Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times demonstrates how Marco Rubio's conception of the United States is based on the same concepts that animated “antebellum Southern ideologues [who] saw their society as an extension of an idealized medieval past.... Part of what this entailed, ideologically, was a rejection of the Declaration of Independence, both as a statement of equality and as a decisive break with the past.... In this antipathy toward the egalitarian and universalist elements of the American founding — which is to say those parts of our national heritage that we owe to the liberal values of the Enlightenment — that the connection between the antebellum feudal obsession and the Trump administration’s vision of sovereignty and Western civilization becomes clear, if not obvious. Both are tied to a racial (and religious) conception of culture and bound up in notions of human hierarchy. The 'one people' threatened by migrants in the United States and Europe, by Rubio and Trump’s account, are people of direct European descent.... In other words, as white, first and foremost.”
Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Leslie Wexner, the retail billionaire who helped Jeffrey Epstein build his wealth, did not refuse to answer questions during a six-hour, closed-door deposition on Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee. But he may as well have, Democrats said after spending the day in his hometown of New Albany, Ohio, questioning him as part of the committee’s investigation into Mr. Epstein. House Democrats said that Mr. Wexner, the former chief executive of Victoria’s Secret and a prolific donor to Republican candidates, repeatedly denied having any personal relationship with Mr. Epstein and said he had been 'conned' by the financier and sex offender, but had done nothing wrong. In an opening statement he provided to the committee, Mr. Wexner, 88, described himself as 'naïve, foolish, and gullible to put any trust in Jeffrey Epstein.'”
Eileen Sullivan & Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: “New data about the federal agency responsible for workplace safety suggests a substantial drop in inspections in the months after ... [Donald] Trump returned to office last year. The internal data from the Labor Department raises concerns about the government’s ability to police workplaces and protect U.S. workers. The data, which was released by Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, shows a 20 percent decrease in work site inspections by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration during a six-month period last year compared with the same period in 2024. The government has not publicly released data for the number of inspections for the entire 2025 fiscal year. But the decrease during that six-month period raises the specter among labor advocates that the Trump administration is relaxing oversight of companies and increasing the potential for serious injuries and deaths.”
All the President*'s Lawyers. Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: “For reasons that remain unclear, Jeanine Pirro, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump, abruptly instructed her team to seek an indictment of [six] lawmakers, all of whom had served in the armed forces or the intelligence community...' for issuing a video this fall reminding military and intelligence personnel that they did not have to obey illegal orders.... Their efforts failed last week in spectacular fashion as the grand jury roundly rejected the request for an indictment against Senators Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona and four of their colleagues in the House, a remarkable denunciation of a federal prosecution.... For now, [Ms. Pirro's] office has shelved the inquiry..., although that decision might not stop the Justice Department from seeking to reopen it somewhere else or pressuring her office to try again.... The botched attempt to prosecute the lawmakers ... stood as an example of the chaos that has roiled the department as it has grappled with the president’s increasingly erratic demands, even in the face of little evidence.”
Here's Stephen Colbert, responding to the the network lawyers' statement rebutting his remarks about his interview of U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico. It's almost as if the suits don't have much of a sense of humor: ~~~
Reuters, republished by the Guardian: “Millions of files related to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggest the existence of a 'global criminal enterprise' that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity, a panel of independent experts appointed by the United Nations human rights council has said. The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the US justice department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny. The crimes, they said, showed a commodification and dehumanisation of women and girls.... The experts said the allegations contained in the files require an independent, thorough and impartial investigation, and said inquiries should also be launched into how it was possible for such crimes to be committed for so long.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: My, that's mighty odd because the highly-regarded crackerjack lawfirm of Blondie, Blanche, Bongo & Kash, Ltd., said long ago that there was no credible information in those files that Epstein had trafficked young women to anyone other than himself. Why, Kash himself testified as such before the United States Senate in September 2025. Indeed, I watched (on YouTube) old Chuck Grassley swearing in Kash at this particular Senate hearing; that is, Kash seems to have lied under oath about the contents of the Epstein files.
Marcie Jones of Wonkette on media (NYT) & MAGA attacks on Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez because she occasionally hesitated before answering complex questions about specific international situations: "You know what would be great? If the Times could print out the full transcripts of all of Stumbles McCankles’s moaning rambles, instead of summarizing and sanewashing them on his behalf every goddamn day." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Remember, too, that AOC not only had to convey what she thought about an issue, but she also had to make sure that her extemporaneous remarks were, well, prudent in an international setting. I will tell you that every responsible male does that, too; the ones who don't are Trump, JayDee and their ilk. ~~~
~~~ Marcie Jones again. In case you can't remember much about Tricia McLaughlin because you've tried to wipe her nasty lies from your mind, Jones is here to reprise the young lady's outstanding career in "public service." MB: Reviewing McLaughlin's résumé with Jones' help makes me think she would be an ideal leader of the other expert panel charged with reviewing Trump's scam ballroom design. ~~~
~~~ Speaking of lies Tricia McLaughlin has told, here's a story about one of the many people she lied about ~~~
~~~ Devan Cole of CNN: “Kilmar Abrego Garcia cannot be re-detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, dealing the Trump administration another blow in its effort to keep him locked up while it attempts to deport him again.The injunction issued by US District Judge Paula Xinis, of the federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, follows an emergency order she handed down in December that similarly blocked officials from taking Abrego Garcia into immigration custody. But unlike the earlier ruling, the government can appeal the new one up to a Richmond, Virginia-based federal appeals court. Tuesday’s decision is the latest judicial rebuke of the government’s maneuvering in Abrego Garcia’s case, which has come to symbolize the administration’s hardline — and, at times, slapdash — approach to immigration enforcement. Abrego Garcia was unlawfully deported to El Salvador last year and, following a series of court rulings, brought back to the US to face federal human smuggling charges....”
Christina Jewett & Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times: “The Food and Drug Administration has reversed its decision on Moderna’s flu vaccine and has agreed to review it for possible approval, Moderna announced on Wednesday.... Moderna said it split its application for the flu vaccine based on age, seeking a traditional approval for people 50 to 64 years old, and accelerated approval for those 65 and older. The company also said it agreed to conduct an additional study among those 65 and older once the vaccine reached the market. Moderna said on Wednesday that the F.D.A. set a deadline of August to decide whether to approve the vaccine. If it is authorized, it would be available for those older adults in the flu season that begins later this year. The vaccine uses messenger RNA technology, which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly criticized as unsafe and ineffective.... Despite its development during the first Trump administration, mRNA uses have been extensively curtailed in the last year, sending shock waves through the vaccine industry.” MB: Remember, Junior Brainworm is not a quack but he plays one on teevee.
~~~~~~~~~~
Heather Cox Richardson: “Trump’s White House website welcomes visitors with a pop-up that reads: 'WELCOME TO THE GOLDEN AGE!' But on this heavy news day a year into Trump’s second term, it is increasingly clear that as his regime focuses on committing the United States to white Christian nationalism, the country is becoming increasingly isolated from the rest of the world, and its own economy is weakening.... If the American people have suffered from Trump’s reign, the Trump family continues to cash in.”
Josephine Walker of Axios: "Nearly half of Americans would describe ... [Donald] Trump as 'corrupt,' 'racist' and 'cruel' in new polling [by the Economist/YouGov,] full of midterm warning signs for Republicans.... According to the poll, Trump's net approval is lower now than former President Biden's was at this point in his term and lower than Trump, himself, was at this point in his previous stint.
It’s disastrous. -- Alex Krieger of the Harvard Graduate School of Design ~~~
~~~ Dan Diamond & Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: “When Congress created the Commission of Fine Arts more than a century ago, its members were intended to be 'well-qualified judges of the fine arts' who would review and advise on major design projects in the nation’s capital, lawmakers wrote. The initial slate of commissioners included Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., architects and urban planners who designed much of Washington. Now, the 116-year-old commission is set to include Chamberlain Harris, a 26-year-old White House aide and a longtime executive assistant for ... Donald Trump, who is slated to be sworn in at the panel’s next public meeting on Thursday. Trump’s selection of Harris — who was known as the 'receptionist of the United States' during the president’s first term and has no notable arts expertise — comes amid the president’s push to install allies on the arts commission and another panel, the National Capital Planning Commission.” A derivative Mediaite report is here.
Lisa Miller of the New York Times: “Even in a world where a president can receive oral sex from an intern, lie about it, get impeached and remain in office; where a candidate for president can be heard saying that he can grab women 'by the pussy' without fear of reprisal and get elected, twice, [Jeffrey] Epstein’s social prominence is astonishing. It shows how a group can collude with dark secrets if they’re sufficiently ambiguous and serve their interests.... How is it that 'the girls,' as Epstein called them — their presence, their provenance, their role — failed to raise misgivings above the quietest whisper among the super-powerful men and women who dined at Epstein’s table?... The secrecy worked like glue, binding Epstein’s associates closer to him, and Epstein himself enforced it. In emails to his powerful friends, which had threatening undertones, he alluded to shared confidences and referred to them as a mutual debt.” Miller records a number of social scientists' theories on why Epstein's collaborators remained silent. The link appears to be a gift link. ~~~
~~~⭐Paul Krugman: "... we are in the midst of an unprecedented power grab by America’s oligarchs. This power grab is arguably the most important fact about contemporary U.S. politics. In many ways MAGA is just a symptom. What lies behind this power grab? An extraordinary concentration of wealth at the very top.... Wealth in America is now more concentrated in a few hands than it was during the Gilded Age of the late 19th and early 20th century. Money has always been a potent source of political influence, so this vast increase in concentrated wealth at the top inevitably translates into increased power.... Billionaires haven’t just spent money to influence policy. They have also spent money to change the rules in ways that make money more powerful.... Any project to save American democracy must include a push to reduce the extreme concentration of wealth at the top."
More Murders at Sea, Ctd. Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: “American forces blew up three boats overnight, killing 11 men in strikes in both the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, the military announced on Tuesday. The strikes raised the death toll in the U.S. campaign against people it accuses of drug smuggling at sea to at least 144. The triple strike late Monday was the first time the Trump administration bombed targets on both sides of the Panama Canal on the same day in its five-month string of boat attacks. It was also the deadliest day of strikes this year. Of the 11 men killed, eight were on the two boats in the Pacific and the other three were in the Caribbean, the military said. The United States Southern Command announced the strikes on social media with a 39-second video clip that appeared to show the three boats being destroyed.”
Nicholas Nehamas, et al., of the New York Times: “The United States indicted the captain of an oil tanker that led American forces on a weekslong chase across the Atlantic Ocean after being stopped on its way to Venezuela, the first time ... [Donald] Trump’s crackdown on Venezuelan oil has resulted in criminal charges. The captain, Avtandil Kalandadze, was charged with two federal crimes, according to the Feb. 12 indictment, which has not previously been reported. The first count accused Mr. Kalandadze of falsely flying the flag of Guyana on the tanker — the ship was not registered in that country — in an attempt to evade being seized by the U.S. Coast Guard on Dec. 20. The second accuses Mr. Kalandadze of failing to obey an order from the Coast Guard to stop the tanker and allow U.S. forces to board it.... The seizure of the ship was part of Mr. Trump’s attempt to take control of Venezuela’s multi-billion-dollar oil industry.”
At DHS, Everything Is Going Very Smoothly ~~~
~~~ Top DHS Liar Quits. David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Department of Homeland Security’s top spokesperson is leaving the Trump administration, officials said Tuesday, a departure that comes amid falling public approval ratings for the president’s mass deportation agenda. Tricia McLaughlin, whose regular Fox News appearances made her a face of the administration’s hard-line immigration agenda, is leaving just over a year into Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem’s tenure leading the agency.... Noem’s chief spokeswoman built a reputation as a fierce defender of the administration’s handling of immigration and of the secretary’s leadership, frequently sparring with reporters on social media and appearing on cable news programs. But her forceful pronouncements have drawn criticism from Democrats and immigrant rights groups, who point to incidents in which statements she made were later contradicted in court or in video footage recorded by witnesses.” ~~~
~~~ Daniel Lippman & Adam Wren of Politico: “... the news led House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to say, 'Another MAGA extremist forced out of DHS. Noem next.'... Her exit comes amid unprecedented turbulence at DHS. Although long planned, she’s leaving just days after a brutal Wall Street Journal article cataloging 'constant chaos' within the agency and critiquing Noem’s self-importance including the alleged firing of a U.S. Coast Guard pilot for misplacing the secretary’s blanket.”
~~~ More on Blankeygate. Gordon Lubold, et al., of NBC News: "At times, the tensions [between Kristi Noem and senior Coast Guard officials] have escalated into confrontations.... In one contentious incident in May, Noem’s top adviser, Corey Lewandowski, berated Coast Guard flight staff and threatened to fire them for taking off without one of the secretary’s personal items on board — a heated blanket, according to the current and former Coast Guard officials.... After the Coast Guard plane she’d been flying on broke down and she had to fly back to Washington, D.C..., Noem realized she had left ... her blanket, on the plane that had broken down....Lewandowski ... yelled at the Coast Guard flight staff and threatened to fire them.... The Coast Guard pilot came out of the cockpit to see what was happening, and Lewandowski insisted the plane return to where the broken-down jet was located to collect the secretary’s items.... When the pilot refused, Lewandowski announced the pilot was relieved of his duty.... The pilot explained that if he was fired, he would need to land the plane immediately while another pilot was found to continue the [flight].... Lewandowski ultimately relented...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Read on. There's much more to the NBC report, which recounts a number of the Coast Guard's more serious conflicts with Noem. But this "Airplane!" sequel is hilarious. Also, too, if you click on the article, you'll get to see Noem in another costume; I suspect she's even up to being an extra in a movie parody of her "leadership" of DHS. Meanwhile, I have little doubt as to what Corey had planned to do under the heated blanket. Thanks to RAS for the lead.
Tim Craig of the Washington Post: “Elected Democrats in major U.S. cities have banded together to try to block the Trump administration from aggressive immigration operations such as the one now winding down in Minneapolis, issuing a slate of policy changes and vowing to prosecute agents who violate local laws. Over the past two weeks, mayors in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, Oakland and Seattle have signed executive orders attempting to restrict how and where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can operate in their cities. The policies broadly seek to restrict ICE agents from city property and parks and, in some cases, direct local police to monitor the activities of federal agents. In a corresponding move, a group of about a dozen local prosecutors is warning that ICE agents will be prosecuted under local law if they commit a crime while carrying out their duties to detain undocumented immigrants. The group, led by Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (D), vows such prosecutions could occur even after ... Donald Trump is out of office.”
Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: “... Stephen Colbert has accused the Trump administration of censoring critics after CBS pulled his interview with a Texas Democrat on Monday, apparently at the behest of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Colbert told viewers of the Late Show that network lawyers told him he was also prohibited from talking about their refusal to air his interview with James Talarico, a Texas state representative seeking his party’s nomination to challenge the Republican incumbent, John Cornyn, for a senate seat in November. 'Because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this,' he said, claiming that CBS attorneys were preemptively bowing to 'guidance' from the FCC chair, Brendan Carr, to enforce equal air time on a talk show for all candidates in any political race. 'Let’s just call this what it is. Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV, because all Trump does is watch TV.' The interview with Talarico went ahead and was posted instead to Colbert’s YouTube page.” Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ For video of Colbert's on-air remarks about the CBS ban and of his interview of Talarico which played on social media, see yesterday's page. ~~~
~~~ John Koblin of the New York Times: “CBS pushed back on Mr. Colbert’s version of events on Tuesday, saying the network had 'not prohibited' the interview from airing but that it instead “provided legal guidance” that broadcasting the interview could trigger the F.C.C. equal-time rule. CBS said it then presented the show 'options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled.' There has long been an exemption to the F.C.C.’s equal-time rule for 'bona fide news' programming, such as evening news programs. Media companies have long taken it as a given that late-night shows qualified for the same exemption, particularly after the F.C.C. ruled in 2006 that interviews on 'The Tonight Show With Jay Leno' were considered bona fide news. After the F.C.C. issued its new guidance, Mr. Carr underscored that was no longer the case.... Mr. Trump has repeatedly lashed out against many late-night hosts since he returned to the White House last year — just this weekend, he insulted Bill Maher, the HBO talk show host, in a post on Truth Social.” ~~~
~~~ Trump & Carr Boost Colbert. Tess Patton of the Wrap: “Stephen Colbert’s sit-down with Texas State Rep. James Talarico reached 3 million views in just 18 hours Tuesday after the network pulled the interview from 'The Late Show.'... Talarico’s sit-down has outpaced Colbert’s conversations with Super Bowl halftime performer Bad Bunny and former First Lady Michelle Obama.” MB: The interview also was cast on other social media platforms like Instagram, X & TikTok. In total, figures I saw last night added up to more than 8 million hits in all, whereas Colbert's broadcast network show gets in the neighborhood of 2 million viewers a night. So both Colbert & Talarico can thank Trump for the plug; Talarico is the most likely Democratic candidate to beat Sen. John Cornyn in November. ~~~
~~~ Meg Kinnard of the AP: “The Communications Act of 1934, the wide-ranging legislation that for nearly a century has broadly governed use of the nation’s airwaves, includes a provision that applies specifically to coverage of political candidates. If a station gives airtime to one candidate, then the same station must offer comparable time to other candidates competing in the given contest, should they ask for it. It also delves into campaign advertising airtime sold by stations and networks.... There are exceptions to this rule, including newscasts, 'bona fide' interview programs, coverage of live events or documentaries.... Equal time also only applies to broadcast television and radio. So pieces on cable, streaming services or social media aren’t included.... The rule requiring networks to give equal time to political candidates hasn’t traditionally been applied to talk shows, but the Trump administration has made moves to change that.” ~~~
~~~ Dinosaur Don. Marie: Several on-air commentators have pointed out that the equal-time law made sense when broadcast stations were pretty much the only non-print news media, but now few people rely on broadcasters as their primary source of news. David Frum said on MS NOW yesterday that the reason Brian Carr had come down on the networks was that Trump still watches broadcast programs as a primary news source, unlike most of the rest of us.
Annie Karni of the New York Times: “The strict voter identification measure that Republicans have pushed through the House is just their opening salvo in a broader legislative effort aimed at keeping control of Congress this fall and helping to amplify the president’s false claims of mass voter fraud in the event that they lose. The G.O.P.’s relentless focus on the bill and an even more restrictive measure making its way through the House — both of which face a steep uphill path to becoming law — is aimed chiefly at intensifying pressure within their own ranks to muscle through new voting restrictions and seek to reshape the electorate in their favor. But it also allows Republicans to hammer ... [Donald] Trump’s falsehoods about widespread illegal voting particularly by undocumented immigrants, helping them build a case, however groundless, that any Democratic victories in November will be a result of cheating.”
Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Representative Randy Fine, Republican of Florida, on Tuesday faced a barrage of calls for his resignation from Democrats — and silence from Republican leaders — after making an Islamophobic statement suggesting he prefers dogs to Muslims. Mr. Fine, a Jewish first-term congressman who was known in the Florida Legislature as 'The Hebrew Hammer' and often makes Islamophobic remarks on social media, made the statement in question on Sunday in response to a post from a Palestinian activist based in New York City. Nerdeen Kiswani ... said in a social media post that dung-filled snowdrifts in the city proved that dogs should not have a place in society as indoor pets because, she wrote, 'like we’ve said all along, they are unclean.' Mr. Fine responded: 'If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.'... Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said that Mr. Fine 'is a disgrace to the United States Congress. He is an Islamophobic, disgusting and unrepentant bigot.' Mr. Jeffries added that it was 'unacceptable that Mike Johnson and House Republicans continue to remain silent.'... Mr. Fine has referred to both Muslim women in Congress as 'terrorists.'” ~~~
~~~ Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) laid down a warning on Tuesday: when Democrats retake control of the House of Representatives, there will be consequences for Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL).... 'House Democrats will not let the racist and bigoted behavior of Randy Fine go unchecked. Accountability is coming to all of these sick extremists when the gavels change hands in November, if not sooner.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Kiswani is wrong, too: New York City has a pooper-scooper law, and when I lived there in the 1980s and '90s -- with my dog -- I almost never saw poop on the streets in the Village, where I lived. Don't complain about the dogs, Ms. Kiswani; complain about their owners. As for Fine, he's despicable, but you can't toss him out of Congress for being a racist bigot. If you toss out all the racists, I'm not sure either House of Congress could ever organize a quorum. ~~~
~~~ Update: AND THEN. It turns out that Kiswani's original post was a riff on whiney complaints from wingers (like the NYPost) that Mayor Mamdani wasn't getting the snow removed fast enough. It was a joke! See RAS's clarification in today's Comments.
Gary Fields of the AP: “U.S. Capitol Police in Washington, D.C., arrested an 18-year-old man Tuesday after he ran from his vehicle toward the west side of the Capitol Building armed with a shotgun. Capital Police Chief Michael Sullivan said the man, identified as Carter Camacho of Smyrna, Georgia, was arrested after he parked a Mercedes SUV near the Capitol, got out and ran 'several hundred yards' toward the building with a shotgun before officers intercepted him and ordered him to put down the firearm and get on the ground. Speaking at a press conference following the arrest, Sullivan said Camacho was wearing a tactical vest and gloves and had a Kevlar helmet and gas mask in the vehicle. The shotgun was loaded and he had additional rounds on him, the chief said. Sullivan said the motive was under investigation, including whether members of Congress were the target. Congress is not in session.”
News You Can Use. Natalie Compton of the Washington Post: “In 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to allow Americans to renew their passports online, eliminating the need for physical documents and paper checks to be sent through the mail. Over the next few years, the government experimented with a pilot program before officially launching online renewals in 2024. More than 6 million Americans have used the option, and last year more than 43 percent of all renewal applications were made online.... It took [me] six minutes to fill out the renewal form online, and 17 days later my fresh booklet showed up in my mailbox. No expediting fees, no lines. I even took my own photo from the privacy of my living room.... Here’s how.” The link is a gift link.
Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post writes about the overt racism she encountered when covering Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign in 1988. Oh, and Tumulty includes some racist remarks about Jackson from two presidents: Bill Clinton & Pappy Bush. Do not think for a minute that Donald Trump is the only old White guy who resents competition from "the Blacks." ~~~
~~~ Here's Donald Trump's tribute to Jesse Jackson, which -- aside from a couple of conventional memorial remarks -- is of course a tribute to Donald Trump and all the wonderful things he has done for Black people. And, no, Jackson did not despise President Obama, as Trump claims in the post.
~~~~~~~~~~
Peru. Genevieve Glatsky & of the New York Times: “Peru’s Congress voted on Tuesday to impeach President José Jerí after he failed to disclose meetings with Chinese businessmen who were under government scrutiny, the latest upheaval in a country that has cycled through leaders with striking speed. Mr. Jerí, 39, the former head of Congress, took office as interim president in October after presiding over the removal of his predecessor. He is the sixth Peruvian president in the past decade to leave office before their term ended. One stepped down within days of taking office. The Congress passed seven motions of impeachment, 75 in favor, 24 against and 3 abstentions. The legislature will vote to choose a new leader on Wednesday, leaving the presidency vacant for the moment, experts said. Peru is scheduled to hold a general election on April 12, and will transfer power to a new president on July 28. Mr. Jerí is not a candidate, and presidents in Peru cannot run for consecutive re-election.”
27 comments:
David A. Graham, for The Atlantic, on Censorship
"The Talarico dustups are among several incidents in the past few days that show the Trump administration’s enthusiasm for censoring speech by both the press and ordinary citizens. One year ago, I wrote that Donald Trump and his allies were free-speech phonies who, having campaigned against censorship, were eager to impose it. The threat to First Amendment rights has gotten worse since then.
Earlier this month, The Washington Post’s John Woodrow Cox reported on a retiree who used a publicly available email address to encourage an attorney at the Department of Homeland Security to have mercy on an asylum seeker. In response, DHS sent federal agents to the man’s door and demanded access to his Google accounts, using a tool called an administrative subpoena that doesn’t require a judge or grand jury to approve.
....
The goals of both DHS and the FCC in these cases are to intimidate critics and stifle dissent. This is staggering hypocrisy."
So....a 26 year old receptionist is now an expert in Fine Arts? I see that Congress a century ago meant for members of this commission to be "well qualified judges of the fine arts". Age is not necessarily a barrier to entry. Keats was dead at 26. Raphael got a ringy-dingy from Pope Julius to come work at the Vatican at 25, and Bix Beiderbecke had already recorded his masterpiece, "Singin' the Blues" by 24. Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" when she was barely 21. But....hmmm...none of these guys were receptionists by trade. Nor were they employed by a schmoe whose artistic impulses never quite make it past second grade finger painting, although that ketchup on the wall might have had a bit of a Jackson Pollock look to it...If Pollock had just gotten back from a six day drunk and had a momentary psychotic break.
So...maybe Fatty thinks what Congress meant was to make sure commission members were good judges of the Sign arts...the sign, of course, being a swastika. Or maybe this Harris person also steams his pants. That always seems like a road to success in TrumpLand.
Actually the only requirement needed for any lofty posting in that fetid swampland, including cabinet positions is incompetence. A competent person almost by definition, wouldn't go along with most or any of Fatty's furshlugginer ideas.
I guess the best we can hope for now is that the all around incompetence is so great that Fatty's gigantic barroom/bordello will never be completed (just look at his Big Beautiful Wall) and what there is can be bulldozed by the next real president.
Hey, good thing we got rid of all those stupid vaccines.
Otherwise, kids might be dying from conditions that were easily treated oh, about 12 months ago.
Wow. I mean....WOW
So there's Stoopid, but then there's Stoopid and Fascist.
The latest idea in PoT attacks on democracy is...you won't believe this one....Everyone has to show their yellow star to show that they're a real, honest-ta-god voter.
Yellow....Star.
Are they just idiots, or do they really love just channeling Nazis?
Fat Hitler, from his bunker some 15 floors beneath Himmler Miller's planning chamber where he jerks off to torture porn, sez that 'Merica is respected around the world again.
Right. I guess all these people in Europe didn't get the memo that they're s'posed to respect us, bigly.
Performance Artists Recreate Goode and Pretti
The First Amendment Troop, and the piece is entitled, "ResistDance."
Instagram link
Planet Earth: MAGA segment
In their natural habitat...
Marcie Jones
"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Said 'Um' A Couple Times In Munich, And The New York Times Is ON IT
That former bartender sure does threaten powerful old billionaires."
So much of the media hates Democrats and they really hate women.
"Ukraine regains over 200 sq km in five days – AFP
Ukraine's defence forces have regained 201 sq km of territory from Russian troops between 11 and 15 February, marking the fastest advance by Ukrainian forces in more than two and a half years.
The area of liberated territory is said to be almost equal to the total gains made by Russian forces over the whole of December 2025."
Marie,
This link to Steve M.'s blog that has clarification from Kiswani that she was making a joke about the dogs and the dog poop visible in some of the snow that Mamdani hadn't melted right away.
First rule of immigration abuses is we don't talk about immigration abuses.
"Staff at Dilley’s South Texas Family Residential Center have begun raiding cells at the immigrant detention facility to confiscate letters from children detailing the conditions inside, Migrant Insider editor Pablo Manríquez reports. The raids at the family detention site an hour southwest of San Antonio are in response to a ProPublica article published Feb. 9, which features the letters and drawings of children inside, according to Manriquez."
No warnings please, they are trying to make money here.
"The warning on the government website was stark. Some products and remedies claiming to treat or cure autism are being marketed deceptively and can be harmful. Among them: chelating agents, hyperbaric oxygen therapies, chlorine dioxide and raw camel milk. Now that advisory is gone.
Some advocates for people with autism don’t understand that decision. “It may be an older page, but those warnings are still necessary,” said Zoe Gross, a director at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a nonprofit policy organization run by and for autistic people. “People are still being preyed on by these alternative treatments like chelation and chlorine dioxide. Those can both kill people.”"
I think I'm well qualified to be on Donald's Commission of Fine Arts.
My qualifications are that I can't draw a straight line, even with a ruler.
Annie Lowrey, for The Atlantic, on The Worst-Case Future for White-Collar Workers
"...the labor market for office workers is beginning to shift. Americans with a bachelor’s degree account for a quarter of the unemployed, a record. High-school graduates are finding jobs quicker than college graduates, an unprecedented trend. Occupations susceptible to AI automation have seen sharp spikes in joblessness. Businesses really are shrinking payroll and cutting costs as they deploy AI. In recent weeks, Baker McKenzie, a white-shoe law firm, axed 700 employees, Salesforce sacked hundreds of workers, and the auditing firm KPMG negotiated lower fees with its own auditor. "
Randy Fine has a BA and more from Harvard? Boy oh boy. It's clear he is uneducable, but he DOES have a bright future as an elected bigot in Florida. I don't know why we are surprised-- he's a gold medal winner there. And it is also clear that ANY subject this hater embarks upon is not worthy of discussion. I had never heard of him, and was much happier that way...
Marcie Jones says the PoT ("Party of Traitors" if you are curious) MAGAs really hate Democrats and women-- just spending the last month watching the events from Minnesota should have cemented that statement in anyone's mind. They really do. I cannot get the women's testimony of what happened to them out of my head. It was cruelty, arrogance and glee equally shared in those ICE goons and the lies spouted by Noehm and (bye) Tricia Hoo-ha. That doesn't even count the deaths that the FBI will "investigate" for themselves, and, looking further: the blowing up of boats and people off Venuzuela and the Caribbean, and the Epstein files, filled with unredacted names of victims, and the refusal of Dumpie officials to even acknowledge their existance. Plain as the nose on your face, I'd say.
Maddy Crowell, for Harpers, reports on the movement to reindustrialize—and rearm—the country
"Every American president blames the woes of deindustrialization on the previous administration and vows to be the one to stanch the bleeding. The specific framing of this issue changes over time, but the focus on industrial flight remains a point of bipartisan obsession.
....
The techno-industrialists have a different plan to save America. As they see it, what we need is advanced manufacturing. For too long, they say, tech engineers have been fooling around with intangible things: software, blockchain, crypto, AI. Meanwhile, China, the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, is churning out roughly eighty-five thousand cars a day; the United States can scarcely produce a third of that number. Silicon Valley is bloated with startups, but too few of their products are concrete. The techno-industrialists believe that America needs to apply modern computing capabilities to industrial production. They believe that technology has drifted too far into the invisible realm of bits or into the digital cloud. They are tired of the coastal ethos of “tech for tech’s sake.”
Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice
Has a ton of links to the many, many articles about what is going on with the state of our healthcare. From vaccines, to infectious diseases, to our government's new policy of dropping pandemic preparations.
New Yorker cartoon
snake oil, now with truffles.
RAS,
WOW! Thanks for that performance art piece. Just amazing. I watched it three times and I'll watch it few more just to get the little nuances of the dance built in to this expression and revelation of the violence perpetrated on Americans by a hate-filled, violent fascist regime.
Expression, revelation, and RESISTANCE! This is why fascists hate the arts, why they try to co-opt, demean, and diminish art that doesn't serve as propaganda for their projects, and if that doesn't work, they try to destroy it, just as Fat Hitler plans to destroy the Kennedy Center for the Arts. But art survives and even thrives in the face of evil.
Fuck the begrudgers, the fascists, the grifters, the haters, the snowflakes, the apologists, the both-siders, the goons, the gnomes, the killers, and those who would destroy American democracy and murder its citizens on the eve of its 250th anniversary.
And that Planet Earth" MAGA segment is hysterical. It took me a second to realize guy was doing a pretty darn good David Attenborough imitation. But I disagree with the idea that they struggle to differentiate between fact and fiction. The only struggle is deciding how many Americans are not "True (white) Americans".
Thinking of art as resistance against evil, Goya came immediately to mind. Here's a guy who started off as a court painter (the most obvious sort of "art as propaganda") but who morphed into an avenging angel in his Disasters of War prints, a collection of graphic images of barbarity that likely had never been seen before of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain in 1808.
Interestingly, the \Nobel Peace Center owns a 1905 copy of the fourth edition of Goya's prints. A little message to Fat Hitler who is just itching to drop some bombs on Iran. Maybe threatening to start a war because he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize is not the best strategy. Unless maybe he wants to add to the Nobel library's collection of the ravages of war.
By the way, the link I provided to Goya's collection is in the catalog of the Library of Congress. Once Fatty finds out that this is in there, he may order it destroyed. Can't go around showing images of war as bad. He just renamed a whole cabinet department after war. Jesus! Can't an authoritarian murderer have any fun at all?
RE: the killing of more people at sea.
You know, at first, I thought those illegal bombing jags run by Drunk Pete were just a signal that shit was gonna go down in Venezuela. After kidnapping Maduro, the bombing of row boats stopped, for a while anyway, so I thought that maybe they were just gearing up for more killing elsewhere. But now that the killings have resumed I'm guessing they're just having too much fun to stop. Pretty soon they'll be bombing a Carnival Cruise ship cuz someone on board has a few joints in their pocket. Hey, never say never with this bunch of marauding clowns.
Akhilleus,
You are probably right on most MAGA knowing just what is happening even if a lot of Republicans are afraid to admit it out loud.
Adam Bonin
"Is Trump dangerous? 43% of Republicans have no opinion.
Honest? 44% have no opinion.
Corrupt? 43% have no opinion.
Out-of-touch? 49% have no opinion.
They know who he is. They just don't want to admit it."
Marie, Marie, Marie....
Now c'mon. A "global criminal enterprise"? Of COURSE it was (and it still exists, albeit without as many underage girls, at least I hope so). But you think that the firm (shouldn't that be "infirm"?) of Blondie, Blanche, Bongo & Kash, Ltd. (accent on Limited....and boy, are they) should look into this?
Girl, these bozos can't even see the DOMESTIC criminal enterprise going on right across the street from them. As I mentioned a while back, they'd be lucky to determine that it was Professor Plum in the library with the lead pipe, even while CHEATING!
All that aside, there will be NO investimagation thingie cuz Fatty has already announced that looking into the web of international crooks and criminals and grifters and sleazy hangers-on surrounding his BFF Jeffey would, as he put it, hurt his friends, a reminder of how many crooks, criminals, grifter, and sleaze bags Fat Hitler hangs out with.
To say nothing about himself whose name is mentioned more times in the Epstein files (more than a million according to some accounts) than the name Harry shows up in the 4,000 pages of the Harry Potter series; more times than Jesus and God are mentioned in the Bible. But nothing to see there. Eva Braun Bondi and Blankety-blank-blank Blanche have said "Th, th, th, th, that's all, folks".
And would they lie?
Is Trump fat?
Just a few "factual errors" from the lyingest administration in history about their Georgia election case.
"Fulton Co elections expert: “In all 5 areas identified by ... the [search warrant] affidavit, there are a multitude of false or misleading statements or omissions. ... Once ... corrected, the affidavit loses any basis in reality.”"
In a guest essay in the New York Times, Brendan Ballou describes the various grifters who purchased their freedom from t****, writing rich lawbreakers
"Mr. Trump is apparently profiting from these cases: The Times estimates that he has made more than $1.4 billion since he was elected to his second term, in part from supplicants seeking his clemency. But his subordinates, too, have benefited from the broader rollback of white-collar prosecutions.
....
All this self-dealing is a threat to our democracy. Illiberal governments tend to live or die by their ability to sustain corruption. That’s because they rely for support on a network of oligarchs, who in turn are tied to the administration’s success. It happened in Hungary, in Turkey, in Russia and increasingly, it is happening here."
Maybe James Talarico can get that point across to the magats, as seen on Bluesky (talking about income inequality)
Theft
"U.S. Air Force VIP fleet being repainted in Trump's preferred palette, sources say
Some of the blue and white aircraft are already being repainted in dark navy blue, deep red and gold as they come in for scheduled due repairs and maintenance, the officials said."
American Global Influence
"Journalists Arrested in Cameroon While Reporting on Trump’s Secretive Deportation Program
An Associated Press reporter was hit and held with three other journalists and a lawyer, two detainees said, while at a center for migrants secretively deported from the United States.
Some of the journalists, Mr. Fru and Mr. Sa’ah said, were kept in a cell for hours. The two men said the A.P. reporter appeared to have been beaten up and had told them the police had attacked him.
All of the five were later freed. Before the journalists were released, the police confiscated their phones, cameras and laptops, saying the journalists had captured sensitive government information, according to Mr. Fru and Mr. Sa’ah. It was unclear if any had been charged."
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