donations paying for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom, though in the past it has focused on smaller, nonpartisan projects like preserving Washington, D.C.’s cherry blossom trees and renovating horse stables on the National Mall. The Democratic lawmakers had expressed deep skepticism about the organization’s role as a conduit for the private donations bankrolling the project.... Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who co-signed the letter, said that ... [the] written response was 'insultingly unsatisfying.'”

Reid Epstein of the New York Times: “Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. lashed out on Friday at his successor, delivering an impassioned address in which he warned that the country was in a 'very, very dark moment' and said ... [Donald] Trump had acted 'in a way that embarrasses us as a nation.' Mr. Biden, speaking at a Nebraska Democratic Party fund-raising dinner in Omaha, condemned Mr. Trump for 'deliberately making hunger worse for America' and accused him of taking a 'wrecking ball' to the White House, the Constitution and the rule of law while enriching his own family.... In his first overtly political speech since leaving office, Mr. Biden warned that the nation had slipped into difficult times — but said this week’s elections were a reason for optimism.”

⭐Adam Nagourney, et al., of the New York Times: Nancy “Pelosi, who announced on Thursday her plans to retire from Congress, is known nationally as a Washington leader praised by Democrats for standing up to ... [Donald] Trump and derided by Republicans as a symbol of the radical excesses of the left. But back home, her reputation was shaped by how she stepped forward at the earliest and most terrifying moment of a local crisis and how she fought to help her constituents deal with the AIDS epidemic and fight for L.G.B.T.Q. rights.” MB: This story is a real tearjerker, but buck up & read it anyway. The link is a gift link.

     ~~~ Marie: Nancy Pelosi has said she prays for Donald Trump. Trump, who doesn't understand the first thing about faith or human decency, said he didn't believe her. This week, he called Pelosi "evil." I'll just call that "projection." 

Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times: “A task force dedicated to fighting antisemitism is leaving the Heritage Foundation as the conservative think tank grapples with the fallout from its president’s defense of a Tucker Carlson podcast interview with a prominent white nationalist. In an email obtained by The New York Times, four leaders of the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism wrote on Thursday that it was 'important for us to continue the work of the N.T.F.C.A. outside the Heritage Foundation for a season.'” (Also linked yesterday.)

Francesca Regalado & Qasim Nauman of the New York Times: “UPS and FedEx, two of the world’s largest cargo airlines, said late Friday that they had grounded their MD-11 planes, days after one of the planes was involved in a deadly crash in Kentucky. Both carriers said they had taken the step to immediately ground their MD-11s on the recommendation of the plane’s manufacturer. The MD-11 was originally produced by McDonnell Douglas, which was bought by Boeing in the 1990s.”

~~~~~~~~~~