~~~ Marie: I can see I haven't done enough. I suspect akaWendy would recommend sending one of these alternative Daily Show Valentine's messages to your favorite fascist. After all, as Bad Bunny says, the only thing more powerful than hate is love: ~~~
A person filled with hate & resentment shrivels into obscurity. It turns out the same thing happens to great nations. ~~~
~~~ David Sanger of the New York Times: “The disputes this past year between Washington and Europe — over tariffs, Greenland, free speech for right-wing political parties and the Trump administration’s declaration that Europe is headed to 'civilizational erasure' unless it controls its borders — have obscured a more fundamental shift. Leaders of several European nations said that after that series of shocks they are talking about 'de-risking' from the United States.... The Europeans now warn of threats that the Americans, in their speeches to the conference, never acknowledged. And among them is Mr. Trump’s unpredictability.... Evidence of the damage done over the past year was everywhere.... Perhaps the biggest concern voiced by European officials now is that Mr. Trump will agree to almost any kind of deal on Ukraine, to claim a victory even if it sets Mr. Putin up for future attacks. Petr Pavel, the Czech president, said, 'A very quick peace will not result in a Nobel Prize for peace, but in 'another aggression.'”
Susan Haigh of the AP: “The U.S. State Department has ordered certain public libraries nationwide to cease processing passport applications, disrupting a long-standing service that librarians say their communities have come to rely on and that has run smoothly for years. The agency, which regulates U.S. passports, began issuing cease and desist orders to not-for-profit libraries in late fall.... A State Department spokesperson said the order was given because federal law and regulations 'clearly prohibit non-governmental organizations' from collecting and retaining fees for a passport application. Government-run libraries are not impacted.... The American Library Association estimates about 1,400 mostly non-profit public libraries nationwide could potentially be affected, or about 15% of all public libraries.... Members of Congress from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland are pushing back, sending a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio this month asking him to extend the existing program until Congress finds a permanent solution.” ~~~
~~~ Thanks to RAS for the lead. RAS is so surprised about the State Department's sudden effort to make it harder to get a passport: "Just as the Republicans are saying we will be needing a passport to vote." Huh.
⭐Matt Shumer on X: "Something Big Is Happening." ~~~
~~~ Maureen Dowd of the New York Times has more words to the wise from people who know.
Kyle Cheney & Myah Ward of Politico: “Federal immigration authorities say they no longer have to provide on-demand access to detention facilities for members of Congress. The reason? The government shutdown. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who have been fighting a lawsuit brought by Democratic lawmakers over prior denied visit attempts, have informed lawmakers that they simply don’t have the staff or funding to support those visits.... In court, ICE has added another explanation: As a result of the shutdown, there’s now no law on the books that requires the Trump administration to accommodate lawmakers’ visits. That requirement had been contained in government funding laws that expired when the shutdown began. Instead, ICE informed U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb that it is now funding its operations with appropriations made in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which does not require congressional access.” ~~~
~~~ Aah, but these visits aren't really necessary, are they? ~~~
~~~ Katie Thomas, et al., of the New York Times: “... CoreCivic[, the publicly traded detention company has secured contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars since ... [Donald] Trump took office last year, but it has a checkered track record of providing medical care to the people in its facilities. In recent years, it has been accused of falsifying records to disguise unsafe conditions, failing to provide lifesaving medications, and being slow to take critically ill people to the hospital, according to court records, government audits, sworn declarations and interviews with lawyers and people who were detained.... Aside from [measles] outbreaks [in CoreCivic centers in Texas and Arizona], more than a dozen detainees and immigration lawyers in both states detailed unsanitary conditions and lax care. They described hourslong waits to see a nurse, only to be turned away and told they were not sick enough to receive care. People with injuries often wait days or weeks to receive X-rays, diabetes patients lack regular access to insulin and people hoping to see outside specialists ... are frequently denied.... Those lucky enough to see a doctor ... sometimes must wait days or weeks before [prescribed] medication arrives.... Illnesses spread rapidly throughout the facilities..., accelerated by sleeping quarters that are often cramped and communal bathrooms that are often filthy.... When several children fell ill with stomach ailments at Dilley, CoreCivic’s medical staff refused to treat them unless they had already vomited at least eight times.”
The New York Times is running a liveblog on developments in the search for Nancy Guthrie, the elderly woman who is believed to have been kidnapped from her home near Tucson, Arizona. ~~~
“The F.B.I. on Thursday released a description of a suspect who appeared in doorbell camera footage at Ms. Guthrie’s home the night she was taken, saying the person was male, approximately 5 feet 9 inches or 5 feet 10 inches, with an average build. He was wearing a black, 25-liter, Ozark Trail Hiker Pack backpack, the agency said. The F.B.I. also increased its reward to a maximum of $100,000 for information leading to Ms. Guthrie’s location or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: If you were a person who had paid no attention to U.S. politics & policies and suddenly decided to read many of the articles linked on the front page of today's online New York Times, you would be shocked to discover that the country is run by delusional, destructive, criminal, cruel, stupid, dishonest, inept, careless, greedy, power-grabbing, anti-democratic, mendacious, unprincipled, irresponsible, self-aggrandizing lowlifes who are bent on destroying the government itself, the people of the nation, the international political order and Earth herself.
Katie Rogers of the New York Times: “For a decade..., [Donald] Trump has talked about a country where elections are broken, plagued by corrupted people, widespread fraud and faulty voting machines. According to Mr. Trump, this country is the only place in the world that allows for mail-in voting and the only country that allows one political party to cheat in every election.... To say it yet again: There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, including by noncitizens, as Mr. Trump claims.... Mr. Trump has always ramped up his efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of elections when he or Republicans he favors might lose.... Mr. Trump’s latest pronouncements are right on time [for the midterm election season], and relentless....
“On Friday afternoon, Mr. Trump said on social media that voters in the midterm elections would be required to present voter identification, 'whether approved by Congress or not.' He said he would issue an executive order including those provisions, a move that would almost certainly be blocked by the courts because the Constitution gives the executive branch no authority over elections beyond what Congress has authorized.... After clawing his way back to power, Mr. Trump and his current set of advisers have weeded out anyone who offers up a dose of unwelcome reality.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is the New York Times, in an article that currently (6:00 am ET) is linked on its online front page, acknowledging that the President* of the United States is delusional. ~~~
~~~ A related NBC News story is here. An ABC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ He Can Dish It Out But He Can't Take It. Rachel Dobkin of the Independent: “Donald Trump has privately lashed out at two Republican senators who condemned a racist video posted to the president’s Truth Social account last week depicting the Obamas as apes, according to a new report.... 'The president felt [Tim Scott (S.C.)] could’ve handled that matter privately,' a senior Trump administration official told [CNN].... One CNN source said Trump slammed [Katie] Britt [Ala.], throwing out expletives, and said she was dead to him.... '[The video] was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud,' Trump told reporters last Friday....” ~~~
~~~ Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: “On Friday, [Donald] Trump shared the stage [at Fort Bragg] with Michael Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chairman now running for Senate who holds no government position. Trump used the platform to boost Whatley, attack Democrats and repeat previously announced military spending plans. 'You have to vote for us,' Trump told the troops [who were in uniform], citing his restoration of the Fort Bragg name after Congress directed the Pentagon to rename military installations honoring Confederate officers.... Trump disparaged his predecessors as commander in chief....
“Most of the uniformed service members refrained from reacting during Trump’s speech other than raising phones to take photos or videos.... A few service members responded enthusiastically when Trump asked who had received the $1,776 bonus checks he approved in December. Defense Department policy prohibits partisan political activity by active-duty service members.... After the speech, Trump met privately for almost two hours with service members who participated in the raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Trump praised the troops and told reporters that one of them would be receiving the Medal of Honor.”
Karen Zraick of the New York Times: “When the Trump administration erased one of the nation’s bedrock scientific principles on climate change this week, it set up a legal battle that’s all but certain to hinge on the Supreme Court.... The scientific principle that was killed on Thursday, the endangerment finding, which found that greenhouse gases endanger public health by heating up the world, itself resulted from a Supreme Court decision 20 years ago. The court had ordered the government to study whether greenhouse gases harm human health, and, if so, to regulate them. But today’s Supreme Court is far more conservative. And that, experts say, could complicate the legal strategy for the environmental groups and Democratic-led states that are already lining up to sue the Trump administration. A negative ruling at the Supreme Court could hamstring future leaders seeking to reinstate climate regulations.”
Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: “The harsh speech of Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference a year ago began a long period of deterioration in the trans-Atlantic relationship, marked by economic and ideological confrontation, contempt and insult. This year in Munich, at Europe’s main annual security gathering, which started on Friday, the effort so far has been one of de-escalation, especially from the American side. There have been no insults, and American officials have displayed what they call 'pragmatic realism.' But there is little evidence that American policy has changed. Both European and American leaders spoke on Friday of an international order that has been irrevocably upended since ... [Donald] Trump returned to office last year. Officials from both sides of the Atlantic called for Europe, after eight decades of military dependence on Washington, to stand on its own feet.... What went largely unsaid was that Mr. Trump had focused European minds by pushing to seize Greenland, the territory of Denmark, a NATO ally, while mocking European leaders last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.” ~~~
~~~ From the pinned item in a New York Times liveblog: “Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany criticized ... [Donald] Trump’s rapid reorientation of American foreign policy, saying in Munich on Friday that the rules-based international order had collapsed. But he also extended an olive branch to Mr. Trump, switching to speaking English from German to address Americans as 'friends' and warn that the United States could not 'go it alone.' 'The international order based on rights and rules is currently being destroyed,' Mr. Merz said at the opening of Europe’s largest annual security conference. He added, 'This order, as flawed as it has been even in its heyday, no longer exists in that form.' Mr. Merz suggested the Trump administration’s actions over the past year meant that the United States’ claim to global leadership 'has been challenged, and possibly squandered.' But Mr. Merz also criticized Europe for not doing enough to bolster its security and to grow its economies independently of America, and he insisted that the two needed to continue working together, including through NATO.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Today's New York Times liveblog of the Munich conference is here. Apparently Little Marco was given the assignment of pretending everything is going very smoothly. ~~~
~~~ Matthew Lee, et al., of the AP: “U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a reassuring message to America’s allies on Saturday, striking a less aggressive but still firm tone about the administration’s intent to reshape the trans-Atlantic alliance and push its priorities after more than a year of ... Donald Trump’s often-hostile rhetoric toward traditional allies. Reminding his audience at the annual Munich Security Conference about America’s centuries-long roots in Europe, Rubio said the United States would remain forever tied to the continent even as it pushes for changes in the relationship and the international institutions that have been the bulwark of the post-World War II world order.”
~~~ Felicia Schwartz, et al., of Politico: "For the past three years, the annual Munich Security Conference has been the backdrop to high-stakes negotiations on the war between Russia and Ukraine. This year, it’s likely to serve as a glaring reminder of just how stuck talks are.” ~~~
~~~ Lucy Pakhnyuk of the Kyiv Independent: "U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped a Berlin Format meeting on Ukraine held on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the Financial Times reported on Feb. 13. Rubio was expected to join leaders from a dozen European countries — including Germany, Poland, and Finland — along with officials from the European Commission and NATO. However, the FT reported that he canceled at the last minute, citing scheduling conflicts.... One European official described the last-minute cancellation as 'insane,' while another told the FT that, without U.S. participation, the meeting lacked substance."
~~~ Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: “New renderings shared Friday offer the clearest look yet at ... Donald Trump’s proposed White House ballroom addition — a project advancing even as it is challenged in court and questioned on Capitol Hill. Shalom Baranes Associates, the firm handling the project, shared the renderings with the National Capital Planning Commission, a committee charged by Congress with overseeing major federal construction projects in the region. The renderings include various angles of the ballroom building.... The White House has dubbed the project its 'East Wing Modernization.' The images reveal at least one significant change from earlier designs: the removal of a large triangular pediment above the ballroom’s southern portico. Rodney Cook Jr. — a Trump appointee who chairs the Commission of Fine Arts, another federal panel reviewing the project — had warned in January that the pediment was .immense. and pressed the architects about whether it could be reduced.”
Rice Maese & Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: “A pair of Washington-area golfers sued the Trump administration Friday over the president’s plan to overhaul a public golf course, alleging it violated several laws and the original spirit of the park. Dave Roberts and Alex Dickson, who describe themselves as frequent patrons of East Potomac Golf Links, say the Interior Department skipped required environmental and health reviews to rush the project. The DC Preservation League, a nonprofit that advocates for protecting historic sites, joined the lawsuit, which watchdog groups and lawyers who have frequently opposed Trump’s agenda filed in U.S. District Court. The suit seeks to halt the project, vacate federal approvals and block any reassignment or termination of the existing lease, pending a full review.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Aw, c'mon, guys. Surely you know you're fighting a world-class expert. Just ask him. He sez, " I have a lot of golf courses all over the place. I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world."
Worse Person on Earth Protected by Funds He Stole from Starving Children. Katie Herchenroeder of Mother Jones: "Security detail for ... Donald Trump’s budget chief and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought is being paid for by what’s left in funding for the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. There isn’t much left of USAID after Trump and Vought worked together to dismantle the agency last year. Just around 100 staff members are left to close out all operations by September. Still, the White House Office of Management and Budget, which Vought oversees, is allocating $15 million from what remains of USAID operating expenses to pay the US. Marshals Service to protect the political appointee through the end of 2026." (Also linked yesterday.)
Reid Epstein & Tim Balk of the New York Times: “The Trump administration’s pullback of federal immigration agents from Minneapolis was a political retreat that showed there are limits to what Americans will accept as the president pursues his deportation agenda.... As Republican lawmakers increasingly worry about their midterm prospects, a few began to offer critical statements on the issue. Others warned that Democrats had been successful at stoking the backlash. 'This is a highly organized, highly coordinated effort of resistance — it’s highly effective,' Senator Ron Johnson, a Trump ally from Wisconsin, said in an interview on Thursday. 'The left is very effective at organizing this. They exploited and used their martyrs effectively, and the Trump administration is reacting to that.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Right. It wasn't the fault of the government for killing, maiming, beating up, pepper-spraying, "disappearing," falsely arresting, secretly detaining, menacing, threatening, lying about and otherwise abusing U.S. residents & violating court orders; it was the way "the left" publicized all this.
Madeleine Ngo of the “Funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed early Saturday morning, beginning a shutdown that was not expected to bring most of the department’s work to a halt yet could disrupt travelers, immigration enforcement and disaster relief if it is prolonged. Department officials have said that its essential missions and functions would continue.”
Douglas McMillan & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expects to spend $38.3 billion on its plan to acquire warehouses across the country and retrofit them into immigrant detention centers that can hold tens of thousands of immigrants, according to agency documents provided to New Hampshire’s governor and published on the state’s website Thursday. ICE plans to buy and convert 16 buildings across the country to serve as regional processing centers, each holding 1,000 to 1,500 immigrant detainees at a time, according to one of the documents, an overview of the detention plan. Another eight large-scale detention centers will hold 7,000 to 10,000 detainees at a time, and serve as 'the primary locations' for international removals....
“The documents offer the most complete picture to date of the Trump administration’s plan to overhaul immigrant detention using buildings that were originally designed for industrial purposes — an expansive effort aimed at boosting ICE’s ability to arrest more immigrants and deport them faster.... In recent weeks, ICE has spent more than $690 million acquiring at least eight industrial buildings in Maryland, Arizona, Georgia, Texas, Pennsylvania and Michigan, according to real estate deeds and internal ICE records reviewed by The Post.”
Nate Raymond, et al., of Reuters: “Hundreds of judges around the country have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that ... Donald Trump’s administration is detaining immigrants unlawfully, a Reuters review of court records found. The decisions amount to a sweeping legal rebuke of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Yet the administration has continued jailing people indefinitely even after courts ruled the policy was illegal. 'It is appalling that the Government insists that this Court should redefine or completely disregard the current law as it is clearly written,' U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston of West Virginia, an appointee of President George W. Bush, wrote last week, ordering the release of a Venezuelan detainee.... Most of the rulings center on the Trump administration’s departure from a nearly three-decade-old interpretation of federal law that immigrants already living in the United States could be released on bond while they pursue their cases in immigration court.... [ALSO] Partly as a result of [a] legal logjam, judges have found that the government has left people locked up even after judges ordered their release.”
⭐Mitch Smith & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “Two federal agents have been suspended, and criminal charges against a man one of them shot have been dropped, after a prosecutor in Minnesota revealed that the story those agents told about the shooting was not true. The suspensions and dismissal followed an extraordinary court filing on Thursday, in which Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor, Daniel N. Rosen, asked a judge to dismiss charges against the man who was wounded in that shooting, as well as another man who had been accused of attacking the agent who opened fire. Mr. Rosen wrote that 'newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations' that federal officials made in a charging document and in courtroom testimony. By Friday, the case had been dismissed with prejudice, meaning the men cannot be recharged. The two agents had been suspended and were being investigated, Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement. 'Video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,' Mr. Lyons said. 'Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a thorough internal investigation.' Mr. Lyons said the agents, whose names have not been released, could face termination and criminal prosecution.” This is an update of a story linked yesterday. A related AP story is here.
~~~ Marie: This looks to be a stunning about-face for DHS. Previously, departmental leaders blamed the victims for their own murders and handed out accolades to the shooters with no internal "investigation" whatsoever -- even after citizen-videographers and journalists effectively proved the DHS murder squad was lying and had set up the victims. ~~~
~~~ Update. Mitch Smith & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: “The collapse of the Trump administration’s version of events in the case was only the most recent instance in which officials gave an account of a shooting that was later contradicted.When an immigration agent shot Julio C. Sosa-Celis in the leg last month in Minneapolis, touching off hours of tense protests, the Trump administration rushed to sell a version of events that demonized the wounded man and defended the agent. About two hours after the gunfire, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman claimed that three people had attacked an agent with a broom and snow shovel. She said the agent 'fired a defensive shot to defend his life' as he was 'being ambushed.' The next day, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, accused the men of trying to kill the agent. But the federal government’s account soon shifted. And by Friday, it had fully unraveled.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: The lies that Trump and his bullies tell about the people they victimize are nearly as despicable as the heinous acts themselves. Imagine lying in a hospital bed, barely able to breathe, or being a family member of someone shot dead, who then has to hear that the shooters, with the full force of the federal government behind them, are the real victims. Imagine being prosecuted as a terrorist when your own "crime" was standing in the path of a few federally-issued bullets.
Samuel Oakford of the Washington Post: “Video footage appears to contradict key aspects of a federal indictment’s descriptions of former CNN anchor Don Lemon’s actions at a protest last month inside a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to a review by The Washington Post. Lemon, another independent journalist [Georgia Fort] and several protesters are all charged with the same two criminal counts. They are accused of conspiring to deprive congregants of their religious rights and of interfering with access to a place of worship. The Jan. 29 indictment calls the nine defendants “agitators” and says they 'entered the Church in a coordinated takeover-style attack.'... It does not characterize Lemon or Georgia Fort as journalists.... The indictment alleges that Lemon, Fort and the seven other defendants 'oppressed, threatened, and intimidated' people in the church.... During the approximately 45 minutes Lemon live-streamed at the church, he conducted interviews and repeatedly identified himself as a reporter, while also voicing sympathy for the protesters’ cause.... Video shows Lemon entering the church alone....” Read on. The link is a gift link and the indictment is B.S.
Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “Among nearly 100 sworn statements filed in federal court on Friday are more than a dozen accounts ... in which federal agents deployed to Minnesota singled out protesters, finding the addresses of their homes and showing up there. It is not entirely clear how the agents determined the monitors’ home addresses; some assumed the agents had used their vehicles’ license plates. But whatever the case, the sworn statements describe a remarkable projection of police power.... [The] statements were filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as its Minnesota affiliate and other lawyers, as part of a civil case they have brought against the Trump administration seeking to protect protesters’ rights.... One woman, Patty O’Keefe, said in her sworn statement that after she followed an ICE vehicle, her car was pepper-sprayed and an agent smashed its windows open. Ms. O’Keefe was taken out of her car, cuffed and taken into the agents’ SUV where, she writes in her statement, the agents began to taunt and mock her.... The one who pepper sprayed my car referenced Renee Good, saying “You’ve got to stop obstructing us. That’s why that lesbian bitch is dead.”’”
Hannah Zeigler & Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to return a college freshman to the United States within two weeks after she was mistakenly deported to Honduras in November. The judge, Richard G. Stearns, had previously recommended that the administration issue a visa to the student, Any Lucia López Belloza, 19, that would allow her to continue studying at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., while her immigration case was handled in court. The immigration authorities detained Ms. López on Nov. 20 at Boston Logan International Airport, where she was awaiting a flight home to Houston to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. She was flown to Honduras two days later, despite a court order signed on Nov. 21 barring her deportation while her case was pending.... The government has acknowledged its mistake but refused to voluntarily correct it, Judge Stearns wrote. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to provide Ms. López an expedited student visa, which prompted further intervention from the court.”
Sheera Frenkel & Mike Isaac of the New York Times: “The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its efforts to identify Americans who oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement by sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency. In recent months, Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas from the Department of Homeland Security, according to four government officials and tech employees privy to the requests.... Google, Meta and Reddit complied with some of the requests, the government officials said.” Update: the link has been changed to one that might be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Well, that would include me. If I suddenly stop posting, please contact the New Hampshire ACLU. And it wouldn't hurt to remind them I contribute to them.
Ashley Ahn of the New York Times: “A federal judge [-- Robert W. Gettleman --] has ordered the Trump administration to allow Roman Catholic clergy members to minister to people at a detention center near Chicago on Ash Wednesday, after they had been denied access for months. The order, issued on Thursday, came three months after the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, a Catholic advocacy group based in Illinois, and several Catholic clergy filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, saying that immigration authorities had unlawfully blocked its members for months from providing pastoral care at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill.... Judge Gettleman noted in his decision that the Broadview detention center had allowed the Catholic group to make religious visitations for years before it reversed course relatively recently.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Why, it's almost as if all this "Christian nation" stuff we're hearing out of the Trump administration is nothing more than phony propaganda.
Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: “The Department of Homeland Security said that three federal officers were injured on Friday during a clash with demonstrators in downtown Los Angeles that left one federal agent hospitalized with a concussion.... The protest grew to a group of about 200 to 300 people, some of whom began to throw objects, including rocks, at law enforcement officers outside the federal building ... where those arrested by federal immigration agents in the Los Angeles area have been processed..., the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.”
Making America Sick Again. Christina Jewett of the New York Times: “Longtime allies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, have launched a new effort to repeal laws that for decades have required children to be vaccinated against measles, polio and other diseases before they enter day care or kindergarten. A newly formed coalition of vaccine activists is targeting laws that are considered the linchpin of protection from deadly diseases. States have long mandated childhood immunizations before children can start day care or school, though some exemptions are available. So far, bills have been introduced in at least nine states that would eliminate all or nearly all school requirements.... Many vaccine proponents view the state-level push as a second stage in the dismantling of the nation’s vaccine infrastructure, building on Mr. Kennedy’s significant reduction of federally recommended vaccines.”
Brennan Leach, et al., of NBC News: “Five months after Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy invited Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear before the powerful health committee he chairs, the hearing has not happened, and the senator continues to say there is no date set for it to take place.... Since that invitation, Cassidy has repeatedly said that a date for the hearing is being 'worked out.'... [Despite expressing reservations about Kennedy's anti-vax views, utimately Cassidy supported him after Kennedy made several promises, including to meet with Cassidy 'regularly' and appear before the health committee he chairs 'on a quarterly basis, if requested.'” MB: Serve Wormbrain with a subpoena, Bill.
Here's a classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. And petty intra-administration squabbling. And Pentagon officials waving their dicks around. Still, you could blame it all on Donald Trump. ~~~
~~~ Karoun Demirjian & others of the “the Debacle That Led to the Closure of El Paso’s Airspace.... Publicly, the administration has yet to acknowledge that a departmental standoff over [anti-drone laser] weapons led to the airspace closure. Even the rationale for deploying the laser system is in dispute.... For the better part of the last year, [Transportation Secretary Sean] Duffy and F.A.A. leaders have been locked in a war of wills with their national security counterparts over aviation safety. The aftermath of the midair collision at National Airport exposed the fractious nature of the relationship between the F.A.A. and the Defense Department, as Mr. Duffy scrambled to put safety restrictions in place and the military maneuvered to sidestep them....
“[Though the Pentagon has claimed it had received no prior notification of the El Paso airspace closure,] by 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in Washington, the F.A.A. had explicitly warned the Pentagon and the National Security Council that it would be shutting down the airspace above Fort Bliss until they could iron things out. The restriction was to begin seven hours later. But it is unclear whether those warnings ever made their way to [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth..., [Donald] Trump or his senior-most staff. The interagency process has atrophied under Mr. Trump, who has dramatically shrunk the size of the National Security Council during his second term, even as the portfolio of international crises has grown.” The link appears to be a gift link.
Patrick McGeehan of the New York Times: “Federal funding for the $16 billion Gateway rail tunnel between New York City and New Jersey, which had been suspended for more than four months, began to flow again on Friday after lawyers for the Trump administration told a federal judge [-- Jeannette Vargas --] on Friday that it would comply with her orders [to release the funds, even though it had failed to comply as of Thursday]. The suspension had left the government owing about $205 million to the tunnel’s planners, the Gateway Development Commission, and forced a halt to work on the project last week, as well as the layoff of about 1,000 union workers.... In recent weeks, the Trump administration shifted its explanation for the prolonged suspension of funds. [Instead of claiming they were reviewing project contracts, i]n discussions with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York..., [Donald] Trump suggested that he would release the funds in exchange for support of the renaming of two transportation hub ... after him.... Mr. Schumer said he rejected that idea.”
Clyde McGrady of the New York Times: “Jeremy Carl..., [Donald] Trump’s nominee for a senior State Department post, struggled at his confirmation hearing on Thursday to answer what should have been an easy question, since he wrote an entire book about it: What is white identity and why is it under threat. After nervously rambling about white food and Black food, white music and Black music and white worship styles, Mr. Carl told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that a loss of a dominant white culture is weakening the country. That notion has become an intellectual framework animating much of what has been described as the New Right, and Mr. Carl, who would if confirmed be the assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, is one of its most prominent proponents.... The White House was standing by the nominee on Friday evening.”
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Arizona. KVOA (Tucson): " A Shadow Hills resident tells News 4 Tucson that she witnessed three people being detained during a SWAT operation on Friday night. According to an unconfirmed report by a neighbor, another person shot himself in the head.... The Pima County Sheriff's Department said the SWAT operation was in connection with the ... investigation [into the probable abduction of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie]. The FBI's Operational Technology Division recently released a description of the subject seen in the doorbell camera in front of Nancy's home. The suspect is described as being between 5 feet 9 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall with an average build. A distinctive feature is the 25-liter 'Ozark Trail Hiker Pack' backpack he was carrying. The subject was seen with a ski mask and gloves in the black-and-white surveillance footage."
Nebraska Congressional Race. Alexandra Marquez of NBC News: "Only three House Republicans won re-election in 2024 while Kamala Harris carried their districts — and one of them, Rep. Don Bacon, is retiring this year..., giving Democrats a big opportunity in the Omaha-area seat.... In Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, a so-called blue dot, this could have national implications. Harris and Joe Biden each carried the district and the electoral vote that comes with it.... Many Republicans there want to change [the] law to the more common winner-take-all format, which would mean another practically automatic GOP electoral vote in the deep-red state. Previous efforts to change the law have failed, but changes in the makeup of the state Legislature could tip the balance.... If [Democratic state senator John] Cavanaugh wins the [District 2] primary and the general election..., he would have to resign his seat in the Nebraska Legislature, granting Republican Gov. Jim Pillen the chance to appoint a successor to serve for the next two years." That would create a GOP supermajority in the state legislature, which could then vote to switch Nebraska to a winner-take-all Electoral College scheme.
Virginia. Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court of Virginia on Friday paved the way for state Democrats to move forward with a plan that would enable them to add four Democratic-leaning congressional districts, but the effort’s ultimate fate will still be under court review. The ruling means that the Virginia General Assembly can hold an April 21 statewide referendum on redrawing the state’s congressional map. A circuit judge in rural Tazewell County acted last month to block the referendum, which seeks to amend the Virginia Constitution to temporarily allow mid-decade redistricting in time for this fall’s congressional midterm elections. Democrats appealed that ruling, and the state’s high court said Friday it would allow the referendum to go forward while the appeal is underway.”
15 comments:
As little as our current crop of white supremacists approve of the EU experiment in human cooperation, they must really hate both the idea and the existence of the even more polyglot UN.
Ken,
Oh, you know they hate the UN, especially after world leaders laughed at the First Clown who went there and bragged that he had done more in two years than any administration in the history of the country. Leaders of other nations, NOT morons, no doubt recalled the administration of FDR which brought the nation out of the depths of the Great Depression then successfully beat back authoritarian war mongers on two fronts in WWII. But, no biggie. Fatty in those two momentous years gave himself a huge tax cut, pulled out of a nuclear deal with Iran and pissed on the Paris climate change accords. He also put babies in cages and tore families apart. So....better than FDR's accomplishments?
The Fat Fascist wasn't used to being laughed at and because the white supremacists are such tender snowflakes, they likely didn't like it much either, so...yeah...they really must hate both the idea and the existence of the UN.
as seen on Bluesky, Valentines from The Daily Show - Roses are ...
Trying the link again - Roses
Wait...we're spending $38 point something BILLION to buy warehouses in which to herd thousands of immigrants and other "undesirables" grabbed, beaten, tased, and arrested by ICE goons?
The entire 2025 budget of the Department of Injustice was less than that (a little over $37 billion).
But when you think of it. considering the amount of injustice being wrought on the nation by Eva Braun Bondi and the mooks working as Fat Hitler's personal lawyers, it's a bargain. One would think you'd have to pay a packet to purchase the sort of foul inequity and ubiquitous corruption and mendacity we get from Bondi et al.
Still, the fact that we're paying more for concentration camp warehousing of human beings, the vast majority of whom have never committed a crime while in the country, has to set some kind of record for official depravity (although we did incarcerate over 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII, they weren't shoved into warehouses).
The Devil Went Down to Georgia
And what did he do? He bought himself a warehouse to be used as a concentration camp for immigrants picked up by ICE.
But here's something interesting about this particular location. First, residents and city officials are not pleased by imminently becoming a prison town, but not because human beings will be shoved into this big dank box. Most of them are perfectly fine with that. Officials in Social Circle, Georgia, have other concerns.
"In Social Circle, [City Manager] Eric Taylor said he would like consultation, too, but ICE won’t answer his calls. If it did, he would tell ICE: The city doesn’t have enough drinking water.
'The permit we have to draw water out of the river's only a million gallons a day,' he said.
Taylor said in the heat of Georgia summer, residents will use right up to that limit. Now toss in an ICE detention center which will effectively triple the city’s population, if it holds up to 10,000 people as planned."
The population of Social Circle is 5,000 so Fatty's DHS goons will triple the population overnight and leave the town to pick up the tab and figure out its infrastructure problems. I mean, they have more important things to worry about, like how best to torture those 10,000 immigrants inside the big dank box.
Some in the town are not happy with the coming prison for other reasons.
"Residents are doubtful but also scared to be forthright about their reservations.
Take the mother whose child attends the elementary school less than a mile from the ICE warehouse. We’re not using her name because she says she’s afraid of community blowback.
'Are they gonna put a 16-foot barbed wire fence up that the kids have to see every day?' she asked about the warehouse."
Yeah, that would be bad, but what about the children on the other side of that barbed wire?
Nonetheless, a gathering of residents who came together to talk about trying to stop this deal found out that anyone going against the wishes of the Dear Leader could be in trouble:
"Lifelong Social Circle resident and retired teacher Cindy Goldthwaite was one of a small group in the Bread and Butter Coffee Shop on Thursday morning, organizing their effort to canvass door to door against the ICE warehouse before the shop manager shooed them out the door, telling them their politics weren’t allowed inside.
On the street, before the group met together, she said the whole episode reminded her of her childhood in the 1950s when the school bus would ride by cotton fields at the edge of town where only Black laborers did the hard work of chopping the cotton. Goldthwaite is white.
'And, you know, I didn't think that much about it,' Goldthwaite said. 'But those kinds of images seep into you as a kid. And sometimes they cause indifference.'"
So here we have Donald Trump's virulent racial hatred creating enormous problems for a small Georgia town. First, infrastructure problems, but also the ratcheting up of more racial animosity and the mostly unquantifiable but very real psychological damage done to residents and the immigrants shoved into a big box warehouse never meant to hold human beings. And this sort of scenario is being played out across the country.
Is this really the kind of people we are? And to people in places like Social Circle who ask "Is this what we voted for?" The answer is yes. You did. And now it's up to the rest of us to vote down this devil's work.
Wendy,
The Bondi redacted Valentine is a hoot.
@Akhilleus: re: our "investment" in people warehouses: quite right.
AND over and above the sheer depravity of the enterprise, somebody might tell Old Man Trump & his Entourage of Evil that their Warehouses R Us project is economically bonkers.
Google's Art Intel sez, "Immigrants are major drivers of the U.S. economy, generating approximately $4.8 trillion of the nation's GDP in 2023. Constituting about 14% of the population and 17% of the workforce, they paid over $650 billion in total taxes in 2023, hold roughly $1.7 trillion in spending power, and are key to labor, entrepreneurship, and innovation."
Okay, so one more thought about this DHS bullshit.
It seems as if someone in the Blight House has whispered into Fatty's weirdly unblemished ear that it won't be good for him in the midterms he plans on rigging if his ICE goons continue, ya know, like murdering innocent Americans. A kind of a bad look. Also. it might be helpful to throw the woke mob a bone or two. So let's pull our SS troops out of Minneapolis and, oh yeah, let's pick a couple of assholes to be "investigated" for lying about shooting someone. We can afford to lose two jamokes if it helps us not lose in November.
First of all, Fatty NEVER does anything for the right reasons. He needs to get something out of it, and if he can make it look like DHS is pulling back a bit on beating up residents, smashing windows and pepper spraying citizens legally protesting, then maybe the media will shut up about the Good broad and that Pretti prick.
Politico even has a piece suggesting that Democrats' demands that DHS goons stop murdering Americans will be severely undercut by these Potemkin moves. Cuz you all know for a lead pipe cinch, that when and if Fat Hitler is successful at stealing the midterm elections, ICE will be let off the leash to get even crazier.
Just my opinion.
Marie,
Quite. And the sheer fact that these morons are willing to give up trillions in order to satisfy their desire to torture other human beings is a startling real world index of the power of racial hatred.
Ars Technica
"The National Labor Relations Board abandoned a Biden-era complaint against SpaceX after a finding that the agency does not have jurisdiction over Elon Musk’s space company. The US labor board said SpaceX should instead be regulated under the Railway Labor Act, which governs labor relations at railroad and airline companies.
In January 2024, an NLRB regional director alleged in a complaint that SpaceX illegally fired eight employees who, in an open letter, criticized CEO Musk as a “frequent source of embarrassment.” The complaint sought reinstatement of the employees, back pay, and letters of apology to the fired employees.
SpaceX responded by suing the NLRB, claiming the labor agency’s structure is unconstitutional. But a different issue SpaceX raised later—that it is a common carrier, like a rail company or airline—is what compelled the NLRB to drop its case. US regulators ultimately decided that SpaceX should be treated as a “common carrier by air” and “a carrier by air transporting mail” for the government."
Friend Requests
"Homeland security is increasing the use of undercover techniques to infiltrate and interact with social media users in order to collect intelligence and target individuals, documents leaked to me reveal.
The new program, called “masked engagement,” allows homeland security officers to assume false identities and interact with users—friending them, joining closed groups, and gaining access to otherwise private postings, photographs, friend lists and more.
By labeling this a “middle ground” between monitoring and full-blown undercover work, the DHS allows agents to infiltrate private digital spaces without the rigorous internal approvals and legal checks required for a formal undercover “sting.”"
Just as the Republicans are saying we will be needing a passport to vote.
"Public Libraries Ordered To Stop Processing Passports
The U.S. State Department has ordered certain public libraries nationwide to cease processing passport applications, disrupting a long-standing service that librarians say their communities have come to rely on and that has run smoothly for years.
The agency, which regulates U.S. passports, began issuing cease and desist orders to not-for-profit libraries in late fall, informing them they were no longer authorized to participate in the Passport Acceptance Facility program as of Friday."
RAS,
Next time the South African Chainsaw Maniac runs afoul of good employment practices connected to his hugely money making Space X thingie (ie, next time employees call him a maniac), he will demand that np one but the Federation of Planets (to be founded in about 400 years) has jurisdiction over his bullshit. His attorney will be Mork from Ork (Nanu-nanu).
So Fatty's election rigging assholes say "You need a passport!" Then they say libraries can no longer process passport applications.
What's next? "Voters in Democratic districts need to be able to speak Lemerig, but oops...only three people in the world know how to speak it and they are all forbidden to teach their language to anyone else.
Why don't they just skip all the hippity-hop at the barber shop bullshit and announce "We win. From now on."
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